Notes From The Executive

<p>Six New Zealanders used artificial intelligence in a real business. Did any of them actually make money?</p>

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<p>One of them made half a million dollars in eleven weeks with it. The other five explain why most businesses never will.</p>

<p>Stanley Henry fed his whole agency to Claude. Perrin Rowland is Chief Product and Experience Officer at AcademyEx, this show's sponsor, and runs marketing with two and a half people. Marisa Fong built and sold Madison Recruitment. Melissa Clark-Reynolds ONZM ran an insurance company on artificial intelligence in 1998. Greg Cross co-founded Soul Machines. Tim Warren spent $200 on AI tools all of last year.</p>

<p>The sharpest argument in it: the layoffs are not really about artificial intelligence, they are companies that over-hired in the good years using it as the excuse.</p>

<p><strong>What I Asked Them</strong><br>
How do you make half a million dollars in eleven weeks, and what do you feed it first?<br>
If it does ninety percent of the job, what can you still charge for?<br>
Are the layoffs about artificial intelligence or about bad hiring?<br>
Why is New Zealand third to last in the world for trusting it?<br>
How much should a small business spend before it is a waste?</p>

<p><strong>Chapters</strong><br>
0:00 Cold open<br>
0:45 Building the context brain<br>
3:55 What it actually sold<br>
7:16 Why New Zealand is behind<br>
10:13 The industry that just got replaced<br>
12:36 What boards get wrong<br>
16:02 A utility, not a technology<br>
17:43 Why spending is not a strategy<br>
20:17 What has to sit at the centre</p>

<p><strong>Watch The Full Episodes</strong><br>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA3uCXU794U">Stanley Henry</a><br>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5mC__tw15I">Perrin Rowland</a><br>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhE_ZHgW4E4">Marisa Fong</a><br>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eolgsPKzOfE">Melissa Clark-Reynolds</a><br>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-kA_wT0kZw">Greg Cross</a><br>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yi9I05YBbw">Tim Warren</a></p>

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<p>Notes From The Executive is a New Zealand business podcast for owners who want the conversation nobody else is having.</p>

<p>I wanted to know whether anyone in New Zealand is actually making money with artificial intelligence, so I asked six people using it in a real business. One made $500,000 in eleven weeks. We covered AI for small business, AI adoption in NZ, headcount, and whether the job losses are real. Grab my free list of NZ podcasts to get booked on: <a href="https://pwrfully.com/freepodcasts?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=freelist">https://pwrfully.com/freepodcasts?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=freelist</a></p>

New Zealand owes $9.4 billion in overdue tax. 65% of it is small business. Why are business owners their own worst enemy when it comes to IRD?

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Dave Ananth is a tax lawyer and partner at Meridian Partners in Auckland. He spent years inside Inland Revenue on the prosecution team before moving to the other side of the table.

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He's negotiated a tax debt down from $400,000 to $210,000, and settled more than 400 student loan cases for Kiwis living overseas.

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His central point: unpaid GST and PAYE is a cash flow symptom, not a scam. By the time most business owners call him, it's already a six figure problem.

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What I Asked Dave
Is IRD too aggressive, or are NZ business owners genuinely bad with money?
What's the biggest tax debt you've ever negotiated down?
Why do so many people wait until it's a $400,000 problem?
Can IRD really stop you at the airport over a student loan?
If you were in charge of IRD, what would you change?

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Chapters
00:00 Intro
02:32 Why do NZ business owners owe $9.4 billion in tax?
06:37 What are the penalties for not paying PAYE in NZ?
09:16 Why don't business owners talk to their accountant before it's too late?
14:50 How much tax debt can force a business into liquidation?
19:33 Can you negotiate a lower settlement with IRD?
23:57 Why does IRD listen to some people and not others?
25:36 How does IRD handle cryptocurrency tax audits?
37:22 Who gets prosecuted by IRD and who gets a payment plan?
38:32 Why is student loan interest going up for Kiwis overseas?
41:23 How do you negotiate a student loan settlement with IRD?
42:10 Can IRD stop you at the airport for unpaid debt?
49:17 Is New Zealand its own worst enemy when it comes to tax debt?
50:04 How to fix New Zealand's tax debt system
52:42 Is IRD using third-party debt collectors overseas?
53:40 Dave Ananth: how to contact a tax lawyer for IRD debt

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Follow Dave
https://mplaw.nz/about-meridian-partners/dave-ananth/

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Notes From The Executive is New Zealand's business podcast for owners who want the real numbers, not the theory.

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New Zealand owes $9.4 billion in overdue tax, 65% of it small business. If nz tax debt, ird negotiation, student loan overseas nz or small business tax nz is on your mind, this one's worth the 55 minutes. Grab my free list of NZ podcasts to get booked on: https://pwrfully.com/freepodcasts?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=freelist

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New Zealand spends about as much on petrol and diesel as it earns exporting concentrated milk. Mike Casey says that money leaves the country, and most of it does not have to.
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He runs a cherry orchard in Central Otago on 21 electric machines, and a $50,000 diesel bill became a $25,000 revenue stream before financing costs. I asked him what the payback actually looks like machine by machine, what it cost to get there, and what a business owner with a leased warehouse and no roof access is supposed to do instead.
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What I Asked Mike
👉 How much money does New Zealand lose every year buying fuel from offshore?
👉 What did it actually cost to electrify 21 machines?
👉 What is the real payback period, machine by machine?
👉 What can you do if you lease your building and cannot touch the roof?
👉 Who should not do this?
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Timestamps
00:00 Intro
02:08 how does a business get paid for its power
09:49 what does it cost to electrify 21 machines
11:46 which machines save the most money
17:59 why stay on the grid if you generate your own power
20:01 how do solar unit economics compare to diesel
22:26 what is the real payback on solar and batteries
24:36 how do I get a bank to finance solar
26:08 what can I do if I lease my building
27:40 who should not electrify
54:22 how much money does a nine hectare orchard make
58:02 how much does New Zealand spend on foreign fuel
1:03:45 why can't small businesses get finance for solar
1:07:31 why is New Zealand behind Australia on rooftop solar
1:12:44 what would fix this for the whole country
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Mike Casey is chief executive of Rewiring Aotearoa and co-owner of Forest Lodge Orchard at Mt Pisa, between Cromwell and Wanaka. He co-founded GradConnection, an Australian student job board sold to SEEK in 2019, then moved home and planted 9,300 cherry trees with his wife Rebecca and business partners Euan and Rachel White.
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Follow Mike Casey
Rewiring Aotearoa https://www.rewiring.nz
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Follow Me
Mina on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@NotesFromTheExecutivePodcast
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Mina on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/minaamso/
Mina on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/minaamso

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Notes From The Executive is New Zealand's no-BS business and entrepreneurship podcast for owners of established companies who want to grow faster, protect their margin, and build something worth selling.

<p><strong>AcademyEx</strong><br>Build Business Software Using AI (without becoming a coder)<br>&#128073; Download Free Guide: <a href="https://academyex.com/courses/micro-credential/understanding-software-development-processes-and-tools-micro-credential/">https://academyex.com/courses/micro-credential/understanding-software-development-processes-and-tools-micro-credential/</a><br>Course Starts 17 September (Applications Close 10 September)</p><p>·</p><p><strong>Pwrfully</strong><br>Get Recognised and speak to your ideal market on podcasts. Start for Free &#128073; <a href="https://www.pwrfully.com/bookacall">https://www.pwrfully.com/bookacall</a></p><p>·</p><p>Data centres are not a technology story. Greg Cross calls them the infrastructure of the AI economy, in the same way dams and power lines were the infrastructure of the electrical one. His view on where New Zealand sits: very late to the party, with a pretty embarrassing record on infrastructure decisions behind us.</p><p>·</p><p>Greg co-founded Soul Machines in 2016 with Dr Mark Sagar, the two-time Academy Award winner behind the facial animation work in Avatar and King Kong. The University of Auckland spinout raised more than US135 million dollars, about NZ225 million dollars, and worked with Pfizer, General Motors and the golfer Jack Nicklaus.</p><p>·</p><p><strong>What I Asked Greg</strong><br>&#128073; Is New Zealand already too late on data centres<br>&#128073; What does being late actually cost someone running a business here<br>&#128073; Are AI data centres going to make power more expensive for the average Kiwi<br>&#128073; Who owns your business data once it gets processed offshore<br>&#128073; Is AI really the reason big companies are laying people off</p><p>·</p><p><strong>Follow Me</strong><br>Mina on YouTube <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@NotesFromTheExecutivePodcast">https://www.youtube.com/@NotesFromTheExecutivePodcast</a><br>Mina on Spotify <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/4QgZGJdrnfjZ1sEm6MeGcp">https://open.spotify.com/show/4QgZGJdrnfjZ1sEm6MeGcp</a><br>Mina on Apple Podcasts <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/notes-from-the-executive-podcast/id1586953812">https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/notes-from-the-executive-podcast/id1586953812</a><br>Mina on Instagram <a href="https://www.instagram.com/minaamso/">https://www.instagram.com/minaamso/</a><br>Mina on LinkedIn <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/minaamso">https://www.linkedin.com/in/minaamso</a></p><p>·</p><p><strong>Follow Greg Cross</strong><br>LinkedIn: Greg Cross NZ<br>Email: greg@crossventures.co.nz</p><p>·</p><p><strong>Timestamps</strong><br>00:00 Intro<br>05:57 Why are data centres infrastructure and not technology<br>08:33 Why do we keep getting infrastructure decisions wrong<br>15:45 Who owns your data in an AI world<br>37:12 What does all of this mean for a business owner<br>49:05 How did a New Zealand company raise 225 million dollars<br>59:07 Why does raising a lot of money not make you safe<br>1:10:43 Why did the company go into receivership<br>1:43:49 Is AI a growth tool or a cost cutting excuse<br>1:48:39 How to contact Greg Cross</p><p>·</p><p>Notes From The Executive is New Zealand's no-BS business and entrepreneurship podcast for owners running established companies.</p><p>·</p><p>Data centres are the infrastructure of the AI economy and New Zealand is late. I asked Greg Cross what that costs an owner running a real business here, and who holds your data once it is processed offshore. If you follow the New Zealand economy, power prices, data centres or AI adoption in NZ, start here. Grab my free list of NZ podcasts to get booked on: https://pwrfully.com/freepodcasts?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=freelist</p>

<p>Eight of his first ten deals this year went to people who already owned a business. Why do buyers keep losing the good ones?</p>
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<p>Mike Ponsonby is a business broker with Kakapo Business Sales, in his tenth year in the industry. He sells New Zealand businesses in the $500,000 to $10 million range. Most of his work sits in trades and services, transport and logistics, and food distribution.</p>
<p>He did the same number of transactions in the first six months of 2026 as in all of 2025, and calls it a once in a decade year. Of his first ten deals this year, eight went to people who already owned a business. Two went to first time buyers.</p>
<p><strong>What I Asked Mike</strong><br>Is now a good time to buy a business, or is that just what brokers say<br>Why do experienced owners keep beating first time buyers to the good deals<br>How do I know if a business is worth what they are asking<br>What should I check about the seller, not just the numbers<br>What costs a buyer most in the first six months</p>
<p><strong>Chapters</strong><br>0:00:00 What happens if you buy the wrong one<br>0:01:38 Is it a good time to buy a business<br>0:05:54 Why it is a seller's market<br>0:06:34 Which businesses are hardest to buy<br>0:10:22 Why people sell a business that makes money<br>0:12:44 Buying into an industry you do not know<br>0:19:07 Who is actually buying businesses<br>0:22:48 When to walk away from a deal<br>0:28:37 How to work out what a business is worth<br>0:37:46 What to ask before you buy<br>0:43:22 How to spot dodgy financials<br>0:46:13 What to check about the seller<br>0:50:03 Keeping staff after you buy<br>0:53:38 NZ business sales in 2026<br>1:02:22 What to do two years before you sell<br>1:03:43 How fuel costs are hitting NZ operators<br>1:04:28 Where to find Mike Ponsonby</p>
<p><strong>Follow Mike</strong><br><a href="https://kakapobusiness.co.nz/team/mikeponsonby">https://kakapobusiness.co.nz/team/mikeponsonby</a></p>
<p><strong>Follow Me</strong><br>YouTube <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@NotesFromTheExecutivePodcast">https://www.youtube.com/@NotesFromTheExecutivePodcast</a><br>Spotify <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/4QgZGJdrnfjZ1sEm6MeGcp">https://open.spotify.com/show/4QgZGJdrnfjZ1sEm6MeGcp</a><br>Apple <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/notes-from-the-executive-podcast/id1586953812">https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/notes-from-the-executive-podcast/id1586953812</a><br>Instagram <a href="https://www.instagram.com/minaamso/">https://www.instagram.com/minaamso/</a><br>LinkedIn <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/minaamso">https://www.linkedin.com/in/minaamso</a></p>
<p>Notes From The Executive is New Zealand's no-BS business podcast for owners running established companies, one million to ten million dollars in revenue, five to fifty staff.</p>
<p>Mike says there is an undersupply of good businesses in the one to three million band, and experienced buyers keep getting them under contract first. If you want to know what buying a business NZ involves, what a business valuation NZ is built on, and where the NZ business outlook sits for 2026, watch this one. Grab my free list of NZ podcasts to get booked on: <a href="https://pwrfully.com/freepodcasts?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=freelist">https://pwrfully.com/freepodcasts?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=freelist</a></p>