The Funding Files

In this episode of the Funding Files, Jessica Manins, co-founder of Beyond Studios, shares her rollercoaster journey in her gaming business, from COVID shutting down her interactive VR arcade game weeks after it launched in the US through to later paying out dividends to shareholders.

She shares how she got into tech, from her early work at Star Now and community building at Biz Dojo, through to founding Beyond.

Beyond began as a service company in the augmented reality space, later developing their own product, Oddball, a multiplayer VR arcade game which they licensed to...

In this episode of the Funding Files we interview Jamie Cashmore from twiice. Jamie and his family started twiice to address environmental concerns around single-use cups, creating tasty edible cups. They've sold 350,000 edible cups across 26 countries and are now pivoting to selling their patented technology. 

In this episode we hear more about Jamie's background, including his training as an audio engineer and how the idea for twiice came about. We learn more about the growth plans for the company, their highs and lows in funding their business, and the importance of B-Corp and brand.

If y...

In this pod, we interview Joerg from Broken Heart Spirits, a multi-award-winning spirits manufacturer based in Queenstown. Joerg shares his journey from being an electronic engineer and airline pilot to becoming a master distiller. 

Originally from Germany's Rhine Valley, he discovered New Zealand during his time flying commercial planes here and eventually purchased a vineyard in 2001. He started distilling in 2004 after noticing unused grape skins in local wineries and wanting to do something about that waste. The company name "Broken Heart" comes from the tragic loss of his business partner, Berndt. 

The discussion covers their current eq...

In this episode of the Funding Files, we interview Wills Cameron, a third-generation spirit seller who has re-launched his family's cream liqueur business. 

Wills shares how he transformed his father's and grandfather's previous business model into a modern multi-channel approach. He talks about how they started, by selling out their first batch through a Facebook group during COVID. 

Pretty much immediately, they faced manufacturing challenges that led to establishing their own creamery. Wills secured initial investment from two early supporters and customers to fund their factory and early growth. He's launched many products, but another se...

This podcast is all about the funding journey of Kami, a digital classroom platform used by 90% of US K-12 schools. The conversation is between Anna Guenther, co-host of The Funding Files and co-founder of PledgeMe, and Alliv Samson, one of the co-founders of Kami. 

Alliv delves into Kami's beginnings in 2012 as a university project called Notable, designed to make lectures more interactive. Initially, they faced challenges in monetizing the product and gaining traction, leading to a pivot from targeting university students to focusing on PDF annotation for a broader audience. 

Alliv shares the company's early fu...

In this episode of the Funding Files we interview Greg Shanahan, founder of Veriphi, about Veriphi’s innovative solution to prevent medication errors using laser technology, AI, and cloud computing, and his big goal to create a billion-dollar company here in Aotearoa New Zealand. 

In the pod we cover Veriphi's development, funding journey, and future plans with the goal to reduce the 3% of hospital patients harmed by preventable medication errors, particularly with high-impact cancer drugs. Greg shares his background, including his work at Fisher and Paykel, which inspired the idea to apply a recurring revenue model to int...

In this pod, we learn about Laura from Safestack's journey in building her company, from its inception as a cybersecurity consultancy to its evolution into a VC-backed platform with over 25,000 security learners in 80 countries.

Laura shares her journey as a software engineer and security enthusiast, detailing the origins of her passion and the unique approach Safestack takes in integrating security with software development. The conversation also delves into Safestack's funding journey, starting with her quitting her job with a new baby and $300 in the bank, bootstrapping through consultancy revenue, to securing investments from various VC firms. 

In this episode of The Funding Files,  Anna and Matt interview Lani Evans, the first CEO of Thankyou Payroll, a New Zealand-based payroll intermediary with a social enterprise model. 

Lani shares her journey helping scale the company, raise early-stage funding, and later support an equity crowdfunding campaign. The conversation highlights the lack of funding when you're just getting started, values-driven business model, challenges of raising capital for social enterprises, and the innovative approach they took to philanthropy through the Thankyou Charitable Trust (now Generous Ventures). They also explore how equity crowdfunding empowered their community of supporters and al...

In this episode of The Funding Files, co-host Anna Guenther chats with Matt Stevens, co-host and co-founder of Parrotdog, about his funding journey raising capital to launch and grow a craft brewery in Wellington, way back when the beer industry was just taking off. 

Parrotdog started in 2011 when three friends named Matt decided to start a craft brewery. Matt Stevens, initially brought in to help with incorporation, eventually became a co-founder. 

The company began with contract brewing, funded by $7,000 initial capital ($5,000 from Stevens, $1,000 each from the other two Matts). They progressed through various funding stages, in...

Tim, Lou and Nige, former pastors and youthworkers, started Morningcider in 2015. What started off as just a name to do with their favourite suburb, Morningside in Auckland, has now grown into a nationwide cider brand that distributes around Aotearoa and the world. 

In this pod, Tim and Nige will share the story of how they started, the power of joint ventures with friends to scale, and how being pastors and starting a business are related!

They’re currently raising investment on the PledgeMe platform so we thought what better time to hear their funding journey tha...

Back in 2011, Anna needed a topic for her masters thesis, and fell in love with the idea of crowdfunding. Her background was grants administration and she thought there must be a better way to fund things. 

She met a guy building the backend to a crowdfunding platform, and they joined forces to launch PledgeMe in 2012. 

Over the years, she’s funded PledgeMe in a variety of ways - personal investment, private rounds, equity crowdfunding, and organically through revenue. This episode will explore some of the ways she funded the funding platform PledgeMe (meta, we know).