PowerUp
Episodes
Michael Mansvelt / Michael Mansvelt Design & Jungle Nurseries
08 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Mansvelt describes himself as a connector, someone who brings people closer to spaces, nature, and a sense of belonging. His career spans land...
Ajinkya Jagdale (AJ) and Jesse Sigurdsson / Shining Peak & State Hotel
01 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Jesse and AJ come from very different backgrounds, but a shared passion for hospitality brought them together to create Shining Peak, a brewery that h...
Michelle and Frank Lachman / Herbi
25 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A patch of struggling soil on a Taranaki lifestyle block sparked a line of questioning that wouldn’t let Michelle and Frank Lachman go. What began a...
Adrianna Greenhill and Tane Morgan / Proof & Stock
18 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A garage, a roaster, and a shared love of hospitality set Tane Morgan and Adrianna Greenhill on a path that would become Proof & Stock, now one of...
Marianne Archibald / Salad Brothers
11 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Marianne Archibald didn’t set out to become a lettuce farmer. But when an unexpected opportunity emerged in rural Waverley, she and her family stepp...
Brooke Lean / The Virtue
04 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Brooke Lean never planned to build an international fragrance brand. Her journey began in photography, before scent emerged as the creative medium tha...
Jai Huta / Game Changer
30 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jai Huta is in the business of supplying high quality sports kit at affordable prices. His business Game Changer is doing exactly that, particularly w...
Andrew Blanche / Baked by Blanche
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Andrew Blanche didn’t exactly follow the normal route to become a baker, but we’re certainly glad he got there in the end. As the founder and head...
Terry Boon / BOON
16 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Terry Boon has left his fingerprints all over Taranaki - almost literally. As the founding director of acclaimed design and architecture firm BOON, he...
Ben and Tess Annabell / Recharge
09 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you met Ben and Tess Annabell 15 years ago, you’d probably never have known they’d end up running a business advisory firm. Ben was a qualified...
Lisa Deken & Leeanne Snowdon / Down to Earth
02 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lisa Deken and Leeanne Snowdon are two school friends that run Down to Earth Organics; New Plymouth’s hub of holistic health. It’s packed wall to ...
Abby Packer / Neat
26 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Abby Packer is the founder of Neat NZ, an online health and beauty business that sends out thousands of orders a month all around the world. But she n...
James Donald / Ideally
19 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
James Donald is one of New Zealand’s shining stars in the tech and startup scene. He is the first repeat guest on the PowerUp Podcast, and he’s co...
Simon Singh / Innovation HQ
06 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As a nine year old growing up in New Delhi, Simon Singh dreamed of being CEO of an IT company. Now, he’s made that dream happen, but not in a way he...
Gemma Adams / Vizlink
29 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Vizlink is a clever business based on a simple problem - how hard it is to communicate things using just words. Gemma Adams started the business to gi...
Graham Nelson / Manifold & Doso
22 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Graham Nelson is at the heart of entrepreneurism in Taranaki, in more ways than one. He is the founder of Manifold co-working space, which regularly h...
Mihi Henry-Hatcher / Mihi’s Place
15 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Mihi’s Place is centred around traditional Māori health and healing, which is an area of health and wellness that’s becoming more and more popula...
Nick Carey / Green Meadows Beef
08 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Green Meadows Beef started as a two-person family business in a small pocket of rural Taranaki, and 11 years on they’ve sold more than a million pac...
Rachel Church / Feastival
01 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Rachel Church first moved to Taranaki, she noticed how the food and hospitality sector was a well kept secret. Before long, it was her mission to...
Hannah Hunt / Roar Collective
03 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s one thing to listen to podcasts, but what about producing them? Hannah Hunt and Laura Leadbetter started Roar Collective with a shared love for...
CJ Mahony / AGTRANS & South Taranaki Business Park
26 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
CJ Mahony left school at 16 and started a transport company as a bit of a side hobby. Nearly 20 years later, he employs 35 people and is the man behin...
Elliot Taylor / ThroughLine
19 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
**Content warning: this podcasts discusses issues around mental health, addiction and abuse** Elliot Taylor created ThroughLine to help people in d...
Nick Jackson & Brett Rogers / Elemental
12 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Nick Jackson and Brett Rogers reckon New Zealand’s goal of being carbon-free by 2050 isn’t ambitious enough. They think we can grow the country’...
Joe Emans / Three Sisters Brewing
05 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Joe Emans was once an engineer in the Middle East. Now, he’s a brewer in Taranaki. But he’s not just any brewer - his award-winning Three Sisters ...
Morgan Maw / Boring Oat Milk
29 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Boring Oat Milk has been an unmitigated success since its launch in 2021, smashing sales forecasts and playing a big role in the growth of milk altern...
Cathy Clennett / Hiringa
05 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Hydrogen-fuelled trucks have started hitting the roads in NZ, and the impact on our emissions is massive. Taranaki company Hiringa is at the forefront...
Joop Verbeek & Carmen Castro-Verbeek / IncaFe
29 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
IncaFe is all about good coffee done right. It takes effort though - sourcing beans directly from remote plantations in South America and Indonesia, p...
Sonia Kiser and John Burling / Carac
22 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When you’re fixing chainsaws at 7 years old and making motorbikes at 10, you’ve clearly got a knack for using your hands. This was John Burling gr...
Erin Benton / Knead
15 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Even for a baker, getting up at midnight is extreme. But when you’ve got two tamariki and a dairy farm, baking Artisan Donuts have to fit in around ...
Steve Scott / Rivet
08 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine trying to design and build the famous Len Lye Centre’s stainless steel facade. It doesn’t bear thinking about…unless you’re Steve Scot...
Glen Stephens / Sol + Sea
01 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Some people are just made different. Plenty of others would be happy with being director of a successful building company while raising two kids…but...
James Annabell / Egmont Honey
10 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From being a professional rugby player to running a successful international honey company, James Annabell’s story is a highly unlikely one. Not to ...
John Matthews / Technix
03 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the PowerUp Podcast, prominent businessman John Matthews lifts the lid on his successes, challenges, and belief in taking risks - l...
Dave and Jo James / Juno Gin
26 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The story of how Juno came to be one of New Zealand’s leading spirits companies is hard to believe. After successful corporate careers, Dave and Jo ...
Pania Winterburn / Ngā Rauru
19 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If there’s a book on how to run an iwi business, Ngā Rauru would feature in it heavily. Ngā Rauru iwi is behind the smoothie company Kaitahi, they...
James Donald and Letitia Stevenson / Yonder
12 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when an oil and gas executive meets an anthropologist for the first time, and they decide to start a software company? It might sound lik...
Michael and Rachel Perrett - The Green School & Chillaxing
05 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Investors Michael and Rachel Perrett are on an ambitious journey to change the way our children are educated. As the founders of The Green School in T...
Annalee Kemsley / Makeup by Annalee & Mood Magazine
29 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Annalee Kemsley is one of New Zealand’s leading online makeup and beauty personalities, with more than 170-thousand subscribers. She’s worked with...
Dan Radcliffe - IVHQ & Shining Peak
22 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dan Radcliffe is a Taranaki born and bred businessman, investor and a member of the EY World Entrepreneur Hall of Fame. He founded International Volun...
PowerUp
15 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to PowerUp, a podcast by Venture Taranaki and produced by Roar Collective. Here we celebrate the region’s entrepreneurs and innovators who a...