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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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 Effect to service demand and growth.

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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 to any free products that might help.

Ads on Pads is here to change this. Founder Aditi Gorasia’s goal is to make period products free by placing advertising on them, while ensuring the products themselves are natural, biodegradable and made of the safest possible materials.

To talk the journey, the problem today, and how more companies can support the battle for accessible period care, Aditi joined the pod.

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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 food waste and create sustainable protein with one big solution, using a very small method: bugs! Good Grub creates vertical bug farms, feeding food waste to black soldier flies and harvesting the fast growing grubs to be a source of protein and amino acids, great for pet feed, animal feed, fish feed and fertiliser. Jessie presented her startup at the Icehouse Showcase in August, and joined us to chat that experience, how bugs will change the world, fundraising and life as a second time founder.

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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 mind.

Femmi helps users train in a way that is mindful of the menstrual cycle; a pioneering approach currently followed by only 1% of the fitness industry. Along the way Lydia O’Donnell and her co-founder Esther Keown have built a devoted community and are employing a science-backed approach to help women move with confidence. To talk her journey from elite sport to founding a world-beating company, CEO Lydia O’Donnell joins the pod.

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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 deduct tax as they go. Co-founder and CEO James Fuller joins us to chat the journey he and his wife/co-founder Claire Fuller have been on, from humble beginnings with a single spreadsheet, to resigning from their great jobs, to now being a massive success that is - in many ways - just getting started.

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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 understand, plan for and talk about menopause. Through speaking events, running workshops, and writing books This Changes Everything and The Everything Guide: Hormones, health and happiness in menopause, midlife and beyond, Niki helps women and workplaces navigate the menopause journey and beyond.

Follow Niki's work on Instagram here, and on the web at nikibezzant.com.

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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 labels, resulting in a media fire storm. How did that all come about? How did they move past it? And is the brain drink for real? To chat all this, founders Angus Brown and Zachary Robinson join the pod.

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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? How do you grow to a billion under management? What comes next? To chat all this Dean Anderson, founder and CEO joins the podcast.

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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 at Apple as an instrumental part of the Apple Watch project) to NZ, where he decided to get involved with a great local company trying to change how boats are made and their impact on the water. They have come back from the very brink, but seeing the boat on the water - and the excitement building - it’s a great story of grit and talent and determination.

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