Welcome

So your customers aren’t happy? That’s great – if they tell you. Recently I went out for a drink in Auckland with an American colleague. The bar was busy and service was slow. When a waiter came around my friend spent several minutes detailing everything that was wrong with the bar: its drinks, ambience and […]

A Kiwi startup is promising to disrupt New Zealand’s costly and inefficient shipping industry with a service which connects drivers with free vehicle space to people who need things shipped. Lonelyseat.co.nz launches publicly this week after two months of a soft launch testing phase. The premise is simple: if you have spare space in your […]

Northland businesses can now harness the power of two after Northland Inc and New Zealand Trade & Enterprise (NZTE) strengthened collaboration for the benefit of the region. In October NZTE appointed David McLeish to the role of Northland Regional Manager and the agreement with Northland Inc sees the two agencies collocated, with McLeish working out […]

Milton-born-and-raised, of Ngapuhi and Scottish descent, Heidi Renata is a Dunedin-based ‘wāhinepreneur’ and co-founder of Innov8HQ, one of New Zealand’s first whanau owned Māori co-working and event space. Based on the principles of kaupapa Māori, Innov8HQ operates as a ‘Business Marae’, a place to support and nurture Dunedin start-up companies and small to medium enterprises. […]

IP steps for startups should be the same as for large multinationals, but within their budget. Make IP decisions and do so early One of the main (and early) steps is to make a considered decision about what IP means to your business and what IP tools will be used to support your business model. […]

It’s a job-seeker’s market out there. Talented people have the pick of the crop, which makes attracting great staff a challenge, even for the best businesses. A good salary, job title and perks might tick the functional boxes for a potential employee, but people are increasingly looking for more from their job. Here, Vanesha Din […]

New Zealand experiential learning business Paintvine is launching it’s popular painting and wine nights in the UK. Self-funded from day one, Paintvine has been running its highly-popular art classes across New Zealand since 2017. Attendees are given the tools and taught the skills to recreate famous art pieces in a laid back setting, over a […]

In a Government announcement made last week, Dunedin has been confirmed as New Zealand’s new Centre of Digital Excellence, a national hub that will support the development of a $1 billion video game industry over the next ten years. The New Zealand Centre of Digital Excellence (CODE) will be backed by $10 million from the […]

Northland Inc’s Joseph Stuart has achieved a first for Northland after receiving the gold standard in professional accreditation at the Economic Development New Zealand 2019 Best Practice Awards. Stuart, who was presented with an Accredited Economic Developers (AcED) certificate at the gala awards dinner at Blenheim’s Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre over the weekend, is the […]

Vxt, a startup born out of the University of Canterbury is launching software today which promises to end frustrating voicemail inbox calls. Vxt is a smart assistant that converts voicemails to text for users to read in the Vxt app, or via an email. They are also developing other tools to automate administrative tasks, such […]

Fostering economic growth through new ideas, inspiration and thinking. That’s the promise of I&E19, a new national conference celebrating innovation and entrepreneurship held in Hawke’s Bay, in early November. Carolyn Neville, CEO of Business Hawke’s Bay, organiser of I&E19, says that the conference has brought together a fantastic line-up of speakers, all experts in their […]

Founders’ Chat is a series where we share the entrepreneurial journey of founders from the GridAKL start-up hub. User testing, also known as usability testing, is a process of identifying users’ biggest problems and uncovering a product’s issues by testing it with real users. As a startup founder, your time and resources tend to be […]