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Simran Kaur and Sonya Gupthan of Girls That Invest (Image: Supplied; additional design: Alice Webb-Liddall)
Simran Kaur and Sonya Gupthan of Girls That Invest (Image: Supplied; additional design: Alice Webb-Liddall)

PodcastsMay 24, 2022

Girls That Invest is changing the face of investing by empowering financial literacy

Simran Kaur and Sonya Gupthan of Girls That Invest (Image: Supplied; additional design: Alice Webb-Liddall)
Simran Kaur and Sonya Gupthan of Girls That Invest (Image: Supplied; additional design: Alice Webb-Liddall)

Chart-topping podcast host Simran Kaur tells Business is Boring why she’s passionate about getting more wāhine into investing.

Two years ago, Simran Kaur and Sonya Gupthan had an idea for a platform that would open up the conversation about money, savings and investing for other women. Now, Girls That Invest is one of the top investment podcasts in the world, with social followings above 150,000 and over a million podcast downloads.

Kaur and Gupthan have spoken around the world, delivered a TEDx talk, and now have even signed a book deal with US publisher Wiley. From the conversation that sparked the idea in 2020 to now, Girls That Invest has been on a quick journey of growth, and they have big plans for the future too. This week, Kaur joined Simon Pound on Business is Boring to talk about the journey so far, and where Girls That Invest is heading next.


Business is Boring, the award-winning weekly podcast series is back refreshed, rejuvenated and with a brand new partner in Spark Lab. Join Simon Pound as he talks to everyone from accidental entrepreneurs to industry leaders about their business journeys and what propelled them to where they are today. 

Follow Business is Boring on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast provider.


Simon Pound: It can seem a bit crass to talk about money – but actually money equals freedom and choice and independence, right?

Simran Kaur: Yeah, absolutely. And that’s kind of what we speak on – it’s not about trying to get people to buy fancy cars or live in expensive homes. I mean, if that’s what you want to do, power to you, but it’s more about “how do you get enough money to have those choices, those freedoms in your life?”

To get there, we need to start talking about it. Because if you don’t talk about it, you don’t learn how other people do it. We definitely have a culture in New Zealand where we tend to be more humble, we tend to not talk about [money], but that also means that other people can’t learn from you.

There’s always been a class divide – wealthy families can pass that wealth on to their children, but on top of that there’s a massive gender divide because even in these wealthy families it’s historically been passed down through the males. How are you helping turn that ship around?

Only 16% of women in New Zealand are investing, which is very, very small. In comparison, around 30 to 40% of men invest. Why aren’t [women] investing? Research has found there’s just this knowledge gap. People want to learn – it’s not that they’re not interested, it’s not that they don’t care, it’s just that they don’t know how to get started.

Tell us about how you’ve grown the following and the platform, because lots of people can start a podcast, but how do you become one of the top investment podcasts in the world?

I always started with the idea that it would grow. With Girls That Invest, even though we were starting off very small, we knew that as it grew, it needed to cater for everyone. I was very specific with the kind of content we would speak about, for example we wouldn’t just give New Zealand examples, we would give American examples and UK examples. We wanted people to feel like this was a kind of global brand, as opposed to being New Zealand-based.

Who is your audience, and what are you trying to help them with?

Our audience is mainly young women and men, particularly people from minority backgrounds, people that have never felt like they could walk up to a financial advisor and go “hey, can you tell me more?” It’s about us breaking down the stigma and the jargon so that they feel confident they’re turning up with a little toolkit of information so if someone throws a word at them it makes sense. 

The equivalent for me would be when I go to a mechanic – it doesn’t make sense to me, I’m very confused and anxious, and you either take on what they say, or you’re completely against it because you don’t trust what’s been told to you. I want people to feel comfortable going into their finances, in a way that they feel like they understand the basics. We never really tell people what to invest in. It’s more “what’s a fund? What’s a stock? How would you get started?”

You recently talked on Voices on RNZ about this idea of everyone having a money history. Can you talk us through that?

A money history is basically the way that you’ve grown up with money. Some people are more on the side of being a spender. Some people are more savers, some are very extravagant – I’m very frugal. It’s not necessarily a choice that we make, but it’s the ways that people around us have perhaps shaped our views on money.

It’s important to know your money history and your money story, because that way you can kind of unravel those thoughts, how you heard about money growing up. For example, I grew up thinking money was very evil and that if you were to be wealthy, you were probably a terrible person, or you were very busy, you didn’t have time for your friends and family and I didn’t want any part of that. I think it’s important to be able to break that down and ask: why do I think that way? 

What advice would you have to someone who wants to solve a problem they see, like you have done with Girls That Invest?

When I was younger and I was investing I wanted to find a community of like-minded people, and it was very “finance bro-y”, and I never really felt like I belonged in that space. I wished there was a space for people like me that just wanted a fun investing community. No one else was doing it, so why not make it myself? 

So if someone’s thinking “I really wish there was an XYZ in the space that I’m interested in, but no one else is doing it or no one else is doing it the way I’d like to see it done,” you’re probably not the only person that feels that way. A lot of my business decisions are based on the fact that if this is something that I would like, other people are probably going to like it too. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Keep going!
Hamish Howard, co-founder and GM of NewFish, and their pāua saucisson (Image: Supplied)
Hamish Howard, co-founder and GM of NewFish, and their pāua saucisson (Image: Supplied)

PodcastsMay 2, 2022

Reimagining the future of fishing in New Zealand

Hamish Howard, co-founder and GM of NewFish, and their pāua saucisson (Image: Supplied)
Hamish Howard, co-founder and GM of NewFish, and their pāua saucisson (Image: Supplied)

New Zealand company NewFish is combining a love of kaimoana with a passion for sustainability to create innovative seafood that doesn’t harm the planet. Co-founder Hamish Howard joined Business is Boring for a chat.

Overfishing of our oceans has been happening for decades now, and the effects are being felt around the world as fish populations dwindle and ecosystems are ruined. Popular documentaries like Seaspiracy have put the issue on the world stage, but for many cultures, simply cutting out kaimoana is not an option. So what’s the solution?

Hamish Howard realised there must be a way to create seafood products that didn’t harm the planet without compromising on taste. His brand NewFish has entered the kaimoana market with their pāua saucisson, a charcuterie sausage that uses the very best of New Zealand pāua, pork and algae.

Howard has big aspirations to reimagine New Zealand’s seafood industry and change food production systems for the better. Last week, he joined Simon Pound on Business is Boring to talk about his journey to business owner, and big plans for the industry.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.


Award-winning weekly podcast series Business is Boring is back with a brand new partner in Spark Lab. Join Simon Pound as he talks to everyone from accidental entrepreneurs to industry leaders about their business journeys and what propelled them to where they are today. 

Follow Business is Boring on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast provider.


Simon Pound: With a background in the fishing industry and a degree in marine biology, what led you back to study and to wanting to do what you’re doing with NewFish?

Hamish Howard: Ultimately, my passion really is about understanding how New Zealand’s fisheries are managed and how I could play a role in improving what is a great industry, but one that can certainly achieve a lot more. NewFish is a future food startup with a focus on reimagining New Zealand’s seafood and really changing our food production systems for the better. 

What does it mean to “reimagine seafood”?

For us, reimagining seafood is about exploring the full potential of New Zealand’s kaimoana, whether that be through the development and commercialisation of world’s first products that realise the true value of what we already harvest, or perhaps more importantly, by exploring new seafood products from our moana.

How does NewFish plan to do this?

We hope to change our food production systems for the better by creating new products that add value to existing waste streams or low value export commodities by embracing a philosophy of full utilisation. We also hope to change our food production systems for the better by helping to build a globally relevant regenerative seaweed and microalgae industry that will contribute to a truly sustainable blue economy here in New Zealand.

There’s so much more water than there is land in our territory, so things like microalgae farming seem to make a lot of sense for a country with New Zealand’s resources.

Absolutely. We’ve got a huge marine estate and the lack of aquaculture happening in New Zealand outside of salmon farming and green lipped mussel and oyster farming is fairly minimal. So the potential there is huge. We know we’ve got roughly 1,000 species of native New Zealand seaweeds, and then micro algae is undoubtedly an even larger number, but it’s a bit of an unknown just because there’s been so little attention paid to it.

What other products do you have in development and where do things like microalgae and macroalgae come into it?

In terms of macroalgae, our plan is really to support the growth of an industry here in New Zealand. And that means being a company who produces products using seaweed. On the microalgae side of things, we’re currently partnering with the Cawthron Institute, New Zealand’s largest marine science organisation, which is based in Nelson, and as part of that project we’re also partnering with a really forward-thinking engineering firm hoping to design some solutions for growing microalgae.

When you say you’re using “waste streams” – your first product is like quite a fancy pāua sausage, so it’s adding a lot of value. 

The NewFish pāua saucisson is a naturally fermented French-style salami made from the highest quality New Zealand ingredients we can get our hands on. So wild blackfoot pāua is really the hero ingredient. However, we also use freefarmed Kurobuta pork, which is the Wagyu beef of pork, and other ingredients such as native Pacific kelp, which is harvested down in Akaroa. It’s a really interesting recipe and product that really celebrates some of New Zealand’s best products and ingredients.

How is pāua currently processed?

Blackfoot pāua is endemic to New Zealand, meaning that it’s found nowhere else in the world. Furthermore, our pāua stocks are generally well managed with all pāua harvested by freedivers from amazing locations throughout New Zealand. However, the vast majority of New Zealand’s pāua harvest is currently bleached, using fairly nasty chemicals and sulfites, and canned for export. The purpose of them carrying out this process is essentially to make it look like other species of abalone.

At NewFish we feel there’s a real opportunity rather than bleaching and canning our pāua, to really take pride in it and market it as the unique ingredient that it is.

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