Business Is Boring

Did you know that nearly half of all produce grown in New Zealand is thrown away? When Wendy Zhou discovered the scale of food waste she created a network of growers around the country to donate their produce to her. With this produce, Wendy has gone on to create cauliflower ice-cream, gourmet tomato paste, and her charity Perfectly Imperfect.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SUPERPOD is back! And for 2022, we're bigger than ever! Hosted by Gone By Lunchtime's Toby Manhire and featuring Jane Yee and Alex Casey from The Real Pod, Duncan Greive from The Fold, Leonie Hayden from Nē?, Simon Pound from Business Is Boring, The Spinoff editor Madeleine Chapman and The Spinoff Podcast Network's Te Aihe Butler, SUPERPOD 2022 is our multiverse of madness. From the Black Ferns' historic win to Mike King's villainous turn on Celebrity Treasure Island, we cover the incredible highs and lows of what has been a terribly special year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it mean to truly shop sustainably? Crushes is a second hand store that is challenging the norms of consumption-hungry shopping. Stocking entirely locally made, vintage and sustainable items, Co-founder Rose Hope aims to give the consumer back the right to know exactly where their products came from. She talks with Simon about her journey, Karangahape Rd, and the success of their free clothes swap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can we make an actual difference in the lives of people in need? At 20 years old, Orange Sky co-founders Lucas Patchett and Nic Marchesi found themselves asking a similar question. Now, their fleet of vans that offer free laundry and shower services, as well as meaningful conversations, has helped thousands of people across Australia and New Zealand. Lucas joins Simon to discuss the impact their work has had, practical solutions and the importance of connection. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paint surrounds us for most of the day, but are you aware of the harmful petro-chemicals that are used to create it? Natural Paint Co are out to change this, offering healthier alternatives to use and live with. Co-founders Grace Glass and James Mount share their journey of taking on the status quo, and where to from here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do New Zealanders make their businesses more sustainable? As the head of innovation at the Ellen MacArthur foundation, Ken Webster literally wrote the book on building a circular economy. He shares his insights from an overseas perspective in this special live episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meet the couple bringing you Tony's Chocolate, Seedlip, McClures Pickles and now, Good Sh*t - the soda that is intriguingly all about your gut health. Becs Caughey and Nick Brown share their expertise in business, music and distributing great brands. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mānuka honey is an internationally known product, but the oil sourced from the plant's leaves can have major skin-care benefits. Stuart Cairns, founder of Mānuka Bioscience, talks to Simon about his mission - Making Mānuka oil New Zealand's next great, natural industry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eleven years ago, Frances Shoemack began creating contemporary smelling perfumes with all natural products. Since then, her company has gone global and challenged an industry that overwhelmingly relies on synthetic ingredients. How did she achieve this, and where to from here? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Arguably starting the first ever social network, Boyd Multerer is an Xbox live legend who was right in the crux of its inauguration. Implementing an important lesson learnt in his time at Microsoft, Multerer now leads kiwi-born company Kry10 where they're creating a new, flexible operating system for the industrial internet of things. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Having bought his first share at age 12, Sam Stubbs has always had an eye on the economic and financial world. Now co-founder and managing director of Simplicity (the only non-profit KiwiSaver fund manager) he joins the pod to speak on leading the mission of conscious investment and providing financial literacy for New Zealanders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the past 20 years, Sustainable Business Network have taken sustainable business practice from the fringes to front and centre. Founder/CEO Rachel Brown talks the journey, and how all businesses can work with them to improve their impact. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Already having stamped an everlasting mark on the culture, design and creative conference company Semi Permanent have planted their roots and are here to stay. Now heading into its 20th year, director/curator Simon Velvin joins his namesake to shares a candid look on what it takes to stay at the front of things. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since it was founded in 1992, Matta has helped divert over 60 million tonnes of PVC and rubber waste from landfill, recycling it into safety matting used in playgrounds and workplaces around the world. New managing director Brent Harris joins Business is Boring this week to talk about his unusual career path into the business and how Matta continues to lead the way in new methods and approaches to recycling. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Indian cuisine is more than just butter chicken made at the mall and Perzen Patel is on a mission to bring that to light within the diaspora. With exploration, education and (most importantly) family at the forefront, she started Dolly Mumma: A food business aiming to teach the wonders of Indian food with ease. Known to many listeners for her enlightening stories shared on The Spinoff, Patel's experimental endeavours are routed in tradition and winning over Aotearoa into the future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before we gear up full speed ahead towards the flying cars of the future, self driving vehicles are here now. Promising to be a big part of the future too, Nuro is the US-based/NZ-led self driving delivery company envisioning a world where everyday life is bettered through robotics. Co-founder Dave Ferguson joins the pod to chat how he went from industry beginnings working the Mars Rover, to division leadership at Google, to now with Nuro. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You may think Seaweed is just the slimy stuff rudely interrupting your summer swims but when you dive a bit deeper, it is an inventive solution to many agricultural and horticultural issues. An industry we're only just starting to explore, one company at the front of that exploration is AgriSea: a multi-generational Paeroa-based seaweed company with 25 years of innovation in the area. Now under the leadership of CEO Clare Bradley and Chief Innovation Officer Tane Bradley, they join Simon to chat leading the fix to dirty rivers, farting and burping cows, traditional fertiliser, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most contracts made at 16 between best friends don't generally come to fruition, but that isn't the case for Baina co-founders Bailey Meredith and Anna Fahey. Seeing a gap in the market for an ethically made, organic and stylish towel, their mission was set: to build a company reflecting their values, whilst also offering a more thoughtful approach to production. To talk their growth beyond Aotearoa and the journey so far, Bailey and Anna join the pod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back in 2014 Kurt Meyer and Paul Organ saw a gap in the market for an app to help boarding schools track student absences. Now Orah has a bigger mission, helping provide a solution for student wellbeing and engagement. The pair joined Business is Boring to talk distributed work, helping schools run better and their journey so far. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Living his life overcoming exterior barriers as a blind individual, Jonathan Mosen understands the importance of hope and belief despite one's disabilities. An advocate for the blind (and disabled community as a whole), making a difference in the space has always been his biggest driver. Now helming the CEO title at Workbridge, Jonathan joins Simon to talk inclusion/diversity in the workplace and how we can improve disabled representation in business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices