Business Is Boring

In 2012 Mike Brown was hit by a car and became paralysed from the waist down. The transition to using a wheelchair and navigating a world not built for accessibility meant Mike saw a lot of things that could be improved to help improve access, enjoyment and opportunity. He started Adaptdefy, where their first hero product, the LapStacker, helps wheelchair users more easily secure items in their laps with straps, and is a hit that is up for a Best Design Award this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Tom Wallace went to work at his family property business after university while working on start-up ideas he was amazed to find how poor the software was for property management. This led him to begin a company that helps property management companies run better businesses. Fast-forward 12 years and his company Re-Leased is a global leader, with offices around the world, 1,400 customers, 350,000 tenants and a rent roll of US$7.5 billion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Megan Wyper started her career working with New Zealand coffee pioneers Millers coffee, before getting experience overseas in every element of the coffee business. On her return to New Zealand she joined Acme cups, a company you might not have heard of, but whose cups you’ve definitely drunk out of. They make the tulip cups you’ve seen in a variety of colours at specialist coffee stores (or bought from homeware and retail stores far and wide). To talk the journey, running a hospo-adjacent business and where Acme goes next, Meg Wyper joins the pod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a few short years, Anihana have gone from a small New Zealand brand to being on the shelves of 6000+ stores in America. Their shower steamers, shampoo bars, bath bombs and friendly fun sustainable packaging have helped them grow so fast they’re currently doing a capital raise through Snowball Effect to service demand and growth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Roughly half of all people experience periods, so why aren’t period products more accessible? In Aotearoa today, if you are dealing with period-related issues and happen to be in a public place - a mall, cinema, office workplace or university, for example - it’s likely that you won’t have access to any free products that might help. Ads on Pads is here to change this. Founder Aditi Gorasia’s goal is to make period products free by placing advertising on them, while ensuring the products themselves are natural, biodegradable and made of the safest possible materials. To talk the journey, the problem today, and how more companies can support the battle for accessible period care, Aditi joined the pod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jessie Stanley first came on the pod to chat founding and growing I Love Pies, the startup she led through to a successful exit. From there she has helped spearhead a project to stop sand being mined in Pākiri, been a food expert for Snackmasters, and is now back with a new startup to help solve food waste and create sustainable protein with one big solution, using a very small method: bugs! Good Grub creates vertical bug farms, feeding food waste to black soldier flies and harvesting the fast growing grubs to be a source of protein and amino acids, great for pet feed, animal feed, fish feed and fertiliser. Jessie presented her startup at the Icehouse Showcase in August, and joined us to chat that experience, how bugs will change the world, fundraising and life as a second time founder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Femmi is a coaching and fitness app challenging the outdated idea that periods limit performance. Their run training programmes and run club communities are designed to help solve the problem that sport training - like so many things - has been designed and built with the physiology of men in mind. Femmi helps users train in a way that is mindful of the menstrual cycle; a pioneering approach currently followed by only 1% of the fitness industry. Along the way Lydia O’Donnell and her co-founder Esther Keown have built a devoted community and are employing a science-backed approach to help women move with confidence. To talk her journey from elite sport to founding a world-beating company, CEO Lydia O’Donnell joins the pod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hnry is now New Zealand’s largest accountant, helping to manage, file and contribute nearly 1% of New Zealand’s entire tax revenue - and is getting huge in Australia too. It’s done that rare thing: change people’s habits, getting them to have their wages paid to a different account so Hnry could deduct tax as they go. Co-founder and CEO James Fuller joins us to chat the journey he and his wife/co-founder Claire Fuller have been on, from humble beginnings with a single spreadsheet, to resigning from their great jobs, to now being a massive success that is - in many ways - just getting started. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Menopause happens to roughly half of everyone, yet until very recently it’s largely been absent from culture and work - and when it has popped up, it’s often been in ways that are stereotyped or misinformed. Niki Bezzant is one of the people leading a new conversation, helping more people understand, plan for and talk about menopause. Through speaking events, running workshops, and writing books This Changes Everything and The Everything Guide: Hormones, health and happiness in menopause, midlife and beyond, Niki helps women and workplaces navigate the menopause journey and beyond. Follow Niki's work on Instagram here, and on the web at nikibezzant.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ārepa has had a roller coaster year. The functional drinks company are on a mission to make brains work better, through their science and research-backed products. Last year, however, they went through a well-publicised process with the Ministry for Primary Industries about health claims on their labels, resulting in a media fire storm. How did that all come about? How did they move past it? And is the brain drink for real? To chat all this, founders Angus Brown and Zachary Robinson join the pod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kernel recently surpassed $1B in funds under management - a massive achievement for the investment and finance platform. They started with a range of index funds and this milestone is just the beginning of how they aim to help with wealth management. What does it take to get started in fintech? How do you grow to a billion under management? What comes next? To chat all this Dean Anderson, founder and CEO joins the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vessev make hydrofoilng boats, marrying America’s cup foiling and boatbuilding prowess with software excellence to make smooth, sustainable travel possible. CEO Eric Laakmann is one for the water. He came to NZ as part of a sailing adventure that took him from his American home (where he’d worked at Apple as an instrumental part of the Apple Watch project) to NZ, where he decided to get involved with a great local company trying to change how boats are made and their impact on the water. They have come back from the very brink, but seeing the boat on the water - and the excitement building - it’s a great story of grit and talent and determination. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Access to opportunity is not equal. A new report looking into pathways for Māori in entrepreneurship and capital has identified many barriers and opportunities. The Te Ara Takatū report is from the Tapuwae Roa trust, and their chief executive /Kaihautū, Te Pūoho Kātene joined us to chat his career journey (including study at Stanford University, serving his iwi Ngāti Toa and his time as an Obama Foundation Leader), as well as how we can uplift and celebrate Māori achievement in entrepreneurship. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob Coneybeer co-founded Shasta Ventures in Silicon Valley in 2004. They invested in companies like Nest and Dollar Shave Club, have over $1B of funds under management and, unusually for US VC, have a deep and active interest in Aotearoa. We cover his journey into venture capital, how he got connected to NZ, how he’s creating more links between NZ and the US and what it takes to spot the next big thing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Taxi is a new venture helping Kiwi businesses turn their provisional tax payments into a new source of business funding, at about half the price of a typical big bank overdraft. It’s from the founders of Tax Traders, who manage the better part of three billion dollars of tax pooling here. To talk building better businesses, giving the economy a rev up and making Aotearoa more productive, co-founder and CEO Nicola Taylor joins the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We thought you might like a wee taster of our brand new #1 series, Juggernaut: The Story of the Fourth Labour Government, hosted by Toby Manhire. Click here to follow Juggernaut so you get every episode as soon as it's released! 1. I love you, Mr Lange Fuelled by brandy and fury, Sir Rob Muldoon calls a snap election, sparking a 1984 campaign of contrasts – the menacing, protectionist National PM against the fresh, upbeat Labour leader, David Lange. The pretext for the election is the decision by Marilyn Waring, a young, gay MP, to back an anti-nuclear bill and quit the National caucus, prompting an earful from Muldoon. Lange, meanwhile, is joined at the hip by a hungry would-be finance minister, Roger Douglas. They are about to confront a profound crisis, and launch a revolution. Includes previously unheard interviews with David Lange from the 84 campaign trail, and new and exclusive interviews with Marilyn Waring, Roger Douglas, Geoffrey Palmer, Richard Prebble, Peter Harris, Margaret Wilson, Bob Harvey and

Greg Shove is CEO at Section, the next generation education online company founded by Professor Scott Galloway. He is in NZ with Spark for Business, launching a special Mini MBA to equip business leaders for the AI age. We talk to learn what business owners would be doing now, where the world of AI is at, and what you can do to take advantage of the biggest change to business since the cloud. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ethan Eismann has been a design leader at Adobe, Google, AirBNB, Uber and Slack - some of the most influential companies of our age. As part of the Spark Business Lab Future State festival he spoke to us and shared his approach to design, building great design cultures, and how he has grown and supported growth in his career. World-class advice from a world leader. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Damon Gameau was one of the most successful actors in Australia when he made ‘That Sugar Film’, a documentary which unpacked the dangerous volume of sugar in our food system. He next turned to climate change with 2040, and joins Duncan Greive on Business is Boring to explain how to get people to pay attention to topics which require our attention, even when the topic is one we’d rather ignore. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noelle Russell has had roles at - or contact with - most of the biggest names in artificial intelligence. She answered the bell when Jeff Bezos emailed to find a team to work on the first generation of Alexa, took a role at Microsoft as it became a powerhouse there, and latterly helped set up Accenture's AI consulting business. She joins guest host Duncan Greive on Business is Boring to talk through her life and experience, and give a primer on how individuals and organisations can start to grapple with this technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices