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Marama Labs co-founders Matthias Meyer and Brendan Darby (Photo: Supplied)
Marama Labs co-founders Matthias Meyer and Brendan Darby (Photo: Supplied)

BusinessOctober 4, 2022

The company that turned murky water samples into wine

Marama Labs co-founders Matthias Meyer and Brendan Darby (Photo: Supplied)
Marama Labs co-founders Matthias Meyer and Brendan Darby (Photo: Supplied)

Banging his head against a brick wall for 18 months was time well spent, says the co-founder of a business now going global with a device helping winemakers perfect their next drop.

This is an excerpt from our weekly business newsletter Stocktake.

They’re smiling and drinking wine in the photo you can see above, but this isn’t a story about wine. Or about smiling. Mostly, it’s about three scientists stuck in a Victoria University laboratory on a hill in Wellington. That’s exactly where Brendan Darby, Matthias Meyer and Eric Le Ru were holed up for 18 months, trying to solve a problem that caused them constant headaches.

“I’d been knocking my head against a wall … in the PhD doldrums, wondering why this had all gone wrong,” says Darby. Originally from Ireland, he’d moved to Aotearoa to undertake his PhD, a research project involving a niche area in nanotechnology. In the most basic terms, he was investigating ways to get complex data from murky water samples.

Usually, that’s a very difficult, time-consuming process. Technology at the time wasn’t advanced enough to capture the super accurate readings he was after. “We were really struggling with a measurement [that] had fooled a lot of people for a long time,” says Darby. They were trying to find a way to “get rid of all the noise and … look at that process in a much more sensitive fashion”.



Teamed with Meyer and Le Ru, the trio were literally and figuratively wading their way through murky water. After months of frustration, they finally decided to approach their tests in a different way. “The first time we tried this approach we saw the data come out and it was beautiful,” says Darby. “It was amazing to finally get some clear data. It was clear, unequivocal results.”

Darby can’t be more specific about how they did it because it’s tied up in patents and IP. In the years since their successful test, the trio have turned what they achieved in their small lab into a business that’s now going global. Marama Labs is a spectroscopy company offering CloudSpec, a device about the size of a large laptop that delivers accurate tests of liquids that were previously thought impossible.

Cloudspec
CloudSpec gives winemakers accurate data about their next vintage. (Photo: Supplied)

Initially, the trio weren’t sure who would want to use their products. Across a three-month period of research, they talked to pharmaceutical companies, wastewater technicians and brewers. That’s when they found their target market: winemakers.

CloudSpec can measure, with specificity, how a wine might taste, says Darby. This gives winemakers the ability to adjust and adapt their wines to suit changing tastes, and to keep a tight grip on quality control. “Is it similar to last year? Is it evolving? Do I need to make some changes?” says Darby. “If you know what the numbers are early in the production stage, they can [decide] how this wine is going to evolve.”

It’s taken off. Since launching CloudSpec three years ago, Marama Labs has signed up a number of local wineries, and a bunch in Australia. The team has grown to seven, Darby has swapped his lab coat for a sales jacket, and a few weeks back he moved back to Ireland to help spearhead moves into US and European markets. He’s targeting America, the world’s biggest wine manufacturers, where 10,000 wineries could use his product. “Things are really taking off in the US,” he says.

To speed this process up, Darby will soon be packing his bags to attend the Silicon Valley showcase TechCrunch Disrupt. With 10,000 attendees, including a who’s who of the tech industry and a number of potential investors, Darby can’t wait. “We’re bringing our New Zealand technology right to the epicentre of things,” he says. “We know we’ve got something world class here and now we’re putting Marama Labs on the world stage … I’m chomping at the bit for it.”

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Karen's Diner
Karen’s Diner has opened in Mt Eden – but what’s with the reviews? Image: Archi Banal

BusinessOctober 3, 2022

Karen’s Diner can dish out the insults – but can’t seem to take them

Karen's Diner
Karen’s Diner has opened in Mt Eden – but what’s with the reviews? Image: Archi Banal

Where are the five-star reviews for Auckland’s controversial new restaurant coming from?

If you like a side-dish of snark, sarcasm and sick burns with your burgers, fries and milkshakes, you’re in luck. A new restaurant chain that opened recently in Auckland promises to deliver all that, and much less. 

At Karen’s Diner, customers are treated to waiters who dish out insults and terrible service as part of a kooky dining out experience. One recent NZ Herald diner was called a “loser”, “lazy” and a “basic bitch” within five minutes of sitting down, while the dining partner of Stuff’s reviewer received a middle finger salute while being seated.

If customers don’t like the way they’re treated, the restaurant’s website has some advice: “Don’t ask to speak to a manager.”

The franchise is from Viral Ventures, an Australian marketing company promising to deliver “fun across the globe”. So far, its activations include ice skating rinks, an Alice in Wonderland-themed eatery, and magic bar The Wizard’s Den.

With 13 outlets across Australia, the UK and now Aotearoa, and thousands of YouTube, Instagrammers and TikTok users filming their terrible encounters with foul-mouthed wait staff, Karen’s Diner appears to be its most successful brand yet.

This Karen can dish it out – but can she take the same punishment? Since its Auckland restaurant opened in Mt Eden just over a week ago, several one-star reviews have emerged with customers taking to Google to complain about dry burgers and cold fries, unhygienic bathrooms and – ugh – menus covered in hair. 

“When we arrived our table was dirty, there was hair on the menu, no napkins were provided even when we asked, one milkshake came without a straw, no toilet paper or ability to dry your hands. Fries was cold and the burgers were dry. If you are actually coming here to eat I would recommend anywhere else,” said one critic, who rated Karen’s Diner as a one-star experience. 

Karen's Diner
Some of the negative reviews on Google for Karen’s Diner in Auckland. Photo compilation: Archi Banal.

“The burgers were disgusting … bun tasted like it was 2-3 days old, fries were cold and no napkins [were] provided even when I asked staff [for] one. Spent over a $100 which I think was worth not over $30-$40 max,” said another who also rated it one star.

If you keep scrolling through the restaurant’s Google reviews, another trend emerges: a series of five-star reviews from diners who don’t have much to say. “Cocktails and burgers amazing. Karen vibe was rocking,” says one five-star critic. 

Those wildly disparate views also come alongside another kind of review – a warning from some who don’t trust those five-star reviews, with several calling them “fake”. “Most of the five-star reviews are fake, they only review other Karen’s Diners!!” warned one.

One potential diner who contacted The Spinoff said he was looking forward to visiting Karen’s Diner this weekend until he saw those seemingly fake reviews. “To me it seems a bit on the nose that a business is trying to doctor its reviews when local businesses are still struggling post pandemic,” he said.

He warned those dining there to check the validity of any five-star reviews. “It seems to be a tactic to boost poor ratings,” he warned. Some of those reviews do seem suspicious, with critics only reviewing Karen’s Diner outlets here and in Australia. One had visited three in the past month, and given each five stars. 

Karen's Diner
Some of the positive and possibly fake reviews on Google for Karen’s Diner in Auckland. Photo compilation: Archi Banal.

Usually, businesses complain about fake one-star reviews. One recent scam in America involved those writing one-star reviews refusing to take them down until they were sent gift vouchers. But this is the opposite, with what seems to be a pretty obvious outcome. Karen’s Diner’s Auckland branch has a review rating of 3.4 stars. Without those five-star reviews, it would be much lower.

When contacted for comment, a spokesperson for Karen’s Diner appeared to confirm the company was behind the five-star reviews. “We have three individual contractors who have worked across our multiple Karen venues and also dined as customers that have left a review for the Auckland location based on their experience,” they said.

When asked if those contractors were asked by the company to post positive reviews, or did it of their own free will, they replied: “We generally ask customers if they have had a good time to leave a review.”

Google bans companies from rigging star ratings. In its terms of service, the search engine says “content that has been posted from multiple accounts to manipulate a place’s rating” isn’t allowed. It promises to remove them, if they’re flagged. 

Be warned: If you’re thinking about dining at Karen’s Diner, it might pay to read those Google reviews carefully to see if they’re written by real diners, not contractors employed by the company posting five-star reviews. Fake insults with your food are one thing, bad burgers and cold fries according to their (real) Google reviews are another.

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