‍

1. What's it like being an employer at age 18?

In New Zealand you can't actually employ people until you're 18 so until now we could only contract people. It's amazing the number of things you can't do until you're 18. You can't register a company and you can't get any form of loan. So until I turned 18 last August, DeXTech has been fully bootstrapped. It is a bit ageist but it's probably valid. Being an employer is a lot of responsibility and 90 per cent of companies started by people under 18 don't succeed. I always make sure we've got a buffer so we can pay the people working for us. At the moment we're in a big growth stage so we're seeing how many of our 25 contractors can become full-time staff.

2. Do you ever feel like you're in over your head?

All the time. I always say that if you're comfortable in what you're doing, you're not growing fast enough. Last year we doubled revenue from the year before. This year we'll multiply it by 10.

3. What is DeXTech's biggest growth area right now?

Second-hand American phones. Americans refuse to use phones that aren't the newest generation but New Zealanders couldn't care less. Second-hand still works fine and we save money.

America can't get rid of them fast enough, so we're importing bulk ex-leased phones, testing and refurbishing them and selling them with a warranty. There's huge opportunities internationally. It's about who can move the fastest and develop the best quality controls. 3 Recycling phones sounds quite green?Yes, e-waste is a huge problem. The chemicals in these things are terrible for the environment. Most are going to landfill or sitting in US warehouses when they could be funnelled into new economies. We also do a lot of work going into large organisations like universities, taking out their old IT gear, refurbishing it and putting it back into other organisations eg from high decile to low decile.

4. DeXTech also advises schools on what devices to buy. What are schools doing wrong?

Too many schools are blowing far too much money for what they're getting. We've consulted with 47 Auckland primary schools so far. One school we visited the other day had bought 50 ex-lease devices for $1500 each. They had wasted $40,000 by not shopping around. Or they'll spend a huge sum on devices that have to be replaced in a year or two when they could have spent a bit more on devices that would last five years.

5. Should all schools have an IT expert on staff?

Yes, too often it's the principal, a 55-year-old male who hasn't kept up with what's happening in tech. They think a successful Bring Your Own Device scheme is putting a device in front of every kid and "bang" they're going to get smarter. But that doesn't happen without proper staff training in how to use technology for educational purposes rather than just being a gimmick. We provide an affordable on-site tech support service to help with trouble shooting.

6. Growing up in West Auckland, what sort of a child were you?

I've always been a thinker - needing to understand the whys and hows. Apparently when I was 2 or 3 I would stay up till midnight in bed just thinking. I got bored at school because the things I was interested in weren't core subjects. Schools need to teach kids how to think, not what to think. Doing a paper run was one of the best things I've ever done. It taught me a work ethic.

When I was 14 I saw some tech companies started by young people and thought, "That would be so cool to do" so I started DeXTech. It's unusual for a youth start-up to be in hardware because it's so competitive. Most are software.

To read the full article, click here