It’s official - both our Student Startup Programme, Audacious, and the Student Pitch Competition have officially wrapped up submissions for 2025!
Big thanks to our funders & partners: Dunedin City Council, University of Otago, and Otago Polytechnic - and to our prize sponsors Momentum, Emerge, and Cue-Go for supporting this year’s cohort of student startups.
With $5,000 in cash available for student ideas, tertiary students from 21 different areas of study and disciplines were represented in our pitch submissions. Here’s a really quick recap of what we saw!
We were honoured to be joined by our community for a moment to reflect on the past and how far we’ve come, and the stories still being written today.
The entrepreneurial student community in Dunedin has long been supported by the University of Otago, Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin City Council, and Startup Dunedin, and so the evening brought together the people who’ve shaped the student startup scene over the past two decades.
Expanding your business into international markets can be a game-changer. However, understanding the nuances of various geographies is crucial for success. Here are some things to consider when exploring new markets.
The Chair of the Startup Dunedin board, Wade Pearson brings over 10 years of experience in both law and startups - and you’d be surprised how often those two things cross over.
Chances are you didn’t start a business because you LOVE doing finances and filing tax returns. For most founders, the thought of diving into their tax obligations is enough to either frighten them or put them to sleep.
Not to worry! We’re here with tools and tips to help you get started with understanding tax.
A little over 80% of New Zealand businesses make it through the first year. Extend that by five years and less than 40% will be left.
Why?
SAFE (or simple agreement for future equity) notes are documents that startups often use to help raise seed capital, a.k.a the initial amount of money an entrepreneur uses to start a business. Essentially, a SAFE note acts as a legally binding promise to allow an investor to purchase a specified number of shares for an agreed-upon price in the future.
Today we highlight one tool and one tip we give founders in our programmes when they’re considering raising capital.
First time raising capital? Checkout this free guide. It will help with the mountain of jargon heading your way.
Award-winning marketer, published author, and stalwart of the Dunedin startup ecosystem, Leanne Ross has a lot of serious accomplishments under her belt, and with those accomplishments comes good wisdom (and some great stories). A recent alum of the Startup Dunedin Board and originally from Ireland, Leanne began her career in Dunedin as a freelancer in Digital Marketing. Within 6 months she had given that up to take a role with a games studio in the city that was growing fast, citing it as just too exciting and too welcoming to not get in amongst it.
Earlier this year, Startup Dunedin’s board said goodbye to long-standing member and dedicated advocate for the Otago region’s small business sector, Jason Lindsey.
If you’re one of the rare few in Dunedin who hasn’t yet come across Jason Lindsey, here’s a brief rundown on him and why we were so lucky to have him on our board. In 2006, Jason & Kate Lindsey moved to New Zealand from Los Angeles, both having been working in the Film & Television industry.
Naming a business is hard. Even Phil Knight, the Founder of Nike, struggled. He was one short conversation away from calling his shoe brand “Dimension Six”. Hard to imagine that becoming the household name of a now $34B company!
If you want to read how Phil accidentally stumbled onto his name and logo, you can check out that story here. Otherwise, stick around for one tool and one tip we give founders in our programmes when they’re naming their startups.
It's pretty hard to quantify how massive this year felt. It certainly hasn't been a year of plain sailing - but amidst the chaos, ups, downs, and even bigger ups, 2021 has shown up and the resilience and determination of Dunedin founders has shone through.
Now that the year is over, we're looking back on how far we've come, as a team, as an organisation, and as a community.
Over the 4 years, Startup Dunedin has supported 411 students through Audacious, 233 people in our community with startup basics, and 16 Startups through incubation.
Startup Dunedin is very excited to announce the launch of Coralcone - a new, easier to use, and more sustainable option for all those who menstruate.
Founder Yvette Shum has been working on Coralcone in our Distiller Incubator over the past months, and now has some pretty amazing products available for purchase.
Every year, Dunedinites blow us away with the quality, conscience, scalability, cleverness, and innovation of their ideas. It just keeps getting better, and this is absolutely due to the participants willingness to get outside of their comfort zones, take risks to build their skills, or go out on a limb and launch a startup. Here’s a brief rundown of the results of Startup Weekend 2021 - keep reading to hear who won!
Last Wednesday, 2nd June, Startup Dunedin’s Audacious programme held the final showcase for semester one’s cohort of student entrepreneurs. This group of innovators had completed eight long weeks of workshops, market research, customer interviewing, and a lot of hard mahi, and it was time to proudly showcase this to Ōtepoti Dunedin.
Kaffelogic Founder, Chris Hilder completed Co.Starters in 2017, participated in Startup Dunedin’s incubator programme in 2019 and is taking Kaffelogic to the world this year via a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.
What’s the most valuable asset in your business – or your employer’s business? You might say expensive buildings, vehicles, machinery or stock. But often the most valuable assets in a business are the ones we can’t see or touch – the “intangible” assets. In this article, we’ll look at understanding and protecting one of your key intangible assets – intellectual property.
With Semester 2 of Audacious 2020 drawn to a close, we’d like to take a moment to congratulate our amazing Audacious prizewinners. We were gutted that our tech failure meant we weren’t able to video or live-stream this semester’s showcase, so we’ve decided to make a break-down of the evening for you in blog format.
Tenisha was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) at just seventeen years old. She was told that she was probably going to be miserable, struggle to get pregnant and should lose some weight if she wanted to get close to living a happy, normal life.
After using "Dr. Google" and finding dozens of stories from other women struggling with PCOS she decided that she could make a difference.
