We’ve heard this music before

The global stock markets are in turmoil. There are rumblings from China, Europe and the USA. Are we in the middle of  another crash – or is this just market turbulence? Whatever it is, we’ve seen this sort of thing before, and we should brace for the potential bear* market. It’s also just good business …

Introducing a decent carbon tax will reduce our overall spend on fuel

Here’s the latest chart of how we use energy in New Zealand. It’s from the excellent Energy in New Zealand 2015 publication from MBIE. As y Luca see we are edging up towards 600 PetaJoules.   Transport, in purple, makes up 36% of our energy use – and that’s essentially all petrol and diesel. What if …

NZTE is offering to help you raise $1-$5m. Apply now.

NZTE (this time joining forces with Callaghan Innovation and the Asian Business Angel Forum who are looking after different categories) are once again helping companies get ready for investment by using a showcase event as a catalyst. The last one of these was in March 2015, held for Agri-Tech businesses during the Central Districts Field Days, which is in Fielding. This …

Vibe acquires Melbourne based RackCentral

Vibe Communications continue their relentless growth – this time by acquiring RackCentral and bringing on board the much respected Shaun McGuane. Here’s the full press release. Vibe acquires Melbourne based RackCentral (Cross posted from Vibe) June 11, 2015 Rudi Hefer We’re delighted to announce that Vibe Communications has acquired Melbourne based Colocation, Hosting and Virtual …

Punakaiki Fund and Snowball Effect

22 May 2015 Punakaiki Fund will soon be presenting an offer through the Snowball Effect platform. We are pleased to announce that we have selected Snowball Effect to present our fund raising offer to members of the public. Equity crowdfunding allows us to reach out to people who up until now have been unable to …

When will electric cars take over?

I’ve been browsing a number of transport presentations from 2015 IPENZ Conference, which was held on 24 March. One, from Andrew Jackson from the Ministry of Transport has the following chart, as an example model of Electric Vehicle uptake. I’ve previously done my own crude hybrid vehicle modelling, based largely on the uptake in Japan, and our future adoption …

Thanks for no insurance Air NZ (really)

It’s excellent to see that Air NZ has removed the default opt-in for travel insurance with their website sell process.  They have replaced the opt-in with the big orange button below. I’ve tested the process and there is no need to deselect the insurance. The amount of space dedicated to the selling of insurance seems …

“Arrives late for flight, if known”

It’s not rated as secret, but the Transportation Security Agency behavioural observation checklist and form for detecting possible terrorists has been disseminated on the web. Unfortunately the checklist contains a large number of factors that are arguably simply normal behaviour when confronted by a wall of security, and the list has very low benchmarks for escalation. …

Air New Zealand challenges loyal customers to move elsewhere

Yesterday Air New Zealand suddenly changed their credit card loyalty program, switching from BNZ to Westpac. There are, apparently, “probably over 100,000” customers affected. And I’m one of them. It’s a privilege It’s a privilege to have Air New Zealand as our national carrier. For a number of years now they have been at the forefront …

Join us for the Agribusiness Investment Showcase

NZTE’s Better by Capital team is helping 9 companies prepare for this investor event on 12 March in Palmerston North, just before the Central Districts Field Day in Fielding. The nine (at the moment) Agri-Tech companies are impressive, ranging from Supreme Biotechnologies, who grow and sell a surprising among of algae, to Engender, who have …

Punakaiki Fund invests in Onceit

We are delighted to announce that Punakaiki Fund has invested into Onceit, for a holding of a little over 15%. Onceit sells high end New Zealand designer fashion at insider prices. Onceit is well known to many, especially in their primary target market of women between 18 and 35 in New Zealand. There are a large and growing number of …

Some unwritten rules of early stage investing

For those new to early stage investing there are rules and there are unwritten rules. Here for your comment is my take on some unwritten rules. What do you think? Know any more to add? Founders and Co-Founders Raise money by first building a great business. Help other founders – and learn from them too. They are …