It’s hard to find something good to watch. I became obsessed with trying to understand why.

Then it dawned on me: emotions influence every decision we make. And what we want to watch changes based on our current mood and how we want to feel.

Existing solutions weren’t taking this into account.

So after winning an Innovate UK grant, I worked with leading neuroscientists at the University of Surrey to measure brain activity of people watching movie scenes.

And created an emotion-led algorithm which is patent-pending.

Now anyone can use emotive words (or emojis 😉) to describe how they want to feel… and discover movies that will move them to that mood.

Try moveme.tv for yourself here.

I’ve outlined further thinking behind moveme with blogs - including how ‘Emotional Affect’ will replace genre as a way of categorising content. And how our vision is to transform moods at the push of a button.

moveme was in the Slush 100 (2023), the most coveted startup competition in the world.
Shortlisted for the Content Discovery award at the Video Tech Innovation Awards (2023).
And #25 in the UK’s MediaTech 50 rankings (2024).

Press highlights include a cover feature and interview in TVB Europe, a podcast appearance with Filmworkz and a mention at a major talk at the International Broadcasting Convention.

We continue to grow organically.

We currently have around 40,000 monthly active users.

Ben and his friend Dan were in a dingy nightclub in Barcelona. It was late, they needed a pick-me-up. Unimpressed with anything on offer, they had an idea: caffeinated vodka soda. Two years of food technologists, beverage consultants, business advisors, lawyers, setbacks and a vertical learning curve later, SWIM was born.

A deliciously refreshing drink with no sugar or sweeteners, natural flavours and no preservatives, SWIM is incredibly low in calories. It’s for those that like to party, clean.

incorporated in December ‘18, 624,242 SWIM cans were sold in 100 liquor stores and the best summer festivals across New Zealand.

As seen in Idealog.

Then, a manufacturing defect in tens of thousands of filled SWIM cans brought everything to a crashing halt. We are currently embroiled in litigation.

Ben created the Auckland Burrito Review (ABR) in 2011. A weekly radio segment and lunch with Jacinda Adern quickly followed.

Then, after a chance encounter, he started a company making sausages which taste like burritos. It turns out sausages have no rules. So by putting free-range pork, whole black beans, diced red onion and so forth in a sausage skin, you can replicate the taste and consistency of a burrito. Served in a tortilla with guacamole, hot sauce and sour cream, the Bangerrito was an instant hit.

Stocked in gourmet supermarkets around New Zealand, Bangerritos won Gold at the prestigious NZ Sausage Awards (2017). However, acceptance into the largest supermarket group in NZ - originally the dream - forced Ben to really look at Bangerritos as a business. To get things up and running at the mainstream level he’d dreamed of would require a not-insignificant amount of money. Poor returns, the result of refusing to sacrifice quality, made the investment hard to justify. Ultimately, there were better uses of time and money and the plug was pulled in 2018.

The NZ Herald covered the inception fairly well here. And a certain social media scandal here. This is a video of Ben pitching the idea in a competition which he won. There’s a selection of interviews here, here and here.