Business Is Boring

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 proceeds go to the Karma Foundation, which works to provide opportunities to people in Sierra Leone. The chair of that foundation is Albert Tucker, who has been a pioneer and advocate for Sierra Leone and fair-trade practices globally. Albert was in New Zealand to share more about the foundation’s work, and he joined us with Simon Coley, co-founder of Karma Drinks and All Good Organics.

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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 understand the people and the businesses they work with - and every job you place directly affects your reputation.

Troy Hammond is a recruiter who specialises in the high growth space who has become a sounding board, support person and champion for so many people in the start-up scene. Through his company Talent Army and the work he does with his podcast We F#$king Love Startups, he generates amazing impact. To talk the journey, big goals, and what’s next, Troy joins the podcast.

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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 and commerce to get there. To talk the journey, what’s next and their new circularity initiative Worn Again, co-founder Jacob Faull joins the pod.

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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 is a concept where people put a payment with a trusted third party until the product or service has been delivered. Max built Green Light Escrow to make it easy for trades businesses to use escrow to have certainty of payment, and customers to know they only pay when the job is delivered. To talk solving the big problem, starting a tech business on top of a successful plumbing business and what’s next, Max Semmons-Russell joins Simon Pound. 

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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 as smooth as possible.

Kimberley Gilmour is one of New Zealand’s most experienced people leaders, having been instrumental in the scaling and operations of Icebreaker, Groov and Vend. Now the founder and CEO of Sprinklr, a new “people operations” company that is partnering with early-stage companies to help them grow, Kimberley joins the podcast to discuss her story, the origins of Sprinklr, and the two main pillars of great people management that she swears by.

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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 carbon emissions today and a path to being entirely carbon neutral in a few years.

This world leading innovation has attracted top international VC support, and the co-founders Matt Kennedy-Good and Zarina Bazoeva are now poised to make huge impact on the biggest of industries. Kennedy-Good joins the pod to discuss making change in an established practice, the path to innovation and what’s next for the concrete industry.

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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 digital capability, leading to local and international growth in the hardest of markets.

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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, where their first hero product, the LapStacker, helps wheelchair users more easily secure items in their laps with straps, and is a hit that is up for a Best Design Award this year.

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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 years and his company Re-Leased is a global leader, with offices around the world, 1,400 customers, 350,000 tenants and a rent roll of US$7.5 billion.

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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 of. They make the tulip cups you’ve seen in a variety of colours at specialist coffee stores (or bought from homeware and retail stores far and wide). To talk the journey, running a hospo-adjacent business and where Acme goes next, Meg Wyper joins the pod.

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