Business Is Boring

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 your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. She joins Simon and Brianne to talk how it all came to be. 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.getthere.nz to find out more Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rachel Taulelei is a strong advocate for the Māori economy and sustainability, and her connection to her Māoritanga has been vital in her career – from founding sustainable fishery Yellow Brick Road, to being CEO of food and beverage company Kono. Now at the helm of Oho, an Aotearoa business design and brand strategy firm, Rachel joins Simon and Brianne to spill her secrets to global success. 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.getthere.nz to find out more   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Growing up in poverty, losing his mum at age eight, and leaving school at 14, Saia Finau Latu had the odds stacked against him. In 2016 further family tragedy left Latu at a crossroads, and the path he chose led to founding a leading construction recycling business with a passion for sustainability and a heart for the community. Join Simon Pound for this very special kōrero with a truly remarkable entrepreneur. Content warning: this episode contains details of a serious car accident that some may find distressing. Please take care while listening. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Building the next generation of leaders is a key element of Marisa Fong’s business approach. Passionate about connections and how they impact sales, she’s gone from co-founder of Madison Recruitment to investor and director. She joins Simon Pound to share her journey as a leader supporting other leaders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From Runaway Girl to runway success, for more than 30 years powerhouse designer Karen Walker has built her brand and business globally. Known for clever designs, adventurous collaborations, imaginative storytelling and constantly redefining her approach to retail, Karen shares her world class journey with Brianne and Simon. 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.getthere.nz to find out more Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do you get if you cross a pie with a curry? That's the question that led Ollie Morrison and Logan Stevens to found Roti Bros. The pair join the pod to talk starting a new business mid-pandemic, opening their flagship store in Auckland's Commercial Bay and what they've got planned next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Production company Augusto have pioneered a hit model. Harnessing the tagline "Blurring the lines between advertising, entertainment and production", their breadth of work truly surpasses all boundaries beyond being just an agency. Working with the likes of Tourism NZ and Netflix, to (most recently) royalty, we’re joined by Michelle Walshe (co-founder and global CEO) to hear their story - how they made it in the big apple, and how COVID brought them back home to rebuild with a focus on impact. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you take your business beyond Aotearoa to the world stage? Welcome to Going Global, a six part pop-up series where we find out. For its inaugural episode, Laura Bell, founder and CEO of SafeStack Academy, joins hosts Brianne West (CEO and founder of Ethique) and Simon Pound (Business is Boring) for a kōrero about everything from the export market for digital products, to how SafeStack Academy found itself helping world-class companies with their cybersecurity training. 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.getthere.nz to find out more Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Even if you've never heard of Canva, you've definitely seen social media posts using its graphic design templates. Mahesh Muralidhar played a part in making the Australian company a global success story, and now back in New Zealand he's leading Phase One Ventures, a start-up incubator with big ambitions for Aotearoa business. He joins the pod this week to talk about his dreams for the incubator, the importance of making business more accessible to youth and his plan to make six unicorns. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Girls That Invest, Simran Kaur is dismantling the patriarchy through financial independence and making more women welcome in the world of investing. Now with over 150 thousand Instagram followers and more than a million downloads, hear how she grew Girls That Invest, and why investing should and can be for women/marginalised groups. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With his workplace mental health platform Groov, Sir John Kirwan is continuing a journey to change the conversation around mental health. An open and prominent figure advocating for awareness in Aotearoa (and beyond), he joins us this week for a chat about the all-important intersection of mental health and business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A self-proclaimed "high school drop out", Janine Grainger now works in the blockchain and cryptocurrency tech fields as the CEO and co-founder of New Zealand-based cryptocurrency purchasing platform Easy Crypto. She joins the pod to chat about the company's build to a billion in sales, and where they – and crypto – are headed next.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Coming from humble beginnings in an ambitious yet small market, Special Group has built itself up big from day dot. With a driven mindset of being the biggest and best agency in the world, they have now found huge success as one of NZ's most awarded agencies. Co-founder and CEO, Tony Bradbourne, joins us to talk opening offices around the world, their work (including Gwyneth Paltrow eating her infamous candle), and growing in an industry that’s seen a fair few struggles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

NewFish is a startup aiming to change the fishing industry for the better. Using fish that might otherwise be waste, they are looking to massively increase our use of macro and micro algae, instigating further progressions of sustainability within NZ's food production systems. To talk the journey, the goals and what’s next, co-founder and GM Hamish Howard joins the pod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We first spoke to NZ company, Dotterel in 2019 as they were just coming together with a cool concept for making recording from drones less noisy. Now, over the last three years, they have become the global leaders in capturing sound in noisy environments. Having just announced a new raise of $3m to take a recording breakthrough they’ve made out of the drone industry, CEO and co-founder Shaun Edlin joins us to talk the journey, the biggest change in sound in decades, and taking NZ IP to the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michele Wilson, founder of AWWA period care, was once a corporate lawyer whose side hustle turned into her full time mahi. Now leading conversations around understanding the period cycle through her business, hear her journey of how she built AWWA from a standing start to half a million dollars in sales a month, and the mahi she does to share the sacred kaupapa of the business. Rawe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices