One of New Zealand’s most ambitious startups, Zenno Astronautics, is undertaking pioneering work with superconducting magnets to address one of the most pressing challenges facing humanity’s future in space - space junk.

On The Business of Tech podcast this week, Max Arshavsky, co-founder and CEO of Zenno Astronautics, charts his journey from the steppes of Siberia to the University of Auckland, where in 2017 he founded Zenno Astronautics with Sebastian Wieczorek and William Haringa. 

His motivation? To build technologies that can make space exploration more sustainable and less dependent on Earth’s finite resources.

“The vision I have is that technologies in space should be independent of Earth when it comes to reliance on fuel or radiation protection or an ability to construct anything,” Arshavsky, who is now a New Zealand citizen, told me. 

“We should be able to construct things in space, and they should be autonomous.”

Listen to the full interview with Zenno Astronautics Max Arshavsky on episode 107 of The Business of Tech, powered by 2degrees Business, on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.

 

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J.D. Trask, the Wellington-based entrepreneur behind global software success Raygun, is back with a new venture, one he believes could have an even greater impact than the internet itself. 

In the latest episode of The Business of Tech podcast, Trask sat down with me to introduce Autohive, a platform designed to make AI automation accessible for every business, not just those with deep technical resources.

Trask’s well-established company, Raygun, is a quiet powerhouse in the tech world, providing error and performance monitoring for software used by everyone from Domino’s Pizza to HBO. With its behind-the-scenes tech and 93% of its revenue coming from exports, Raygun has flown under the radar in New Zealand, operating with a lean team from just off Wellington’s Courtenay Place.

But as generative AI exploded onto the scene in 2023, Trask saw a seismic shift underway. He described the electrifying moment he realised AI’s potential to transform business productivity. 

"I cannot put down thinking about this, this is going to be a bigger revolution than the internet,” he remembers thinking. Autohive was born, and launched last week with a platform allowing anyone to make their own agents - with no coding experience required.

Tune in to listen to the interview in full - streaming on iHeartRadio and wherever you get your podcasts.

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By now, you’ve probably participated in a video conference call that’s been recorded and automatically transcribed, with a meeting summary sent to you within seconds of the meeting ending.

The likes of Teams, Otter, Zoom and Fireflies are using artificial intelligence to parse our language for insights and meaning, translating long, meandering meetings into useful summaries.

But Christchurch startup Contented AI is taking this a step further, with its transcription app also mining conversations for information that can be turned into action tables, SWOT analysis, deep dives, and decision logs.

On the Business of Tech this week, Contented AI founders Lucy Pink and Hannah Hardy-Jones explain how they've bootstrapped a company that aims to be the "Canva of conversations". Listen to the full interview. PLUS: Dr Sarb Johal answers my big question of the week: What part of your life should always stay analogue, no matter how smart tech gets?

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This week on The Business of Tech podcast, we unpack the sixth annual 2degrees Shaping Business Study, a barometer for the mood and ambitions of Kiwi business leaders as we hit the midpoint of 2025. 

The headline? Optimism is back, at its highest level since the research began, with more New Zealand companies describing themselves as thriving rather than just surviving.

Optimism on the rise

After years of economic turbulence, the study finds that over half of businesses anticipate revenue growth in the coming year. As Mark Callander, CEO of 2degrees, told me on the podcast, given the “survive to 2025” mantra that coloured our thinking last year, it’s little surprise that 45% of them are feeling more optimistic this year.

“What’s more encouraging is that a lot of those businesses deem themselves to be more productive,” he said. 

“Many of them have launched a new product or service in the last 12 months. And again, off the back of that, the intention around investing in business development, sales and marketing is also increasing. 

“So, some really positive indicators in terms of the way businesses are feeling. And I think it’s a great outlook to move from surviving to thriving towards the second half of this year.”

Register to download the 2025 2degrees Shaping Business Study.

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Tracy Sheen isn’t your typical artificial intelligence guru. “I am looking forward to stirring the AI pot with you, Peter,” Sheen told me at the start of an entertaining discussion on this week’s episode of The Business of Tech. 

The award-winning Australian business coach and technology strategist has always been passionate about making technology accessible.

Her latest book AI & U: Reimagine Business is a direct response to the overwhelming hype and complexity surrounding AI, aiming to break down the technology into simple, actionable strategies for everyday business owners.

Sheen, who spent her childhood tinkering with electronics in her parents’ workshop and went on to help launch SMS technology and the iPhone and SMS in Australia brings a grounded perspective to the AI conversation, focusing on the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) rather than tech giants or C-suite executives. Listen to the full interview on Episode 103 of The Business of Tech.

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As chief data officer for Australia and New Zealand at Publicis Groupe, Maurice Riley stands at the intersection of data, technology, and advertising strategy.

On this week’s episode of The Business of Tech, Riley outlined the trends reshaping the advertising industry, highlighted the growing importance of the "middleverse" in customer journeys, especially during sluggish economic times, and offered practical advice for New Zealand businesses navigating the evolving digital landscape.

Riley describes the last decade as a period of profound change, with advertising becoming "100% data-driven”. While the tools have evolved from direct mail lists and census data to sophisticated digital signals, the core objective remains: using data to unlock insights that connect brands with their audiences.

“It's an old cliche, but we like to say data is just people in disguise,” Riley told me. 

“Now we just have that in a different form with a whole bunch more signals at our disposal to wheel together to get to that unlock, that insight that unlocks a great creative idea or make sure that we're getting to the prospects and the humans that we want to reach."

Listen to episode 102 of The Business of Tech for the full interview with Publicis Groupe's Maurice Riley. Plus, Sir Peter Beck's provocative challenge to New Zealand - aim to capture 10% of the global space industry, which would amount to a $230 billion share of the pie in a decade's time!

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Wellington, once a vibrant hub for New Zealand’s tech innovation, has faced stagnation in recent years. 

Last week, a packed audience at a Vision for Wellington event on Wellington’s waterfront heard from the city’s tech luminaries about how the city can embrace its strengths, particularly in technology, and foster a more supportive, connected ecosystem.

Sitting in the audience was Ralph Highnam, founder of breast screening software maker Volpara Health, which was started in Wellington in 2009 and, after listing on the ASX, was bought in 2024 by South Korean AI medical imaging company Lunit in a deal valued at around $300 million. 

On this week's episode of The Business of Tech, Ralph outlines his own vision for Wellingtion and his plans for WellyForge, a new organisation started with the aim of breathing new life into the city's tech ecosystem.

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If the novelty of seeing AI-generated videos popping up in our newsfeeds has started to
wear off, Google has something new for you to feast your eyes on.

Last week, the AI giant released Veo 3, the latest version of its AI content generator. Its claim to fame? Veo 3 not only generates short video clips based on prompts from users, but also audio, syncing sound effects and character dialogue with the video.

That’s yet another step towards generating entire video clips solely with the use of prompts fed into a chatbot, and serves as a stark reminder of the disruptive power AI represents for the creative industries.

On this week's episode of The Business of Tech, Datacom’s Director of AI, Lou Compagnone, who last week hosted an AI Forum summit on AI's use in the creative industries, outlines how the creative sector can
embrace AI to enhance productivity, foster new forms of creativity, and address existential dilemmas.

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Litmaps, a Wellington-based startup that’s just raised $1 million in a Series A funding round, is redefining how scientists navigate the sea of academic literature by merging citation network analysis with generative AI. 

Founded in 2016 by Axton Pitt and Kyle Webster, the platform now serves over 2 million researchers globally, including institutions like Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Cambridge. Its mission? To "accelerate impactful science" by helping researchers identify gaps in knowledge and avoid redundant work.

The playbook is the same pursued by many Kiwi startup founders with Kyle and Axton, who was a University of Auckland biomedical and computer science student at the time, growing frustrated with legacy systems poorly equipped to meet the needs of modern researchers. 

“We just found the tools that you had to use very clunky,” Axton told me on this week’s episode of The Business of Tech. The acquisition of rival Research Rabbit now gives Litmaps an audience of millions worldwide. Find out how better scientific research discovery, powered by AI and visualisations, is changing how science is done on episode 99 of The Business of Tech.

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The Technology Users Association has issued a stark warning that New Zealand risks falling further behind in the global digital economy unless the government urgently reforms its approach to digital and technology skills, with a particular focus on vocational training. 

In a wide-ranging interview on this week’s episode of The Business of Tech, TUANZ CEO Craig Young expressed deep frustration at the lack of strategic leadership and investment in building the local tech talent pipeline, calling current government proposals “disappointing” and “a step backwards” for the industry.

“We’ve missed a trick here,” Young said, referring to the government’s plan to wind down the Workforce Development Councils and replace them with new industry standards boards that largely ignore the unique needs of the digital and creative sectors. We also delve into AI, cybersecurity, and the digital divide as we unpack the pressing issues outlined in the latest TUANZ digital priorities report. All that and more on episode 98 of The Business of Tech.

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