Business Is Boring

Nemi Teas creates employment opportunities right across their business, with the first steps being running chai stalls at festivals and markets. They sell their tea through retail and wholesale, and are plastic free, using innovative materials and techniques to keep the nasty stuff out of their product. It’s a growing business addressing a growing problem, and helping to drive the idea that you can vote for the kind of world you want to live in with every dollar you spend. To talk about social enterprise, the Nemi Teas journey and what’s next for the brand, Founder and CEO Pranav Chopra joined us on Business is Boring. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For a new spot, Bar Céleste has been received extremely well. It was named the best new opening of 2019 by Viva, reviewed glowingly by Metro, and is now a fixture and favourite of food influencer EatLitFood. If you haven’t been yet, you might wonder what’s so different about this 'neo-bistro' idea. Inspired by a new style of dining that's grown in France, it's where the idea for Bar Céleste began. Brought together by the team behind the La Pêche pop-ups that happened first in Paris and then around Auckland, Emma Ogilvie and Nick Landsman joined Business is Boring this week to talk about what goes into creating a dining experience and how in hospitality – a notoriously fickle industry – opening a restaurant is never as easy as it seems. Business is Boring is presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Minaal's two founders landed on the idea of making travel bags as a way to continue a life lived abroad, and it’s still working, with this week’s podcast guest, co-founder Jimmy Hayes in Auckland on a trip back from Japan, one of their biggest markets and one of his home bases. Jimmy joined us on Business is Boring to talk making a dream into a life, global success, taking on an industry with massive incumbents, and the power of the crowd. Business is Boring is presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Morris Pita from EmergencyQ. You might have been unlucky enough to have been sitting with a kid at an emergency department, wondering just how long it might take and if you were even in the right place. It's not a nice feeling, or a very productive one, and it turns out that a lot of people in the queue ahead of you, and maybe even you, might not be best served at that place. This insight helped lead this week’s podcast guest to take a side-step from a successful academic and business career into software entrepreneurship. He made an app called EmergencyQ that works with DHBs and emergency and community health providers to make sure everyone gets the fastest, most appropriate care for their needs. It's saving millions of dollars, countless hours, and meaning stretched emergency departments can better prioritise working on the highest-need cases. The app is the idea of Morris Pita, who gained an MBA at Oxford, was involved in delivering some of the biggest clean energy generation projects in the country, and became a consultant working on significant Māori economic development projects. To talk the journey, the goals of EmergencyQ and economic development, Pita joined Business is Boring for a chat. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Greg Brebner from Blunt Umbrellas. This week on the podcast, a business that began with the realisation that umbrellas really sucked, that's grown into a business turning the industry inside-out. Blunt Umbrellas sell brollies for 5-10 times more than the market, are found in countries all around the world, and have now sold over a million units of their signature styles. Through fashion collaborations, a lot of market building, and clever design they have created their own section of the market for their wind proof, strong, beautifully designed umbrellas, that won’t take your eye out or be heading straight to landfill after seeing some weather. To talk about making an idea into reality, the importance of a clear vision, and loving bad weather, creator and inventor Greig Brebner joined the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Bridie Picot, founder of Thing Industries and Wrappy. This week’s podcast is a chat about turning cool ideas into great businesses, around day-jobs and responsibilities, and having those products be picked up by some of the great taste arbiters in the world. Bridie Picot started out in New Zealand, and then went to London and New York, working at some of the most influential ad agencies in the world. Around the edges she always had an interest in design, thoughtful and warm characterful pieces. She turned this love into Thing Industries, a partnership with a New Zealand based designer. The brand grew, running fashion collaborations, was named the maker of the year by local title Urbis, and was featured in Wallpaper* and in the New York Times for its playful products like the Banana Pillow and a chair with no seat. From this Bridie has launched Wrappy, a design-led gift-wrap business, and also The Shack, an artfully composed rental project in upstate New York. To talk making it in the Big Apple and turning ideas into reality we caught up with Bridie in the studio on a visit home. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Mike Taylor, founder of Pie Funds. On this week's Business is Boring, host Simon Pound talks to a founder and chief investment officer who has taken a company from starting with a small loan to having a billion under management in just over a decade. If you were a uni student around the year 2000 you might remember that you could draw down student loans, ostensibly for living, but we would all know stories of people who turned them into trips, parties or other forms of massive future liability. I went to a study trip in Russia on mine and resented the debt for the next twenty years. But how many people do you know who were onto-it enough to use that opportunity as the seed capital to kickstart an investment career? One that now means this week's podcast guest runs a company with $1b under management that has returned $350m to its clients. Mike Taylor, founder of Pie Funds, turned his $3000 and some other funds into $200k, attracting investment enough to go out on his own. Then the financial crisis hit. He battled through, bought while the getting was good, and was able to build his way to some of the best returns in the business. Today they are involved in funds management, wealth advisory and Juno KiwiSaver, which offers a low-fee model that they are now challenging the industry to match. I got to know Mike when I did some writing for his company, and was amazed at his story, so it is a great pleasure to welcome him as a guest on Business is Boring. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Bruce Turner and Thomas Rowe from Urbanaut Brewing Co. There are probably a few people listening that have kept up with friends from school and kicked around some business ideas. Maybe even some that have enjoyed the odd beer together and thought about making some. But how many people actually go ahead and make it happen? That is the founding story of today's company, Urbanaut. It came about after three friends bought the worst house in Auckland, turning into one of the best, so they could fund their very own brewery in Kingsland. The three friends came from Marton - malt growing country, so it seemed fitting that they would open their own brewery, and now their brand is blowing up. Two of the co-founders, managing director and chief brewer Bruce Turner and sales director Thomas Rowe are on Business is Boring today to tell the story of making a dream happen, with a few global adventures along the way. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks toRobyn McLean, co-founder of The Hello Cup. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Campbell Ellison from Callaghan Innovation and Alexandra Allan, CEO of FoodBowl. One of the coolest things about Business is Boring is when listeners, inspired by the people we talk to, share their ideas for cool products. Just the other day a friend talked about an idea for an innovative food product, and I was able to tell him about the existence of the FoodBowl - which provides support and resource for companies and innovators looking to move from small scale to the big time. He was amazed to learn that there is a facility that is part commercialisation and export readiness lab and part mad scientist workshop where food technologists, scientists and other enthusiastic inventors tinker, explore and create new food ideas. It’s an open access service supported by Callaghan Innovation and run by the Auckland chapter of the NZ Food Innovation Network. We’ve talked before to people like Angus Brown from Arepa who’ve been through it, so it is super cool to today be able to share a bit more about how it operates and how you could get involved. This week on the podcast we're joined by food and beverage technologist Campbell Ellison from Callaghan Innovation, and Alexandra Allan, FoodBowl CEO, who also has a background in making things, working through outfits like Cadbury and Horleys, before she turned to management. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Jodie Fox, co-founder of Shoes of Prey. For many years this week's podcast guest executed every move from the big start-up scale-up playbook. She and her co-founders came up with an innovative new idea, and worked out how to do something that had never been accomplished before - they created the technology and systems to allow people to customise shoes, in pretty much anyway you could imagine, and have a one of a kind shoe made and sent to you within about two weeks. They were profitable from very early on, having found a customer that loved the ability to make their dream shoe. They then attracted top tier investors and partnered with some of the world's top retailers, like Nordstrom, to grow from a niche product to mass market. They followed every sensible step -customer research, pilots, testing and built the infrastructure to make the leap to the mass-market, attracting $AU35m of funding, winning awards and making something completely new happen. And then...... then it didn't work as they hoped. Maybe it was too much choice to offer, but the mass market visited and didn't buy. They tried to pivot but couldn't make the economies of scale work - and decided to pull the plug. It is a different kind of chat this week - about when success is closing when the signals tell you, and sharing what is hard learnt. To that end our guest, co-founder of Shoes of Prey, Jodie Fox, is with us at the link below to talk about her journey and new book to share her story, Reboot: Probably More Than You Ever Wanted to Know about Starting a Global Business Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Jeff Xu, CEO, and Ollie McDermot, co-founder and designer of Micropod. At over $60 for one kg, microgreens are a hot commodity. Commonly served in tiny portions on top of cafe eggs benedict, or placed delicately on a seared salmon fillet at a fancy restaurant, the teensy leaves are packed with nutrients and flavour like you wouldn't believe. This week's guests on Business is Boring have come up with a home grow kit for microgreens, having created an environmentally sustainable seed layer innovation that helps people grow on demand quantities of the nutrient-rich microgreens on their kitchen windowsills. Catering to the huge numbers of people who don't have the space outside to plant vege gardens, this process is easy, quick, and most importantly takes up a tiny amount of space. The company is called Micropod, and came about via a group of four friends, who got together to solve the engineering problem of reliably growing and productising the idea. They have won big at the Best Design Awards and since launching in February have serviced customers all over the country. To talk about what it takes to turn an idea into an engineered reality, the goodness of microgreens and starting a company, CEO Jeff Xu and co-founder and designer Ollie McDermott joined Business is Boring. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Dr Brian Ward of soft-tissue repair company Aroa. Coming from New Zealand it is so important to keep in mind that what may seem pretty niche here can translate into a massive business overseas. On the podcast this week we talk to someone making big international business out of a health solution you might not have even heard of. Dr Paul Callaghan, who inspired Callaghan Innovation, had the idea that 100 great companies doing tightly focussed products with global ambitions could change our economy, and this week on Business is Boring we have one of those companies. You might not have heard of soft-tissue repair, but it is big business. It’s highly focussed healthcare, where in this instance a company called Aroa uses materials from sheep stomachs that were previously a low value commodity, to help provide the scaffolding for human bodies to repair wounds. The science is remarkable, and it's happening at great scale. More than 100 staff, patents around the world, FDA approval and a partnership with some huge healthcare players. The company is run from New Zealand by founder/CEO Dr Brian Ward. Ward started as a vet, went into big Pharma, ran NZBio and then got the idea to use animal tissue to repair human tissue. To tell the story of turning that idea into a worldwide company, Dr Brian Ward joined the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Jade Tang-Taylor and Anna Guenther from Cheese Cartel. This week on the podcast we have something a bit different: our first returning guests. It's very cool to have someone come back to the podcast on a second mission, and today that's happening twice.Two people from two different previous podcasts have created a kind of entrepreneur supergroup. Cheese Cartel was the outcome of a bunch of friends who know how make things happen coming together for a higher purpose (cheese). A self-described slow startup, Cheese Cartel is an antidote to the kind of businesses that are out to take over the world at any and all costs. Instead, it is a cool meditation on growing a company with the best people possible to get the best results. Two of the Cheese Cartel’s five (and a half) founders join Business is Boring today, Jade Tang-Taylor - who was on the podcast previously as a co-founder of Curative and now consults to bring design for social impact and diversity to projects large and small and Anna Guenther, founder and chief bubble blower at PledgeMe. Listen to the chat to learn about their philosophy, how they launched a successful cheese service business and the journey of making a business with friends. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Victoria Carter, founder of car-sharing company Cityhop. The benefits of car share in an increasingly dense and urban Auckland are clear. Why own a car and carry all of the costs when you use it so little? Why not go easier on the earth by sharing resources? Why not make more trips by public transport and only use a car when you really need one? Today this appears obvious, but how about 12 years ago, when Auckland’s pioneering car share service, Cityhop got underway? It was 12 years before smartphones, and before a lot of the awareness for the sharing economy had been built out by services like Airbnb. With Cityhop now in Auckland and Wellington, for way less per hour than an e-scooter you can hire a range of cars, from little runabouts to great big vans to completely electric Volkswagen e-golfs. The founder is someone who has been at the front of a lot of change. Victoria Carter ONZM has been a lawyer, PR practitioner, board member, politician and lately, the first female chair of The Northern Club. She's also helped get more fairness for kindergarten funding and helped make the Auckland Arts Festival happen. To talk her mission to reduce car ownership, Victoria Carter joined Business is Boring. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Valentin Ozich, the founder of I Love Ugly. The fashion industry isn't an easy one to break into. A lot of it makes no sense and very rarely do New Zealand brands become leaders around the world, and that's exactly why I Love Ugly is special. Worn by some of the world’s top stars – with Justin Bieber famously buying 15 pairs of their signature pant – they had a store in LA with lines around the corner on opening day, built hundreds of thousands of followers and were one of the most highly engaged-with Facebook pages in New Zealand. I Love Ugly changed the rules to sidestep some of the silliest parts of fashion. Instead of running interest free loans to all their stockists like most small fashion labels would, they innovated their model and became pioneers in ecommerce. But then things grew a little far, stock piled up and the bank changed its appetite for risk. Rumours swirled I Love Ugly might be going under, and the reality was most people would have. Founder Valentin Ozich brought his company back from a place most couldn’t, and has started to tell the story. His new podcast and his company’s social media presence aim to inspire, educate and be honest about what it takes to succeed. To talk good (and not-so-good) decisions, personal growth and where Tony Robbins fits into it all, Valentin joined Business is Boring. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to James Bartle, founder of ethical clothing brand Outland Denim. This week on the podcast we talk to a man inspired to take on trafficking after watching the Liam Neeson film Taken. His journey led him to Cambodia to set up a factory, train staff, pioneer environmental production techniques and to today run one of the world’s fastest growing premium sustainability fashion brands. Right now, more likely than not, you are wearing something that you're not super proud of. All of us know that if we are in a piece that was a bargain at a fast fashion store or from a mass market brand that, chances are, the labour, fabric or environmental footprint is probably not up to scratch. Clothing production is one of the biggest industries in the world and it has a hugely harmful social and economic impact. Most people know more about the living standards of the chickens that make their eggs than the workers that make their clothes. But what happens when one person starts trying to do something about it? Today's guest's journey of learning about trafficking, labour exploitation and environmental impact led him to set up a factory in Cambodia, get B Corp status and change expectations around how denim can be produced with his company, is Outland Denim. It had a huge wave of publicity last year after the Duchess of Sussex wore a pair of the brand's jeans, leading to more than 40 new workers being added to the company. Founder James Bartle was in Auckland launching a new line this week with Karen Walker - a collaboration including t-shirts, jackets, jeans and skirts made with signature Karen Walker elements, by Outland’s own team in Cambodia, using organic cotton and dyes. Bartle joined Business is Boring to chat the journey, the mission and what we don't really know about the clothes we wear. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Campbell Brown, CEO of the company making sure Domino's has enough dough. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Kiri Nathan, the co-founder of a Māori-inspired fashion brand that's been gifted to some of the world's biggest names. Today we talk to Kiri Nathan, leader of a brand and company by her own name that fuses millennia of Māori tradition with an industry so often focused on the future. Kiri Nathan's pounamu, carved by her husband and business partner Jason, and her woven kākahu cloaks have been gifted to visitors from Barack Obama to the Duchess of Sussex. Both are part of their unique offering, contemporary pieces that represent the modern fashion world but with their roots in te ao Māori. It is a concept that she's had to forge room for, but she's succeeded through determination, talent and dedication. And she's not forgotten to carve the path out for those who wish to follow her journey. Kiri has created the Kāhui Collective – a group fostering collaboration and knowledge-sharing to create a uniquely Māori fashion industry. The group has had scores of designers involved, they’ve taken trips to China as part of their development programme, and in the latest in a long line of awards and recognition for her pioneering work Kiri is a recent recipient of a Blake Leadership Award. To talk her journey, how she's making fashion work in positive ways, and what’s next, Kiri Nathan joined Business is Boring for a chat. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Brianne West, founder of Ethique. On the podcast this week we have an amazing guest, one of the most successful companies to come out of the local high-growth ecosystem, now exporting their idea all around the world. Ethique are one of the best investments local venture experts the Icehouse has made, and they aren't even a traditional tech or widget maker. They sell soaps and shampoos and things that would come in wet form in plastic, except in dry form in cardboard. Ethique founder Brianne West joined us to discuss the novel approach to a problem right in front of everyone every day, but one that took her fresh approach to see. Because we are pretty funny animals, us humans. Some people see problems and do things about them, and others do weird things. Take supermarket plastic bags. The problem with plastic bags is that plastic lasts for generations, degrades into micro plastics, and poisons the food chain and soil. So the answer we found to that problem? Ban thin plastic bags and make an absolute shit-tone more, thicker plastic bags, that have all the same problems as thin plastic bags, except more so. Good work humans. And then, as I’m sure you’ve all noticed, you get your shopping home and every product has five layers of rarely recyclable plastic. One person who looked at the problem of plastic and packaging and did something wildly clever about it is our guest this week. In 2012 Brianne West, a scientist, became a kitchen chemist when she had a eureka moment in the shower that selling liquid soap packaged in thick plastic was probably not the best way to do things. She created hard soaps in paper and compostable packaging. Her shampoo bars, soaps and conditioners have become fan favourites. Through a couple of wildly successful crowd-funds, product development, opening up large retail channels in the US, Australia and further afield, Brianne and Ethique have created millions of fans and stopped millions of plastic bottles going to landfill. It is a great pleasure to have someone who’s mission and execution are an inspiration to me join the show. To talk the insight, making it happen and what’s next, Brianne West of Ethique joined us for a half hour chat you can hear below. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Shaun Edlin, CEO of Dotterel, and Richard Quin, Callaghan Innovation Group Manager. This week’s podcast is a bit different, we’re going to be hearing from an entrepreneur about their company and journey - and also from the people behind the C-Prize, a competition that our entrepreneur’s company Dotterel took part in that’s helped take their innovations to the world. Dotterel are a drone noise reduction company, they make technology that means drones don’t drone so much - allowing for things like stealth defence work and screen industry audio recording. CEO Shaun Edlin joined us to talk about how the C-Prize helped spur them on, and open up new markets. The C-Prize challenges New Zealand innovators to use new technologies to tackle complex global problems with creativity and inventiveness, is open to New Zealand innovators and comes with a great big cash reward and support component. And this year the prize is now open to anyone with an idea that could make a difference in solving environmental challenges. Ten finalists are picked and mentored through a programme, with one taking out the award. To learn more about how it works and how you can enter, Richard Quin, Callaghan Innovation Group Manager joined us with the full story with Sean from Dotterel. Listen below and find out more about the C-Prize here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Ian Taylor, founder of of Animation Research Ltd. This week on Business is Boring we have Ian Taylor - a man who has used science and technology to tell new stories in sport, movies and culture. His company Animation Research Limited has pioneered graphics that became world famous with the America’s Cup, and he has now set out to tell one of the great, barely-told stories of New Zealand. New Zealand Aotearoa has one of the world’s most amazing stories of navigation and exploration, yet for years when it was taught it was only Cook and Tasman named as our discoverers. Kupe has long been written off as a story, a Maori 'legend', and the seafaring feats of journeying across the ocean of the first people of New Zealand were labelled an accident. Everyone has heard of Cook. How many know that great navigator only got his way in and out of trouble across the Pacific with the aid of Tupaia, a Tahitian navigator who he picked up along the way to help the Endeavour find its way here, and help with translating the Maori language to Cook and his men? Who really knew how murderous Cook’s first visit was, his crew killing people all around the country? We’ve failed to tell the stories that didn’t make the Pākehā expedition look good. But the tide is now turning. Recently the government announced the history of Aotearoa's colonisation and the Land Wars will now be widely taught in schools, and Ian Taylor has been working to bring information about New Zealand's true discovery, by the Polynesian navigators, to life.Taylor's company Animation Research Limited, from Dunedin, has grown to become the world leader in sports graphics. If you’ve seen an America’s Cup race, watched a game of golf or cricket, you'd have seen his tech. As pioneers in computer graphics, Animation Research Limited were responsible for everything from the dancing Bluebird Penguin ad to Hollywood scenes and everything in-between. Ian Taylor is leading the team, and winning gongs for innovating, but has now also turned his eye to making sure we all know our history so we can build from it, with his project the voyage.co.nz. To talk the journey, our stories and what’s next, Ian joined the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Tim Brown, Co-founder of AllBirds. This weeks’ podcast has an extra special guest that has recently been on the minds, and feet, of people all around the world. It was a great chance to talk about a journey from New Zealand to the very top of the fashion industry, and Allbirds co-CEO Tim Brown turned up for an honest, engaging and helpful chat about what it takes to build something different, and what it takes personally and professionally to keep stepping up in terms of scale and expectations. It’s a story now famous in Aotearoa. A few short years ago a New Zealand professional footballer has a dream for a shoe made out of wool, and lots of our podcast listeners will have followed every step along the way.For many that first moment might have been seeing a Former All White fronting a Kickstarter project with the great overview video for a new merino wool shoe you could wear without socks. From there this Allbirds idea has grown and grown through the first signs that this little concept from New Zealand was getting worldwide notice, through to investment, great media notices, huge sales, and AllBirds stores opening up in the world’s great retail areas, and now, a store in Auckland. Although success can make things seem like it was a sure bet, it was, in the words of the founder and today’s guest, ‘a bad idea for a long time before it was a good one’. To find out how bad idea can turn into something quite wonderful, to chat the journey to here, and to hear what’s next, Allbirds founder Tim Brown joined the podcast you can find just below. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Erik Zydervelt, Founding Director and CEO of Mevo. This week the Business is Boring Podcast chats to the founder of a revolutionary new ride share program, prominent in Wellington and with big plans. It’s the future, it’s electric, it’s the vibe, it’s Mevo. This is an interesting one. In a few years people will probably be looking back and thinking it was absolutely bananas how many people had cars, and how little they used them. If you think about it, having an asset that you use less than an hour a day, yet where you are responsible for every bit of depreciation, servicing, insurance, risk and upkeep, well it doesn’t seem the brightest model. And as cities begin to price in all the free space they are given in the form of road parking; as automation advances; and as urban density increases; the days of every family having 2 cars are looking pretty much numbered. But the thing is, cars can be really handy, and although you may not be best to own one, having access to them can be a real win. So around the world car-share services, and car on-demand services are springing up, and in Wellington, New Zealand, a particularly interesting home-grown one is in operation. Mevo allows users to open an app, find a near-by plug-in hybrid Audi, unlock it with their phone, hire it by the hour, and then when finished, park it in any metered park in most of Wellington central so long as it is run by the council. And then you just walk away. It’s the convenience of a Lime scooter, except sanctioned by councils and cutting down road clutter instead of adding to it. The idea has launched with some impressive backers on the board, and with investment from Z and Audi NZ and with a novel carbon positive approach to offsetting emissions - they sequester 120% of what you make, and into rainforests that will actually retain the carbon. It’s a cool idea, with thousands of users, many ditching their cars, and it is becoming part of the transport mix in Wellington. To talk the journey, where it could go from here, and what transport might look like into the future, Erik Zydervelt joined the podcast, that you can find below. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Hamish Pinkham, founder and creative director of R & V This week’s podcast tells the story of how a few mates turned a party for friends into one of the biggest events in New Zealand. There is a lot that is unlikely about the story: the people, the place, the success…. and it was never assured. It’s taken a lot of risk, determination, wrong turns and hard times to make R & V such an event that for you to know it all we have to say is its initials. In 2003 a group of mates threw a party for 400 people in a vineyard in Gisborne. 2000 people came and it began what has become a festival that is famous on the world stage and a rite of passage for kiwi youth. Rhythm and Vines grew and grew. From small beginnings they added days to the event, Internationals, camping, comedy and a whole roster of other ticketed events they promoted. But they grew a bit far a bit fast and some of the things that made the festival feel special were lost. After what was called a riot in their secondary campground they went back to basics, and have rebuilt the festival into a safer, friendlier, smaller and more curated affair. There have been highs and lows, big wins and financial losses, and last year news came that our guest this week on the podcast. Hamish Pinkham, founder and creative director of the festival had sold half the business to one of the largest entertainment companies in the world, Live Nation. He is still guiding the ship, but has the help of a much bigger network to land acts, run and fund the event. He is still booking the acts and curating the festival, but is now also able to step into some new ventures like The Phoenix Summit, an entertainment industry event in September. To talk the journey to here and what is next, Hamish Pinkham joined the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Paris Georgia's Paris Mitchell Temple and Georgia Cherrie. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you take a step back and look at it, it is kind of bananas that New Zealand went from no real cafe culture, to having a coffee so associated with down-under - the flat white -now ubiquitous around the world. This episode of Business is Boring talks to a man who has as much to do with bringing great coffee here, and then taking that back to the world, as anyone else in the country. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to R&D programme leader Dr Peter Surman and Simone Hollier. Did you know that there is a local pharmaceutical company in the second stage of trials to use ketamine to treat depression - and that they're looking for people to participate in the trial? Well, here's a podcast for you dear listener. For this week's Business is Boring we meet two of the 800 workers at a very under-the-radar local drug maker. You might be surprised to know New Zealand has a big Pharma company, and you could also be forgiven for not knowing at all that it was almost sold off, but in this half hour chat we learn about the history, current work and future plans of Douglas Pharmaceuticals. Douglas is a family-owned drug giant, that since 1967 has grown from a company making generic drugs once they fell out of patent- which is more of a difficult process than that makes that sound - to now be researching new uses for previously proven safe drugs. The company does upwards of $250m a year, with the bulk of that as exports, and was almost sold a few years ago before deciding there was a future, here. Part of that future is bringing new talent on board, and a strong R&D programme, led by Dr Peter Surman, the Chief Scientific Officer and 23 year member of the company. This podcast chats to him and Simone Hollier, a New Product Portfolio Analyst, who Douglas took on through an R&D experience grant that is available through Callaghan Innovation (a grant that many companies are able to access). To find out more about getting students into your research, the growth of the company, and making drugs, here, please enjoy this chat with Dr Peter Surman and Simone Hollier. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Flamingo Scooters CEO and co-founder's Nick Hyland and Jacksen Love. Around Auckland lately, and Wellington for a little longer, you might have noticed a bunch of bright pink scooters popping up, and this week’s Business is Boring podcast meets the two twenty-something kiwi guys behind this company. It’s no trivial feat to launch such an enterprise, especially when you are taking on some of the world’s biggest and best funded companies. How do they do it? Co-Founders Nick Hyland and Jacksen Love of Flamingo Scooters first got properly started in Wellington, where, after a long process, Wellington Council approved two scooter companies to take part in an 18 month trial to see how last-mile mobility could work for the Capital. One was Jump, a division of mega transport company Uber, one of the biggest companies in the world, and one was Flamingo, New Zealand owned, and run by two blokes in their 20s. Their brand is a vibrant pink, it uses the same high quality Segway scooters as Jump (better than the Lime ones many might be familiar with) and they do some cool things like offering free helmets for users, and some rigorous rules around safety and parking. They launched in Wellington in the middle of June, and at the end of July launched their full fleet of 500 odd scooters on the streets of Auckland. The chat this week covers how it was that two chaps came to be taking on the big players, what it takes to get something like this going, and what is next for Flamingo Scooters. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand . This week he talks to Vaka Interactiv CEO and co-founder Jesse Armstrong. This week’s Business is Boring podcast talks with an entrepreneur who is changing the way that stories, especially Māori and Pasifika stories, are told in museums, art and business. In a half hour chat with CEO Jesse Armstrong we hear about how they founded their company, Vaka Interactive, landed their idea for pictures that talk to you, got into Te Papa’s cultural idea accelerator and ended up making a piece of technology that would fit right into a Harry Potter movie. Their idea traces back to a visit to a museum, and a realisation they had, that although museums have come a long way in some ways, a lot of what goes on is still quite passive. There’ll be an exhibit and maybe a little bit of text to explain it. And the bits of text, to contextualise all these items with so many stories, are so often dry and lifeless. They thought, ‘Imagine if these things could tell you, really tell you, all their stories, and what if you could ask them questions?’ And then they found a way to make it happen. Vaka Interactiv create the technology and visual storytelling for talking pictures that you might find in museums, and other places or businesses with stories to tell. Their product looks like a normal photo, and then, Harry Potter like, they notice you watching and start telling you the story. There are first steps at being able to prompt them and ask questions, and the technology is being used by artists and museums to bring exhibits to life. The company call this technology Culture Lens, and it is the stories of Māori and Pasifika culture that the founders are particularly excited to capture and share. CEO and co-founder Jesse Armstrong joined the podcast to talk the journey through founding, their time at Mahuki, the Te Papa innovation accelerator, how the whole team moved to Wellington, how access to funding and support (thanks Callaghan Innovation) helped them create this mix of art and science, and the growth to today, including great advice for people wanting to make their own impact around capturing and sharing the stories that make this country special. Ka rawe! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This week he talks to Helen Dorresteyn , co-founder of Clevedon Buffalo. 40 minutes south of Auckland you’ll find the Clevedon Farmers Markets on every Sunday, with a bustling collection of local growers, farmers and artisan food suppliers, and while all this is a firm favourite now it wasn’t that long ago it was nothing but an inkling in the mind of today’s guest. Helen Dorresteyn had seen the trend towards farmers markets overseas and thought we should be able to do that here, too. She went around the neighbourhood, got support from the locals and set up the Clevedon Farmers Markets, however there was one thing she couldn’t find, and that was a great local cheesemaker. So her husband, an industrial electrician, decided to put his hand up to fill the gap, and they thought they’d try to make that lovely buffalo cheese that they’d so enjoyed in Italy. How hard could it be? Well, quite hard as it turned out, but very rewarding. Since creating the Clevedon Buffalo Company they’ve gone on to win multiple awards, become a mainstay in our best kitchens and be one of the anchors of the still thriving Clevedon Markets today. To talk making things happen, the journey and cheese, co-founder Helen Dorresteyn joined the podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This week he talks to Dr Shaun Holt, creator of Honevo. New Zealand honey is some pretty wondrous stuff, many will be familiar with manuka honey's clinically proven qualities, but it doesn't stop there. Today's story is about a serial entrepreneur who turned a medical and research background into a clinically proven kānuka honey product. When you hear that a product is all natural, yet as effective as a synthesised pharmaceutical product, you might find your skepticism rising, which is why today's guest went out and created a groundbreaking study, recently reported in the British Medical Journal Open, to prove his product's case. Utilising a network of pharmacies, Dr Shaun Holt got his Honevo cold sore gel, made from 90% kānuka honey, into the hands of hundreds of cold sore sufferers. In a huge trial they proved that their product was as effective as the market leader gold standard incumbent, and tasted a lot nicer too! This success traces back quite a long way, Dr Shaun Holt is a trained pharmacist, doctor; successful author and a serial entrepreneur who started and exited a clinical research company and a research overview service before setting his sights on the pharmaceutical industry, where the spoils are large, but the cost of entry can be mindboggling. To talk the journey, the many steps leading to today, and what's next, Dr Shaun Holt of HoneyLab joined the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This week he talks to Ben Nathan, CEO and Founder of Container Door. You might have, like I have, got an email out-of-the-blue from a friend asking you if you'd be keen to grab a piece of outdoor furniture, or a scooter, or a mattress comfort overlay thingy, or pretty much anything you can think of, in order to help them fill up a container and get theirs and yours sent to you for a price way under what you'd normally pay. And then, like me, you've probably gone to the website to find out what on earth they are on about and found a lot of things you weren't previously aware you were in the market for, but look pretty good and very well priced. And then you've probably fired off one of those emails off yourself to another friend. If you're still with me and don't know what I'm on about... the website is called Container Door, and it is an ingenious idea from a long-time entrepreneur with an eye for: what people like, value for money and the power of a brand at a good price. Ben Nathan is the CEO and Founder of Container Door, and prior to that has taken many of the best known brands in New Zealand apparel and found new homes, wider markets and new opportunities for them. If you've been keeping an eye on fashions for a while you'd know the brands Norsewear and Hero, Principals and Barkers Men's clothing, all having found new leases of life with Ben. To talk the journey, the power of a brand and sourcing things people just need to have, Ben joined the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Angela Lim, co-founder and CEO of a free, online mental health platform called Clearhead. Mental Health is a crisis in this country, and there is welcome news of 1.9 billion of new funding in the latest budget, but right now, services are stretched. Finding the right care, at the right time, is a challenge. Knowing how to navigate the system is a challenge. Even knowing when to reach out for help, and where to do that is hard. The whole system itself is set up on a reactive model, but as with all health and fitness, preventative and proactive is better than reactive. So how do we do this with mental health care? Well, questions like these, and more, have led to today’s guest starting a new venture, creating an AI chatbot that helps to mimic a GP consult, but creating an atmosphere and feeling of a chat with a knowledgable friend. It helps to increase people’s comfort in sharing information, and sends people to the right places for the assistance they need next. It’s called Clearhead, it’s in market now, and making a difference from the get go. To chat the journey, the need and what’s next, co-founder, CEO and Dr, Angela Lim joined the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This week he talks to John Henderson, partner at Airtree. One thing that we talk about a lot on this show is what it takes to make an idea successful, but one part that doesn't always get raised, but that is perhaps one of the top factors, is getting the access to the right capital at the right time. Not getting access to the funds at the right time to grow equals failure. Getting capital that demands you do the wrong things spells trouble. Getting capital and not spending it well spells trouble. It is an industry where one win can carry ten losses, and changes in markets, technology and personnel can turn a sure fire bet into a tanker, and vice versa. It's an area that fascinates. People like the team from A16Z have done a great job in popularizing the founder centric VC and approach, and the way some of their influences have been portrayed on shows like Silicon Valley mean that the VC process in pop culture is seen as a big exciting chase. But what's it really like? What kind of people can do it? And if you are a company with a big dream how do you get a top VC behind you? Well this Business is Boring guest is here to help. John Henderson is a partner at one of Australasia's leading VC firms, Airtree. They have investments in great companies like 90 Seconds Canva, Prospa and Joyous. John came back to Australia after being a founding Principal at transatlantic venture firm White Star Capital where they invested in well known companies like Dollar Shave Club, and he got into VC through being part of successful companies like Summly and Facebook, and early in his career, management consulting. T o talk what it's like and how it works, John joined the podcast. Listen below for the full interview, and see below for a short transcribed excerpt. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This week he talks to Kate Gwilliam, CEO of feedstock solution, Zeddy. We all know we can't simply put more animals onto land to grow the economy, the country needs clever ways to maximise the returns from dairy and other animal farming practices. One person who knows this better than most of us, and is doing a lot more to help, is today's guest, Kate Gwilliam. Kate moved from a job as project manager in, Auckland to the Manawatu, making a big life change taking on a 450 strong cattle herd. Together with her husband Tom, neither with a background in farming, they made their farm a tech-first endeavour, including full automation in the calf shed, farm sensors and computer-based reporting systems. And with this experience, Kate got involved with an automated feedstock solution, Zeddy, that uses RFID to deliver just the right amount of feed to every animal on the farm. It's award-winning tech, and with her as CEO they have a model ready to sell to the world, that they'll be sharing at Fielddays happening the week this episode comes out. To talk the journey, what life is like on the farm, and using tech to make thing better, Kate joined the podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This week he talks to Sue Dunmore, co-founder of Rose & Thorne. A couple of decades ago there was a big lingerie industry here in NZ, but in 2010 Bendon made the call to pull the last of their NZ operations out , and the design jobs left New Zealand. This moment left the head of design and a past CEO wondering if there might be a way to make a different kind of bra company, designed here, and based more on fit than trends, where they could match affordability with comfort. These weren’t the first time that these thoughts were had in the industry, but when these people went for affordable, they meant it. Bras that can be bewilderingly expensive, but their first big customer was the Warehouse, where they sold for $25. Since their start they’ve expanded to retail, international sales and have sold something in the region of a million bras. To talk the journey, turning a lost job into a multimillion dollar opportunity and what’s next, Rose & Thorne co-founder and Managing Director Sue Dunmore joins me now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This week he talks to Andrew Childs, founder of Behemoth Brewing. You will know the beer that is made by our guest today. You would have seen the cans with Churly, the mascot, with his big underbite pointy teeth and friendly colours and the fun names, that sometimes riff on US politics, but always have a little something interesting going on. Like the shower beer, with a holder for the wall of the shower as one example. But it all almost wasn't. Founder Andrew Childs was a lawyer in Wellington, and changed career, navigated setbacks and injury, and grew and grew his brand and business to today. Where now, Behemoth Brewing is running a Pledge Me equity crowdfund to build a brewery large enough for demand, and a 140 person restaurant with a real nose to tail approach. Depending on what day you arrive you will get where they are up to on the animal, with the restaurant and on-site butchery b run by Andrew's national champion butcher wife and co-force in the business, Hannah Miller. To chat the journey, the crowdfund and beer, a favourite topic, Andrew joined the podcast..... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This episode sees a special Business chat to mark Techweek and the Hi-Tech Awards that land at the end of the that week. Techweek is a festival of innovation, a meeting of the varied eco-systems in tech and a very good time. We’re chatting with two of the speakers in this big week of talks, panels, meetings and connections that is happening May 20-26 across the whole country, seriously, jump on Techweek.co.nz and see if there isn’t something you can get amongst close to you, and even if not, soak it all up online! We’re joined by Amber Taylor, CEO of Ara Journeys - a finalist for Māori Hi-tech company of the year, and she is speaking on a panel on Celebrating Maaori innovation. And also by Jonathan Miller, Group Manager Future Insights, Callaghan Innovation, who will be on a panel looking at 2019’s biggest technology trends. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. Everyone will be familiar with the way that skincare companies use science to sell their products, but how many people actually trust that the science is anything more than marketing? Well often it actually isn’t. This episode we’re talking to a person who worked out that most were just selling 'hope in a jar' and set out to change that. Soraya Hendesi came to New Zealand as a trained cosmetician with a plan to make skincare that would actually work. This led to years of new research with partners like the University of Auckland and Callaghan Innovation, and the discovery of active agents that passed the gold standard of clinical trials, leading to skincare that actually works. Soraya’s company uses natural materials and has its own plantation north of Auckland, that fosters native plants long known and used for their properties, and by matching these with rigorous R & D turned her company Snowberry into an international force, attracting the attention of Procter and Gamble one of the world’s biggest cosmetic companies who bought them last year. Soraya and her Husband Mark still run the company, here, and to talk the journey, the sale and what’s next, Soraya joined the podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Co-working spaces can be great little communities. There’s something exciting and energising about being around people making interesting things happen, always new people with exciting news, connections you can make and a lot of people working on a global level. They are also little bubbles, and can help you forget that life isn’t like that everywhere. In fact, even having co-working spaces available isn’t all that common. Even within your own city. One person who saw the power of community, and worked to make a space happen for South Auckland, is Manawa Udy. Last year she spearheaded the crowdfunding and then establishment of Ngahere Communities that runs Te Haa o Manukau - a co-working space, and intentional community for the creative, innovative, entrepreneurial people of South Auckland to help tap their vast potential. Te Haa o Manukau is a project from the Southern Initiative, supported by ATEED through GridAKL, and is built to be a thriving heart and link to the wider innovative business space. Manawa has a background of pioneering community entrepreneurship projects such as a buy one give one model driving school and forming the PETER collective, a community of community providers to better serve the people around Mt Roskill. And as a creative director at Bob and Bob, Manawa tells these stories and others. To chat entrepreneurship and community, Manawa joins us now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. Connections can be the difference between ventures taking off or stalling. Having the right network, introductions, access to funding, experience, even sharing suppliers, all these things may seem to be a matter of luck or environment, but they don’t have to be. We’re a small country with limited resources, so it is vitally important we make the most of what we have, and if we look to other small advanced economies, there are actually ways to foster and grow these connections. Ireland and Israel both have programmes designed to spur more interaction, collaboration, connection and growth, both run in part by the government and both very successful. These programmes were the inspiration for Scale-Up NZ a new Callaghan Innovation backed platform to get more happening between the innovation ecosystem. What do all these words mean, how exactly does it work, and how can you get involved? Well to talk these questions over we have Rosie Spragg, project lead for Scale-Up NZ and Craig Simpson, a many times over entrepreneur, working in data science blockchain and solar energy, who share with us the benefit for the industry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This week he talks to Stephanie Post and Hayley White, co-directors of the Auckland Art Fair. In the Cloud on Auckland’s Queen’s Wharf around May the pre-eminent contemporary art event in New Zealand, the Auckland Art Fair takes place, bringing together many of the top galleries and artists in New Zealand and around the pacific, for 10 thousand odd art lovers to head in and see and buy more than 5 million dollars of contemporary art. It’s not just about sales of course, reputations are made and there is a focus on fostering new talent through the sensitively and intelligently curated Projects exhibitions, that are not necessarily as commercial as the gallery stands. Many great cities have Art Fairs, and it’s a standout on the local calendar that under the leadership of today’s guests has grown year on year to go year on year from the biennial beginnings. To talk working at the intersection of art and commerce and what it takes to bring together so many artists and galleries in one place, co-directors Stephanie Post and Hayley White joined the pod. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This week he talks to Dan Mclaughlin and Mark Neal, co-founders of Scapegrace. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This week he talks to Grant Straker co-founder and CEO of Straker Translations. You might have seen a great tech story pop up recently, about a globally successful kiwi company offering its staff the ability to work in Gisborne, where they were to open an office so their team could enjoy the lifestyle, cost of living advantages and a nice life. It was just the latest in a long run of cool initiatives the company Straker Translation has put out as part of growing from a family founded tech company into a global success with offices, partners and 40,000 plus translators working all over the world. Coming from the background including being a paratrooper, Grant Straker is the co-founder and CEO and joined us to talk the journey, opening up high-growth to more people and what’s next... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This week he talks to Jenny Morel, founder of Morgo & Co. Today’s guest started working in the tech sector 20 years ago , before many people knew New Zealand even had one! Coming from investment banking, first she founded Morel & Co an investment company to work with technology companies, and then No 8 Ventures, the first US style venture capital fund in New Zealand. And on the side, also founded Morgo, a high-energy retreat and recharge for CEOs building tech or high-growth companies going global from New Zealand or Australia. To chat the journey, the industry today and her experience, Jenny Morel joined the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This week he talks to John Macaskill-Smith, CEO and Director of Disruption at Ventures. People aren’t standard, yet best medical practice often has to be. Treatments for conditions, and prescriptions for ailments are most often based off studies where by design they found the average need and effective dosage. But we know people are not the average. There are distinct ways different bodies metabolise for example - which mean for some the average dose will never work because they metabolise it too fast, and others as they do so too slowly. Which is part of why now there is an emerging filed of pharmacology that uses gene sequencing to understand how an individual’s body works and then equip them and their doctors with that info and understanding to help ensure the correct prescriptions are given. It’s just one of the exciting ways to put power in patients’ hands that have been pioneered out of the Pinnacle group of not for profit companies. They are a huge force in the midlands, Its members manage the health care of nearly half a million people enrolled with over 80 practices in Gisborne, Taranaki, Taupo-Turangi, Thames-Coromandel and the Waikato. The CEO that has driven their growth, first for the whole family of companies and very recently for their ventures arm, is John Macaskill-Smith, who is here today to talk about using business to change health, introducing this pharmacogenomics and how you can find out more about how your body is likely to react to drugs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This week Simon talks to Imche Fouri, general manager innovation and Dr Will Barker, CEO of Mint Innovation Tucked away in Parnell is an innovation centre that has helped propel some of the biggest names in local tech forward, although you might not have heard of the place or even some of the names. It’s a truism of the local scene that some companies are easy for the media to cover, and some, like many facets of science and technology, are a little complicated and don’t get the airtime. This hub used to be a DSIR building, and it started to let space to projects with interesting science, and they’ve gone on to be unusually successful. Some you really have heard of, like Rocket Lab. Some you might know, like Lanzatech - one of the great undertold stories of the local scene, and some you will be hearing a lot more of in the future, like Mint Innovation who are turning e-waste into literal gold. The importance of fostering this creativity has meant that what started as an accidental meeting of minds has become very purposeful with the space now operating as Level 2, an incubator specialising in deep technology….. What’s that? Well, to find out and talk tech, incubation and the next crop of great ideas, Imche Fouri, general manager innovation and Dr Will Barker, CEO of Mint Innovation join me now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dollar Shave Club, My Food Bag, Xero….. subscription businesses pop up in many areas of life, because they make for great business. If you work out your average revenue per customer, and your churn rate, the rate at which customers leave, and then work out what a customer costs you to acquire, and you can make those numbers right, you can project future income in the kind of way that has turned Xero and Push Pay into massively valuable companies before they even turned a profit. We’re used to them in software, but one place that they are pretty innovative is clothing. And that’s where today’s guests have brought their innovation. Asuwere is a clothing subscription for men that provides elevated wardrobe essentials for men, providing the kind of wardrobe anchors that are needed in the month they come, so tees and linen shirts and shorts in summer and jackets and cashmere cotton sweaters in colder months. The idea has attracted big name supporters -with Dan Carter choosing to buy their wares, and it comes from brothers with the credentials. Sam and Noah Hickey hail from fashion and subscription business backgrounds. Sam was a stellar designer for Huffer straight out of uni, and Noah, an All White and business leader, who played a key role in the huge growth of Push Pay. To talk the insight, the journey and getting men to trust them, Noah and Sam join us now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This week Simon talks to Elisha Watson. When refugees come to New Zealand they find a lot of help from religious and community groups to help get started with housing and public services, with volunteers helping at every step. One of those volunteers though, working with the Red Cross, noticed that employment was something that was hard for refugees. After 2 years, 40% of refugees aren’t in work. So to try to change this, she looked around for a business that might use their skills, and not finding the need met, decided to leave a law career at one of the top law firms to set up a company making underwear, here, with refugee workers. Elisha Watson didn’t have a background in clothing, and some of her workers still needed a lot of training, it was a hard first year, with Elisha sharing highs and lows through crowdfunding, media and blogs. The company is called Nisa, Arabic for women, and now Nisa has just opened its first store, in Wellington, where shoppers can see the production going on around them with an open workroom. To talk the idea, the journey and what is next, Elisha joined us by phone from Wellington. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices