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Powered by Place: sharing our stories
How does our connection to the land inspire our thinking?
Discover the Kiwis taking on the world in the first of our brand new Powered by Place story series. Meet Greentech Robotics’ Don Sandbrook, AgriSea’s Clare Bradley and FlipFarm’s Aaron Pannell who share their close connection to the land and the challenges of scaling globally.
Can you take on the world from your own backyard?
The sheer bloody minded persistence that paved Don Sandbrook’s big break is still the key to building a global business. Greentech Robotics is on a bold mission – to future proof farming by developing cutting edge robotic capability. Today, almost all their customers are offshore, but Greentech Robotics is still based in Palmerston North. We asked Greentech Robotics’ Don Sandbrook how he made it work. Read more.
Shifting mindsets with the power of local knowledge.
It started as a dream, but this award winning Paeroa based family business is creating global impact. Their tech is unique and uses brown kelp native to New Zealand.
“As a Māori-owned, intergenerational business, we have a different lens on the business than a large corporate might have. That influences our long-term vision. Māori values like kaitiakitanga, manaakitanga and whanaungatanga are part of our DNA,” says AgriSea’s Clare Bradley.
“Our values are not a PR exercise for us, they’re part of who we are. We feel it is our responsibility to look after our natural resources for future generations,” she says. Read more.
Necessity is the mother of invention!
We’re renowned for our ‘number eight wire’ mentality to problem solving. But when FlipFarm had to think creatively to stop losing their gear and oysters they also created a system to help farmers around the world.
“We built the system for us but once we saw that it worked we knew it was going to solve a big problem for farmers around the world,” says FlipFarm’s Aaron Pannell. Read more.
We’d love to hear your stories!
Is connection to the land important to you? What does ‘place’ mean to you and your business? It might be where you grew up, where your business is based, or the unique characteristics of the region you live in.
We’d love to hear your stories to help inspire other Kiwi agritech entrepreneurs. Please contact us.
