eccuity Podcasts

This week on the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie speaks to Kerri McMaster, CEO of ‘Goodair Nosebuds’. One in four people worldwide deal with chronic nasal congestion, and fewer than 15% are happy with what's available to them. Kerri took a prototype sitting in a university lab, one she initially dismissed the first time she saw it and turned it into a drug-free consumer product that sold out within days of launch.Kerri is a two-time karate world champion who has spent most of her career doing one thing: taking ideas that are stuck and turning them into businesses. She ran 42 karate schools, built a consulting business in sports performance, co-founded Performance Lab Technologies, and spent over 20 years in sports tech before the company merged with a US partner in 2020.When a contact at AUT showed her a vibrating nasal device with a clunky prototype and a giant battery, she didn't see the opportunity at first. But the deeper she went into the research behind nasal breathing, nitric oxide production, and how the body's own systems can be activated without pharmaceuticals, the bigger the potential became.In this conversation, Kerri talks about what it took to move from 20 years of university research to a product on a pharmacy shelf, and why her decision to position it as a wellness device instead of going down the medical route changed everything.She also opens up about the quality control crisis that nearly ended the business before it launched, what happens when demand outpaces your ability to scale, and what she learned across multiple startups about finding the right people to build with.

This week on the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie speaks to Stephanie Pow, founder of Crayon and former equity derivatives trader at UBS.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Sajita Setia!

Sajita is a physician specialising in pharmaceutical medicine, with experience across global organisations including Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson.

Now based in New Zealand, she leads research into digital wellbeing and its impact on mental health, productivity and emotional development in young people.

This episode explores one of the most underappreciated risks of modern life: how technology is shaping behaviour, focus and mental health at scale.

Sajita breaks down why children are not “addicted” to devices, but instead being systematically manipulated by design, and what that means for parents trying to navigate screen time.

Charlie and Sajita discuss the rise of passive consumption, artificial rewards and short feedback loops, and how these are rewiring motivation and attention.

They also explore practical strategies for families, from setting shared rules and boundaries to reframing technology use as a game that can be won.

This is a conversation about awareness, responsibility and control in a world where devices are only becoming more embedded in daily life.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Joost Schouten!

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Alexander Bikeyev!

Alexander shares his journey from corporate finance and financial modelling into biotech, machine learning, and entrepreneurship. After years of building models, working in audit, and pursuing algorithmic trading, he explains why he walked away from trying to beat the market and instead focused on solving real world problems.

They explore the limits of forecasting, why most projections are inherently flawed, and how professionals build “reasonable” forecasts using external data, scenario analysis, and judgement. Alexander also breaks down his experience building products versus solutions and why understanding the customer journey matters more than the technology itself.

The conversation dives into the rapid pace of change in software and AI, the shifting role of sales, and why human involvement remains critical in both biotech and machine learning. Alexander also reflects on career pivots, meaning in work, and what it takes to transition into a completely new industry later in life.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie isjoined by Siddharth Sthalekar!

Sid has lived on both ends of money.

He ran a major equity derivative and algo trading desk in India, then walked away from finance to explore community led, trust-based economics and later returned to build new infrastructure for distributed finance through Sacred Capital.

If you have ever wondered why markets feel emotional, why “being right” can still lose you money, or how to protect your buying power when currencies swing, this conversation gives you a clearer mental model. It also covers what DeFi gets right today, where it is still fragile, and why stablecoins are one of the most useful building blocks so far.

Sacred Capital is building modular reputation infrastructure for micro networks, including tools like reputation libraries and a reputation vault designed to help communities define culture and carry reputation across contexts.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie isjoined by Matt Hardy!

If you’re struggling to find work in start-ups without aglowing CV, Matt has a playbook that gets you in the door.

He went from “no real marketing experience” to managing social for the Cricket World Cup, then helped drive 1500 percent growth inside a start-up, and now leads growth at Landlord Studio, a product led company built on SEO, content, conversions.  

This one is for anyone trying to level up fast:

• how to manufacture experience when nobody hiresjuniors,
• what “right message right time” looks like, and
• why equity beats salary if you want real upside.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Peter Crow!

Most boards fail for a simple reason. People join a board with no training, strong opinions, and zero shared playbook.

Peter has spent decades helping founder led companies, family businesses, and scale ups make better group decisions.

He breaks governance down to 4 jobs any board must do well: set direction, build capability, track performance, and stay accountable.

You will learn how to spot weak boards early, how to ask better questions in the room, and when a founder needs a formal board versus just better decision support.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Heather Anderson!

Heather shares how she went from building businesses for decades to launching a new product that suddenly took off online. When 8.4 million people hit the page, the hard part was not hype. It was making and shipping the product at scale, without losing quality.

Heather breaks down the real work behind the scenes, from setting up an assembly line, to ordering parts in the right volumes, to selling direct to customers in 34 countries.

If you are building a product brand, this is a simple guide to turning attention into output that lasts.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Nick Morrison!

Nick’s story is not the usual sustainability path. From Timaru and a sports science degree to buzzing around London on a Vespa teaching clients, then a Brazil World Cup and Central America trip that made plastic pollution impossible to ignore.

Now he leads Go Well Consulting, a B Corp sustainability consultancy helping NZ businesses turn ESG from a buzzword into measurable action.

They cover why sustainability momentum took a hit, why the companies that “get it” are quietly pulling ahead, and how climate risk shows up in the real world through insurance, supply chains, and resilience.

If you have a business, a KiwiSaver, or just want a clearer view of what matters, this episode will sharpen your thinking fast.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Kelly Bennett!

Kelly is the founder and managing director of One Plus One Communications, one of Aotearoa’s leading independent corporate communications firms, and the 2025 PRINZ Large PR Consultancy of the Year.

This conversation is the real version of building an agency, not the glossy one. Kelly shares the moment he left a holding company role expecting to take one anchor client, lost the entire pipeline overnight, and had to start from zero with two people, belief, and hustle.

From there, it became a decade of steady, compounding progress, never chasing shortcuts, just getting sharper every year.Kelly breaks down what has changed in PR over the last five years and what has not, why local nuance and trust matter more than ever, and why the firms that earn attention through podcasts, op eds, conferences, and consistent thought leadership will keep pulling ahead as search and media keep shifting.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Riley Malins!

Riley is the co founder and COO at Avatars Global, building cinema quality digital characters and AI agents for brands and modern software experiences. This conversation is the real story behind the highlight reel: the hospo grind, the decision to go back to uni with intent, the leap into emerging tech, and the moment a restructure forced a hard reset that turned into a new company, a new lane, and a much bigger ambition.

Charlie and Riley unpack how Avatars Global went from early experiments to enterprise work, why most of their clients are offshore, and what it takes to sell a concept before the market has the language for it. Riley breaks down the operating reality of a five founder team across time zones, why his shift into the COO seat became the backbone for scale, and how they think about focus when the industry throws a new shiny idea at you every week.

They also get into where AI and immersive experiences are actually headed, why “digital humans” are becoming the interface people will expect, and how a small team can move fast enough to build a lead before the giants fully turn their attention.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie isjoined by Mark Pascall!

Mark is a technologist and long-time Web3 builder who hasspent the last decade thinking about a simple problem most systems avoid: how do you get money to the source, fast, fairly, and with proof it was used well.

After a turning point at a Bitcoin South conference, Mark pivoted his software company into Blockchain Labs, then later stepped away to focus on something with real social impact: The Wellbeing Protocol.

Charlie and Mark unpack why the current grant system is sodraining for community groups, why the paperwork and “beg for funding” loop burns the people doing the work, and what changes when you flip the model. Instead of forcing organisations to constantly re apply, Mark’s approach letsfunders stream money into a community treasury with rules baked in, then enables the community to issue micro grants locally with clear tracking of where the money went.

They also go into the practical reality of building thisinside today’s constraints. Why they keep the “blockchain” angle quiet in certain rooms, how the system can run on chain while the real funds sit safely in existing bank accounts, and what needs to happen before stablecoins and wallets become normal for everyday community funding. Along the way, Mark shares the deeper motivation behind the project: moving past the default “more money” scoreboard and rebuilding the kinds of capital that strengthen wellbeing and community life.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie isjoined by Marijke Timmers!
Marijke has an unmissable background, global finance, the chaos of the global financial crisis era, building brands with serious budgets, then walking away when it stopped feeling aligned.
She shares the moment marketing turned from performance into purpose, including how a trip through Asia led her to start a children’s charity in Cambodia that has now been operating for 15 years, and why that experience permanently changed what she believes business is for.

Charlie and Marijke get into the real problem most foundersface, not effort, not hustle, but unclear thinking. They break down why small businesses get pulled into tactics, why that gets expensive fast, and how discernment comes from strategy first. Marijke explains why she built The Marketing Collective as a collective, not an agency, and how coaching helps founders either do it themselves properly or outsource with confidence because they know what good looks like.

If you are building something values led and want yourmarketing to feel like you, not noise, this one is for you.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Madison Malone!

Madison is a New Zealand business journalist who built a major audience through Markets with Madison and has since stepped out independently as the owner and executive producer of Business with Madison.

In this conversation, she breaks down how the show evolved from macro markets coverage into high trust, behind the scenes access with operators, and why network effects are the real moat for modern media.

They get into the practical reality of going solo, learning camera and editing end to end, protecting momentum when your pipeline slows, and the psychology of burning the boats when you are not naturally a big risk taker.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Sean Collier!

Sean is a Kiwi lawyer and standup comedian who moved to Melbourne for opportunity and stage time, while keeping the day job to stay in the game.

They unpack the power of incentives in New Zealand, why housing speculation crowds out productive investment, and what it does to millennials and Gen Z. It is a candid conversation about autonomy, optimism, and what real change would take.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by EarnabuckNZ!
EarnabuckNZ runs an investing education channel focused on helping Kiwis understand KiwiSaver, managed funds, and the real world factors that drive long term outcomes.

They unpack why derivatives are fascinating but rarely appropriate for most audiences, then move into the fundamentals that actually move the needle for everyday investors. Active versus passive, what to look for inside a fund, and why benchmarks matter only if you can clearly explain what they are.

The conversation also explores EarnabuckNZ’s personal journey through the 2020 bull run and the 2022 drawdown, and how the pain of volatility forced better portfolio construction, process, and emotional discipline. From concentrated stock picking and FOMO to a simplified core and satellite approach, the theme is consistent: avoid catastrophic mistakes, keep compounding, and stay grounded in first principles.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Mikkel Johannessen!

Mikkel is the founder of Fox Folk, a product innovation company in the mountain bike industry. With over 20 years of experience as a brand designer and creative director across eight countries, Mikkel shares how he pivoted during COVID to pursue his lifelong passion for inventing and commercialising products.

The conversation explores Mikkel’s journey from idea to global market, sparked by a friend’s $12,000 cracked bike frame that led to a world first frame protection product. Operating from Queenstown, he deliberately bootstrapped the business to retain autonomy, investing heavily in R&D and tooling rather than chasing fast growth.

Mikkel breaks down his unconventional marketing approach, including how posting directly into Facebook groups helped Fox Folk reach customers in 80 countries within nine months without spending anything on paid advertising. He also shares why focusing on true novelty rather than commodity products has allowed the business to compete on its own terms, and what’s next with a second product launching in early 2026 into a market 20 times larger than the first.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Jessica Manins!

Jessica Manins is the co founder and CEO of Beyond, a virtual world building company specialising in VR and AR games and experiences. With over a decade in the space, including time at Star Now and founding Projector in Wellington, Jessica shares the real story of building a company in one of the most volatile corners of tech.

The conversation covers the launch of Beyond’s first collaborative VR game Oddball and the tough timing of COVID shutting down venues just weeks after their US launch, the pivot into home entertainment with Runaways on Apple Vision Pro, and their latest initiative Game Fit bringing VR fitness gaming into New Zealand high schools with Sport Waikato and Les Mills. Jessica also explains how Beyond has survived through a hybrid model of services revenue and IP development, the realities of platform dependency, particularly with Meta, and her philosophy on fast customer validation, balanced bootstrapped and funded growth, and keeping gaming healthy and collaborative.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Melissa Beer!

Melissa Beer grew up in a Mennonite farming community in Canada and now leads a New Zealand based tech company focused on bridging primary sector agriculture with modern data and AI solutions.

After starting her first business at seventeen selling grass fed organic beef direct to consumer, she moved to New Zealand and built a technology venture that is designed to help the value chain express and transfer value from farm to consumer.

In this conversation, Melissa and Charlie explore her journey from agriculture to tech entrepreneurship, the realities of being a mission driven founder, and how she built her business without external capital while maintaining a job to support early relationships. They discuss the complexity of agricultural value chains, why innovation can stall inside commodity systems, and how her product automates sustainability reporting and supports processors in matching farm attributes with evolving customer preferences.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Lucia Dore!

Lucia is a financial journalist, former economist, and co-founder of Learn Business English at Scripters. She previously worked at the New Zealand Treasury forecasting inflation and operating surplus before spending nearly two decades in the UK and Middle East, where she led a mergers and acquisitions news service across global markets.

Charlie and Lucia explore information advantages across the financial world, comparing the transparency of Western markets with the opacity of parts of the Middle East. They discuss leverage as the consistent cause of financial crises, from the Great Depression to the recent challenges in New Zealand’s property market.

Lucia shares insights on the shift from property speculation to building personal IP and vocational wealth, emphasising the long-term mindset required to create meaningful financial security. The conversation also dives into cryptocurrency volatility, US dollar reserve status, global liquidity differences, and how geopolitics shapes both risk and opportunity for investors.

At the heart of the discussion is a timeless insight: patient, unleveraged long-term investing reliably outperforms short-term speculation. Anything good, as Lucia says, takes 10 years.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Carl Meyer!Carl is the founder of BioGold, a New Zealand natural health company creating high quality testosterone support supplements made from pine tree pollen.

Before BioGold, he built and sold Vic Deals, a student community platform with more than 200,000 members, at just 23 years old.

Carl shares his journey from robotics student to multi million dollar business owner, including the periods of severe anxiety and depression that shaped his approach to entrepreneurship.

He tells the story of raising capital while mentally struggling, the lockdown yoga retreat that shifted his life, and why he chose to build BioGold without selling a single share of equity.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Yaela Raber!

Yaela’s journey is one of radical honesty, courage, and reinvention. Originally from Amsterdam, she built a multi-million-dollar marketing agency across five countries before realising that success — as the world defined it — left her completely disconnected from herself. After selling the business and walking away from everything she’d built, she began a new mission: to help women redefine what it means to be powerful, successful, and fulfilled on their own terms.

Now based in New Zealand, Yaela is the founder of The Powerhouse Alliance and host of The Powerhouse Diaries Podcast, an ecosystem dedicated to helping female founders tear up the rulebook, rebuild from authenticity, and lead with connection instead of competition.

Charlie and Yaela explore the dangers of resilience culture, the myth of balance, and how chasing constant growth can disconnect us from our purpose. They unpack how to tune out the noise, build discernment, and embrace both “flow” and “hustle” in business and life — a concept Yaela calls Flussle.

This conversation is a reminder that rebellion isn’t about chaos — it’s about returning to connection, courage, and clarity in a world that celebrates burnout.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Matthew Jackson!

Matthew’s story is one of reinvention, courage, and conviction. From creating one of New Zealand’s first streaming platforms that challenged the global media industry, to founding a telehealth start-up that brought doctors into people’s homes, Matthew has spent over a decade building products that challenge the status quo.

Now, as co-founder of Alimentary, he’s tackling one of the world’s biggest problems — waste. Inspired by the biology of a cow’s stomach, his team is developing bioenergy systems that turn organic waste into clean power, fertiliser, and profit. Backed by the largest innovation grant in New Zealand’s environmental history, they’re proving that sustainability and scalability can go hand in hand.

Charlie and Matthew dive into how courage fuels entrepreneurship, what it takes to build deep tech in New Zealand, and how to design a business model that captures both economic and environmental value.

They also explore new ways of raising capital, the changing venture landscape, and what it means to lead with values at the core of innovation.

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Sanjeev Jangra!

Sanjeev’s story is one of grit, risk, and reinvention. From working night shifts at a gas station to becoming one of New Zealand’s top mortgage advisors, Sanjeev shares how he left the safety of a corporate banking job to build his own business during a pandemic, with no network and no clients.

He talks about the strategies that helped him scale from a one-man operation to a team of six, his approach to growth in good and bad markets, and why focusing on service over sales created exponential results.

Charlie and Sanjeev also dive into the broader economic trends shaping New Zealand’s property and currency markets, and how everyday investors can think differently about building wealth.

Expert guidance to help you grow, adapt, and plan for what’s next. Try it for free⤵️

Expert guidance to help you grow, adapt, and plan for what’s next. Try it for free⤵️

Expert guidance to help you grow, adapt, and plan for what’s next. Try it for free⤵️

Expert guidance to help you grow, adapt, and plan for what’s next. Try it for free⤵️

Expert guidance to help you grow, adapt, and plan for what’s next. Try it for free⤵️https://www.eccuity.com/private

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Tom Hern!

Tom Hern is a New Zealand film and television producer, writer, and director who began his career as a junior TV reporter at just 13.

After leaving school at 15, he moved from acting into producing and went on to found Four Nights Film in 2010. He has since produced major projects including The Dark Horse and the TV series Madam starring Rachel Griffiths and Martin Henderson.

The conversation explores Tom’s entrepreneurial journey in the screen industry, comparing film production to property development and start-up models.

They discuss the unique challenges of independent filmmaking in New Zealand, international financing strategies, and the balance between creative integrity and commercial realities.

Key themes include the importance of personal brand as a storyteller, the role of data versus human curation, the industry’s shift toward AI, and why name actors remain pivotal for financing.

Tom also unpacks counterculture storytelling, negotiation strategies, and the goodwill factor in deal-making.He shares insights on his upcoming projects, including a skateboarding film with Tony Hawk and Steve-O as executive producers, and offers advice for aspiring filmmakers on blending timeless storytelling craft with modern technology.