The future is looking incredibly bright.
Last week, our GM Rachel had the privilege of judging the Otago Regional Young Enterprise Awards last week. The Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) is an opportunity for students to unleash their inner entrepreneur and experience the start-up world first-hand, nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs and community leaders.
The best part? Throughout all of the teams, the pitch quality was so consistently impressive; it was clear that the teams had spent a great deal of time this year validating, understanding their customer and solving some unique problems in Aotearoa. Pay special attention to their Quadruple Bottom Line; this is a new way of thinking about business, ensuring startups are making sustainable profits, but that they are also factoring in social and environmental responsibilities.
You’ll want to make sure you’re on board for this journey - make sure you get a slice of the action on their Instagram and Facebook.
Accelerate Sports Journal
Accelerate Sports Journal is a 24-week goal-setting, motivation, and performance diary for sports teams and athletes.
Using this journal template and monthly reviews, you can set goals, reflect on performances, and build towards greater accountability and professional habits to help take your game to the next level.
As part of this partnership their business donates 20% of each sports journal sold to the charity to help get young kids into sport and physical activity and have a pretty great ambassador in Richie McCaw! Bonus, it fits perfectly into a school blazer. A great stocking stuffer for the dedicated in your family perhaps?
Seriously though, using a blend of locally sourced New Zealand berries with a smooth chocolate base, these are the bliss balls you can make at home.
Looking at a gap in the market for kiwi-produced healthy snacks, Easy Mix have created a delicious keto, vegan, and celiac option. The friendly mixture is easy and quick to make at home, with no baking required.
Rachel can attest to this being a brilliant addition to the Christmas day list. Seriously.
Historivia
The NZ school curriculum is changing, and the new Aotearoa history curriculum will be compulsory in schools from January 2023. This is a really exciting development, but is also a challenge; it’s a brand new area for teachers to deliver.
Enter Historivia - a board game designed to complement the new Aotearoa Histories curriculum!
This group had completed impressive validation work with a number of schools and teachers, and they had an in-depth understanding of when budgets were decided by a school.
Leaning into this new space and making it easier in the classroom, this is a kiwi take on all things trivia in our own country. Truly beautifully and professionally made.
This next startup truly understands the quadruple bottom line.
Using deadstock fabrics (aka fabrics that are surplus to requirements for companies and designers!), Piller makes merino hijabs right here in NZ.
Their hijabs and scarves are made by the Dunedin ex-refugee community from Syria, thereby saving the material from going to landfill.
Piller, (a name inspired by the co-founders pet monarch caterpillar), has spent the last year intimately understanding the customer and community both locally and nationally. These amazing students are already making sales in multiple countries, and we can’t wait to watch Piller conquer the NZ fashion industry.
Hydretta
Read the ODT article about Hydretta here.
A year is a short time to build, validate and grow a business.
We know innovation, testing, and reiterating can take up all of this time by itself! Therefore, we were so stoked to see Hydretta make it to regional finals. Hydretta is a timing system that controls the electricity to your water pump, reducing the risk of floods significantly, which in turn gives the owners peace of mind.
This YES team has made some major strides, having already raised investment! While it's still early days, we really can’t wait to see them build their prototype.
Sole Hair Care
Have you spent a little too long on the beach, surfing, or walking in the sun, and your scalp is paying for it?
Sole know your pain - they have produced a colour-matching dry shampoo with natural ingredients to enhance sun protection to the scalp. Leaning into their strengths and great understanding of their target customer, they’ve already generated millions (you read that correctly - MILLIONS) of views on tiktok, a bunch of international sales, and quite the dedicated following already!
Their hard work, creativity, and passion speaks volumes, and in the end, it paid off. Their professional approach, and excellent grasp on their target audience scored them first place at Regionals for 2022!