Young Guns: Raygun co-founder John-Daniel Trask talks to business writer Holly Ryan about business, his ambitions and starting at a young age.
John-Daniel Trask, chief executive and co-founder of Software development company Raygun, says he was "a bit of a weird kid".
Trask taught himself how to programme a computer as a 9-year-old, kindling a love of technology.
"I was really just spellbound by software development. I'd always been one of thosekids that really liked playing with Lego and it seemed like programming was like Lego but without physics - the only limitation was my ability to think of how to solve a problem, and that excited me."
Raygun - formerly Mindscape - was founded in 2007 when Trask was just 24. The company builds software that analyses and fixes other software programmes. Trask says his youth was an advantage and aspiring business people should start early.
"I generally try to encourage people to get into business early because I didn't have any children or any real costs and I had always been fairly frugal," he said. "I knew that I could live without taking any money out of the company for a year reasonably comfortably - it turned out I didn't need to wait that long because we got a fantastic deal from Microsoft New Zealand on day one of the company, and that helped put quarter of a million dollars into it."
Less than a decade on and the company has 22 staff and has expanded into the US.
Trask said he doesn't know what the future holds, he's just focused on growing Raygun.
"If we did end up exiting I'd be getting back into business - I have a strong interest in robotics and virtual reality and so I'm hoping to be working in technology for a really long time yet."
