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Business Panel: Wellington is a 'talent repellant', tech CEO says · Best of Business

• 0:09
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio Mondays Mean Business. It's the Business Panel on Wellington
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• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Let's get downe Let's get down to business.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: You monnight, monight, Garden, you've had a million million nights.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Welcome back.
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: It's that time of the week, that time of the
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: fortnight where we get a couple of well known Wellington
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  Speaker 4: business people into the studio and we start talking business.
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: What can be done better, what's not being done well enough?
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: How can we make our city better? That's the aim
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: of the Business Panel. And joining us for the Business
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  Speaker 4: Panel today is Raygun's founder, John Daniel Trusk. John, good
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: morning and welcome to the show. Tell me what does
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: raygun do?
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  Speaker 5: First off, thank you very much for having me Neck,
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  Speaker 5: I appreciate being here. So Raygun we build software that
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  Speaker 5: monitors other software for faults. So you can think of
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  Speaker 5: us as a little bit like the blacks black Box
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  Speaker 5: flight recorder for other people's software. So we're all you know,
• 1:23
  Speaker 5: we all suffer crashes and bugs and things like that.
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  Speaker 5: Kiwis in New Zealand probably interact with our software several
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  Speaker 5: times a day without even knowing about it. We collect
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  Speaker 5: what went wrong, we send it back to the makers
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  Speaker 5: of the software and help them improve it and make
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  Speaker 5: it better. So in the background of a lot of
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  Speaker 5: bits of software.
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  Speaker 4: So would you describe yourself as an IT company? How
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  Speaker 4: would you describe your company?
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, so we're a software products company and that we
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  Speaker 5: don't do services work. We built this product and we
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  Speaker 5: have subscription customers all around the world that use it.
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  Speaker 5: We have a strong engineering culture in the business, so
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  Speaker 5: very strongly aligned to software development processes and whatnot. But
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  Speaker 5: we don't sort of go and get contracts where we
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  Speaker 5: sort of deliver systems for other people and things like that.
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  Speaker 5: We sell the raygun platform to others.
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  Speaker 4: And you set up from scratch and Wellington, New Zealand
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  Speaker 4: and little Old Allen Street.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 5: So I've actually been building businesses now for eighteen years.
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  Speaker 5: I started my first one when I was well first
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  Speaker 5: proper one when.
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  Speaker 2: I was twenty three.
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  Speaker 5: I've only actually worked for another organization for three years
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  Speaker 5: of my life, and I worked for Integen here in Wellington,
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  Speaker 5: which was just an amazing experience, an amazing company here
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  Speaker 5: that was doing it services work.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and so I.
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  Speaker 5: Just I've always loved tech, I've always loved business. To me,
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  Speaker 5: both of them are mechanisms to achieve more, you know,
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  Speaker 5: they are actually a form of getting more done.
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  Speaker 3: Tell me how many people work with you.
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  Speaker 5: We've got about twenty five staff, so we're not unlike
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  Speaker 5: a services business. We don't get bigger by adding more
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  Speaker 5: people to the company. So we're a cash flow positive business.
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  Speaker 5: We put money in the bank, you know. We're not
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  Speaker 5: heavily venture backed or anything like that. We bootstrapped initially
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  Speaker 5: and we've built a range of other companies over the years,
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  Speaker 5: so you might be familiar, for example, with brands like
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: give a Little, dot Co, do on Nz, so we
• 3:04
  Speaker 5: were the technical partners in building that now owners and
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  Speaker 5: that sold that off to Spark a few years back,
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: as well as a range of other companies Mindscape, Value, Cruncher,
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  Speaker 5: a few others. But Raygun is what we're known for today.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, because I mean people like me that think Raygun,
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  Speaker 4: we think of a breakdancer in the Olympics and yeah, so.
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  Speaker 5: Very unfortunately, and the lawyers are costing me a bit
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  Speaker 5: on that, but we'll talk about that another.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, let's talk about that.
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  Speaker 4: And obviously joining us also is Jugnu's Little India owner
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  Speaker 4: Jugnu Girl, Me and you, we know each other pretty well.
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  Speaker 4: We've done business on the same street for many years.
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  Speaker 4: You're one of the good guys of our hospitality industry.
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  Speaker 4: You've run and owned Indian restaurants, always been Indian since
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  Speaker 4: nineteen ninety seven, so you're you're an icon of the city.
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  Speaker 2: Firstly, thank you Nick for having me and so honor
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  Speaker 2: indeed to be here. Well, yeah, you ARESO a restaurant,
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  Speaker 2: And yes, we started on in Blair Street in nineteen
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  Speaker 2: ninety seven December twenty four and it's almost twenty eight
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  Speaker 2: years we have been there now and it was a
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  Speaker 2: great start for us. For many years. We you know,
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  Speaker 2: we did really well and.
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  Speaker 4: You open other restaurants around the city. It's one stage
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  Speaker 4: you had five, Yes.
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  Speaker 2: I had five and uh and you know at the
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  Speaker 2: stage now after COVID, uh, you know, we started to downsize.
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  Speaker 2: So we're down to three restaurants now and I feel
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  Speaker 2: there's still too many. Three too many, three too much.
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  Speaker 3: That's not what we want to hear. Tell me, what's changed.
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  Speaker 4: What's changed when you started to now, what what's your
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  Speaker 4: biggest change in a restaurant, A licensed restaurant. I mean
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  Speaker 4: in nineteen ninety seven there wasn't too many licensed restaurants.
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  Speaker 2: And that's true, that's true. What has changed today is
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  Speaker 2: mainly after covid UH and then the interest rates going
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  Speaker 2: going high, a lot of people losing their jobs. Less
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  Speaker 2: people are going out, there's less disposable income. And saying that,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we have a following for the last twenty
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  Speaker 2: eight years. Regulars are still regulars, but they come out
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  Speaker 2: less set of you know, twice a week, they come
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  Speaker 2: once a week or once in two weeks.
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  Speaker 4: Right, would you suggest that it's a good time to
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  Speaker 4: start in hospitality now?
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  Speaker 3: Would you?
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  Speaker 4: Would you give would I mean, I know you're a
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  Speaker 4: family business, would you you know? Because one of the
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  Speaker 4: questions are going to come come up to and starting
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  Speaker 4: a business, but you know you're a family based business.
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  Speaker 4: Do you want to your children or your your family
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  Speaker 4: members to take over from you?
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  Speaker 2: My son is very interested Sajkaha in joining and he
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  Speaker 2: is inter taking some hospitality courses at school. Opening another
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  Speaker 2: restaurant at the stage, probably not for me to do
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  Speaker 2: as well as we were doing when we first started
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  Speaker 2: in ninety seven. I think we have to think outside
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  Speaker 2: of the box. If you're starting a restaurant, there's got
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  Speaker 2: to be something really different and with atmosphere, ambiance, service
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  Speaker 2: and the product right.
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  Speaker 3: Has to be really different. Okay, right, let's start with
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  Speaker 3: our first questions. Right, we're ready fight up. I'm going
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  Speaker 3: to start with you on this one, JD.
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  Speaker 4: Right now, goods from every country around the world exported
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  Speaker 4: to the USA have been stung with at least ten
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  Speaker 4: percent tariffs, while the trade war is ramping up between
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  Speaker 4: US and China. Meanwhile, stock markets have plummet and risen again,
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  Speaker 4: and we don't really know what's going on. What do
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  Speaker 4: you actually make of it? I mean, you're an it
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  Speaker 4: nerve about in the nicest possible way. I'm not saying
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  Speaker 4: that as a nerdy nerd, but that's your business. So
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  Speaker 4: what do you make of it?
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  Speaker 1: How?
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  Speaker 3: How are you playing it out?
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  Speaker 5: Yeah? So firstly, I take nerd as a compliment. But
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  Speaker 5: so first off, and I don't want to jinx myself here,
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  Speaker 5: but from what I understand is that this doesn't actually
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  Speaker 5: apply to digital goods or services at this point. So
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  Speaker 5: it's the physical products going in.
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  Speaker 4: But I mean if the companies that you're dealing with
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  Speaker 4: suddenly has getting stuck with tariffs and are llaying people
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  Speaker 4: off the looking at your service, hey can we afford this?
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  Speaker 3: Do we need this? Yeah?
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  Speaker 5: Fortunately, our service is quite affordable. But yes, there will
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  Speaker 5: be some big sort of follow on effects over there.
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  Speaker 5: So we, for example, Raygun is a ninety three percent
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  Speaker 5: of export based business. Most of our customers are overseas.
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  Speaker 5: About half our revenue comes from American companies, so it's
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  Speaker 5: certainly front of mine. The bigger impact to us is
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  Speaker 5: actually watching the completely schizophrenic New Zealand versus US dollar
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  Speaker 5: exchange rate. We build everybody in USD We're seeing that
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  Speaker 5: swing by three to five percent every week, you know,
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  Speaker 5: and that becomes quite difficult when you start thinking, well, hey,
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  Speaker 5: if this dollar rocket's from say fifty eight cents up
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  Speaker 5: to eighty cents, that's going to have a significant negative impact. So,
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  Speaker 5: at least from my point of view, the bigger risk
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  Speaker 5: is around that currency just everywhere all over the show,
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  Speaker 5: while Trump sort of you know, makes pronouncements left, right
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  Speaker 5: and center. So that's the bigger concern in the near term. Personally,
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  Speaker 5: I think that folks need to just take a breath.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 5: It's been a week and a bit, you know, and
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  Speaker 5: I'm seeing some folks, you know, made a cheeky comment
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  Speaker 5: where it's like it seems like an unbelievable number of
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  Speaker 5: people wanted to liquidate their portfolios, you know, on Thursday
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  Speaker 5: and Friday a week and a half ago. Okay, the
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  Speaker 5: value went down unless you were selling. You know, what's
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  Speaker 5: what's the real issue there. So I think the panic
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  Speaker 5: right now is overstating that what's going to happen. I
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  Speaker 5: do worry a little bit about the impacts that are
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  Speaker 5: going to occur. To be blunt, the software industry has
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  Speaker 5: actually broadly been going through quite a recessionary environment for
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  Speaker 5: the last few years. And again it might sound a
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  Speaker 5: little bit rude here, but it's like nobody's talking about
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  Speaker 5: that in the media because who's going to cry about
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  Speaker 5: such high you know, highly paid people losing their jobs.
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  Speaker 5: You know, they care more about the folks who can't
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  Speaker 5: really afford to go any time without a job. So
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  Speaker 5: software industry has been a bit challenging the last few
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  Speaker 5: years overall because it went up so massively through COVID,
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  Speaker 5: you know, in that shock you know, we're talking across today.
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  Speaker 5: Even in hospitality, right, there were things that kind of
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: have just moved around so much in the last few years.
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  Speaker 5: It's been very difficult to navigate.
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  Speaker 4: But that's for everyone. That's not it's not just it.
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  Speaker 4: It's hospitality, it's engineering, it's building, you know, it's just
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  Speaker 4: life has changed.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, you know, would that be a good.
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: Way to describe it? Life has changed? Will it change back?
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  Speaker 2: You mean after the tariffs?
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  Speaker 4: No, I mean saying after COVID and that now that
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: the tariffs, life has changed.
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  Speaker 3: We just don't.
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  Speaker 4: We don't have the security or the normality that we
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: once grew up with.
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  Speaker 2: Uh, life will change. Life will change. It's a matter
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  Speaker 2: of you know, getting the right people working in government.
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  Speaker 2: I think we have a good government at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: Wellington needs good leadership and with that, I think we
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: will see change.
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: And do you think this tariff is going to upset
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: the Apple card a bit? Do you think it's going
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: to change things for us? Is it going to make
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: us the instability worse?
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: I think? You know, Donald Trump is a businessman. Now
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: is the leader of the most important country in the world.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: He is a deal maker and for him to these
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: tariffs our way for him to get leaders of the
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: world together. And as you can see already, the stocks
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: plump went really down and now they're up again. So
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump is flexible, you know.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: So I'm making that you're not that concerned by it.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: No, I'm not concerned at all, are you? No, I'm
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: not concerned at all. I think it's a short term
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: pain for a long term gain. Yeah.
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: I'd also say I wouldn't be shocked if it really
• 11:26
  Speaker 5: is more about China than the rest of the world,
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: and the rest of us are all getting collected just
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: to appear to not be just about China.
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: And there could be bonuses for us out of that
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: when you think about all that stuff that's made in China,
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: but they're not saying sending to America. That's got to
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: get it somewhere. Surely it's going to make cheaper cars
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: for us. Well.
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: I'm aware of a few New Zealand businesses that have
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: identified key components that are made out of China that
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: aren't made anywhere else who are already thinking how do
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: we produce those or how do we even build a
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: factory in America. That's one thing when I say, like
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: people are overly focused on. The panic is do you
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: spend longer looking at the door that closed, or do
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: you look at the door that just opened. My real
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: bigger concern is that they turn around and say New
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: Zealand needs to tear up its agreements with China. I
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: think that would actually be something that that hasn't an
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: issue for us if that happens, But it's all speculation.
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: I'll take a short break. Jigdo Gil and JD. T.
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: Trusk is with us on our business. Now.
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: I've just got to let you know that.
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: Rory McElroy has just won the Masters, So he's finally
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: won a Master's on an extra hole and he's very
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: very emotional, great celebrations going on. That amazes me. That
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: just told me, and I didn't believe him. So we
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: researched and Jad got onto his phone and researcher Jildu said,
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: there has been twenty fourteen was the last time that
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: Rory had won a major?
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: And it is you're right, thank you.
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: I should know that because you're a member of one
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: of those real exclusive golf clubs, aren't you the Royal?
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Are you? Yes? What begger you are?
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: There's a lovely joke one of my managers at Blair Street.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: One of our members came in and said, oh is Juhu.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: You know I played golf with him and he said
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: to this gentleman, oh, he plays that royal. So Peter
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: recites this when he meets me at the golf course
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: and it's an on going joke.
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: Good on you, congratulations. I'm feeling love, feeling like a
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: poor but now I'm really feeling like I'm Do you
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: play golf?
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: J D?
• 13:35
  Speaker 5: I actually take my six year old son to learn golf,
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: but I've never golfed myself, so I was pretty amazed
• 13:40
  Speaker 5: to learn that little kids from about the age of
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: four are smacking those balls down the fairway. Yeah, they
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: start young. We go out to Bullcot Farms and they
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: do a great sort of weekend teaching things for kids.
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: So yeah, he's been doing it for about eighteen months.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: Amazing.
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: Right, let's talk about starting a business. Right now we
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: have in the studio but this is our business panel
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: and then studio we have today ray Gun's founder JD
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: Trusk and Little India owner Jumpdose, Little India owner Job
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: new girl.
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: Starting at business.
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: We briefly chatted about it before I'm just thinking about it.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: When we were talking about trying to find some questions
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: to talk about today, I thought to myself, would you
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: start a business right now? Could you achieve what you
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: have achieved if you started that business today. I'm going
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: to start with you. Could you have achieved what you
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: have achieved over your very very successful twenty eight years
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: in business.
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: Could you do it if you started today?
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: Absolutely not. Nick could not do it today. The Wellington
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: is not in good shap people. There are very few
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: places that are really doing well in Wellington at the moment,
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: and has said earlier. To be successful in Wellington with
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: all the work going on over the streets, you know,
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: and the council not having good leadership today, you have
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: to think outside the box to really set something up
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: that will be successful. So I would say I would
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: not be looking at opening.
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: Even if there was a younger man like you were younger,
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: you just would Yeah.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: No, even if you're younger. I feel that Wellington is
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: not the right place at the present time unless you
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: have an extremely different idea.
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: This is kind of sort of what's the word for me,
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: freaking me out a little bit because this is a
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: guy that's had six restaurants, successful restaurant here over many decades,
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: two decades, saying he wouldn't open in Wellington if the
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: opportunity started again. Jad, Does that concern you as a
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: Valentonian with a successful IT business in the middle of
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: the city.
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: Yeah, one d per, It's very concern and I mean
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: we've taken certain moves to try and help. So we've
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: been all back in the office now for about eighteen months.
• 16:16
  Speaker 5: You know, it's the same people we see walking around.
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: We're based on Allen Street, so it was a very
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: clique groove here. But you know, you go out at
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: lunch and we feel like we're one of the few
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: sets of folks that are helping actually invest locally, you know,
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: and spend our money locally. I like to make the
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: joke that Courtney plays KFC only really exists because Reagan
• 16:35
  Speaker 5: comes to the office.
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: So tell me, could I put that question back on you?
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: You know, what are the biggest challenges facing somebody starting
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: up a company like yours?
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: Could you?
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: I mean, we've got the movie theaters moving business in Wellington,
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: We've got you know, lots of I mean, the gaming industry,
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: we've got strong in that. We've got some really strong
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: IT based companies in Wellington. Would you start out now
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: again right now?
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: I mean I would absolutely start a business right now
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: in tech. I mean, the AI is super cycle that
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: is just kicking off, is a dwarf the Internet. So
• 17:09
  Speaker 5: it'd be like sort of saying to somebody if it
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: was nineteen ninety five, do you think you should get
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: into tech? And you know, we kind of know in
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: retrospect that would have been a great time. Whether you
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: should do it in Wellington though, I would say no.
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: I think Wellington is actually a talent repellent system. At
• 17:24
  Speaker 5: the moment. We've had people even in our own organization
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: who have left and said I'm going to places like
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: Auckland simply because they are so tired of and this
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: is their words, but the abject wokeness that is in
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: the city. And you know, I, for my sins, I
• 17:39
  Speaker 5: use things like Twitter, and you know, as an employer
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: who's actually bringing money into the country, paying people that
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: are spending in our city. The just relentless, relentless attacks
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: from the keyboard warriors who never leave their house. It's
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: a very sad state of affairs. I moved here about
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: twenty years ago and at the time, I say, like
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: Auckland was countercycled in nobody really wanted to go to
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: Auckland around two thousand and Wellington was amazing. And now
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: that is inverted in my opinion, And my biggest concern
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: is is it going to take twenty years for Wellington
• 18:12
  Speaker 5: to turn this around? Because that was kind of how
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: long it took Auckland to make some pretty big moves.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: My friend just called me up yesterday from Sydney. He said, Jugnal,
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: what are you doing in Wellington? Let's open places are
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: pumping in Sydney. Outside of Sydney and and and I said,
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: my wife Iroha has told me, jug you need to
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: slow down. So but I love hospitality. I just love it.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: You know, when customers come in they leave happy, it's
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: you know, it's just such an amazing feeling. So so,
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: Is Wellington the problem? I mean, that's what you're both telling.
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: About the psychology of Wellington is the problem. I mean,
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: what is a business? A business is something that provides
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: value to other people in the immunity, and it's one
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: of the most despised structures by many of the people
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: in this city. Right It's the most bananas set up
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: that I can consider.
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: I'm going to take a break and have some news headlines.
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: I need a cup of tea, Ethan, can you make
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: me a cup of tea. I've never felt so down
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: about Wellington in my life as I'm feeling right now.
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: We're in our business panel with Ray Gun founder John
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: Daniel Trusk and Jugnu's little Indian owner jug Nu Girl. Right,
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: we've been talking about how depressed you both are and
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: how much problems we've got. How many problems we've got
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: on Wellington. Let's add another one. Declared candidates for the
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: Wellington mayoralty are Ray Chung, Carl Tevan Barker, Tory Farno.
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: They seem to be the three main contenders, but former
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: Labor leader Andrew Little says.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: He's considering the run. Now. I've got it on pretty
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: good oil.
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: That's a done deal that he's going to do it.
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: They're just planning everything and get in here. The amount
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: of phone calls that I got over the weekend from
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: people or contacts or people saying me, you've got to
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: get him behind Andrew, You've got to support him.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: I said, I'll have to get.
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: Him behind anyone or support anyone But to me, what
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: do you think, I mean, what do you think of
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: the You know, we've got some problems.
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: You've sold us we've got some problems. Do we need
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: to change a mayor?
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: Tip?
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: And is Andrew Little the answer?
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: We definitely need to change the mayor for sure, Andrew Little.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: It depends, you know, why is he coming to be
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: mayor of Wellington? Does he really care for the city
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: or is it going to be a job. And I
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: don't like the fact that he's a Labor affiliated you know,
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: his background as Labor Party, So I really feel we
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: need a candidate that has everybody has some sort of
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: connection to a party. But to bring it on to Wellington,
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: I think you have to when you enter the councilor room,
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: you take that hat off and you enter as independent
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: in the room. And that's the only way I think
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: you can really look after the people and care and
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: for the best interests of the people of Wellington. So
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: depending on the angle Andrew Little is coming in, If
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: he's coming in really to look after the people of Wellington,
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: then I think it can be a good a good move, right.
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: You almost to me sound like you had it in
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: the seventies where we had the mayor of the city
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: was really caring about the city and not caring about
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: anything else but the city. But JD, that seems to
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: be a thing in the past, doesn't it. It's like
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: it's almost like now the mayor has become like a
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: career move.
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's pretty depressing to watch overall. I mean, she
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: of you. We can't we can't get much worse than
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: we have now, you know. And I don't like the
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: political you know, I thought we banned gang patches, you know,
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: we shouldn't have them in our council. So it's concerning
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: of you as well. On like Andrew little like to
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: a degree, somebody with some competence, that would be a
• 22:14
  Speaker 5: tick in the right box. But at the same time,
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: and I'm not trying to play favorites here, but look
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: at somebody like Carl right, Carl has actually built a
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: chain of businesses here in Wellington. He took the risk,
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: he put his money on the line to do that.
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: He has fed Wellington, you know, he has cared for Wellington.
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: He's only been successful by providing things that Wellentonians want.
• 22:34
  Speaker 5: That is not something that career politicians can ever point to.
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: And so when we see things like, oh, we're going
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: to appoint you know, a kid out of university with
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: no life experience, you know, when he was running for counselor.
• 22:46
  Speaker 5: That's sort of we're getting the outcomes for the decisions
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: we make. And you know, that's the bit that I
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: find most depressing is you keep hearing them say, oh,
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: well it's forty years of under investment. Well, you know,
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: in forty years time, they're going to say, why the
• 22:59
  Speaker 5: hell did you spend you know, almost four hundred million
• 23:02
  Speaker 5: dollars strengthening one building. You know, absolutely moronic spending of
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: the of the rate payers money. Just just an absolute
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: clown car of a council at the moment.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: Nick and I ask you a question. Do you love Ellington?
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: Of course I do.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: Would you like to see Ellington thrave again?
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: Of course we all do.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: I reckon you're the best game.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: Shit me up for that, You've got to give me
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: a warning. And that was covered well.
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: The big concern I have is there's a lot of
• 23:34
  Speaker 5: conversations going on where people are pretty had it right.
• 23:37
  Speaker 5: And my concern is what if we have too many
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: people that are competent that come up, it just splits
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: the vote a little bit too much, and then we
• 23:44
  Speaker 5: end up with the same pack of dorks we have.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: Now, you know what, if you really want me to
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: be honest amongst it, I think right now, even putting
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: Andrew Little's name in that hat, I think still think
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: Tory Faro is the favorite.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: Get I doubt that she's not going to win again.
• 24:03
  Speaker 5: You don't think, honestly if if she if she went again, jeez,
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: like you know that, I can't fathom it.
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: We're in the middle of the business panel with jug
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: nig girl. Gosh, can I get your name right?
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: Yes? You did it absolutely?
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: You know I didn't. I got it wrong. You know
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: I didn't know.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you got it right.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: Eventually, it's the putting right that counts. We grew up
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: with that absolutely and JD trust JD. I'm going to
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: ask you from Reagan. I'm going to ask you about
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: the budget that's coming up. Finance Minister Nikola Willis will
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: deliver this year's budget next month. Now, you're an it
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: intelligent person. I won't call you a geek price you
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: know what are you hoping for? What are you expecting?
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: Do you actually like our finance minister? You think she's
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: got us on the right track.
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: Look, I've met Nikola a few times and I'm generally
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: a fan. My bigger concern at the moment with the
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: current government is that they're not being bold enough, you know,
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: and I've given that feed on the occasional times where
• 25:09
  Speaker 5: I meet with various ministers, is that I'm concerned that
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: we're going through another government that isn't doing enough to
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: make a change, and those changes need to be How
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: do we really drive actual business investment? As I say,
• 25:24
  Speaker 5: a lot of Kiwis have some sort of issue against business,
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: but business is actually how we provide for each other
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: and build wealth as a country. We want to get
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: more exporting businesses. What are the incentives we're putting in
• 25:34
  Speaker 5: place here, Because fundamentally it's all well and good selling
• 25:39
  Speaker 5: amongst ourselves, but we've got to bring money into the country.
• 25:42
  Speaker 5: We've got to close out you know, moves around, but
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: close our own trade deficit, you know, be selling more
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: to the world. So what are going to be the
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: things that actually incentivize that that aren't just hey, we've
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: allocated more budget for a ferry or you know, we're
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: going to put more money into changing road signs, like
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: we need capital investment to be occurring.
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: Now you've got me again on a couple of things.
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: We are a country built on small businesses that grow
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: to medium businesses, they grow to big businesses.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: Do you have a feeling, which.
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: I certainly do, that this government's really aiming at the real,
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: real top end and the small business of people like yourself,
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: which I still you know, I don't want to disrespect
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: your business, but twenty people or one hundred people or
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: two hundred people still a small business, isn't it.
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: You know? Well, are they looking after you? Well, I'd
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: flip it around.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: See.
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: This is where it's interesting because our business headcount does
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: not equal revenue, and I think we need more businesses
• 26:36
  Speaker 5: where it's not just about keeping people busy in the company.
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: It should be that we scale products. So, for example,
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: if we doubled our customer base today, I wouldn't need
• 26:45
  Speaker 5: to employ another team member. I'm not open to tariffs.
• 26:48
  Speaker 5: I export all around the world. Takes me five milliseconds
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: to get to market. That's the speed of light to
• 26:54
  Speaker 5: anywhere in the world. Right, So that's the future of
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: business US. I've long said, and this is turned into
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: too long of a conversation, but why our primary export
• 27:04
  Speaker 5: from the bottom of the earth has to sit on boats.
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: Is ridiculous and often heard from people in government saying, well,
• 27:10
  Speaker 5: we don't like to pick winners. Well, if we want
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: to be a green country where we can send electrons
• 27:14
  Speaker 5: around the world and milliseconds, where you don't get held
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: up by tariffs, where you can basically build a great
• 27:20
  Speaker 5: product and people will adopt it, we should have been
• 27:23
  Speaker 5: pushing harder on tech many many years ago to try
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: and grow the country because that is the easiest path
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: to exports. Wow for us, and we have the talent.
• 27:32
  Speaker 5: We do have talent in New Zealand. Well, we've been
• 27:34
  Speaker 5: a bit negative about Wellington. You see, talent repellent were
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: not Wellington. But as a country, you know, my experience
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: is there is very little difference between say, the folks
• 27:43
  Speaker 5: here and the folks in America that you can employ.
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: The capability is here. It's just that we're not using
• 27:50
  Speaker 5: enough of it. We're not lifting the country up and
• 27:52
  Speaker 5: incentivizing it.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: Right, So how could the government help in that area?
• 27:58
  Speaker 5: Well, they do have a range of programs that are available.
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: So you know, one of the things I always acknowledge
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: is that and I know that they're shutting down Callahan Innovation,
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: but the government does actually provide a range of for
• 28:08
  Speaker 5: an incentive programs through NCTE and the former Callahan stuff
• 28:12
  Speaker 5: that do help tech. I actually would make the argument
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: that I think tech has had a reasonable amount of help.
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: I also think, you know, hearing your neck on the negativity,
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: one thing we didn't really acknowledge post COVID was that
• 28:25
  Speaker 5: our fiber network here is fantastic. We had no issues
• 28:29
  Speaker 5: with the Internet when everybody suddenly had to go and
• 28:31
  Speaker 5: work from home, and that was a great government investment
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: and initiative that was sort of public private you know,
• 28:37
  Speaker 5: things like that. So it's really about thinking about how
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: can we build stronger relationships with countries overseas, making sure
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: that we don't end up tangled in any of these
• 28:45
  Speaker 5: sorts of things. As they're good visa programs. Could we
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: get better ways to employ people, you know and bring
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: them in those sorts of things would help, probably more
• 28:53
  Speaker 5: so than money.
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: Can I just use that as a segue to get
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: into Jugna on something Now, I know that you know
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: you're obviously very connected to in there and you would
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: have been watching with bita breath with the prime Minister
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: going over there, your family would have been having connections
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: with you when they saw the publicy is it's way
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: off topic, but it's doing business with India as easy
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: as we've been led to believe. Or do you think
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: anything will come out of the idea of us doing
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: more with India? I mean, you know one point three
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: billion population or whatever, your population of India is huge.
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: Do you think that's possible?
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: Absolutely? Prime Minister Maudie Is. We used to be Chief
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: Minister of Gujarat. When he was Gujarat was the leading
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: state of India and now he's the Prime minister and
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: he's put India on the map. And so Prime Minister
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: lux was there in India meeting and I'm sure that
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: we are going to have a good relationship with India,
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: New Zealand and India and there's going to be a
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: lot of business going to and fro. So I'm very
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: optimistic about that.
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: Yes, okay, right.
• 30:05
  Speaker 4: I was just explaining to my guests my daily routine
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: because one of them, jug Do I just asked me
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: if I have to get up early in the morning.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: Yes, you know, I have to get up with my
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: alarm goes off at four point thirty in the morning.
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: Anyway, right out, this very special deprety Prime Minister of
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: India's arriving and you've been told to go and pick
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: him up at Wellington Airport and show off Wellington for
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: what do you do with them?
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: Deputy prignis to a very important person obviously, so I
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: would take firstly drive him up to or her up
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: to the Mountwak lookout. I think Wellington is a beautiful,
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: beautiful city and you get the best view from Mount
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: wik lookout. And then I would take him to the
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: Basin Reserve, which I think is the best cricket ground
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: for test cricket yep anyway in the world. And and
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: to eat obviously, I think the Deputy was and from
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: India would be looking for some good Indian food. I
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: feel reluctant to go to my restaurant, you can say,
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: but because my attention would be on the operation rather
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: than rather than the guest or The answer is Hummingbird,
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: I feel is a great restaurant. Oh, you don't have
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: to say that, No, I've got I'm coming to that. Why.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: Nick John Coleman, who started Hummingbird, was one of the
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: best front of house people have ever met.
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: Right, Okay, I've got to move on there to JD
• 31:51
  Speaker 4: because run out of time. But JD, where were you
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: going to take that? Guess you've only got like twenty.
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: Six No, so I still you're coming earlier. I think
• 31:59
  Speaker 5: the driving around the water like you said, around even
• 32:02
  Speaker 5: Spain and all of that, see all of that. I'd
• 32:04
  Speaker 5: park up down the waterfront if you can find one,
• 32:06
  Speaker 5: and then take a walk up Cubistre. Have a nice
• 32:08
  Speaker 5: sinner at al Matador. I always really like this. If
• 32:11
  Speaker 5: you go there, try the Chimney Turro, sorry, the Churos
• 32:14
  Speaker 5: for dessert. They're the softest ones in town. And maybe
• 32:17
  Speaker 5: then retire to Noble Rot for a drink and some cheese.
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: Right, what a great, What a great? That would be
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: a lovely part.
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: Thank you both so much, Raygun founder John Daniel known
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: as j D Trusk and Jugdu Little India owner Jugdu Girl.
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: Thank you for coming and sharing your thoughts and steering
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: your wonders of Wellington business.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: For more from News Talks b listen live on air
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
• 32:41
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