Business Is Boring

Alice Lines and Nicholas Burrowes publish Homestyle magazine, and Nicholas is also chairman of the Magazine Publishers Association. On this episode we talk about what it takes to run magazines locally, what is involved in creating something people love to spend time with and what does the new business reality of Covi-19 mean for the sustainability of the titles we love? 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

Mel Lewis is the founder of Ultrella. Natural deodorant hasn’t always had the best image. Everyone probably knows someone they can smell at five paces who told them they run a crystal under their arm occasionally to help with odour. Some 'natural' mixtures have so much rosemary and coconut oil that you end up smelling like a body odour lamb roast. Mel was tackling an endurance 100km challenge, and needed something that worked but that wasn’t full of nasties. She figured there had to be a better option to what she could find, so applied for a research grant through Callaghan Innovation, got it, and partnered with a product developer expert to create a range of natural products that act like a natural botox, suppressing perspiration without the need for aluminium. 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

Matthew Chapman is the founder of HR search company ChapmanCG. He has grown his business to the point that it’s attracted significant investment from a listed Japanese company, and also helped build an eco-resort island in remote Indonesia as well as being part of a global team that founded one of the toughest ultra races in the world (the Snowman Race in Bhutan). To talk his journey, tips for remote work and why he chose and is optimistic for NZ, Matthew Chapman joined us by zoom from Auckland’s west coast. 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

Pat MacFie is one of the founders of local agency Indigo and one of the driving forces behind Manaaki.io, a platform that helps give support to local businesses trying to navigate Covid-19 by linking up experts to answer questions from the business community. It's a great service, with some of the biggest names in Aotearoa's business scene volunteering their time. His company turned Manaaki around as a concept and launched the website in just days, and now they're busy making content that's having an impact on Kiwi businesses. Many in the tech scene will know MacFie for his role growing the Xero brand across pivotal years, running global media for the company and setting the standard in the industry. To talk stepping out of our local big blue and into Indigo, what they do there, his amazing team and how you can access Manaaki, he joined us for a chat. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business owners around the country will have been watching to see what the government is doing to help with the massive disruption caused by Covid-19. One of the things that's been offered is extra funding to support business, through the Regional Business Partners Network. This funding allows for mentoring and support so businesses can make plans to get through this. But what is the RBPN? How can you access it? Is it for you? and what help is available? This week we are chatting to one of the Regional Business Partners in this network, Kirstin Mead, who has been working with the programme for the last three years, helping companies in the Bay of Plenty access advice, support, and matched funds to grow their businesses. Now there are special services covering current needs like continuity planning and HR – and you don't need to match funds to access up to $2000 of specialist by-the-hour advice. RBPN can also connect you to mentors and make introductions to people that could help you and your business grow. He

Michelle Dickinson is well known as Nanogirl, her science communicating, experiment making, science cookbook authoring alter-ego. With a PhD in engineering specialising in nanotechnology, and a love for sparking interest in science, Dickinson has worked to increase the quality of our national conversation through media appearances, a Herald column and live events, events that can’t happen for the foreseeable future. Faced with this drop in income and uncertainty for her team, this spirit of invention and experimentation kicked in. The team pivoted over the course of three days to create an online learning platform that can help kids stuck at home experiment with items found around the house and learn through doing. With a lesson every weekday, for only a dollar a day, and a buy one give one model, it’s already finding a great audience. You can find her new venture at nanogirlslab.com Business is Boring is presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priva

Zac De Silva is one of the top rated business coaches in the world. His background is in accountancy, and he was CFO of Flight Centre at the age of 28. He went on to lead a $100m organisation, run the turnaround of Barkers, and then became a coach in the corner of great local businesses, with 38 clients landing on the Deloitte Fast 50. I took part in one of his workshops, and working with Zac he has helped me get clearer about business than anything else I’ve done. Along with his wife, Sip, he runs Business Changing and the Nurture Change events, and with his experience in business we thought he was just the person to get on to talk about how to navigate business in 2020. Please note: This was recorded Tuesday morning, before the Government assistance package announcement. If you are in business and looking for the first thing you can do to help your situation, do check out the help you can get here. Business is Boring is presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Hosted on Acast. Se

Chia Sisters is award winning for its nutrition and commitment to sustainability. Its founders have been lauded on the Forbes Asia 30 under 30 list, named Obama Foundation Asia Pacific Leaders and have done some pretty cool stuff like put solar panels on their roof, more-than-doubling the power needed for their solar juicery and giving the excess back to the grid. To talk about how good business and sustainable practise can work together and what's next for Chia Sisters, Florence and Chloe Van Dyke joined us on Business is Boring. 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

All is for All came to many people’s attention with its trailblazing fashion shoots using diverse models. It’s continued to grow into an advocacy and accessibility consultancy, helping brands like The Warehouse better understand a good section of their customers and design their stores accordingly. Founder Grace Stratton has been a powerful communicator for the issue, talking to companies, speaking on the TedX stage and being named in the InStyle magazine top 50 Badass Women. To talk about what’s involved in starting a business in an industry that is chronically underinvested, how to work this around university study, and what’s next for her, Grace joined us on Business is Boring. 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

Earlier this month Asia Pacific agritech conference evoke AG hosted 65 Kiwi delegates in Melbourne, and among the Kiwi companies represented was Sparrows. Their purpose is to cut food waste by using smart sensors and data to keep track of where everything is and where it’s meant to be, at what temperature and for how long. It’s leading to less product being written off, a huge problem in the food industry. Sparrows CEO and founder Andrea Watson and Simon Yarrow, who leads Callaghan Innovation’s agritech team joined us on Business is Boring this week. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 depar

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 joine

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 P

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

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 Ro

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