Business Is Boring

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. Le...

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...

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 exp...

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 divis...

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 th...

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 Aotear...

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...

Imagine being able to manage a herd of cows from your smartphone. That's exactly what the Halter system, founded by ex-Rocket Lab engineer Craig Piggott, allows farmers to do. Halter's solar-powered patented Cowgorithm technology allows farmers to move, manage and monitor their herds remotely and it's been such a success that Halter already boasts a 130-strong team. Craig has been named a Forbes 3...

In a bid to increase financial literacy and confidence among young people, Kendall Flutey (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu) co-founded Banqer – a financial education platform used by over 300,000 students in Australasia. On our final episode of Going Global, Kendall joins Simon Pound and Brianne West to talk about how Banqer stepped beyond Aotearoa to help improve the prospects of rangatahi all over th...

Apprenticeships are common in the trades, but how about one that helps people in companies learn how business works, all whilst developing their soft and hard skills? Rob Woolner, MD at Autex, saw this gap and has created the Business Apprenticeship. Hear about the journey, the need, and how it works as he joins Simon on the pod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After conquering the far North's cafe scene in ownership, Debbie and Nigel Stowe started to notice a vital gap in local plant-based options. From that gap, Vince was born. Becoming Northland’s finest multi award winning alternative mince makers, hear their business, health, family and product journey to creating unique veg-packed meat alternatives people (including Simon) are loving! Learn more ab...

As the co-founder and COO of Kami, Alliv Samson is helping build the future of online education. She joins Brianne and Simon to talk about creating one of the fastest-growing EdTech companies in the world, and taking it global. Going Global is brought to you in partnership with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. NZTE wants to help more Kiwi businesses reach their global potential. Visit www.getther...

While many high end brands pride themselves on sole exclusivity, luxury leather goods company Yu Mei is more interested in establishing a welcoming community. Yu Mei founder, Jessie Wong, joins Simon Pound to talk about building a premium brand that values function equally with form to ensure its products are always on trend (and therefore a more accessible fashion investment). Learn more about yo...

Female pleasure has always been a taboo topic, but Girls Get Off are on a mission to change that. Co-founder Viv Conway joins Simon to chat GGO's place within the wellness world, building a feedback loop between business and culture and what's coming next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lucy Blakiston is an unlikely exporter – she’s not sending physical products overseas, but her brand is undeniably international. As the co-founder and CEO of Shit You Should Care About (SYSCA), which has amassed 3.6 million social media followers, Lucy brings new meaning to the term global news, digesting the biggest stories in the world and giving them context relevant to their young audience. S...

The Ironclad Pan Company's mission is simple: to keep things sustainable like they used to be. And to put their money where their mouth is, the New Zealand and Australian-based cookware company offers a 100-year guarantee on their products. Co-founder Joe Carter joins the pod to explain how you do that, caring for their pans to guarantee important longevity, and what’s next for the business. Learn...

An ingenious space satellite solar tech started by three 21-year-old Auckland Uni students, Astrix Astronautics has launched from lessons in the classroom to solar panels in space. Co-founder and CEO Fia Jones joined Business is Boring to talk physics, the science of business, making ideas into reality for the hardest conditions on and off the planet, and what’s next.  Learn more about your ad cho...