Whatever happened to those heroes?

The 2015 Deloitte Fast 50 national awards will be announced at an all-singing, all-dancing “Festival of Fast Growth” to be held in Auckland on November 4. Fast 50 alumni include New Zealand success stories like Xero, Trade Me, 42Below and Green Button. But what happens to New Zealand’s fastest-growing companies after they drop off the Deloitte list, Idealog wondered. So we crunched some numbers around past Fast 50 winners, and came up with a couple of interesting findings.

First, Fast 50 companies are survivors. Of the top five winners since 2005, only two have gone out of business: ITmaniacs, and Next Window.

Second, the Fast 50 numbers back up evidence Kiwis are more likely to sell successful businesses, than keep and grow them. More than a third of the top-five growth companies in the last ten years have been sold by their original owners – and owners aren’t keeping their companies long. While only one (20%) of the 2013 winners has been sold, 60% of the 2005 winners have been flicked on. Add in the one that’s gone bust, and only one of the original 2005 top five remains in the same hands.

How many tennis balls are used during the course of Wimbledon? 27,500

How many basketballs can you fit in this room? Work out the volume of the room in feet (height x width x length) then divide by 0.8333

How many straight cuts do you need to divide a cake into 8 equal pieces? Three (Cut the cake into quarters then stack for the final cut)

How many times a day do a clock’s hands overlap? 22

Who would win in a fight between Batman and Superman? The publishing company