Podcast appearances and mentions of anna guenther

Anna Guenther is the Founder of PledgeMe, New Zealand's first equity crowdfunding platform, which has pledged over $75 million for Kiwi businesses and projects. What started as a master's thesis turned into a mission to change the way people fund what they care about. Anna's journey is one of resilience, from moving to New Zealand after losing her mum, navigating burnout, and returning to lead PledgeMe with fresh purpose. Now, she's on a mission to make funding more accessible, empowering women, regional businesses, and social enterprises to scale and grow. Hope you enjoy this episode, remember, we have a new episode dropping every Wednesday morning! Please remember to hit subscribe if you're enjoying the content. A must-listen for anyone who's ever had a big idea and wondered, “How do I make this happen?” Big thanks to our partners Moana Road and Kaboose Media, go check them out! Moana Road – https://moanaroad.co.nz/ Kaboose Media – https://www.kaboosemedia.co.nz/ Beyond the Surface Insta – https://www.instagram.com/beyond_the_surfacenz/ Beyond the Surface YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@beyondthesurfacenz Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/4ZArq1WSsV1pMID1dkHbBL?si=ae3f007dd7794cde Noa Woolloff Insta – https://www.instagram.com/noawoolloff/  

Over the past year New Zealand companies have successfully raised $36 million in capital from just two online funding platforms. In this episode of NZTE's Investment Fix podcast we talk to PledgeMe cofounder Anna Guenther and Snowball's director of capital Bill O'Boyle about how to harness the power of your crowd and get funded. 

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Jade Tang-Taylor and Anna Guenther from Cheese Cartel.This week on the podcast we have something a bit different: our first returning guests. It's very cool to have someone come back to the podcast on a second mission, and today that's happening twice.Two people from two different previous podcasts have created a kind of entrepreneur supergroup.Cheese Cartel was the outcome of a bunch of friends who know how make things happen coming together for a higher purpose (cheese).A self-described slow startup, Cheese Cartel is an antidote to the kind of businesses that are out to take over the world at any and all costs. Instead, it is a cool meditation on growing a company with the best people possible to get the best results.Two of the Cheese Cartel’s five (and a half) founders join Business is Boring today, Jade Tang-Taylor - who was on the podcast previously as a co-founder of Curative and now consults to bring design for social impact and diversity to projects large and small and Anna Guenther, founder and chief bubble blower at PledgeMe.Listen to the chat to learn about their philosophy, how they launched a successful cheese service business and the journey of making a business with friends. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I first heard speak at a TED talk in Wellington back in 2012. She introduced the idea that crowdfunding was going to change the world and, as I’d never heard of crowdfunding, I was intrigued as to how she was going to do this. Anna was then, and still is, a powerhouse of energy and passion to do what she thinks is right. We often don’t agree and that's cool (well for me anyway!), but I have immense respect for her.   She was one of Collective Intelligence’s first recipients and used this opportunity to great effect, her team helping her mould  into the success it is today. Anna’s wine choice is on standby for her to enjoy with us when she’s next back across the ditch from her base in Brisbane.

Anna Guenther is the founder of crowdfunding platform PledgeMe. She joined Angus on an audio version of the podcast and shared some of her journey including: Why Anna chose "Chief Bubbleblower" as her title. How Anna got the idea for PledgeMe and her failure on Audacious How PledgeMe responded when their transaction provider shut them down with no notice The commonalities of successful crowdfunding campaigns - "The three C's" The common mistakes and misconceptions of crowdfunding Campaigns PledgeMe have rejected The fastest campaigns raised on PledgeMe Why crowdfunding works best for companies that are already going Launching a cheese delivery company Aligning values when forming a team Her secret peer-learning entrepreneur group Why social enterprise is the future

As careers go Anna Guenther is not doing half bad, with stints working for the New Zealand Government, MIT and a Masters in Entrepreneurship with a focus on crowdfunding. Anna is currently co-founder and Chief Bubble Blower of PledgeMe, New Zealand's first crowdfunding platform.Over five years PledgeMe has had over $15 million pledged and over 1,100 creative, community and entrepreneurial campaigns - ranging from food forests through to a craft brewers. In order to continue to grow in New Zealand, launch in Australia and focus on making equity crowdfunding equitable, PledgeMe are equity crowdfunding equity crowdfunding (again). If you want to join Anna and the PledgeMe team for this journey, please head over to their campaign page.I hope you enjoy this episode. So, leave a comment and subscribe today.Stay awesome and share the loveEli SmitFounder + HostGroundbreakingpodcast.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Recently I spoke with Anna Guenther, CEO and chief bubble blower of PledgeMe, a New Zealand based crowdfunding platform “helping Kiwis fund the things they care about”. I'd been wanting to chat with Anna for quite a while, her name was on the “potential awesome podcast guests” list that I keep for myself. I'd been reluctant about reaching out as I'd heard she was super busy and had thought, “Why would a CEO give up their time to chat with me if I'm just reaching out to them cold?” Thankfully one day I managed the courage to reach out to ask if she'd be interested in coming on the show. The reply I received back the next day was awesome “Ha! I'm pretty used to being uncomfortable! I could catch up early next week if you'd like?” We caught up down at Creative HQ in Wellington and sat down to find out a bit more about each other over a cup of peppermint tea before the meeting room we were going to chat in freed up. I don't know what I'd felt so uncomfortable about as we discussed favourite podcasts, why we liked them and why we didn't, as well as what we were going to try at “Wellington on a Plate”. When we got stuck into the podcast conversation we talked a bit about Anna's background, her accent belies the fact she is from Dunedin. Then we got into the origin story of PledgeMe, it's an interesting story and you can listen to it here. But as you know it's the uncomfortable stuff around it that I find interesting. Anna discussed heaps of great ideas, but these ones are popping up for me at the moment with where I am at. “That felt like the validation point where we could really start telling people about it” There came a time in the development of PledgeMe that Anna and her co-founder were convinced that this was something that could really work. The idea was validated in their minds and they could really start to push it. It's a tipping point that I'm sure a lot of us face when we come up with an interesting idea. I know it was when I started up podcasting. I had all sorts of thoughts going through my head; Who is going to want to talk with me on the show? Who is going to want to listen to me? Do I have the technical skills to pull this off? Do I have enough interesting things to talk about to pull this off? The easiest things to measure were, if I could get people to come and have a conversation with me, and how many people were downloading the episodes. For some reason I set myself the target of getting 10 people to speak with me before putting out any episodes. I figured that if I could convince 10 people that I might be interesting to chat with, then I could probably go on convincing people. Looking back, I've put out over 70 episodes to date and have spoken with over 60 guests. I'd also set myself the target of trying to get 50 downloads for each episode, I have no idea why I chose that as my validation number (although I do have a big family, so maybe I thought that if I had that many at least someone that wasn't related to me was probably listening). The first few episodes hit that number quickly and all of the others have surpassed it, some by quite a significant amount. Hitting these validation targets is important as it helps with our confidence levels and keeps us engaged and the momentum going on our ideas. The challenging thing is where this validation target lies? Set it too close and it may be an idea that you keep pushing towards that you should let go. Set it too far away and if you don't hit it early then you might find yourself getting disheartened and drifting away from a great idea. I don't have any earthshattering advice about this, instead focus on a target that is a decent challenge for you to hit, but still well below where you want to end up “There is healthy stress which makes you think differently and push harder” We talk about stress often, and I don't know about you but for me the word often brings up negative connotations. The concept of stress is often frame in a way that it is bad to experience. This isn't always the case as having some stress is often a good thing when we are working towards something. Think about a deadline of something you have been working on, this deadline creates a sense of stress around time for us. Being in this state of stress will often increase my effectiveness and my creativity. It forces me to focus my energy and concentration on the topic at hand, getting the job done. Having this pressure on me often forces me to come up with slightly different ways of doing things to the way that I would normally just plod through a task, sometimes this new way increases my efficiency or output in the future. If I didn't have this stress on myself then I find my concentration wandering off and getting distracted with a whole lot of sparkly things. As a bit of a test I've set myself a time deadline to write this post by to see if I can train my focus by putting myself under some stress. It seems to be working so far. I'm perceiving this stress as a beneficial stress for me. I know it's not damaging and I can use it for my advantage to get something productive done. The problem is when I don't manage my stress levels well. This healthy stress that use to my advantage, called Eustress, can turn into distress. The stress is the same in this instance, I have a deadline coming up. However my response to it differs. I perceive the stress as negative, that it is problematic to me. When I do this I find myself getting flustered, my ability to perform drops away and I get distracted easily. My ability to manage my stress levels depends on a lot of things, what I've been eating, how well I've slept, what else is going on in my life, if I've moved my body recently. But the largest influence on how I manage is my perception of the stress as either positive or negative. If I can ship my perspective so that this stress is a positive thing for me, then I can harness it to improve my performance. It's not good to be under stress all the time, even if it is the healthy kind. It's important to have time when not stressed to relax, but also to reflect and take away learnings about how I handled the situation and what I might do differently next time. Each time I am under stress it's an opportunity to train myself to get better at dealing with it. “We should be having robust conversations about everything, diversity of perspective is so important” BOOM! Not so long ago it was thought everything that was known was all that there was. How things have changed, the earth is no longer flat, the sun does not revolve around the earth, and women are capable of making at least as informed choice about who to vote for as men are. I used to be very guilty of adhering to just one perspective. In my early to mid-twenties I was stuck in a very fixed mindset and thought that the way I was doing things was the way I was supposed to be doing things. It didn't serve me well, and I ended up being a pretty boring, unhealthy person, some may even argue a bit of a dickhead! Over the years since then, my perspective has gradually changed. It's changed through conversations, whether this being through having robust discussions with people, or listening to differing viewpoints. This is the way the world has changed over time, through having these discussions. The things I mentioned before have all been proven, but when the concept was first floated they hadn't been and it was only though robust conversation that the world was convinced. Now I try my best to jump into robust discussion about topics. I may not always change my perspective as a result of having these discussions, but at least I'm at a point now where I recognise the importance of taking the time to listen and engage. Listen to the full episode here.   PledgeMe Anna Twitter Host: Chris Desmond UIOK Instagram UIOK Facebook Twitter   Support the show on Patreon

Anna is a vivacious, fun and the perfect guest to kick off Executive Stories for 2018. She has experience in events, finance, project management and startups and has completed her Masters in Entrepreneurship through the University of Otago where she wrote her thesis all about crowdfunding and her startup, PledgeMe Her official title is PledgeMe's 'chief bubble blower.' Anna is clever and energetic. She knows what’s going on in the world and business and keeps her finger on the pulse in the face of changing technology. In this interview we decided to have a little bit of fun chatting about Anna’s biggest f*ck ups. Yes, there’s some expletives that could be beeped out but I decided to run with it in its raw form – maybe skip this episode if this might not be your thing.  But do tune in if you want front row seats as we discuss some of Anna’s biggest mistakes, what she learnt from them and how we can learn from our mistakes as well. We also delve into the world of crowd-sourced fund raising and its benefits. There is certainly a little tongue and cheek to Anna’s personality but when we delve a little deeper into the conversation you see she is a super smart business woman who takes a very honest and open approach to life and business - and was willing to share her f*ck ups for us all to learn from. I hope you like it!

Anna Guenther of PledgeMe discusses the world of crowdfunding, sharing insights and advice for entrepreneurs looking to raise investment funds, whilst making a positive impact on the world.

We have had Anna on many times talking about the amazing campaigns that are on Pledgeme.co.nz This time we actually talk about PledgeMe itself and its amazing growth path and some very interesting news. *Cough* Australia.Women in Tech - its a thing, its a thing people are talking about. Anna shares some cool insights.Note, this episode contains many pop culture references from the 90’s.------------------------------------------------------We share the stories from people that work in New Zealand tech, social media, startups. If you have a story or know someone that does - get in touch!Mike Riversdale (@MiramarMike) background is explaining stuff, connecting people and getting things done. Raj Khushal (@nzRaj) background is in video, design, media and making things happen.All our past shows are on our websitehttps://www.accessgranted.nzFollow and Like us on:https://twitter.com/AccessGrantedNZhttps://facebook.com/AccessGrantedNZhttps://linkedin.com/company/access-granted-podcastSubscribe to the show however you want:https://www.accessgranted.nz/subscribe/

Today I chat with Anna Guenther the Chief Bubble blower from PledgeMe. PledgeMe is a crowdfunding platform which helps Kiwi's fund the things they care about. They have run over 1000 successful campaigns and helped raise over $15 million dollars. We chat through the origin story of PledgeMe and Anna's story in getting to the point. Other topics we cover are: + Naievity in the beginning of projects and how it is important + Finding validation points + Shifting the goalposts when you need to + The difference between good and bad stress and managing both + Changing the landscape of crowdfunding + Why crowdfunding isn't dumb money + Dealing with internet trolls + The importance of diversity of perspective + Why we should have robust conversations about everything + Why people are both the best and worst things   Guest: Anna Guenther PledgeMe Anna Twitter Host: Chris Desmond UIOK Instagram UIOK Facebook Twitter   Support the show on Patreon

Recorded live at BATS Theatre, 8 September 2016. Featuring stories from Jonny Paul, Tai Samaeli, and Anna Guenther. Hosted and produced by Jennifer O'Sullivan. Audio engineering by Oliver Devlin.

She calls herself Chief Bubble Blower, but PledgeMe's young CEO now runs a very serious business indeed. She talks about how it all started in Dunedin and how PledgeMe now funds companies as well as arts and charity projects. Please connect and send feedback via Twitter @NZ_Business, Facebook.com/NZBusinessPodcast and the official website http://NZBusinessPodcast.com Host and Guests: Paul Spain, Johanna Bennett, Anna Guenther Running time: 0:43:57

Nick Williamson (@mashmatix), for the last 20 years, has forged his career working at the intersection of Planning, Surveying, Law, and Spatial Science. Much of that time has been spent in and around local government, although he spends a lot of time talking to ‘ordinary people’ working to bring disruption, creativity and community to many projects (eg, Kamo Place Race (TEDxChristchurch talk) and Place As A Service with Te Karanga).We also welcome back Anna Guenther (@where_is_anna), CEO from PledgeMe, for an update on what crowd funding campaigns are happening at the moment.------------------------------------------------------We share the stories from people that work in New Zealand tech, social media, startups. If you have a story or know someone that does - get in touch!Mike Riversdale (@MiramarMike) background is explaining stuff, connecting people and getting things done. Raj Khushal (@nzRaj) background is in video, design, media and making things happen.All our past shows are on our websitehttps://www.accessgranted.nzFollow and Like us on:https://twitter.com/AccessGrantedNZhttps://facebook.com/AccessGrantedNZhttps://linkedin.com/company/access-granted-podcastSubscribe to the show however you want:https://www.accessgranted.nz/subscribe/

This week we talk to Grant Robinson (@grantrobinson) and Darryl Gray (@darrylgray) from Atomic. We talk about the early days of Xero (employee 5 and 6), some time at BNZ and their first "start up" experiences creating the YouMoney banking platform. We also chat about the earlier days of "interactive" design and using graphics to tell stories – and how they came up with the "Google Docs of design software".We also have a few words from PledgeMe CEO and founder, Anna Guenther - listen up as there's something cool closing tonight which is Tuesday 15th September, 2015.------------------------------------------------------We share the stories from people that work in New Zealand tech, social media, startups. If you have a story or know someone that does - get in touch!Mike Riversdale (@MiramarMike) background is explaining stuff, connecting people and getting things done. Raj Khushal (@nzRaj) background is in video, design, media and making things happen.All our past shows are on our websitehttps://www.accessgranted.nzFollow and Like us on:https://twitter.com/AccessGrantedNZhttps://facebook.com/AccessGrantedNZhttps://linkedin.com/company/access-granted-podcastSubscribe to the show however you want:https://www.accessgranted.nz/subscribe/

Anna Guenther provides her monthly update on PledgeMe Team tech and media related items to watch. We then lead into Raj who has a fascinating conversation with Andrew Schofield (@nzscoff) from Timely and how it is a true virtual company based around New Zealand but taking on the world.------------------------------------------------------We share the stories from people that work in New Zealand tech, social media, startups. If you have a story or know someone that does - get in touch!Mike Riversdale (@MiramarMike) background is explaining stuff, connecting people and getting things done. Raj Khushal (@nzRaj) background is in video, design, media and making things happen.All our past shows are on our websitehttps://www.accessgranted.nzFollow and Like us on:https://twitter.com/AccessGrantedNZhttps://facebook.com/AccessGrantedNZhttps://linkedin.com/company/access-granted-podcastSubscribe to the show however you want:https://www.accessgranted.nz/subscribe/

After we dispel the myths of "there's a talent shortage in NZ", Mike has an insightful chat with Anna Guenther (@where_is_anna) who was still on a high with the amazing success of the recent Yeastie Boys PledgeMe campaign.------------------------------------------------------We share the stories from people that work in New Zealand tech, social media, startups. If you have a story or know someone that does - get in touch!Mike Riversdale (@MiramarMike) background is explaining stuff, connecting people and getting things done. Raj Khushal (@nzRaj) background is in video, design, media and making things happen.All our past shows are on our websitehttps://www.accessgranted.nzFollow and Like us on:https://twitter.com/AccessGrantedNZhttps://facebook.com/AccessGrantedNZhttps://linkedin.com/company/access-granted-podcastSubscribe to the show however you want:https://www.accessgranted.nz/subscribe/