Doge cuts death knell for Christchurch research firm, owner says

Thursday, 12 June 2025

A Christchurch company has collapsed after Doge, until recently run by Elon Musk for President Trump, cancelled its contracts.

Christchurch company Research First has collapsed owing over $3.5 million after the United States Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) cancelled its contracts.

The market researcher, which trades under the name Truwind, had other high-profile clients such as Canterbury University, Ōtakaro, Greater Wellington, NZ Police, the Department of Conservation and the Crusaders before going international.

It was put into liquidation on June 4 by its shareholders and directors Carl Davidson, who founded the business in 2006, and Ann Thompson.

Davidson said they had expected to make about $1m this year from American contracts, which included research on geo-political issues in the Pacific.

Carl Davidson, who founded Research First in 2006, says he is devastated by its collapse.

He said Donald Trump’s presidency and cost slashing by Doge, which was until recently headed by Tesla boss Elon Musk, had changed everything.

“That really killed the company, when the American funding was cut off by the Doge guys. Covid seriously wounded our business, and conditions in 2024 really delivered a coup de grace.

“Because the domestic market has been flat, we thought we could ride it out, and that the international work would be a lifeboat.”

Staff numbers went from 40 last year to 25 this year.

Davidson said the company was making payments after getting into tax arrears, but after the US contracts were cancelled they “had no choice but to pull the plug”.

Doge, until recently headed by Elon Musk, was set up to cut costs for the Trump Government.

In retrospect, they should have restructured ruthlessly after Covid especially once tax penalties began mounting, he said.

“It was such a good company for so long, and 19 years of my life. It’s devastating”.

Davidson and Thompson have two other companies, Pacific First Ltd which was set up to run their Pacific work, and the Curiosity Company Ltd which does corporate training.

Liquidator Brenton Hunt’s first report says Research First has debt totalling $3.53m.

It owes Inland Revenue $2m in unpaid GST and PAYE.

Unsecured creditors are owed $1.2 million, secured creditors $339,000, and staff are owed $50,000 in holiday pay.

“According to the director, the business had struggled to be economic for sometime,” the report says.

Carl Davison, centre, in Research First’s one-way mirror discussion room in 2013.

There are 32 unsecured creditors owed money, including ACC, Business Canterbury, Callaghan Innovation, Contact Energy, Facebook, Harcourts, and Spark.

Secured creditors including ASB bank have taken back computers and office equipment which they had security agreements over.

The only remaining asset is $58,000 in unpaid accounts.