Director / Five Star Growth
Karan Vinayak
Karan brings hands-on production administration experience and multidisciplinary study to the work of shaping clearer business software and digital products.
Background
Operations, engineering and software study.
Before Five Star Growth, Karan worked as a Production Administrator in a steel company. That role placed him close to the records, coordination and day-to-day processes required to keep production work organised.
He holds a Mechanical Engineering degree and is currently completing a Bachelor of Science double major in Computer Science and Statistics.
At Five Star Growth, Karan developed FiveStar Loyalty, a digital loyalty platform connecting Apple and Google Wallet rewards, staff checkout, customer communications and merchant tools.
See the FiveStar Loyalty product storyGuides by Karan
Practical decisions before a software build.
How Referral Programmes Help Christchurch Businesses Grow
Your regular customers can become one of your strongest growth channels. Give them an easy way to bring a friend, reward a completed first purchase and turn that introduction into a reason to return. A well-run referral programme puts the trust your Christchurch business has already earned to work.
Did Google Change LCP to 2 Seconds? What Small Businesses Need to Know
No. As of 20 August 2026, Google still defines a good Largest Contentful Paint as 2.5 seconds or less at the 75th percentile of real visits. A two-second target can provide useful headroom, but it is not a newly announced Google rule.
Custom Software vs Off-the-Shelf: A Practical Decision Guide
The right choice is not custom software by default. It is the option that supports the workflow reliably, at a sensible lifetime cost, without giving away the parts of the operation that make the business work well.
What Does It Cost to Build an App in New Zealand? A Scoping Guide
There is no responsible universal app price. A credible estimate depends on the user journey, backend, administration, integrations, release requirements and the evidence the first version needs to create.
From Idea to SaaS MVP: A Practical Roadmap for Founders
A credible MVP is the smallest product that can deliver a useful end-to-end outcome and test a risky business assumption. It is not every planned feature reduced to a weaker version.
7 Business Processes Worth Evaluating for AI Automation
The best starting point is not a chatbot for every department. It is a frequent, measurable workflow with representative inputs, a clear definition of an acceptable output and a safe route for human review.