PODCAST · business
Business Is Boring
by The Spinoff
Think business is boring? This podcast proves it's anything but. Join Simon Pound as he talks to everyone from accidental entrepreneurs to industry leaders about their business journeys and what propelled them to where they are today. Made in partnership with Deel.
Episodes
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How free meal planning is changing food research
What started as a way to escape meal planning admin has turned into a powerful tool shaping the future of food. Appetise is a free, recipe-rich meal planning and smart shopping platform loved by tens of thousands across New Zealand and Australia. Co-founders Toby and Elise Hilliam transformed an...
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The billion-dollar company that's just getting started
From starting Crimson Education as a teenager to leading a company operating at a $300 million revenue run rate, Jamie Beaton has been on an extraordinary journey. In this episode, Simon Pound talks with the Crimson founder about his path from acceptance into 25 of the world’s top universities to...
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From Aotearoa to the world: how Wai Mānuka is going global
What started as a conversation between three friends in Whakatāne became a new category in drinks - a premium sparkling Mānuka honey beverage rooted in kaupapa Māori. In this episode, Joseph Harawira shares the Wai Mānuka journey - from army discipline and sports high performance to launching at...
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The AI tool that turns conversations into action
What if your meetings, interviews, or coaching sessions could turn themselves into structured insights, ready-to-go content, or instant action points? That’s what Contented AI - a Christchurch-based startup led by Lucy Pink and Hannah Hardy-Jones - is building. In this episode, we talk about the...
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Rowan Simpson on the right way to be wrong
Rowan Simpson has helped shape some of Aotearoa’s most iconic startups - from Trade Me and Xero to Vend and Timely - usually from behind the scenes. But with the release of his new book How to Be Wrong, he’s stepped into the spotlight to share some hard-earned lessons about success, leadership…
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How AF Drinks is leading their space in the US
AF Drinks is the fast-growing alcohol-free beverage brand from Aotearoa that is rapidly expanding into global marketplaces, landing on shelves across the US, and even teaming up with global celebrities like Khloé Kardashian and Kris Jenner. Lisa King, founder of AF Drinks, joins the pod to…
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How Polymath is reimagining maths class
What if maths class looked more like Roblox than a workbook? In this episode, Sophie Silver - co-founder and CEO of Polymath - joins us to talk about building a game-based learning platform that kids actually want to use. From her background in psychology and tutoring to launching through…
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Ben Forman & Kat Lintott - From Wrestler to What’s Next
Kat Lintott and Ben Forman helped build Wrestler into one of Aotearoa’s most forward-thinking creative and production studios – fusing storytelling, technology and culture in work for brands like Allbirds, and pioneering bold new spaces like the Web3 project Soul Aether. After scaling the studio...
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How Pals became Pals
Pals is the pastel-coloured RTD that somehow made ready-to-drink drinks cool for the first time. But it wasn’t always assured to be a success, in fact, it started with a wine brand that was very hard to make a business from, a lot of learning, and a sense that there had to be a better way. This...
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How timber innovation can protect old growth forests
When you think of premium feature timber for cladding, decking or façades, your mind likely goes to cedar - that rich, beautiful wood loved by architects and homeowners. But there’s a cost. Cedar and other prized timbers are often harvested from ancient, irreplaceable forests. Logging them…
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The virtual CFOs with very real results
You’ve probably come across Oxygen Advisors if you’ve spent any time around Aotearoa’s startup scene. And if you haven’t, well - you’ve almost certainly heard of the companies they’ve helped grow. They’ve been behind the scenes with the likes of Tracksuit, Auror, Ideally and dozens more - helping...
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The compostable cling wrap winning big in the US
In a world drowning in plastic waste, Jon Reed of Compostic is pioneering a revolutionary approach to everyday kitchen products. Through sheer determination and innovative thinking, Jon transformed a personal frustration with single-use plastics into a thriving business that now sits on the…
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Changing the face of investment
Finance, investment and better money habits have traditionally been areas mainly staffed by, led by and advocated by men. Boring men. Two friends, Sophie Hallwright and Victoria Harris, saw a need for interesting and relevant information, advice and community for women. They launched The Curve, a...
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Why great operators can make for great venture capitalists
Venture capital is one of the most prominent types of capital out there. But it isn’t necessarily a great fit for every business. We’re joined by Barnaby Marshall, partner and investor at Icehouse Ventures, to talk VC, when it is good, when it is not helpful, and also to chat about his path into...
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How Keep the Change changes lives
Being good with money is not easy. The whole credit, consumer, and hedonistic world are built to try to get people to spend too much on things they don’t need, for short term gain. The actual tips for how to be better with money are quite simple. Spend less than you earn, save a good percentage...
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Doing better at business by doing better
In theory every business has the potential to bake doing good into how it makes money. But very few do. Brianne West has shown with first Ethique, and now Incrediballs, that with intentional action you can make a brand, business, product and movement for change, where everything you sell means…
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Why people leaders make great CEOs
People leaders are often the quietly most vital parts of a business. Great people leaders are like a cross between HR and an executional chief operating officer - someone who takes the business strategy and breaks it down into what everyone needs to do, and then helps every manager in a business...
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How to build a community of 10,000 marketers
Building community can be one of the most important parts of building a brand and business. When people talk about businesses and customers, we are really talking about a community of people. What does it take to become a valuable and useful member of a community, rather than just a business...
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Creating an Extraordinary new category
On this season of Business is Boring we’re talking to leaders who are great examples of the best of business - and today we are looking at the opportunities and challenges of creating your own category. Creating a category allows you to be the leader and get away from the competition. But it is…
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A banking challenger emerges
This season on Business is Boring we’re talking to people who are examples of better ways to do business. This week we meet Jovan Pavlicevic, co-founder of SquareOne, a financial empowerment and spending card for kids, and now, Emerge, the challenger for small business banking. In many ways…
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From Aotea to the world: Tama Toki on energy, connection, and purpose
Growing up in a self-sufficient community on Aotea Great Barrier Island, Tama Toki owes much of his problem-solving nous and deep connection to the whenua to his unique upbringing. As the founder of Aotea (a skincare line rooted in rongoā Māori knowledge) and Aotea Energy (a company focused on...
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Creating Humanistic AI
AI is becoming an integral part of daily life, and chances are you’ve already used the work of today’s guest. Tom Gruber is the co-founder and creator of Siri, the intelligent assistant that revolutionised how we interact with technology with Apple. But Tom’s contributions to AI extend far beyond...
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Building smarter cities and ethical AI with Dr. Ayesha Khanna
AI, smart cities, and the future of urban living aren’t just buzzwords—they’re reshaping our world. Few are driving this transformation more than Dr. Ayesha Khanna, co-founder and CEO of Addo, an AI advisory firm dedicated to harnessing technology for the greater good. A futurist, thought leader…
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How to get the best of AI today
AI can be a superpower, but like all tools, if you know what you’re doing you’re going to get a better result. In a nutshell: the better the inputs, the better the outputs. That’s what Edmundo Ortega is here to help with. He’s an AI educator at Section - the business education and up-skilling...
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Live from Spark Accelerate: Balancing innovation and efficiency for organisational success
How can organisations proactively disrupt themselves to stay ahead in rapidly changing markets while optimising costs? Nadine Higgins hosts a panel of international business and technology leaders for an engaging discussion on creating a culture of innovation that encourages risk-taking and...
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How Karma Drinks earns its name in Sierra Leone
Karma Drinks and All Good Organics are among the best examples of businesses putting purpose and social impact at the heart of what they do. While providing great products, they also provide fairer wages to the growers and entrepreneurs involved in the production of goods, and part of all…
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NZ tech’s favourite recruiter
Recruitment can be a great business if you do it well. You get roughly 15% of the salary of the people you place as a success fee, and if you have a good relationships with companies and talent you can repeat the process over and over. But it’s not a simple gig! Great recruiters need to…
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25 years of Nature Baby
Nature Baby is the organic baby wear company creating natural, long-lasting and well-made clothing, with a retail model that’s big on community. Co-founders Jacob and Georgia Faull have built to four stores, 55 staff and stockists around the world, and have ridden many waves of business, fashion...
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The old idea that could be the future for trades payments
When a client didn’t pay Max Semmons-Russell’s plumbing business for a completed $30k job it nearly knocked his company over. When it happened again he decided there had to be a better way. Asking around he saw the problem was huge, and there might be a solution that had fallen out of use. Escrow...
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The biggest opportunity for startups? People!
Although the biggest spending line for most startups is people, most startups don’t get serious about people until they get pretty big. Doing so earlier might just be the biggest lever startups can pull to increase their chances of making it in the long run, and making the journey along the way…
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The Kiwi company making concrete change
Concrete is one of the biggest contributors to climate change, with around 8% of global carbon emissions linked to its manufacture and use - but it wasn’t always like this. Local sustainable startup Neocrete has taken inspiration from 2000-year-old Roman methods to make concrete with half the...
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A new agency for a new world
Daylight is an advertising and communications agency that was born out of The Spinoff newsroom, from the amazing work Toby Morris and Siouxsie Wiles did with Covid explainer gifs which grabbed the eye of the World Health Organisation. Daylight CEO Lee Lowndes has built the agency to add web and...
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Innovating for the underserved accessibility market
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…
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How Re-Leased powers 350,000 tenancies around the world
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...
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Grinding away: how Megan Wyper went from employee to co-owner
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...
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How Anihana made it in America
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...
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Making period products more available through Ads on Pads
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…
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How bugs can save the world
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...
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The first approach to fitness training designed for women and the menstrual cycle
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…
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How Hnry helped Australasia never think about tax again
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...
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Has your workplace thought about menopause?
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...
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What happened with Ārepa
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...
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A billion is just the beginning
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?…
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Changing boating for the better
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...
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Creating more Māori entrepreneurship pathways
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…
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What we can learn from Silicon Valley VC
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...
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How Taxi is getting the NZ economy moving
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...
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Listen Now: episode one of Juggernaut – I Love You, Mr Lange
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...
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The AI opportunity for Aotearoa
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…
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How the design lead of Slack is building the future of work
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...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Think business is boring? This podcast proves it's anything but. Join Simon Pound as he talks to everyone from accidental entrepreneurs to industry leaders about their business journeys and what propelled them to where they are today. Made in partnership with Deel.
HOSTED BY
The Spinoff
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How many episodes does Business Is Boring have?
Business Is Boring currently has 395 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Business Is Boring about?
Think business is boring? This podcast proves it's anything but. Join Simon Pound as he talks to everyone from accidental entrepreneurs to industry leaders about their business journeys and what propelled them to where they are today. Made in partnership with Deel.
How often does Business Is Boring release new episodes?
Business Is Boring publishes regularly with 395 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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You can listen to Business Is Boring on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Business Is Boring?
Business Is Boring is created and hosted by The Spinoff.
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