David Sweas with Dodson Group
The Morgo Podcast
The Dodson Group is a precision manufacturer, #1 in the automotive niche of high horsepower transmission upgrades. It has diversified into other markets such as aerospace, agriculture, marine, & green energy by acquiring its largest local suppliers. David took over as CEO of Dodson five years ago and has grown the business from 17 to 75 people. David is a former automotive engineer and investment banker who wanted to build a business, and Dodson was a perfect fit.
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Simon Malpas with Kitea Health
The Morgo Podcast
Kitea Health makes a device to help manage hydrocephalus: a condition where fluid accumulates in the brain, managed by inserting a shunt to drain the fluid. Kitea Health makes a tiny implantable device to measure pressure in the brain at home, letting you know if the shunt has failed and you need medical help. Simon brings an extensive background in developing medical devices to this new venture. His key advice: build the team!
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Tijs Robinson, Hot Lime Labs
The Morgo Podcast
Hot Lime Labs is putting the green back in greenhouses – supplying yield-boosting CO2 from biomass for large glasshouses. With $9 million of angel funding they’ve scaled from the lab to a demo delivering CO2 into a 11 hectare glasshouse. It’s now ready to take to the world – which will need lots more funding. Tijs talks about how the needs of the business change as you grow, with specialists replacing generalists, and how ready people are to help if you ask.
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Boyd Multerer with Kry10
The Morgo Podcast
Kry10 is a building a secure operating system to enable critical infrastructure such as electrical grids and medical devices to transition to a future where they are intelligent, cloud connected and adaptive driven. This can replace, or be placed in front of, old software built on operating systems from the 1990s that are vulnerable to viruses. It was founded by Boyd and other ex-Microsoft/Amazon execs to commercialise cybersecurity technology spun-out from an advanced research group.
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Shieak Tzeng & Sergei Obruchkov, Wellumio
The Morgo Podcast
Wellumio is developing a highly portable head MRI scanner for use in emergency departments - providing a scan in the “golden hour” after stroke when treatment is most effective. Shieak & Sergei talk about how great it was to find each other, their journey to dealing with investors rather than grant reviewers, and now getting their product to market. They’d like to encourage more academics to choose entrepreneurship!
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Clinton Cardozo with OneReg
The Morgo Podcast
OneReg is about effortless compliance and smoother operations for aerospace. When Covid struck, Clinton lost his job and decided it was time to start a business. He and his two co-founders had more than 100 years experience in compliance, digital innovation and aviation. Their initial customers are airports, which are very complex environments – they have the biggest need for what OneReg does. They now have most of the airports in NZ as customers and are moving offshore.
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Terry Miller with Eight360
The Morgo Podcast
Eight360 has built an immersive VR motion simulator: a ball that you sit inside that can do full 360 flips and spins. This is fun. It’s also very serious: it delivers a more immersive and visceral experience, leading to better engagement and learning outcomes whether you are manoeuvring heavy equipment in unusual situations, practicing your off-road handling skills to avoid a rollover, or learning to land an aircraft in a windy location.
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Danny Purcell with Basis
The Morgo Podcast
Danny, CEO & co-founder, of Basis explains how they have developed a home electricity smart panel that allows you to manage your power usage in real time and gives data to the electricity companies so they can offer smart-use plans to reduce cost. They are driven by delivering an enduring positive impact for the planet. The first smart panels will be delivered soon – you can pre-order on their website. www.wearebasis.com
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Michael Hartley with Comply Pro
The Morgo Podcast
Three founders who had worked together before started Comply Pro to meet needs for safety in the construction industry and food safety in hospitality, building a SaaS company that can be rapidly scaled around the world. Now ComplyPro manages 18.4 million records and protects 200,000 sites globally, with over 4,000 clients and 45,000 users. Michael talks about encouraging everyone to act like owners, think like founders, and innovate like entrepreneurs.
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Hadleigh Ford with SwipedOn
The Morgo Podcast
Hadleigh’s maritime background gave him the insight that started SwipedOn: on a super yacht everything was electronic except the dog-eared visitors’ book. With no tech or business background, he set out to build a tablet sign in. Today Hadleigh employs over 50 people and SwipedOn is used in over 9,000 workplaces. The company has gone through ownership changes: it sold to an AIM listed company and became 95% of its recurring revenue, and it is now owned by a PE firm.
info_outlineADInstruments makes scientific hardware & software for biomedical research and education with offices in 15 countries & 220 people around the world. Its customers include the top 100 universities & the top 10 pharmaceutical companies. The company has been built over 37 years. Alex has been CEO for the last 4 years and has overseen the growth of the SaaS business, which is now a significant part of their revenue.