The Hi-Tech Awards are fast approaching, but who’ll be deemed the most innovative of them all? We take a closer look at the five nominees for Kiwibank’s Most Innovative Hi-Tech Service award. Eleven billion dollars: that’s how much revenue New Zealand’s leading hi-tech companies brought into our economy last year. That’s an 11% increase from … Read more
While the minimum wage rise took a toll on many small businesses, particularly in hospitality and retail, Christchurch company Switch Espresso absorbed the increase almost without breaking a sweat. Its founder talks to Alice Webb-Liddall about how other businesses can do the same. Post Christchurch earthquake, life is rapidly surging back into the city. Along … Read more
New environmental taxes get the thumbs up, but commentators are as divided as ever on the thorny issue of a capital gains tax. The report is out, and as expected the government’s Tax Working Group (TWG) has recommended introducing a broad-based capital gains tax (CGT). While the social justice community applauds the move, business groups … Read more
From furniture to food, wholesale import businesses are on an upward trend. From plush, leather Chesterfield sofas to marble coffee tables framed with brushed stainless steel, wholesale furniture company Hawthorne has managed to strike a pleasant middle ground between classical and modern. “Contemporary but timeless” is how Julian Frizzell, the general manager for the business … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff, in association with Callaghan Innovation, in which host Simon Pound speaks with innovators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Natalie Ferguson and Kristen Lunman from Hatch, a new platform that allows New Zealanders to invest in US … Read more
After giving birth to her first child, personal trainer Niki Clarke discovered there was nothing for her to wear to the gym to accommodate her changed body and desire to breastfeed. So she decided to do something about it. In 2013, Nikki Clarke and her husband Adam were expecting their first child. They’re both personal … Read more
Crave café has been serving locals in Morningside, Auckland for almost a decade, and is spearheading plans for a major regeneration of the suburb over the coming year. Alice Webb-Liddall talks to Crave manager and co-founder Nigel Cottle about the neighbourhood-orientated social enterprise. In 2009, Morningside existed as an in-between suburb. A train station was the landmark that kept … Read more
After years of disappointing wage growth, and income growth more broadly, are the stars aligned for a lift? We all know it. It’s the feeling of busting your gut day-in day-out to finally get to payday, only to feel when you wrest open that little payslip, defeated and a little deflated: I worked all those … Read more
The winners of this year’s Hi-Tech Awards showcased how New Zealand isn’t just good in tech, but good for tech as well, with gender diversity and cultural inclusion taking centre stage more than ever before. Whether it’s tall poppy syndrome or just genuine humility, New Zealanders are pretty terrible when it comes to shouting about … Read more
Information is power, right? A new money personality quiz built by our partners at Kiwibank could help you tackle your money issues. The Spinoff took it for a spin – here are our results. Do you ever consider your relationship with money? Or that the way you feel about yourself carries through into what sort … Read more
From a platform that helps you lend support to the Māori economy to a system that allows you to donate your transactions fees to charitable causes, this year’s cohort for the second ever Kiwibank FinTech Accelerator promises big things for the future of the country’s financial system. Sharesies was built on a simple idea: to make investing … Read more
Who is bigger and badder than the banks? Apple. The tech giant is slowly capturing the mobile payments market – but is it good for consumers? You may have heard a low-frequency grinding noise emanating from the central business district recently. It’s the sort of noise produced when honeyed words are forced out through furiously … Read more
With its bright pineapples and “kiwifruit brown”, Sharesies has changed the visual game for investing. Can the startup teach banks some new tricks? Charles Anderson finds the future of personal finance is visual, interactive and customer-focused. Ben Crotty’s “key moment of truth” came in the form of a particular shade of brown. He had spent … Read more