{"id":1775,"date":"2025-09-04T17:10:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T17:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/1775\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T17:10:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T17:10:03","slug":"maori-mum-nicole-retters-app-pam-tops-tinder-hinge-in-new-zealand-app-lifestyle-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/1775\/","title":{"rendered":"M\u0101ori mum Nicole Retter\u2019s app PAM tops Tinder, Hinge in New Zealand app lifestyle rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MeetMeet PAM who will help organise your family and social events. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cI was losing my mind on a regular basis trying to keep on top of the school requirements and the extracurricular activity for us,\u201d Retter told the Herald.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also saw friends who were incredibly capable women all suffering like me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought stuff this, there\u2019s 101 project management tools at work so started looking for something similar for home but couldn\u2019t find anything available.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OnlineOnline feedback made to the developers of PAM. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Co-founder Diogo Freire – who didn\u2019t know Retter previously – built the app after seeing the potential it had.<\/p>\n

PAM won a Tipu Innovation 2025 Matihiko Award in June. The annual awards celebrate the M\u0101ori contribution to the digital field.<\/p>\n

The app uses AI to read communications: from an email, to a screenshot or even a crumpled birthday invite – which then becomes an event, assigned to the appropriate family member.<\/p>\n

Retter said her app made it \u201ceasier to rebalance the load, loop in partners, wh\u0101nau, and build a more sustainable support network\u201d during busy times.<\/p>\n

What started as a personal solution has become a movement<\/p>\n

Nicole Retter<\/p>\n

\u201cPAM does the thinking for you and makes the invisible mental load visible \u2013 so it can finally be shared,\u201d Retter said.<\/p>\n

She believed the app showed how \u201ctechnology can make home life fairer, calmer and more joyful.\u201d<\/p>\n

PAM is still pre-revenue and pre-investment, meaning Retter and Freire are yet to gain financially from it. They hope that will change.<\/p>\n

\"PAMPAM app developer Nicole Retter with her children Meihana (left) and Bowie (right). Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Retter, 42 is married to Tyler Kendall and mother to Meihana (9), and Bowie (7).<\/p>\n

Asked if there has been bias against her because she is female and a M\u0101ori in the tech industry, she replied: \u201cLooking back on some aspects, it may have been easier if I was a white male, but I want all women to have space and not be overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlus, there is a Te Ao M\u0101ori aspect where you are brought up by a village in wh\u0101nau support.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said online feedback has been heart-warming.<\/p>\n

That included from a widower who said PAM had been invaluable to him and his three children after the death of his wife.<\/p>\n

Caroline Pearce, who has two children and works in a corporate role in Auckland, also told the Herald how it had changed her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI work in a corporate role, so my work life is linked up, but my personal calendar always felt like more work,\u201d Pearce said.<\/p>\n

\"PAMPAM app user Caroline Pearce says the technology has been a great addition to her home life. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so much effort to maintain and then PAM came along and has made my life easier and has taken the mental load and effort required to maintain a personal calendar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have my own personal assistant, and I can send invites and emails to PAM and then forget it as it will file and remind me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joseph Los\u2019e joined NZME in 2022 as Kaupapa M\u0101ori Editor. Los\u2019e was a chief reporter, news director at the Sunday News newspaper covering crime, justice and sport. He was also editor of the NZ Truth and before joining NZME worked for urban M\u0101ori organisation Wh\u0101nau Waipareira.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meet PAM who will help organise your family and social events. Photo \/ Supplied \u201cI was losing my…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2724,2731,1862,2732,2734,2728,78,263,2720,2721,117,111,139,2722,69,2733,2725,2730,2729,2723,2735,145,2727,2726,80],"class_list":["post-1775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-app","tag-assistant","tag-dating","tag-developed","tag-giants","tag-hinge","tag-in","tag-lifestyle","tag-mori","tag-mum","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nicole","tag-nz","tag-overtaken","tag-pam","tag-personal","tag-rankings","tag-retters","tag-store","tag-technology","tag-tinder","tag-tops","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}