City’s startup community comes of age — keep bringing it on
AS much as I love talking tax, I am equally as passionate about startup tech businesses, so I thought I would use the last
Sharp As Tax column of the year just to celebrate some of the recent startup ecosystem achievements in Dunedin.
I do believe that 2017 has been a comingofage year for Dunedin’s startup community, not due to any one thing, but rather through an accumulation of the efforts of many entrepreneurs and supporters across the city over the past few years.
For example, we have gone from one shared/coworking space (the free Distiller run by StartUp Dunedin Trust) to add two more professional ones operating (Innov8HQ and PetriDish), plus another couple on the way.
These are environments developed to encourage the sharing of knowledge, experiences and motivation for new businesses. StartUp
Dunedin Trust, a threeway partnership between the University of Otago, the Otago Polytechnic and the Dunedin City Council, along with some independent trustees ably led by Escea’s Nigel Bamford, has also taken major strides in organising events and programmes like CoStarters Courses. The Audacious pitching competition continues to tick along, and next year will be better and bigger.
We have had TedTalks, enjoyed the launch of FoundX by Crowe Horwath and seen the initial benefits of Gigcity, and the Deloitte Fast50 continues its journey. If there is a current weakness in our ecosystem, it is at the investment end, and that can only be addressed by creating opportunities for those wanting investment to interact with those wanting to invest, hence the importance of the above events.
But this is the stuff around the edges, creating a supportive and encouraging environment. At the heart of any startup ecosystem are the startups.
And the cohort of 2017 are on fire. I know I’ll miss a number, but some of the key ones I have had a little to do with, or come across, include the rapidly growing gaming studio RocketWerkz, the education industryleading Education Perfect, leasing software innovators NomosOne, the creative internetofthings geniuses at Tussock Innovation, the scheduling innovators at Timely, container lifting/ weighing innovators Bison Group, the forever challengingtheelitesportsnorm Tarn Group, the now internationally established TracPlus, the freshfaced PinPoint creator Trent Anderson, plus the other nine showcase entrepreneurs at FoundX last week ranging from AI to cryptocurrencies to birdfeeders to vitamin drinks. And these are but a few of the current crop.
All around Dunedin, and Otago, we have micro and small entrepreneurial businesses getting on, doing their thing, making a difference; growing, employing new folk (from around New Zealand and the world) and taking on the world from here.
This is a matter to celebrate. Put away those garden shears, Dunedin — these are tall poppies we want to shine the sunlight on, because they are the businesses that are going to provide the future jobs for your, and my, daughters and sons. These are the businesses that will grow while traditional industries, like accounting and retail, suffer the wrath of technological advancement. Our very economic survival depends on some of them having major success.
Accordingly, as a region, we really do need to seek out these businesses, and entrepreneurs, to support and nurture them. We need to invest in them where there are possibilities of success, and to help them fail quickly (and learn the lessons) where there are no valuable problems to solve.
Equally importantly, if you have that crazy idea burning away at the back of your mind, there is no better time to connect to likeminded individuals and just explore the possibilities.
I’m picking that 2018 is going to be another watershed year in the Dunedin startup space. Bring it on!
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