Perfecting the art of the pitch with Icehouse Ventures partner Barnaby Marshall
Plus business confidence starts ticking up, NZ tech exporters facing higher payroll costs and British fintech eyes NZ expansion.
Happy Friday!
Holiday season is fast approaching and to start getting in the festive spirit we’ve decided to send our Friday newsletters for free to all subscribers for the rest of the year - merry early Christmas to all. As an extra special present, our Friday Feature is a masterclass in pitching from Icehouse Ventures Partner Barnaby Marshall.
And as a little tease, we think you’ll particularly enjoy our Friday Feature next week: a lengthy interview with Technology Minister Judith Collins rounding out our series on the Politics of Tech.
For now, here’s what’s else is waiting for you in your Friday Daily Shot:
Survey suggests businesses more optimistic about economy:
NZ tech exporters face higher payroll costs as they increase offshore hiring
Fintech firm Revolut eyes up NZ expansion, applies for banking registration
At least Five interesting things with Noah Smith
Major review of New Zealand's competition law regime
As always, a huge thank you to everyone who has already upgraded to a paid subscription. Stay tuned for more subscriber only content to come in the weeks ahead.
Finn & the Caffeine Team
Fintech firm Revolut eyes up NZ expansion, applies for banking registration: Could be some interesting competition to come in the banking sector, according to this great piece from Gareth Vaughn over at interest.co.nz. Revolut, the British fintech which arrived in New Zealand last year, is now seeking banking registration from the Reserve Bank. The firm says approval would pave the way for the launch of new products and features, such as interest-bearing savings products more credit/debt options. Vaughn reports that since its NZ launch in July last year, has processed transactions valued at about NZ$350 million. Read more here.
Survey suggests businesses more optimistic about economy: More news out of Forsyth Barr this week that is at least directionally positive. The report surveyed businesses about the past three months and found firms are much more optimistic given falling interest rates and increased demand. As RNZ reports, over half think the economy is headed in the right direction, while around half are budgeting for a better year ahead and have seen an uptick in sales. But there is still a note of caution from analysts to not start celebrating just yet. Read more here. (Via RNZ). Senior analyst Aaron Ibbotson said some business confidence surveys earlier in the year pointed to an improvement but that did not happen."We're cautious but I have to say it is very broad-based, it's coming off the back of interest rate cuts and this is a large survey of over 700 respondents. To me this looks like a pretty clear signal we are through the worst, but we've said it before, and it hasn't turned out to be the case."
At least Five interesting things with Noah Smith: Here’s another Substack you should absolutely be following if you’re a bit of a geek on economics (which I think is a safe bet knowing our audience). Noah Smith has an uncanny ability to break down even extremely complicated topics in a digestible and interesting format and has a regular column presenting them in a lovely format of (at least) ‘Five Interesting Things’. This week he took a break from politics to really get back to his roots and nerded out on some deep econ cuts. Read more in link below.
NZ tech exporters face higher payroll costs as they increase offshore hiring: Rob O’Neill at Reseller news has an interesting piece showing how reliant our tech exporters are on offshore employees following headcount cuts. Almost half (47 per cent) of workers employed by New Zealand’s 200 largest technology exporters are now based overseas after a reduction in the size of their overall workforce. Read more here. (Via Reseller News). “The exporters were also facing higher payroll costs in most sub-sectors as average salaries across all workers globally rose 2.9 per cent to the equivalent of $102,720. Hiring in international locations remained steady in 2024 as firms sourced skills overseas to support their growth plans, according to new data from global payroll and HR company Deel in collaboration with the Technology Investment Network (TIN).”
Major review of New Zealand's competition law regime: This one is a little more dense but still a crucial news story for the macro picture of New Zealand business. The Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister, Andrew Bayly, along with MBIE have announced a significant and wide-ranging review of New Zealand's competition law regime. The team from law firm Russel Mcveagh have a great breakdown for anyone interested in what the review will cover. Read more here. (Via Russel McVeagh). The review spans the full gambit of New Zealand's competition regime, including:
the Commerce Commission's "board performance and governance arrangements to ensure the Commerce Commission has the right expertise and governance to make effective and timely decisions";
the merger regime "to ensure the Commerce Commission has the tools required to prevent mergers that create competition concerns";
the anti-competitive conduct regime "to keep pace with market developments and provide more certainty to firms on what constitutes anti-competitive collusion"; and
consideration of whether the Commission should be given "an industry rule-making power as a tool to remedy a market failure".
Here’s what’s on our radar. Hit us with your own recommendations.
🎧 Listen to: 20,000 Hertz is a podcast all about sound, sound design and the often invisible but always fascinating business of people who work in that space. There are deep dives on how iconic pieces of music or sound effects were created and a truly exceptional episode all about the science of making the perfect sounding trailer. And of course, all the knowledge of foley you could ask for. Listen here.
📖 Read: How to Make the World Add Up by Tim Harford - One of the best writers on economics in the world, this book from Tim Harford shows how easy it is to build bad ideas off of bad data. It breaks down a series of classic mistakes made with statistics and gives a series of rules to follow when trying to digest new information. If you’ve ever wondered why so many big Government or corporate projects seem to flounder or fail to achieve their goals despite all the careful research completed before they got underway, it may be because they haven’t read this book.
📺 Watch: With Robert Egger’s new take on Nosteratu hitting cinemas shortly, this weekend would be a great time to watch one of his best films in preparation. The Northman is a cook old fashioned revenge epic following a viking prince on a quest to return to his home and punish the man who killed his father. While the setup is simple, the execution is anything but. Alexander Skarsgaard is unbelievable in the lead role and he’s back up by a stacked cast including Nicole Kidman, Ana Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hunt and even a cameo from Willem Dafoe.
Hemingway Daquiri
Fun fact, I once won a cocktail competition for making variation on this cocktail but then I drank so many of them afterwards I forgot the recipe. So instead, here’s a classic twist on the classic drink.
Ingredients
60ml white rum
15ml maraschino liqueur
25ml lime juice, freshly squeezed
15ml grapefruit juice, freshly squeezed
Garnish: lime wheel
Steps
Add the rum, maraschino liqueur, lime juice and grapefruit juice into a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled.
Strain into a coupe glass.
Garnish with a lime wheel.
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Want to get in touch with a news tip, bit of feedback or just to chat? Email hello@caffeinedaily.co. Look after yourselves this weekend and we’ll see you Monday.