Business Is Boring

Dec 09 2024 374 ep. 40 mins 504
Business Is Boring Podcast artwork

Think business is boring? This podcast proves it's anything but. Join Simon Pound as he talks to everyone from accidental entrepreneurs to industry leaders about their business journeys and what propelled them to where they are today. Made in partnership with Spark Business Lab.

  Business
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Creating Humanistic AI

Dec 09 2024 43 mins  
AI is becoming an integral part of daily life, and chances are you’ve already used the work of today’s guest. Tom Gruber is the co-founder and creator of Siri, the intelligent assistant that revolutionised how we interact with technology with Apple. But Tom’s contributions to AI extend far beyond voice commands—he’s a pioneer of “Humanistic AI”, a design philsophy tha

Building smarter cities and ethical AI with Dr. Ayesha Khanna

Dec 02 2024 43 mins  
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 impac

How to get the best of AI today

Nov 25 2024 47 mins  
AI can be a superpower, but like all tools, if you know what you’re doing you’re going to get a better result. In a nutshell: the better the inputs, the better the outputs. That’s what Edmundo Ortega is here to help with. He’s an AI educator at Section - the business education and up-skilling platform - who was here in New Zealand to teach a course on AI prompting, and to p

Live from Spark Accelerate: Balancing innovation and efficiency for organisational success

Nov 18 2024 55 mins  
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

How Karma Drinks earns its name in Sierra Leone

Nov 11 2024 64 mins  
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

NZ tech’s favourite recruiter

Nov 04 2024 55 mins  
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 aff

25 years of Nature Baby

Oct 28 2024 47 mins  
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 circulari

The old idea that could be the future for trades payments

Oct 21 2024 45 mins  
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 produ

The biggest opportunity for startups? People!

Oct 14 2024 51 mins  
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 pe

The Kiwi company making concrete change

Oct 07 2024 41 mins  
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