Dunedin's startup ecosystem came to life once again last week, as we all took our seats at Petridish for the latest edition of FoundX!
For those of you who’ve never been - this popular event is organised by Findex NZ and sponsored by Focus Technology Group, and provides our community with the chance to get together and shine a spotlight on the founder journey, as well as highlighting some of the startups dotted around the region and giving them a chance to pitch to the public.
Missed it? No worries - we Livestreamed it, and you can watch it back here. Otherwise, we’re recapping the three key takeaways from FoundX that we think you should know.
1. Stories matter.
Mike Maguire, the founder of Aeroe BikePack, joined Scott Mason on stage for a korero about his founder journey. Quick recap on Aeroe: this startup developed a patented “Spider Rear Rack”, a versatile solution for carrying gear on bikes.
But what made their chat truly memorable was the personal story they shared, and what lies at the heart of their startup’s values and mission. Mike spoke about his late father, who was the driving force behind the initial designs, as well as the brand a logo still associated with the startup today, before he passed away from terminal cancer. Mike and his brother Paddy have since taken his blueprints through to the next stage of design, honouring his memory and the fact he inspired them both to “give it a crack”. It was awesome to have a peek behind the curtain into what ignited their determination to keep pushing and create something great.
2. No two ideas are the same.
FoundX offers a platform for startups from any industry to pitch their ideas, and this October session was no exception.
One of the startups that took the stage to pitch was Fuel My Potential, an online sports nutrition platform driven by leading New Zealand performance dietitians, Dr. Kirsty Fairbairn and Rebecca Jackson. This startup represents the fusion of health and technology - and they’ve been working with some pretty high profile clients since then, like Black Fern Ruby Tui!
We also heard from Tom Brownlie of Ingenum, a veterinary data science company, who pitched their startup aiming to detect patterns of disease in populations. New Zealand has a lot of animal agriculture farmers (understatement of the century), and it’s awesome to see the potential for technology to revolutionise these traditional industries.
Joe Kettlewell from TMNZ, also known as Tax Management NZ, showcased how traditional financial services can adapt to the evolving needs of the startup community - for whom there’s not much more crucial than an understanding of financial strategies, compliance, and tax!
3. Make some friends, damnit!
FoundX is more than just a startup chat & pitch event; it's a community-building platform. It’s the perfect place to network (they even had haloumi bites, what more could you want?) and broaden your mind on what Dunedin is or could be.
It’s not often you get to be in a room with such a mixture of founders, investors, mentors, and aspiring entrepreneurs. The Ōtepoti startup community is alive and thriving, and FoundX events have a pretty pivotal role in this ecosystem's growth.
We’ve heard that being a founder can be a bit of a lonely journey. Founder stories are really important for combatting this - and not just the successful stories - but the failures, the challenges, and the setbacks. The journey to building a successful startup is often arduous, but if you come together with your community and have a yarn about it, you’ll realise you’re not alone.