Across The Table With David Melse

For episode 231, we sat down at Bessie Steakhouse with Brad Fraser, Co-Founder of Agentic Intelligence to catch up over some incredible food and dive into the future of tech. Brad shares exactly how his company managed to scale rapidly from just 4 staff 18 months ago, to 44 staff today. He walks us through his unorthodox fifteen minute hiring playbook that ditches resumes for pure trust, explains why high agency teams will absolutely chew up and spit out average performers, and warns why getting too comfortable is the quickest way to kill your creative edge.

Brad breaks down the biggest flaw of modern AI, which is the looming compute shortage. We also speak about what sovereign AI really means for the local industry, and we look closely at the painful reality that access to top tier tech is about to get way more expensive for businesses trying to keep pace.

We also dive into the rise of vibe coding and how the entire landscape of software development is being turned on its head. Brad explains how the barrier to entry for building tech is shifting rapidly, changing the way engineering teams function and forcing founders to completely rethink how they deploy software in a fast moving market.

We round things out by looking at how to solve massive business headaches by stripping away the corporate fluff and using first principles thinking. And then, towards the end things get completely off the rails and we talk about cars, travel, adventure, UFOs, and living to 100. Thank you to the incredible team at Bessie for the wonderful experience. 

Check out Agentic Intelligence here:

www.agenticintelligence.co.nz

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We’d like to thank Bessie steakhouse for hosting us for this episode.

Check them out here:
www.bessie.co.nz

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Produced by Buddy Booth

For episode 230, we sat down with Dr Tom Cawood, a remarkable Christchurch based serial entrepreneur and medical specialist who is leveraging e commerce growth to fund a massive environmental rescue mission. In this episode, Dr. Tom reveals the fascinating journey behind his latest venture, a science based nail strengthening product born out of his own frustration as a classical guitarist needing durable fingernails. He shares the brilliant direct to consumer business strategy that allowed the company to completely bypass traditional retail pharmacy margins, keep operations entirely online, and achieve explosive month over month sales growth.

We dive deep into his incredibly diverse entrepreneurial background, exploring how he previously built and scaled prominent IT systems, managed medical conferences, and navigated complex financial advisory landscapes. Dr. Tom opens up about the harsh realities of doctor burnout, discussing his current search for ultimate career clarity inside and outside of hospital medicine to ensure long term longevity. He provides rare transparency into the mechanics of building highly profitable businesses not just for the sake of wealth, but as engines to fuel a much grander purpose.

The core of Dr. Tom's ultimate life mission is the "Didymo" passion project, a multi million dollar, 20 year environmental initiative aimed at eradicating the invasive "rock snot" alga suffocating New Zealand’s South Island rivers. Instead of using destructive chemical solutions, he explains his groundbreaking scientific approach to deploy targeted RNA based technology to safely deactivate the alga's sludge production. To wrap up, Dr. Tom lays out his bold, public one year accountability goals, challenging himself to scale his e commerce brand to 100 sales a day, publish a critical viral study, and dramatically drop his golf handicap

Check out Dr Tom Nailcare here:

www.drtomnailcare.com

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We’d like to thank our sponsor for this episode, Rosefern Homes. Check them out here:
www.rosefernhomes.co.nz

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Produced by Buddy Booth

For episode 230, we sat down with Dr. Tom Cawood, a medical doctor and research scientist who turned a personal frustration as a classical guitarist into a booming scientific nail-strengthening business. In this wide ranging conversation, we cover a massive variety of topic, from the stark realities of launching a product online to his ventures in tech and carbon tracking. As one of our most interesting guests to date, Dr. Tom also opens up about how major life crises reshaped his philosophy on business, ethics, and making every single day count.

Thank you to Rosefern Homes for sponsoring this episode.

Check out Dr Tom's Nail Care Here:

https://drtomnailcare.com/

For episode 229, we sat down with Curtis Fairweather, founder of Primal Pantry, to map out an absolute masterclass in online business scaling and relentless execution. We chart the incredible journey Curtis took from a single bone broth stall at local markets in late 2024 to a massive direct to consumer brand serving over 100,000 customers by Q2 2026. He shares the raw reality of walking away from a six year full time career to go all in on his business, revealing the exact frameworks that allowed him to quickly scale from a single rough product to a diverse lineup of 40 separate items, including a newly launched premium face care line.

We unpack the high speed testing grounds of physical markets and Facebook Marketplace, showing how early customer conversations can help you perfectly nail your pricing and offer before spending massive capital. Curtis explains how he watched people interact with his products in real time, noting their hesitation over prices or their specific reasons for buying. This direct feedback loop is what allowed him to realize his market wanted a solution for dry or irritated skin rather than a standard beauty product, fundamentally shifting his entire business strategy before he ever built a massive website.

Curtis details how he systematically aligned digital advertising with high impact email campaigns to create deep brand trust and predictable revenue spikes. He breaks down the fascinating mechanics of how an email blast can actually drive customer engagement and comments on active social media ads, boosting the overall efficiency of his marketing ecosystem. We also dive into the economics of managing 40 separate product variations, discussing how core winning products can subsidize the exploration of new ideas and how a business can maintain an affordable price point for its community while continuing to grow rapidly.

Finally, we discuss the mental barriers that hold most entrepreneurs back from scaling. Curtis emphasizes the importance of taking volume action rather than trying to perfect a business model in a vacuum. He also explains his mission driven framework, illustrating how establishing a clear north star goal to help as many people as possible with skin conditions acts as the ultimate filter for making major corporate decisions.

Check out Primal Pantry here:

www.Primalpantry.co.nz

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We’d like to thank our sponsor for this episode, Rosefern Homes. Check them out here:
www.rosefernhomes.co.nz

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Produced by Buddy Booth

For episode 228, David and Buddy go to the pub!