Business Is Boring

What started as a way to escape meal planning admin has turned into a powerful tool shaping the future of food. Appetise is a free, recipe-rich meal planning and smart shopping platform loved by tens of thousands across New Zealand and Australia. Co-founders Toby and Elise Hilliam transformed an admin-killer into a two-sided business: empowering home cooks and providing FMCG brands with authentic, behavioural insights. In this episode, we explore how Appetise launched for free, rebranded from MenuAid, and leveraged its growing user base—now over 90,000 households—to deliver billions of genuine data points a month to brands. We dig into the funding, the rebrand, the shift to Australia, building culture, and how their stock tracker and insights platform are changing how food companies understand and engage their shoppers. This is a story about mission-driven growth, innovation in food tech, and creating tools that serve both people and brands better. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What started as a conversation between three friends in Whakatāne became a new category in drinks - a premium sparkling Mānuka honey beverage rooted in kaupapa Māori. In this episode, Joseph Harawira shares the Wai Mānuka journey - from army discipline and sports high performance to launching at the America’s Cup and landing the brand in New York. We talk about staying true to cultural values, sharing the story of Aotearoa, and building a business that’s as ambitious as it is grounded. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rowan Simpson has helped shape some of Aotearoa’s most iconic startups - from Trade Me and Xero to Vend and Timely - usually from behind the scenes. But with the release of his new book How to Be Wrong, he’s stepped into the spotlight to share some hard-earned lessons about success, leadership, and the quiet people who build great companies. In this episode, we talk about what startup culture still gets wrong, how stories are told and who gets left out, and why the real impact of startups should be measured far beyond headlines and valuations. Rowan opens up about the mistakes he’s made, the decisions that still stay with him, and the power of doing the right thing even when it’s hard. We dig into ideas he hasn’t been asked about elsewhere - from capital gains tax and the role of government, to the inside story of one of the stories he shares in the book that host Simon Pound was working on with him, the restructure of Vend after a funding round failed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if maths class looked more like Roblox than a workbook? In this episode, Sophie Silver - co-founder and CEO of Polymath - joins us to talk about building a game-based learning platform that kids actually want to use. From her background in psychology and tutoring to launching through Startmate and now reaching students across the world, Sophie shares how Polymath is reimagining education through adaptive algorithms, immersive gameplay, and real-world problem solving. We explore what it takes to build a new category in edtech, why focusing only on maths has been a strength, and what others can learn from how Polymath balances fun and rigour. Plus, insights on product design, parental trust, and why sometimes the best way to teach is to play. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pals is the pastel-coloured RTD that somehow made ready-to-drink drinks cool for the first time. But it wasn’t always assured to be a success, in fact, it started with a wine brand that was very hard to make a business from, a lot of learning, and a sense that there had to be a better way. This week on Business is Boring, we sit down with Nick Marshall and Mat Croad, two of the co-founders of Pals, to unpack how they turned an overlooked, over-sugared category into a cultural icon. We go deep on what it takes to build a brand people love, how they’ve resisted the typical “grow fast, sell out” script, and why category creation is the new brand advantage.From first sell-outs in the Mount, to Halloween costumes and B Corp ambitions—this one’s a masterclass in modern brand building, from two pals who just knew there had to be a better way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You’ve probably come across Oxygen Advisors if you’ve spent any time around Aotearoa’s startup scene. And if you haven’t, well - you’ve almost certainly heard of the companies they’ve helped grow. They’ve been behind the scenes with the likes of Tracksuit, Auror, Ideally and dozens more - helping them grow, operate best in class finance teams and raise capital - guiding them through the tough parts of building. With over 100 startups backed and a 97% survival rate, Matt Dold and Mike Mandis have built a track record that’s almost unheard of. In this episode, they join us to pull back the curtain - sharing the frameworks that work, the good habits to cultivate, and the mistakes they help founders avoid. They’re speaking more publicly now because they want more founders to succeed. And if you’re building something - or thinking about it - this conversation’s well worth a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Finance, investment and better money habits have traditionally been areas mainly staffed by, led by and advocated by men. Boring men. Two friends, Sophie Hallwright and Victoria Harris, saw a need for interesting and relevant information, advice and community for women. They launched The Curve, a platform boasting an internationally popular podcast, investing club, courses and community. The Curve is now a fantastic example of how building community and providing value can be turned into a business that creates positive impact and profit. During a brief visit home to Aotearoa, co-founder Sophie Hallwright sat down with Simon Pound to discuss blazing a pathway for women in investment, before she headed back to London to continue the good work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Being good with money is not easy. The whole credit, consumer, and hedonistic world are built to try to get people to spend too much on things they don’t need, for short term gain. The actual tips for how to be better with money are quite simple. Spend less than you earn, save a good percentage even when you don’t earn a lot, stay away from expensive debt, invest in upskilling and invest for the long-term as compounding benefits are your friend. However simple these ideas might seem actually connecting with people and getting them to believe they can make the change can be the hardest thing. Luke Kemeys is one of the new breed of financial influencers who is able to make these messages connect by sharing his story, by making the content relevant and by turning up time and time again to land the messages and habits. His media brand Keep the Change educates, informs and entertains through podcasts, courses, events and his regular newsletter. His approach sees the free content deliver heaps of value, and this creates a pipeline of business for his accountancy practice. His work has helped countless people get out of debt and into good positions, and he joins the podcast to chat his approach to money, how he learnt to practice good habits and how sharing great content can lead to business success. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People leaders are often the quietly most vital parts of a business. Great people leaders are like a cross between HR and an executional chief operating officer - someone who takes the business strategy and breaks it down into what everyone needs to do, and then helps every manager in a business stay accountable. There are no great companies without great people policy and execution, and people leaders need to understand culture, strategy, how people tick and how to create high performance environments- all the kind of things that also make for a great CEO. So why don’t we see more CEOs coming from chief people officer backgrounds? This episode on the pod we talk to Olivia Dyet, founder and CEO at recruitment startup Empathix and Pene Barton, CEO at Crimson Global Academy. Both these leaders came from leading people operations, and both are at the front of what great looks like in terms of AI execution and implementation both on how they work and how their teams operate. We have a great chat about how this could be a huge opportunity for more diverse leadership with so many amazing women in people and operations, how we may need to redefine what a technical leaders is in the age of AI and about the practical toolbox of AI tools everyone should be using today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this season of Business is Boring we’re talking to leaders who are great examples of the best of business - and today we are looking at the opportunities and challenges of creating your own category. Creating a category allows you to be the leader and get away from the competition. But it is one of the hardest things to do - as you need to create awareness, trust, new habits and understanding in the market. It takes energy, positivity, confidence, optimism, perseverance as well as a great product and business discipline. These are things that Steven Zinsli has in spades - and that host Simon Pound has seen up close by working on their brand and being an investor. If you’re on LinkedIn you will have seen the way Steve is building in public, sharing the wins, the work and the journey to create a new category of payments for business. Today there is no standard way for any non-wage payments to be distributed to workers. There are a bunch of very ordinary options -gift cards, reimbursements or tax attracting extra payments in payroll. Their platform is built to give every employee a card and account, and help the finance function track, manage and report on all dollars allocated and spent. The amount wasted on gift card admin and unspent dollars, on admin time for reimbursement and on inefficient reporting is massive, but today people don’t think of these as all having one solution. What does it take to establish a new idea? What can others learn about communication and turning up? And how might other business people think about choosing their own lane? Hear from Steve Zinsli, founder and CEO at Extraordinary in this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Growing up in a self-sufficient community on Aotea Great Barrier Island, Tama Toki owes much of his problem-solving nous and deep connection to the whenua to his unique upbringing. As the founder of Aotea (a skincare line rooted in rongoā Māori knowledge) and Aotea Energy (a company focused on renewable micro-grid solutions), Tama’s work blends innovation with purpose. In this final episode of Business is Boring for the season, we dive into Tama’s journey, the mātauranga Māori guiding his ventures, and his vision for a future where energy and business empower communities. This is the last episode in this run for Business is Boring, and such a fitting guest to end on – Tama embodies the potential of business to build a better world, while broadening our understanding of what business can be. Thank you to all our incredible guests and listeners for joining us on this journey! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AI, smart cities, and the future of urban living aren’t just buzzwords—they’re reshaping our world. Few are driving this transformation more than Dr. Ayesha Khanna, co-founder and CEO of Addo, an AI advisory firm dedicated to harnessing technology for the greater good. A futurist, thought leader in AI ethics, and passionate advocate for diversity in tech, Dr. Khanna’s impact spans continents, from shaping smart city initiatives in Asia to empowering young women through her education nonprofit 21st Century Girls. While Dr. Khanna was in Aotearoa for the Spark Accelerate Summit, she joined Simon Pound to chat about her vision for ethical AI, smarter cities, and tech that uplifts humanity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can organisations proactively disrupt themselves to stay ahead in rapidly changing markets while optimising costs? Nadine Higgins hosts a panel of international business and technology leaders for an engaging discussion on creating a culture of innovation that encourages risk-taking and experimentation, balanced with smart resource allocation and efficiency improvements. Expect transformative ideas from frontline disruptors, as they explore the importance of continuous reinvention to maintain competitive advantage and organisational resilience in the face of uncertainty. Featuring: Edmundo Ortego (partner, Machine & Partners), Brian Northern (group CIO, Fulton Hogan), Dave Scullin (chief digital officer, Zespri), Sarah Carney (Australia / NZ CTO, Microsoft) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices