From Grassroots to Global: The Tauranga Tech Entrepreneur Giving NZ Inc a Seat at the AI Table

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From Grassroots to Global: The Tauranga Tech Entrepreneur Giving NZ Inc a Seat at the AI Table

Tim Boyne didn’t grow up dreaming of IPOs and founder exits. He wasn’t raised in a house where startup valuations were casual conversation. Instead, he grew up in Tauranga, raised by a solo mother who, he would later realise, was performing daily acts of heroism just to keep the family afloat. There were no lectures about resilience or leadership. She simply lived them. That sense of grit stayed with him.

His childhood memories are filled with afternoons at the Tauranga Domain, tearing around with his best mate, future All Black Daniel Braid. School wasn’t exactly his playground for success. “Tim has potential but needs to apply himself” was a regular visitor to his report cards. But after finishing school, he finally found his lane, studying IT while raising a young family with Charlotte, who would become his wife and the mother of their three kids. The combination of early responsibility and contracting work gave him something school never could: real-world resilience.

From Law Firms to Legal Tech

In 2007, Tim joined Sharp Tudhope, a law firm in Tauranga, in an IT role. As infrastructure became more dynamic, he started exploring how better systems could improve efficiency inside the firm. That exploration eventually led him into the emerging field of Legal Project Management, applying structure and flow to legal work that had traditionally been chaotic and reactive.

While some partners welcomed change, others were less enthusiastic. But Tim wasn’t focused on the resistance. He was focused on the opportunity. He realised that in-house legal teams were drowning in disorganised email chains and overloaded with operational complexity. There was a clear need for something better.
That insight became the foundation of LawVu.

The Power of Partnership

Around that time, Tim met Sam Kidd, who had recently exited a project management venture in Ireland and was looking for his next challenge. A mutual friend introduced them. They quickly discovered that they were both looking at the same legal industry pain points, just from different perspectives. Tim brought the systems and process mindset. Sam brought the strategic and commercial focus.

They also shared a strong cultural connection through rugby. They had played similar positions, just like their fathers had years before. That common ground gave them an unspoken trust and a shared appreciation for the kind of discipline, teamwork and mental toughness that rugby demands.

Together, they turned LawVu into a centralised operating platform for in-house legal teams. What started as a fix for the mess of legal emails evolved into a powerful engine for contract tracking, budget control, and collaboration. Over the next eight years, the company scaled globally, with Tim focused on product and innovation, and Sam driving growth and commercial outcomes.

Eventually, the toll of international travel and time away from family pushed Tim to step back. He sold part of his stake and returned to Tauranga, ready for a reset. That break didn’t last long.

Above: Tim Boyne speaks at the Oceania Center in Hainan Province, China.

A New Wave and a Clear Opportunity

As Generative AI captured global attention, Tim saw another wave forming. While major companies rushed to experiment, many were understandably cautious. How could they adopt AI without sending sensitive information off to third-party providers or violating compliance rules?

“Generative AI is the most important technological advancement of our lifetimes,” Tim says. “There was no way I was going to sit this one out.”

He partnered with Marco van Emmenes and launched SmartSpace.ai, a platform designed to bring AI into the enterprise securely. It lives entirely within a company’s own Microsoft Azure environment, giving them full control, security and privacy without sacrificing performance.

The Josh Test

One of SmartSpace’s earliest adopters was Josh Tattley, Director at Rider Levett Bucknall. With a team of around 100 people and no internal IT department, Josh needed a solution that was simple to use and safe by design. Within hours, he had SmartSpace up and running inside their Azure environment.

After a short training session, Josh and his team were using the platform’s no-code interface to build AI agents that automated contract reviews, created report summaries and streamlined day-to-day operations. No tech team required.

“It’s not just about making the boat go faster,” Josh says. “It’s about reimagining what the boat looks like.”

“Josh Can Do It” has become something of an internal mantra for SmartSpace. It captures the philosophy perfectly. If a non-technical team can deploy AI quickly and securely, then so can any other professional services firm.

Building Smarter, Scaling Safer

Tim sees a future where AI is as fundamental to business as email, but he also knows that this time around, the stakes are higher. Security, data sovereignty and regulatory scrutiny are no longer nice-to-haves. They are essentials.

That’s why SmartSpace is built with governance and accountability baked in from day one. It gives businesses the freedom to innovate without losing control of their data or exposing themselves to unnecessary risk.

Tim is clear on where SmartSpace is heading, but equally clear on how he wants to get there. Having lived through the ups and downs of global startup life, he’s focused now on building something that scales responsibly. Smart, but balanced. Ambitious, but human.

“AI is going to completely change how the world does business,” Tim says. “We’re making sure NZ Inc has a seat at the table.”

And this time, the table wasn’t offered. It was built by hand, from the ground up, right back where it all started.

Tim Boyne is a Tauranga-born tech entrepreneur best known for co-founding LawVu, a platform that revolutionized in-house legal management, and for founding SmartSpace.ai, a secure, self-hosted AI solution. Driven by a passion for problem-solving and teamwork, Boyne continues to pioneer tech innovations that solve real-world business challenges—all while keeping his family and hometown roots at the heart of everything he does.

Why Smartspace Works for Enterprise

Self-Hosted in Your Cloud
Deploys in your company’s own Microsoft Azure environment through the Microsoft Marketplace.

Language Model Agnostic
Supports multiple LLMs. Use different models for different jobs without being locked in.

Departmental Workspaces
Legal, HR, Finance and other teams can each have their own secure, siloed environment.

Flexible Data Integration
Connect to SharePoint, CRM platforms and local documents with ease.

Granular Permissions
Enterprise-grade access control. Each user only sees what they are meant to.

Built-In Governance
Audit logs, compliance tracking and real-time oversight included by default.


Isaac Taylor

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