From Uber to Exaba: AJ Tills takes on Big Tech storage

Episode 63: Orion Health Founder, Ian McCrae

In episode 63 of the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast, our guest is the Founder of Orion Health, Ian McCrae. He is regarded by many as one of the early “heroes” of the New Zealand tech sector, but Ian McCrae refers to himself as simply a passionate engineering entrepreneur, and he remains committed to his mission to leverage technology in order to improve the quality and accessibility of healthcare for every person. After an undistinguished high school education, he found his way at Auckland University where he graduated with an engineering degree and a Masters. Along the way he took a break to hitchhike around the world, a journey that saw him in London during the sharemarket crash and in Iran during the revolution, a period which enhanced his already substantial levels of resilience. Back in New Zealand, his Masters thesis led him to Antarctica where he modelled the ice shelf flows long before it was cool to do so. A series of jobs in the tech space led him to decide that the health sector was where the opportunity was and Orion Health was born.  Ian’s story of establishing a global business, on limited funding and heavily reliant on suitcases and shoe leather, has plenty of lessons for every aspiring entrepreneur.  During the Leaders Getting Coffee Podcast, he speaks with Bruce Cotterill about his combination of sales skills and software knowledge creating a critical combination enabling his success. There’s plenty of chat about the early days of cracking the US market and the ups and downs that followed. Five years ago, his life was upended with the diagnosis of a brain tumour. And as you might expect from a technology leader with a passion for healthcare, he has piloted his treatment programme via his own software and the AI tools that we all have access to. The result has seen him outlive his original diagnosis four-fold and he’s showing no signs of slowing down. He’s also outspoken about what those same AI tools should mean for the health system, and he sees opportunities to overtake our unaffordable current approach to healthcare and move directly to a new way, one which sees the patient at the centre of their own care and AI providing the interface between the system and the needs of the population.  This is the opportunity to hear from a man who is a massively successful New Zealand entrepreneur. But that man is also patient in our health system, one with strong and well qualified opinions on the future direction of one of our government’s biggest challenges.  Leaders Getting Coffee – Episode 63 with Bruce Cotterill and Ian McCrae, Founder of Orion Health and Brain Tumour patient. Download it here. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

From Uber to Exaba: AJ Tills takes on Big Tech storage

When it comes to scaling high‑growth tech companies, AJ Tills has been in the engine room.  As one of Uber’s earliest hires in New Zealand, he helped the ride‑hailing giant push through regulatory resistance and turn the controversial startup into a default verb for getting around town, briefly serving as Uber’s US and Canada marketing chief of staff in New York.  Later, as chief marketing officer at Jamie Beaton’s startup Crimson Education, he helped the Kiwi‑founded edtech unicorn build a virtual high school and launchpad for students seeking entrance to top universities. He then went on to lead international growth for the world’s largest online wedding marketplace, The Knot Worldwide, spanning over a dozen countries Now Tills is back in New Zealand and backing a very different kind of disruption – this time in the unsexy but critical world of data storage. On the latest episode of The Business of Tech podcast, Tills tells me about his new role leading the customer push at Exaba. This Hamilton‑based startup wants to change how enterprises store and protect their data. Exaba has raised almost $12 million in seeding funding – one of the largest in New Zealand – to deepen its local footprint and expand into Australia and the US. Rising from the ashes of Nyriad The company was founded by Dr. Stuart Inglis and Peter Boyle, former executives of Nyriad, which developed ultrafast, GPU-accelerated data storage technology, but was wound down in 2024 after failing to gain sufficient market traction. Tech entrepreneur Guy Haddleton, who had backed Nyriad, bought some of the company’s assets and doubled down on his support for Inglis and Boyle to create a company with a slightly different proposition. Exaba aims to exploit the data centre boom and shifting sentiment towards the dominant hyperscale public cloud providers. For the past two decades, the default move has been to throw everything into the big public clouds, from AWS to Azure and Google Cloud. That brought convenience and scale, but it also introduced spiralling storage costs, punishing egress fees, and growing unease about data sovereignty and security. Exaba is building a cheaper, local alternative. Its software runs on standard, commodity hardware and turns managed service providers into “local scalers” who can offer their own on‑premise or locally hosted storage to customers. The company claims it can be up to ten times cheaper than the hyperscalers for storage, with predictable pricing instead of nasty surprises when you try to get your data back out. Tills, who joined Exaba six months ago and serves as its chief customer officer and US president, goes into why data residency and sovereignty are suddenly board‑level issues, and how Exaba is building post‑quantum‑secure storage for a world where attackers can “harvest now, decrypt later”.  We also explore how Tills is applying Uber‑era playbooks to win over managed service providers in the US and future‑proof their business models in the age of AI. Listen to the discussion in its entirety on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.  See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Wellington’s creative comeback — with Yu Mei

In this special episode, Brooke Roberts sits down with Yu Mei founder Jessie Wong to hear what it takes to build a creative business in Aotearoa, and to introduce Common Material, a pilot event celebrating Wellington's creative industries. Taking place 5–7 June, during a special limited opening of Wellington City Gallery, Common Material will bring together the capital’s design creatives for three days of free exhibitions, runway shows, and talks. Hear Jessie discuss the potential of our creative economy, the community impact of this event, and the broader ambition to position Wellington as the creative capital of the Pacific.  Sharesies is proud to sponsor Common Material. The exhibition is free and open to all. Find tickets for Sunday's Value of Artistry panel discussion and other talks at commonmaterial.co.nz. For more places to follow Shared Lunch—check out http://linktr.ee/sharedlunch [http://linktr.ee/sharedlunch]Shared Lunch is brought to you by Sharesies Australia Limited (ABN 94 648 811 830; AFSL 529893) in Australia and Sharesies Limited (NZ) in New Zealand. It is not financial advice. Information provided is general only and current at the time it’s provided, and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation and needs. We do not provide recommendations and you should always read the disclosure documents available from the product issuer before making a financial decision. Our disclosure documents and terms and conditions—including a Target Market Determination and IDPS Guide for Sharesies Australian customers—can be found on our relevant Australian or NZ website. Investing involves risk. You might lose the money you start with. If you require financial advice, you should consider speaking with a qualified financial advisor. Past performance is not a guarantee of future performance. Appearance on Shared Lunch is not an endorsement by Sharesies of the views of the presenters, guests, or the entities they represent. Their views are their own. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Why should young Kiwis stay in NZ when Australia pays more?

Australia has just handed its lowest-paid workers a 4.75% pay rise, lifting the minimum wage to just over $25-Australian-dollars an hour – which is about $32-New Zealand-dollars.   That means a full-time worker across the Tasman will now earn nearly $1004-Aussie-dollars, before tax. -- or $1216- Kiwi dollars.  Here, the minimum wage went up just 2% this year to $23.95 an hour. Even our voluntary Living Wage, at $29.90, falls short of Australia’s legal minimum.   At a time when rent, groceries, petrol, and power bills keep climbing – the comparison is stark.  So, what does this say about how New Zealand values its workers? And, why on earth would any young person want to live and build a life here?  Today on The Front Page, New Zealand Council of Trade Unions president Sandra Grey is with us to talk about the growing wage gap, what it means for workers here, and whether New Zealand is in danger of pricing itself out of its own future.  See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

The Country 03/06/26: Christopher Luxon talks to Jamie Mackay

The Prime Minister ponders his Fieldays plans, the latest Roy Morgan poll, and whether we are freeloading on defence spending. Plus, should we remain nuclear-free, and why should we even contemplate bailing out Moana Pasifika? See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.