A Kiwi Original

Beautifully simple websites by Rocketspark. Kiwis are DIY’ers and that often applies to websites too. Rocketspark makes websites fun again and Founder Grant Johnson shares how the restrictions of Covid-19 has resulted in a resurgence in businesses wanting to reflect what 2020 Kiwi consumers expect, the customer stories that speak to the impact Rocketspark has been having and why Grant gets a kick out of helping business owners have a better life.

TIMESTAMPS

2 mins 40 secs Using lockdown to focus on marketing and website development. 

3 mins 23 secs The productivity that digital brings and the scheduled ordering feature Rocketspark built for takeaway ordering businesses.

4 mins 22 secs Nick at Elspeth bakery and selling out a whole day’s bake in less than two hours thanks to ecommerce and the pipeline certainty that has helped his sisters bakery reduce waste.

5 mins 13 secs Connecting up with delivery systems, stock management, book-keeping and online booking to make digital more than just a brochure.

5 mins 33 secs Setting up Timely for better bike scheduling at a bike repair store. 

7 mins 22 secs The importance of storytelling with digital and how technology can actually be simple.

9 mins 50 secs Riding the wave of manufacturers going direct to consumer and what’s happening overseas during Covid.

16 mins 8 secs What Grant Johnson saw in New Zealand when we returned to New Zealand and why ecommerce should be a progression of development rather than a massive upfront investment. 

19 mins 55 secs Solving more interesting problems as your ecommerce business grows, why capturing the customer insights is so important and the Layby story. 

23 mins 31 secs ‘Green valleys not Silicon Valleys’ with the Rocketspark team of 17 hailing from Cambridge, New Zealand. 

24 mins 26 secs What attracts software talent to Rocketspark and what keeps them.

26 mins 26 secs The talent of New Zealand software developers and how XeroCon is a showcase of what Kiwi software coders are building. 

29 mins 44 secs The marketing software stack, the first two SaaS software purchases of Dropbox and Xero… and what Quotient software does for businesses.

32 mins 40 secs What’s coming with Rocketspark and the new lightning bolt feature that guides Kiwi businesses by creating the SEO text for you to automate key pain points. 

36 mins 40 secs We get techy with search engine optimisation.

41 mins 58 secs Helping clients keep search rankings when you’re migrating your site.

49 mins 10 secs The rule of seven (or 13?!)

50 mins 16 secs The race to digitise and why Rocketspark’s purpose is getting a kick out of having a better life.

52 mins 31 secs Hiring more developers as Rocketspark grows through 2020. 

LINKS MENTIONED

Rocketspark - Online Store Builder

The integrations Rocketspark supports

Search Engine Optimisation Guide for Rocketspark SEO

How to build a website click by click

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.akiwioriginal.com

Toby Litten is the Chief Exec and Founder of Parkable - for parking that doesn’t suck. The built environment is only just starting to adopt technology and that creates an opportunity for Parkable. 

TIMESTAMPS

2 mins 35 secs The problem with inefficient car parking and why tickets, towing, fines and being late for meetings is impacting on city design and our way of life in a way it doesn’t need to.

4 mins 53 secs The technology that enables park sharing when their not in use either within a company or for public use.

6 mins 8 secs How Parkable works for employees for businesses like KPMG and Datacom in New Zealand and the benefits of knowing in advance when company carparking is going to be available including accessing the car parking building by your phone. 

8 mins 32 secs The moment of madness that led to Parkable being created by Toby LItten and that the opportunity was commercially big enough to get started with their team of three including a developer and a sales machine.

9 mins 55 secs Development is a core advantage for Parkable and that’s kept in-house and in New Zealand. 

10 mins 32 secs Getting approved by Apple early on and the complexities of parking allocation and creating interactions between the virtual world and the real world.

11 mins 54 secs Why offshore people are looking for best possible solution and you have to fight to win whereas in New Zealand there’s a home court advantage with a genuine desire to support local to refine and test the Parkable product. 

13 mins 33 secs Why the cost of asphalt varies throughout the world, the ROI of carparking asphalt as a utility and the trend of real estate values for carparks that’s growing faster than other forms of real estate. 

15 mins 44 secs Being first to market… and then discovering competitors in both public parking and private parking around the world. 

16 mins 40 secs Staying in front by making sure Parkable has the best product and why keeping the software development in house enables that.

17 mins 47 secs The culture of carparks at work and how Parkable has removed an estimated 2,700 carpark arguments to date!

19 mins 55 secs Why it’s all about growth in Australia in New Zealand right now while getting started in North America and China. 

20 mins 22 secs Getting started as a building manager or facilities manager.  

LINKS MENTIONED

Parkable

 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.akiwioriginal.com

BluTui is a SaaS software platform for web agencies to solve the problems of managing multiple websites without restricting the technical creativity demanded by their clients. We have an in-depth chat on BluTui software, the New Zealand software ecosystem and why BluTui has built a better product for agencies than overseas platforms that have accrued technical debt like Wordpress, Squarespace and Wix.  

Charlie Cooper - Chief Technology Officer BluTui

TIMESTAMPS

2 mins 14 secs - Blutui is an integrated approach that helps web agencies with the management of the sites, makes the life of a front-end web developer easier and enables agency account managers to interface with the software all in one place.

4 mins 52 secs - The white label capabilities of BluTui to use your advertising agency brand on the platform instead of Wordpress, Squarespace or Wix. 

5 mins 45 secs - The pain and suffering of deploying well known platforms instead of the freedom of deploying using web standards as a web agency. 

7 mins 6 secs - The development of the software, how it grew out of Pan Media agency and why they’ve spent four years developing the BluTui SaaS product out of the Waikato. 

8 mins 19 ses - The strategy to avoid technical debt that older frameworks incur and why BluTui has the advantage of being small and nimble and deploy new cloud technologies introduced in the last five years. AWS for hosting over Google Cloud and Azure, Google Kubernetes for managing server infrastructure en masse, stacks built on the php framework Laravel and Golang for client side scripts. 

11 mins 26 secs - The BluTui product is based on open source software and how BluTui adapting, customising and connecting them in novel ways that leverage existing open source tools. The balance of contributing to open source vs custom code that contributes to BluTui’s intellectual property. 

13 mins 46 secs - The advantages and disadvantages of being a New Zealand software company. 

18 mins 51 secs - Domestic clients versus international clients. 

20 mins 49 secs - The importance of the tui name in BluTui and why BluTui wants to tell a story about where they’re from.  

25 mins 29 secs - What makes it easier to develop in BluTui as an agency. You only need to employ front end developers that understand HTML and CSS not databases or infrastructures or servers. There is no platform specific skills required like Wordpress. 

26 mins 20 secs - The benefit of web standards to pick up talent from polytechs and universities that lowers the bar to build complicated websites with complicated data structures. 

27 mins 48 secs - The talent of software developers in New Zealand and the desire to build a SaaS empire in New Zealand.

28 mins 51 secs - Charlie Coopers origin story. 

29 mins 57 secs - Advice for an aspiring software developer. 

31 mins 4 secs - Creative ways to compete against software startups in Silicon Valley.

32 mins 21 secs - A step towards a more knowledge based economy and retaining talent through Covid. 

34 mins 24 secs - The infrastructure in New Zealand and the advantage we have over the United States in Internet penetration and in speed.

LINKS MENTIONED

BluTui for agencies building websites

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.akiwioriginal.com

Ironclad Pan co-founder Kate Slavin and chef extraordinaire Felicity Morgan-Rhind who creates the recipes for IronClad Pans joins us on this episode to discuss why the classic cast iron pan is the way forward for Kiwi cooks. 

TIMESTAMPS

2 mins 1 secs Why cast iron is durable and lasts forever unlike teflon pans.

3 mins 18 secs Why Ironclad Pan’s come unseasoned and giving customers the option to season their own pan. 

6 mins 53 secs Introducing Felicity Morgan-Rhind and what you can do with an Ironclad Pan that you can’t do with teflon pans. From baking tarts and brownies… making beetroot tart tartin... and why caramelised onions and bacon are amazing for seasoning your pan.

10 mins 14 secs Talking Ironclad Pan recipes after giving a pan to chef Peter Gordon. 

11 mins 43 secs Kate shares the story behind starting Ironclad Pan and her goal to make peoples lives better and how she put her graphic design expertise to use.

12 mins 35 secs Prototyping of making the pan in China and why it didn’t make sense to go through with production.

14 mins 26 secs The hand poured and hand made process of making an Ironclad Pad and where the value lies for the business and for Kiwi cooks.

18 mins 51 secs The digital recipe vault that creates the ability to share family recipes. 

22 mins 20 secs Is the Ironclad Pan designed for food service or home cooks?

24 mins 27 secs Why the market focus in primarily New Zealand in line with their sustainability values.

27 mins 44 secs Purchasing an Ironclad Pan and favourite recipes including stuffed fennel bread and self saucing lemon pudding available on the Ironclad Pan website.

33 mins 08 secs How Jo complements Kate’s skill in the business to keep on top of the numbers and social media.

33 mins 30 secs Felicity’s Father’s Day recipe.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.akiwioriginal.com

RealAML helps NZ companies identify their clients without a doubt to be compliant with anti-money laundering requirements. In this episode, I talk with Jordan about why he wanted the recognition to be a NZ coded product with NZ based staff to be able to differentiate vendors who are simply reselling overseas products. That choice has enabled RealAML to capitalise on the higher level of trust Kiwis have in handing over their private data to a NZ software business.

TIMESTAMPS

1 mins 57 secs What RealAML does to confirm and verify identity beyond doubt.

3 mins 52 secs Reducing the compliance overhead by removing the need for clients to drive across town with their drivers licence and utility bill.

7 mins 9 secs How it works starting with a text message to the client with a link and ending with an identity match report for the business.

8 mins 48 secs The business model. Businesses absorb cost or pass it on to the client.

11 mins 32 secs Getting the first customers for identity back in March 2019 before the Facematch feature launch.

14 mins 9 secs Why RealAML wanted the recognition from New Zealand businesses that they are a NZ coded business.

15 mins 41 secs Why giving developers equity has helped RealAML retain developer talent.

17 mins 47 secs Data sovereignty - What RealAML clients want to know about where their data ends up and the importance of keeping the data in New Zealand.

19 mins 30 secs A side conversation on TikTok!

21 mins 22 secs The growth in identity checks during May to June due to Covid-19 and how Zoom helped businesses prioritise digital transformation throughout their business.

22 mins 39 secs Ryan's experience with FaceMatch.

23 mins 43 secs International partners to identify not just Kiwis but people in 13 countries including Australia, UK, China, US, Canada and Singapore.

25 mins 54 secs Jordan's passion to solve new problems and create new things and how it led to identity management through his financial expertise.

30 mins 13 secs What to do to start a company when you don't have a technology background.

31 mins 23 secs From rapid prototype to market validation to a side project then to the launch.

LINKS MENTIONED

RealAML - Remote Identity Checks Beyond Doubt

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.akiwioriginal.com

Dr Sandra Clair is one of New Zealand’s most highly qualified plant medicine experts, a medical anthropologist (M.A.), and the founder of New Zealand’s leading traditional plant medicine company, Artemis. In this episode we delve into the hidden properties of New Zealand's high potency thyme, the benefits of Rongoā Māori medicine and why New Zealand's lack of regulation is holding back our natural plant medicine exports. 

TIMESTAMPS

2 mins 35 secs What is plant medicine, it’s 2,500 year old history and how it branched out and gave birth to pharmaceuticals. 

3 mins 47 secs New Zealand’s biosphere and why it’s ideal for producing uniquely Kiwi 
plants.

4 mins 55 secs Dr Sandra Clair’s origin story. 

6 mins 4 secs The discovery of thyme in Central Otago and what makes it different from other herbs she had harvested in Europe.

8 mins 45 secs What Dr Sandra learnt about thyme through her medical thesis, the specialised knowledge of Rongoā Māori and how 20th century colonial medicine disrupted this knowledge. 

12 mins 5 secs The discussion around opening up medicine and allowing people to choose the medicine that is right for them. 

13 mins 38 secs Why a pharmaceutical only model creates gaps and inequality in healthcare and the need to decolonise medicine. 

14 mins 27 secs Does plant medicine really work?

15 mins 21 secs Why plant medicine doesn’t have the same side effects.

16 mins 47 secs Why plants have more than one action and can be effective against more than one symptom.

19 mins 32 secs How the Artemis range came about to solve common family health complaints. 

22 mins 35 secs New Zealand is the only country in the OECD that doesn’t have regulations around plant medicines which is holding New Zealand back against countries like Australia in exporting to China. 

25 mins 4 secs The gap in regulation and the role for government in updating the Medicine Act to include natural medicines. 

28 mins 41 secs Choosing plant medicine as a career and how a Swiss story of growing up in the foothills of the Swiss Alps where people died of old age not illness influenced Dr Sandra Clair.

31 mins 29 secs The existing evidence based research on plant medicine. 

35 mins 7 secs The 500 year old book of medicine that Dr Sandra was given by a nun she apprenticed from.

LINKS MENTIONED

Artemis - Traditional Plant Medicine

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.akiwioriginal.com

Steve Nathan - Founder and CEO of Timehub shares how he’s helping Kiwi businesses save money through better timesheet management. We discuss his second software service goes beyond simply ticking boxes for visitor logs. Lastly Steve shares why he’s riding high on the return to localism.

TIMESTAMPS

3 mins 16 secs Software is in Steve’s blood and why he’s taking an organic approach to growth.

4 mins 28 secs Steve’s multi-channel approach to getting the TimeHub message out there. 

6 min 2 secs Making sure employees are getting paid correctly through TimeHub.

7 mins 8 secs Talking to people who have the problem has created a software solution for time and attendance that truly works for Kiwi companies like beehive companies!

9 mins 24 secs Why companies in hospitality, engineering, farming, horticulture and manufacturing sector are using TimeHub to ensure compliance with the Employment Relations Act, Holidays Act and the Health & Safety Employment Act.

11 mins 6 secs Selecting a Kiosk solution for visitor logs that save companies money.

13 mins 34 secs Why Steve didn’t build a Covid app and instead went down the visitor management and safety route. 

15 mins 11 secs How Instant messaging enabled kiosk solutions have increased effective communication of visitor arrival. 

17 mins 27 secs The feature list of visitor management and how construction is using it to ensure different visitors are treated differently. 

20 mins 6 secs Extra features and use cases that TimeHub delivers that few other platforms have considered.

21 mins 16 secs How TimeHub has evolved the compliance layer to a value add solution for reputation management that starts at the office management.

24 mins 30 secs What it’s like wearing multiple hats in a small business and where Steve got help with the software programming layer and the back office activities.

29 mins 24 secs MyTimesheets pricing starting at $2.99 per employee per month that helps save a company $30-50pm per employee.

34 mins 31 secs What changed due to Covid-19 in TimeHub’s client base.

41 mins 32 secs Is NZ Made an investment or a cost? Steve’s message to Kiwi businesses and what he’s hearing from customers “I want to deal with New Zealand businesses.”

LINKS MENTIONED

TimeHub Software

 

 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.akiwioriginal.com

Billie Jo Hohepa Rohipa is a serial New Zealand inventor whose latest product innovation is set to save councils millions by removing the load of wet wipes on New Zealand’s waste infrastructure. B-Det foam can be used on any toilet paper and has helped thousands of our youngest and oldest New Zealanders who have delicate skin. Amazing story of invention and dedication to solve a problem few had considered. 

TIMESTAMPS

6 mins 1 secs The original idea behind BDet and the value of ‘tutu’ing in Billie Jo’s family.

9 mins 10 secs Why solving health problems is so important and how B-Det helps.

11 mins 12 secs How B-Det replaces wet wipes and why that is important for waste reduction. 

12 mins 10 secs The use cases for B-Det foam. 

14 mins 51 secs Launching across 10 Countdowns and Foodstuff’s coming soon and what the future holds.

17 mins 46 secs The origin story of putting moisturiser on paper to make the wipe experience better. 

22 mins 52 secs Where to find B-Det toilet paper enhancer. The wet wipe alternative in a category of its own.

26 mins 16 secs Joining New Zealand Made. 

28 mins 19 secs How the product saves ratepayers millions of dollars.

29 mins 15 secs Going global.

LINKS MENTIONED

B-Dét

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.akiwioriginal.com

Victoria and Carl Uren are the founders of True Fleece heralding a return to merino for parents of kids that want a better alternative to plastic polar fleece for school uniforms. True Fleece is made from natural merino with not a single synthetic fibre in sight.  

TIMESTAMPS

2 mins 23 secs The origin story of making True Fleece merino jerseys.

4 mins 38 secs What the True Fleece range delivers on through function and simplicity.

7 mins 36 secs The consistence quality of merino fibre that True Fleece ensures and the importance of a low 18 - 19 fibre micron count.

9 mins 27 secs How making merino jerseys for their children morphed into a merino jersey school uniform business.

14 mins 3 secs The move away from synthetics plastic polar fleece clothing to natural New Zealand Made merino outer layers for school children.

16 mins 57 secs The time and effort in building a brand from unknown to findable and beyond.

18 mins 42 secs The secret brand sauce that Kate brings to True Fleece.

25 mins 21 secs Looking at the customer experience. How True Fleece have adopted experiences they like.

27 mins 25 secs The renaissance of New Zealand Made during and after Covid-19.

32 mins 47 secs Choosing the right international partners to sell True Fleece overseas.

36 mins 33 secs Making garments that have a purpose, and Carl’s recommendation on where Ryan should start shopping https://www.truefleece.co.nz

 
LINKS MENTIONED

True Fleece

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.akiwioriginal.com

Clint Bolderston shares what it takes to get delicious dog treats and food to discerning doggo's throughout New Zealand. If you want your product on supermarket shelves, this episode is a must listen.

TIMESTAMPS
2 mins 12 secs What dogs want to eat and what the science says.

4 mins 26 secs The inception of Wairarapa Farm meat in 1973 and New Zealand’s first cooked dog roll.

6 mins 16 secs Cracking the grocery code to get ranged on supermarket shelves.

8 mins 57 secs The product lifecycle and why most products have a lifecycle from uptake through to decline.

11 mins 40 secs Conservation and taking the pests out of the bush for meat recovery while providing work in trapping and hunting.

14 mins 44 secs Getting the products to market through demo’s, pet shows, events and getting the product into people’s hands to give to their dogs to ‘try before they buy’.

19 mins 57 secs Getting into the dog roll business. How Clint got started.

24 mins 11 secs Relocating a factory. 

27 mins 10 secs Getting the packaging right and incorporating the ‘natural’ and ‘New Zealand Made’ attributes. 

31 mins 3 secs Growing the domestic base alongside exporting to the United States. The challenges of refrigerated travel for dog roll, the focus on dried dog treat and the opportunities of private label export work. 

LINKS MENTIONED

Superior Chunky

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.akiwioriginal.com