The entrepreneurship drain: why it matters and what to do about it

New Zealanders are leaving for Australia at rates not seen in over a decade and many are exactly the cohort most likely to start the next generation of firms. (Image: Getty)

Peter Griffin

Wed, 13 Aug 2025

A handful of tech company liquidations making headlines recently serve as a reminder that it’s not just restaurants and construction companies struggling in a sluggish economy.The Post reported over the weekend that RIPA Global, a software firm founded by Wellington entrepreneur Melissa Gollan, owed debts of $5.5 million, including around $316,000 to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD).RIPA received a lot of good press in its early years as it set out to build an app to automate the processing of receipts, invoices and payments. It appear...

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