The SME Stream

There's growing concerns from experts about the risks surrounding AI investments.

Investors believe AI is at risk of forming a stock market bubble, and some analysts are worried about the risks coming home to roost.

Fisher Funds expert Sam Dickie explained further.

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The podcasts in the SME Stream contain general information only, not financial or professional advice. Any opinions expressed in the podcasts are not necessarily shared by BNZ, or its related entities. BNZ is not liable for any losses resulting from the content of the podcasts. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Inland Revenue Department has launched some new steps in bringing down tax debt - with one scheme linked to a key credit agency.

Following a successful pilot, the IRD will report more recalcitrant tax debtors to credit reporting agency Centrix.

Centrix Group Managing Director Keith McLaughlin says this scheme is designed to bring down company debt at this stage, not personal debt.

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The podcasts in the SME Stream contain general information only, not financial or professional advice. Any opinions expressed in the podcasts are not necessarily shared by BNZ, or its related entities. BNZ is not liable for any losses resulting from the content of the podcasts. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Reserve Bank is addressing concerns cash is becoming inaccessible by bringing money to rural communities.  

It has opened a 12-month trial of a cash depot in Hawke's Bays' Waipukurau - offering a closer site to make withdrawals.

Local banks have recently closed, meaning the nearest ATM for locals is 50 kilometres away.

Reserve Bank Money and Cash Director, Ian Woolford, says, currently, only businesses can use the depot for cash.

"It's quite surprising, about a third of where people get their money from is actually from a retailer...but people might be noticing retailers are increasingly saying - well, we don't really want to accept cash."

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The podcasts in the SME Stream contain general information only, not financial or professional advice. Any opinions expressed in the podcasts are not necessarily shared by BNZ, or its related entities. BNZ is not liable for any losses resulting from the content of the podcasts. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 54, our guest is the CEO of realestate.co.nz, Sarah Wood.

As the real estate market starts to show some long awaited green shoots, it’s timely to have a discussion about the real estate market. As the leader of New Zealand’s only dedicated real estate portal ccompany, Sarah Wood is uniquely positioned to share her insights into the changes in the market.

Her early life was as one of 6 children in a farming family. That’s where she learned the value of hard work and the need to earn her own money.

She completed a diploma in advertising and a university degree in marketing, all while learning the ropes in retail business before heading for the media sector with the Company then known as Wilson & Horton. Thereafter, the FMCG world came calling and she led a range of projects across some of the major brands at Goodman Fielder.

As her husband’s medical career started to take off, she then found herself in the USA for seven years and she talks of a different way of life and new business opportunities. There she met an influential woman and she discusses the impact that relationship had on her.

But the return to New Zealand was inevitable and after a stint back with her old employer, by then named APN, she found her first CEO role in the real estate advertising business.

During the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast with Bruce Cotterill, Sarah shares her insights on building teams, developing a can do culture and getting things done. And she talks about her love of working with highly successful real estate agents and their clients, and the current state of the real estate market, with record numbers of listings and increased buyer activity.

This is a leadership story that is still developing. Sarah Wood is a CEO of the future, someone who understands how to make technology, people and customers come together to create outstanding experiences.

It’s well worth a listen.

The podcasts in the SME Stream contain general information only, not financial or professional advice. Any opinions expressed in the podcasts are not necessarily shared by BNZ, or its related entities. BNZ is not liable for any losses resulting from the content of the podcasts. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the latest episode of The Business of Tech, Tracksuit co-founder and chief commercial officer Matt Herbert explains how the startup is using brand data to help marketers navigate an era of economic uncertainty, shifting consumer behaviour and AI-driven search. 

“The edge that we brought to it was simplifying the fundamentals and making it incredibly accessible,” he says of Tracksuit’s dashboard of brand tracking indicators, which is now used by over 1,000 customers globally to track around 10,000 brands.​

Herbert traces his obsession with brands back to childhood, recalling growing up playing football for Eastern Suburbs in Auckland, where McDonald’s Player of the Day branding made an impression on him. That early fascination with how brands connect with people ultimately led him through roles at Uber and Snapchat analytics startup Mish Guru, and on to founding Tracksuit.​

From those formative experiences, Herbert and friend and co-founder Connor Archbold drew a blueprint for global expansion that they are now applying at Tracksuit. Advertising and branding guru James Hurman came on board as a co-founder to apply his insights to the Tracksuit platform, incubating the company into his Previously Unavailable innovation studio.

The Uber blueprint

“Uber to me still has one of the best blueprints of how to scale globally fast and effectively… starting one market, win the next market, hire great people, empower and scale out and go where the demand is,” Herbert said of the ride-hailing platform.

That thinking now underpins Tracksuit’s carefully sequenced move from New Zealand into Australia, the US and the UK.​​ Herbert’s mission is to shift marketers’ focus from short-term clicks to long-term brand building. 

“Most businesses have been so focused on sales and conversions and performance marketing where you put a dollar into Meta, and you get three dollars back,” he said.

“Then it got to a point where you were putting a dollar in, and you were getting 80 cents back. Everybody had been so focused on converting at the expense of building your business and your brands over the long term.”​

To explain that imbalance, he shares a favourite thought experiment from marketing effectiveness expert and Tracksuit co-founder James Hurman. In a room of people, Herbert asks who is buying a phone in the next three months. Only a few hands go up. Then he asks who will buy a phone in the next two years. 

“Everybody's hand goes up,” he says. “That right there is the concept of what marketing's job [is] to do… you've also got to build awareness and familiarity and connection with those who aren't ready to buy from you right now, but will do down the track.” Tracksuit’s dashboard is designed to make that long-term job visible and measurable.​

Throw out the hundred-page PDF

Tracksuit’s answer was to build a software platform that pulls the essence out of expensive research reports and puts it into a live, always-on view of brand health. 

“We were basically getting told we'd love just to see the exact summary of the big research reports that we're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on in a hundred-page PDF,” he recalled of early interviews with chief marketing officers. 

“We actually just want to see the exact summary. How big is our market? How well is our brand known and considered? What do people think and feel about us and how does that compare to the competitors?”​

That customer discovery led directly to Tracksuit’s first product and revenue. 

“After 67 conversations, we had 11 businesses pay us upfront annual licenses,” Herbert said. 

“We took the first $110,000 and built the first prototype of the product. We didn't have a product, but we had the likes of Simplicity and Allpress and Good George Beer and Auckland Council, all of these really early brands that took a punt on us, and we built the first version and from there we continue to scale out.”​

Fast-forward four and a half years and Herbert says Tracksuit has assembled “one of the largest data sets on brand health on consumer brands in the world.” 

The company raised $42 million in June in a series B funding round with the proceeds to be used to expand Tracksuit’s US presence and drive growth in Europe and Asia.

The rise of agentic engine optimisation

Herbert said Tracksuit had embraced artificial intelligence, which was helping reshape the brand landscape as internet search and digital marketing were transformed by it. Tracksuit is using AI to accelerate insight delivery and supercharge internal workflows.

He pointed to a weekend hack by his vice president of strategy and operations: “Our chief of staff, Dan, was using some agentic AI workflows and built an [agentic engine optimisation] product. How well is your brand showing up in the likes of Claude and Perplexity, and ChatGPT? He did that within a weekend, six hours,” Herbert said.​​

Herbert argues brands now need to think about AEO in the same way they once grappled with search engine optimisation. 

Finally, Herbert shared his playbook for building a resilient business in choppy economic waters. 

“We founded Tracksuit at the back end of the pandemic. Since that time in 2021, I think there's probably been three different recessions or hints of recessions globally,” he said.

“There'll always be something. And that's why it's really important for us to be building a sustainable, responsible business that isn't relying on continuing to raise external capital just to keep the lights on.” 

For brand leaders facing budget pressure, his advice is to invest wisely to understand how your brand is performing now, so you can make inroads when buying appetite improves. 

“If you can keep your marketing going through times of recessions, it's proven time and time again that you come out far stronger than when people cut budgets.”​

Listen to the full interview with Tracksuit’s Matt Herbert on The Business of Tech powered by 2degrees Business, streaming on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.

Your weekly tech reading list

Home Markets Rebecca Stevenson Fisher & Paykel Healthcare cracks $1b milestone, ups profit guidance - BusinessDesk

Startup Winely goes into liquidation owing $2.2m - BusinessDesk

A year of tech milestones: Exports, AI, and innovation in 2025 - BusinessDesk

Blackpearl Group joins the ASX: Which deep-pocketed Aussie investors are backing the Kiwi tech company - BusinessDesk

Ruminant Biotech raises $17m at $132m valuation for its cow pill that will slash methane emissions - NZ Herald

CrowdStrike catches insider feeding information to hackers - Bleeping Computer

Rocket Lab chief opens up about Neutron delays, New Glenn’s success, and NASA science - ArsTechnica

Warner Music drops lawsuit against AI music platform Suno in exchange for licensing agreement - Engadget

Roblox is a problem — but it’s a symptom of something worse - Platformer

Robots and AI Are Already Remaking the Chinese Economy - Wall Street Journal

The podcasts in the SME Stream contain general information only, not financial or professional advice. Any opinions expressed in the podcasts are not necessarily shared by BNZ, or its related entities. BNZ is not liable for any losses resulting from the content of the podcasts. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour Leader Chris Hipkins says he's not clear what the Government's aiming for in its plans to change local government.

It's proposing replacing the country's 11 regional councils with boards made up of local mayors.

Hipkins agrees there's an obvious need for change.

But he told John MacDonald he thinks this looks like an attempt to make councils amalgamate.

Hipkins says if that's what they wanted, they should have told councils to go away and amalgamate.

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The podcasts in the SME Stream contain general information only, not financial or professional advice. Any opinions expressed in the podcasts are not necessarily shared by BNZ, or its related entities. BNZ is not liable for any losses resulting from the content of the podcasts. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Prime Minister ponders a peace deal in Ukraine, going on a farm tour with Federated Farmers, getting rid of regional councils, the OCR, KiwiSaver, the age of eligibility for National Super, whether a CGT has any political appeal, and whether Chloe is a genuine contender to be the next Minister of Finance.

The podcasts in the SME Stream contain general information only, not financial or professional advice. Any opinions expressed in the podcasts are not necessarily shared by BNZ, or its related entities. BNZ is not liable for any losses resulting from the content of the podcasts. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The podcasts in the SME Stream contain general information only, not financial or professional advice. Any opinions expressed in the podcasts are not necessarily shared by BNZ, or its related entities. BNZ is not liable for any losses resulting from the content of the podcasts. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Reserve Bank Governor is leaving the job tomorrow with no major regrets about the pace of OCR cuts. 

The cash rate's dropped 25 basis points to 2.25%. 

Forward-projections suggest this will be the end of the current cycle of OCR cuts, with inflation expected to ease and the economy expected to recover in the new year. 

Governor Christian Hawkesby told Mike Hosking they've been responding to circumstances. 

He says they've been dealing with a stall in economic recovery while focusing on their mandate of controlling inflation. 

Hawkesby says it's hard to say exactly why New Zealand's recovery has stalled more than other countries, telling Hosking there isn't one clear reason for the downturn this year. 

He says it's a bit of a puzzle, with tariffs and cautiousness both playing a role, and that's why last month's cut was needed to kickstart the economy. 

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The podcasts in the SME Stream contain general information only, not financial or professional advice. Any opinions expressed in the podcasts are not necessarily shared by BNZ, or its related entities. BNZ is not liable for any losses resulting from the content of the podcasts. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Leaky-home experts fear a proposed overhaul of the Building Act could leave unlucky home owners - apartment owners in particular - in financial ruin.

Under the new regime, liabilities are only assigned to the party responsible, and for many new buildings, a warranty will be required.

NZ Herald Wellington business editor Jenee Tibshraeny unpacks the concerns further.

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The podcasts in the SME Stream contain general information only, not financial or professional advice. Any opinions expressed in the podcasts are not necessarily shared by BNZ, or its related entities. BNZ is not liable for any losses resulting from the content of the podcasts. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.