Business Is Boring

If you’re listening to this podcast on a smartphone in New Zealand, chances are you have an app today’s guest helped create – and hopefully you use it every day. Pavan Vyas is the CEO of Rush, makers of NZ COVID Tracer, an app which was brought to market in crisis response speed in 2020 and since improved on to the point it’s been adopted by the NHS in the UK.To talk about how they made the app, and about growing the company to count Google, Disney Plus and Microsoft among its international customers, Rush CEO Pavan Vyas joined Business is Boring for a chat.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

New Zealand has an addiction to using plastic cling wrap – and it goes without saying that’s no good for the environment. Jon Reed’s startup Compostic is out to change that with a range of home compostable cling wrap and other kitchen products. In the last few years the company has grown from a product only available in specialty stores to now be available in most New Zealand supermarkets, along with hundreds in Australia, and now it’s launching into the US market too. Founder and CEO Jon Reed joined Business is Boring this week to talk about the journey.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

If flowers are so often bought by men, how come florists aren't designed to appeal to them more? That’s the (extremely paraphrased) gist of the Jerry Seinfeld routine that helped inspire Vanisha Narsey to start Bouqo, an online platform that helps people select the right floral solution, see examples of bouquets at their price point and get them delivered. With 15 florists onboard across Auckland and plans for expansion, Vanisha joined Business is Boring this week to talk about the idea and its development, how it's going and what’s next.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

In this week’s episode, Simon Pound talks to Dr Robert Feldman, CEO of Covid-19 Vaccine Corporation, about the fascinating science behind developing a vaccine.Covid-19 Vaccine Corporation (CVC), brings together some of the top figures in local pharmaceutical, deep tech and life science commercial enterprise. The chair is the managing director of Douglas Pharmaceuticals, and the CEO is Dr Robert Feldman, who has had a career working at Harvard Medical School and Imperial College, London, founding the UK vaccine company Microscience among other enterprises, before moving to New Zealand as Executive Director of Pacific Channel and after that, his own life science consulting company.To talk about the fascinating science behind vaccine research and development, Dr Feldman joined Business is Boring this week.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

Louise Aitken is the CEO of the Ākina Foundation, which for the last three years has been delivering a programme in partnership with the government, called The Impact Initiative, focussed on the future of New Zealand’s social enterprises. Ākina runs a range of programmes to help more businesses make money and positive change, to help grow companies’ capability, support them in things like finance and other nuts and bolts of doing business well, and create and demonstrate impact in what they do.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

Women make up about 10% of all tradespeople in New Zealand, and only about 4% of “on the tools” workers. That's a wild statistic, and part of why this week's guest Emma Kaniuk started Tradespeople – a directory that lists companies owned and run by women and gender diverse tradies around the country. Emma joined Business is Boring this week to talk about the idea behind the directory and the need it serves.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

From humble hole-in-the-wall beginnings, Wellington-based Fix & Fogg is now one of the hottest nut butter companies in the world. Founder and CEO Roman Jewell tells Business is Boring how it all happened.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

Take2 CEO and founder Cam Smith tells Simon Pound about the life-changing work his company does helping ex-prisoners reenter the job market.The job market is tough at the best of times – but for an ex-prisoner without any recognised skills, it can be pretty much impossible. One ground-breaking new non-profit is out to help change that by helping incarcerated people learn how to code.The goal of equipping prisoners with highly sought-after skills led this week’s guest Cam Smith from an exciting career in impact investment into the world of non-profits, dealing with big government departments and multi-generational societal challenges.To discuss all these big problems and the big ideas needed to help solve them, the Take2 CEO and founder joined Business is Boring this week.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

Mutu founder Toby Skilton joins Business is Boring to talk about his vision for a service where people could rent out and borrow things from each other – and how he made it a reality. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a service where you could either make money by lending out the stuff you own and hardly use, or save money by borrowing things from people near you instead of buying them? That’s the thought today’s guest had a few years ago, and he decided to turn it into a business. Mutu began in Christchurch, and has grown to now help users counter waste and create new income and connections nationwide. Mutu founder and CEO Toby Skilton joined us by Zoom from Christchurch this week to talk about the journey so far, and where he wants to take the business next. 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

This week on Business is Boring, Bex Rempel tells Simon Pound about the need to replace petrol motors on boats.Did you know that an hour out on a little dinghy with a petrol powered outboard motor is as damaging to the environment as having 38 new cars running the same time? This is the fact that led New Zealand business ZeroJet to change tack and use their tech to try and replace some of the hundreds of thousands of petrol powered motors on small craft. Even if they only fit 10,000 of their electric motors, it would have the same impact as removing 1.5 million cars from the road. The company’s co-founder and CEO Bex Rempel joined Business is Boring to talk about the environmental impact, being better to our oceans and what they plan to do next.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