2013-06-12 09:29:24 // Hazel Phillips
// Idealog #45: interact
Chad Blair's baby business is buynow, an app that transforms your smartphone into your very own self checkout.
2013-05-28 08:24:17 // Esther Goh
// Idealog #44: features
Having spent a decade or so equipping hapless males in the dark arts of shaving, moisturising, and hair styling, entrepreneurs Shane Young and Anthony Gadsdon of Mix Limited have pretty well conquered their corner of the market. Now they've got a new venture underway, with the help of a secret weapon.
2013-05-16 11:53:46 // Andy Kenworthy
// Idealog #44: features
| 4 comments
Andy Kenworthy dons his tinfoil hat and takes a trip inside the Business Bakery.
2013-05-14 09:15:46 // Vaughn Davis
// Idealog #44: features
Is simple DIY animation the next big thing? A Kingsland-based company, its high-profile investors and a handful of Hollywood studios think it could well be. Vaughn Davis pokes his nose into the calm but busy world of Trigger Happy.
2013-04-30 11:46:52 // Hazel Phillips
// Idealog #44: interact
Angel Delivery owner and entrepreneur Rebecca Cass caught the attention of a US operator – via Twitter.
2013-04-26 12:25:00 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
Entrepreneurs of all stripes are invited along to Q Theatre next month for Inspire Auckland, a day of presentations from successful entrepreneurs delivered by World Class New Zealand and AUT University for the local business and creative communities.
2013-04-12 11:30:43 // Peter Kerr
// The Idealog Blog
| 1 comment
Lightning Lab, a lean startup hub of selected neophyte companies located for three months on Wellington’s The Terrace, gave a ‘where we’re at, what we’ve learned’ quickfire talk recently.
2013-04-08 15:33:17 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
Those underwhelmed by the current range of outdoorswear on offer may welcome the news that in its first week on Kickstarter, Ohakune label Opus Fresh has raised double its target in a quest to debut its range of "function-fused fashion".
2013-04-02 09:00:48 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
Entrepreneurs need a variety of skills to succeed, from leadership to accountability to determination (in spades) and more. But according to a study by Target Training International, they also tend to lack certain skills as a collective.
2013-03-26 10:20:03 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
Who needs IP protection and at what stage should you consider it? What are patents, copyrights and trade marks?
2013-03-19 14:15:03 // Carl Beck
// The Idealog Blog
| 1 comment
As traditional venture capital all over the world seems headed for extinction, a new breed of risk capital is flourishing. Flourishing everywhere, it seems, apart from New Zealand.
2013-03-18 11:14:57 // Robert Bruce
// The Idealog Blog
| 11 comments
Are you still an entrepreneur if you've sold your business to a larger organisation?
2013-03-14 09:35:26 // Hazel Phillips
// Idealog #43: interact
A phoenix from the ashes of Bendon cuts, new lingerie company Rose & Thorne is the quiet achiever of the underwear world.
2013-03-12 16:01:56 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
ART Venture, a business acceleration programme for entrepreneurial practitioners, producers and arts leaders, is on the lookout for its next intake of participants.
2013-03-11 09:48:26 // Rebekah White
// Idealog #44: workshop
| 1 comment
Programmer meets local food distribution system. They love each other very much and seven months later Bucky Box is born.
2013-02-28 12:34:42 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
As a reader of Idealog, you know better than most that New Zealand startups are building a reputation for innovation, rapid growth and international success.
2013-02-27 10:34:15 // Andy Kenworthy
// Idealog #43: features
| 1 comment
The idea of payment via mobile phone isn't exactly new, but making it a widespread reality is something else. Auckland-based Pushpay has entered the fray, hoping to be the Rebel X-Wing against the jostling Death Stars of some of the biggest businesses on Earth.
2013-02-26 10:05:03 // Peter Kerr
// The Idealog Blog
According to John Holt, the brainchild behind the San Francisco located Kiwi Landing Pad, the final pitch presentations at the Wellington Startup Weekend were better than three-quarters of those he’s seen in the US.
2013-02-25 10:07:58 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
| 3 comments
Non-profit Global Women is putting on a boot camp for female entrepreneurs in April and is calling for applicants from high-growth SMEs in the $1-5m range.
2013-02-19 09:49:04 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
| 1 comment
The great Kiwi campervan adventure is a classic endeavour, and so it's not entirely surprising that WagonShare, an online community for motorhome rentals, topped Wellington Startup Weekend.
2013-02-14 11:23:56 // Peter Kerr
// The Idealog Blog
| 4 comments
The great Kiwi tradition of DIY has its downsides in many tech developments, according to serial entrepreneur Melissa Clark-Reynolds.
2013-02-12 10:42:50
// The Idealog Blog
So you’ve got a great idea you’ve been thinking about and you want to be part of the next generation of smart New Zealand companies going global. Sound like you?
2013-02-04 13:19:32 // Pat Maguire
// The Idealog Blog
| 1 comment
Often when I’m asked about our company’s process and approach to innovation, I draw on the analogy of the ‘stairway’.
2013-01-30 09:51:34 // Esther Goh
// Idealog #42: interact
Security companies conjure up images of burly scowling bouncers on a power trip, but a new Wellington player – Newclare Welfare + Security – is challenging that notion.
2013-01-29 09:43:36 // Deirdre Coleman
// Idealog #42: features
| 2 comments
Inspired by the golden era of European pro-cycling, Solo founder Paul Mason has created a New Zealand-based cycle gear brand that's sparked a retro renaissance. Even Lance Armstrong agrees.
2013-01-25 13:18:51 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
| 1 comment
Dave McClure of 500 Startups was in New Zealand not too long ago as part of the Geeks on a Plane initiative. Here, he talks to NZTE about the best techniques for presenting your story when you're trying to raise capital. Hint: know your audience, keep it succinct, and acknowledging your vulnerabilities goes a long way to building credibility.
2013-01-25 09:57:50 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
| 2 comments
Entrepreneur Lou Donnelly-Davey thinks the web has spoiled us all, and not for the better. That’s why she’s building Scrattch, a new startup for information sharing based around groups and communities.
2013-01-22 09:51:59 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
The NZ Centre for Social Innovation is taking applications for its 2013 Social Entrepreneurs School programme, designed to help community based entrepreneurs kickstart their projects.
2013-01-17 12:50:18 // Josh Martin
// Idealog #42: interact
MinuteDock founders James Nisbet and Nik Wakelin are a couple of Wellington lads who jumped at an unseen market opportunity when they grew tired of copying and pasting timesheets into invoices at the end of the month.
2013-01-15 13:25:39 // Elizabeth Davies
// The Idealog Blog
| 2 comments
New trip-planning website Trovolo launched this month, a homegrown service made by travellers for travellers that encompasses a variety of tools.
2012-12-12 08:51:10 // Idealog
Kiwi programmer Paul Hunkin has nabbed US$25,000 in venture capital funding to create a travel booking platform for the east African tourism industry and been accepted into an accelerator programme to kickstart the idea.
2012-12-07 13:54:04 // Josh Martin
// The Idealog Blog
Peter Eastwood founded iMake and built the DIY food company from the ground up into an international exporter with a product range in the thousands and an annual turnover of $25 million. He recently talked cheese, wine and design to Josh Martin.
2012-12-07 10:36:33 // Esther Goh
// Idealog #42: features
Lightning Lab, New Zealand's first startup accelerator, is out to jumpstart the Kiwi software scene in Silicon Welly.
2012-11-30 15:27:34 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
Vista Entertainment Solutions is a true-blue Kiwi export success story, with 25 percent market share in the international cinema industry that it supplies. Chief executive Murray Holdaway talks to NZTE about that traditional Kiwi trait of always saying yes, then making things happen, and other advice for entrepreneurs.
2012-11-29 16:19:00 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
The youngest person appointed to NZTE's US Beachheads board, Claudia Batten's impressive career path began in corporate law in Wellington, followed by the establishment of gaming ad network Massive, which was sold to Microsoft in 2006 for a princely sum.
2012-11-29 08:44:49 // Josh Martin
// Idealog #41: features
| 2 comments
Kiwi start-up Transcribe Me raises $1.2 million in angel investment and goes on the record with Idealog.
2012-11-26 09:31:44 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
Bill Payne is one of America’s leading angel investors, with more than two decades of experience under his belt. When he speaks, entrepreneurs listen.
2012-11-20 10:29:19 // Rebekah White
// Idealog #41: workshop
Giapo's Gianpaolo Grazioli sees sustainability and cold confection going hand in hand. (So do we!)
2012-11-19 10:32:47 // Peter Kerr
// The Idealog Blog
Wellington startup ThunderMaps reckons it has a solution to a problem – individuals and organisations having geo-knowledge that is valuable to others, but having no practical way of sharing their information.
2012-11-14 16:59:23 // Toby Ruckert
// The Idealog Blog
| 1 comment
The model of 10 strategic building blocks is one I've seen work at other startups and for other entrepreneurs and friends.
2012-11-12 14:05:16 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
This month marks angel investor Bill Payne's third visit to New Zealand, and he'll be taking a day to lead a workshop offering an insight into the world of startup capital, from a look at who's who in New Zealand investment, what investors are looking for, the pitching process and the fine print.
2012-11-08 09:27:44 // Idealog
Media start-up Snakk Media, launched by Kiwi entrepreneur Derek Handley in Australia in 2010, has applied to list on the New Zealand Alternative Exchange (NZAX) in the near future.
2012-11-07 15:22:22 // Sam Mickell
// The Idealog Blog
With a career spanning Australia, Europe, Asia and now New York, at only 40 New Zealand-born Jonty Kelt is already onto his fourth startup, Group Commerce.
2012-11-06 16:24:50
// The Idealog Blog
Ten tech entrepreneurs are off to a week-long course at MIT in the US thanks to sponsorship from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).
2012-10-16 09:33:50 // Vaughn Davis
// Idealog #41: now
Business-focused shared space is exploding, but what about the non-for-profits? There's a new social enterprise space in town. Vaughn Davis pops into The Kitchen for a bite.
2012-10-09 17:45:58 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
Wellington will be home to New Zealand's first tech startup accelerator from next year, and the capital's entrepreneurial scene is also set to get a boost with the launch of Victoria University's newest programme.
2012-10-03 16:10:05 // Idealog
Food and gaming – two Kiwi growth industries – are at the core of three companies that won funding from the AUT Venture Fund last week.
2012-10-03 10:05:50 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
| 2 comments
Wheedle – now in its second day of operation – is to close after a slew of maintenance and security issues.
2012-09-17 09:29:14 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
| 4 comments
A year ago Christchurch's Michael Green headed off to Start-Up Chile to grow his goal-setting social network, Day Zero Project – the first Kiwi to be accepted. Now Chile's burgeoning entrepreneurial scene is set to welcome Aucklander Pravin Daryani.
2012-08-31 14:19:15 // Rob Fitzpatrick
// The Idealog Blog
| 3 comments
You don’t need to collect a full set of business advisors (tech, industry, product, customer, etc). But when you stay focused on the problems your company has, advisors can be a uniquely fast and cheap way to overcome them.
2012-08-29 15:30:34 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
Christchurch company Invert Robotics and Lower Hutt-based Im-Able Ltd have beaten more than 750 businesses around New Zealand to take the top prizes in the ANZ Flying Start Business Plan Competition.
2012-08-28 14:55:37 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
| 2 comments
Startup Weekend is making its way around the country, with Auckland, Wellington and Palmerston North already having had their turns for 2012. Next up is Tauranga from September 14-16, and there are still spots for sharp devs and designers with an entrepreneurial bent.
2012-08-27 14:18:38 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
| 1 comment
If anyone in New Zealand is qualified to speak about building a successful global technology company, Rod Drury, chief executive and founder of Xero, would surely be at the top of that list.
2012-08-24 15:29:45 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
Just as startups pivot to adapt to market needs, Massey University's business innovation centre is doing the same, expanding its ecentreSprint programme to cater to a wider range of entrepreneurs.
2012-08-24 09:14:37 // Idealog
The numbers of Kiwis fleeing to Australia aren't slowing down, but nonetheless, one Kiwi entrepreneur thinks New Zealand is outperforming other countries around the world.
2012-08-24 09:00:46 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
| 1 comment
Do you aspire to being a high-performing, world class entrepreneur? (Stupid question, really.)
2012-08-23 16:32:46 // Richard Liew
// The Idealog Blog
As winter melts into spring, it's important to understand how the seasons in business affect our success as entrepreneurs.
2012-08-15 12:52:50 // Hazel Phillips
// Idealog #40: now
Ezybook's star is on the rise, having done more than half a million online bookings and scored tech honours.
2012-08-08 13:37:03 // Hazel Phillips
// Idealog #40: features
To celebrate our 40th issue, we found four smarties under 40 each doing their own thing. Here's how they did it and why they're choice.
2012-08-07 15:47:57 // Hazel Phillips
// Idealog #40: features
To celebrate our 40th issue, we found four smarties under 40 each doing their own thing. Here's how they did it and why they're choice.
2012-08-07 09:00:08 // Hazel Phillips
// Idealog #40: features
To celebrate our 40th issue, we found four smarties under 40 each doing their own thing. Here's how they did it and why they're choice.
2012-08-06 10:20:51 // Hazel Phillips
// Idealog #40: features
| 3 comments
To celebrate our 40th issue, we found four smarties under 40 each doing their own thing. Here's how they did it and why they're choice.
2012-07-30 09:36:48 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
| 1 comment
Questo came out tops at Wellington Startup Weekend last night with its educational gaming platform that aims to boost student motivation, winning a package that includes $10,000 of advertising on TradeMe, business services from MYOB, and three months at coworking space Biz Dojo.
2012-07-25 13:16:40 // Franceska Banga
// The Idealog Blog
| 8 comments
If a tree falls in an empty forest, does it make a sound? That is the sort of conundrum startups face if they have an idea that no one wants or needs.
2012-07-25 10:39:49 // Hazel Phillips
// Idealog #40: now
| 1 comment
Cinematography and industrial design duo Ben Ryan and Chris Thomson have just unveiled the Genie, a box that will tell your camera how and when to shoot – and they've kickstarted the pants off it.
2012-07-24 10:05:42 // James Robinson
// Idealog #40: now
Carnival Labs, a mobile app development company, is taking flight. James Robinson checks in with co-founder Guy Horrocks.
2012-07-23 13:24:35 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
There's just one week left to enter this year's University of Auckland Business School Entrepreneurial Challenge, with entry cut-off at the end of this month.
2012-07-20 10:56:59 // Skye Wishart
// The Idealog Blog
| 4 comments
Leaving the Aussie mines for the Melbourne startup scene, a 24-year-old Kiwi entrepreneur has this week wrangled a $450,000 investment in his web development marketplace from angel investors.
2012-07-17 15:18:23 // Brian Barradine
// The Idealog Blog
| 3 comments
Whilst the Ministry of Science and Innovation and Tech NZ make R&D funding available to companies, they seem to offer nothing for independent inventors and certainly nothing for IP.
2012-07-12 12:52:38 // Esther Goh
// Idealog #40: now
| 2 comments
Entrepreneur Michael Moore-Jones has managed to fit more into his 17 years than many get around to in a lifetime.
2012-06-27 11:04:45 // Esther Goh
// Idealog #40: now
| 1 comment
Up-and-comer Moa Creative, along with its second fledgling company App La Carte, is designing killer apps for some of the world's top brands.
2012-06-21 11:24:39 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
Texas-based investor, author, consultant, and former tech executive Dr Rob Adams reckons the seed stage investment environment in New Zealand is well and truly alive and kicking, and believes that maturity is gradually extending further down the line.
2012-06-20 11:08:57 // Hazel Phillips
// Idealog #39: features
| 4 comments
Matterhorn, Shaky Isles, Smith, Neighbourhood, Northern Steamship, Snapdragon. The successes of hospo group Pack & Company are well-known and numerous.
2012-06-18 15:23:22 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
Kitset cardboard houses, stackable bed frames, tea filters made from charcoal and environmentally friendly pine-based drink bottles were just some of the wood-based products envisioned by 81 young aspiring entrepreneurs taking part in the FedEx Express/Junior Achievement International Trade Challenge over the weekend.
2012-06-17 22:16:07 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
| 1 comment
It was smiles all around as Smile Today took out Auckland Startup Weekend 2012 with its take on charitable giving, cooked up in just 54 hours.
2012-06-12 10:32:01 // Peter Kerr
// The Idealog Blog
The Kiwi Landing Pad in San Francisco is sweetening the pot for startups looking to springboard into the States.
2012-06-11 10:40:00 // Idealog
Kiwi entrepreneur Bill Buckley, representing New Zealand at the global Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Of The Year competition, missed out on the top spot to James Mwangi of Kenya's Equity Bank.
2012-06-07 10:51:23 // Jenene Crossan
// The Idealog Blog
| 4 comments
There’s only one place in the world where I’d be more of a wallflower and less of a tall poppy, and that’s the grand old United States of America.
2012-05-31 10:16:50 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
| 6 comments
Forget about crafting the perfect business plan. As soon as it’s written, says businessman Geoff Ross, it will be obsolete.
2012-05-22 13:54:54 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
Got a fantastic business idea? Want to turn your startup into a successful enterprise? Have a business with great growth potential?
2012-05-16 14:31:02 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
| 1 comment
New Zealand has all the basics to help businesses thrive – the challenge is to step it up a notch.
2012-05-11 12:49:28 // Hazel Phillips
// Idealog #39: interact
After noticing the explosion of artisan food and our thirst for more and more goodies, Greig Buckley decided to give it an e-commerce twist.
2012-05-11 12:00:25 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
Know of an outstanding entrepreneur deserving of recognition? Or think you have the chops to pass muster?
2012-05-09 14:32:25 // Esther Goh
// Idealog #39: now
| 4 comments
Up-and-coming company goodnature is revolutionising the way we kill pests to make the process better for animals, the environment and, in the long run, our wallets.
2012-05-08 10:00:17 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
Auckland Startup Weekend is back for a third year and it's slated to be hosted at the ecentre on the North Shore from June 15-17.
2012-05-04 12:19:22 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
| 1 comment
Graeme Fielder is mixing science and business nous in his new startup, an online market for used lab and technical equipment.
2012-05-03 16:06:23 // Richard Liew
// The Idealog Blog
| 1 comment
The one group that can help fix our housing mess is the one group that is consistently overlooked in these discussions.
2012-05-03 14:47:33 // Vaughn Davis
// Idealog #39: now
Auckland's second best-known goat farming aeroplane flying ad agency owner Vaughn Davis drops into the new but definitely not ostentatious offices of newborn events company Celery Productions.
2012-05-03 09:41:05 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
| 1 comment
Theo Paphitis has lost count of all the businesses he’s invested in, and his criteria for picking companies to bet on has changed over the years, but he says ultimately success all comes down to the people factor. It doesn’t matter how great a business idea is – without a good person behind it, it won’t fly.
2012-04-20 15:43:46 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
Ever had one of those lightbulb moments – that split second where you're convinced your brainwave could make you a fortune?
2012-04-05 13:52:34 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
Creative collective Draw Inc claimed the top prize at last week's Innes 48-hour startup competition.
2012-04-03 14:37:42 // Simon Pound
// Idealog #38: now
| 1 comment
Dion Nash, founder of the just-launched skincare company Triumph & Disaster, tells Simon Pound how metrosexuality translates to a hot new brand.
2012-04-03 09:29:23 // Jil O'Brien
// The Idealog Blog
| 4 comments
How to manage the conflicting needs of family and business? Take a serious look at the way you work and where you're spending your time.
2012-03-22 21:41:59 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
Kiwi tech companies will be first in line to benefit from Facebook investor Peter Thiel and the NZVIF teaming up to form a $40 million New Zealand-based venture capital fund.
2012-03-12 09:13:48 // Simon Pound
// Idealog #38: features
| 2 comments
It's a classic Kiwi story of little guy made good. And after being pitted against dairy giant Fonterra over perceived product similarities, the two blokes behind brand Nice Blocks are hanging off the back end of a tiger.
2012-03-06 15:02:37 // Jil O'Brien
// The Idealog Blog
| 8 comments
All over the country, new mums are shunning an early return to their corporate roots in favour of developing their entrepreneurial dreams.
2012-02-28 12:16:32 // Esther Goh
// Idealog #38: now
Incubator Creative HQ has pushed the go button on its inaugural gaming bootcamp. Thumbs at the ready...
2012-02-27 15:31:45 // Siobhan Leathley
// The Idealog Blog
| 2 comments
A fresh new Kiwi startup is out to help the local food movement by taking admin hassles out of the equation so farmers can spend more time growing their tomatoes and less time sorting out receipts.
2012-02-17 10:31:34 // Esther Goh
| 1 comment
Wellington's Go Vocab, a language learning business that's barely a year old, has taken out the inaugural BNZ Startup Alley competition at Webstock.
2012-02-09 13:09:54 // Peter Kerr
// The Idealog Blog
Steven Joyce has the opportunity to spout a new mantra on behalf of all New Zealanders – have a go, and another after that.
2012-01-27 10:54:32 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
| 2 comments
Wellington company Educa is one of the new wave of startups out to shake up education by improving communication between early childhood providers and parents.
2012-01-25 09:52:02 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
Startup Weekend chief executive Marc Nager talks innovation, bootstrapping and community-building.
2012-01-20 13:57:02 // Siobhan Leathley
// The Idealog Blog
Six finalists are in the running to win $10,000 as part of BNZ’s Start-Up Alley, recognising new and innovative web ventures in New Zealand.
2011-12-19 10:51:52 // Ben Kepes
// The Idealog Blog
| 5 comments
For every crash and burn, it’ll be the Ma and Pa business that saves this country’s bacon.
2011-12-16 10:08:51 // Idealog
| 1 comment
After a hard-fought race, FaceMe has been crowned the winner of the BNZ Presents: The Virgin Business Challenge, after being judged best by some of New Zealand’s top entrepreneurial and business minds.
2011-12-08 09:24:04 // Hazel Phillips
// Idealog #36: now
| 3 comments
Professional skier Hamish Acland has turned his hand from shredding on the slopes to sewing together a merino brand that's plugging the gaps others aren't.
2011-12-08 09:14:14 // Idealog
Ten finalists have been announced in the BNZ Presents: The Virgin Business Challenge, a competition to find New Zealand’s best start-up talent.
2011-11-29 12:09:53 // Idealog
When Sir Richard Branson put out a challenge to New Zealand businesses last month, they responded in force. A total of 263, in fact, which have now been whittled down to 15 finalists.
2011-11-28 14:07:03 // Sarah Robson
// Idealog #36: interact
Eleven years after Sam Minnee co-founded SilverStripe as a 17-year-old, he's taken the reins of the 40-strong business as chief executive.
2011-11-21 09:49:45 // Vincent Heeringa
// The Idealog Blog
Israel's got a water problem: it has none to speak off. For sixty years it threw state money at the problem, but now it's out-sourcing the solution to a new generation of entrepreneurs
2011-11-17 10:15:32 // Vincent Heeringa
// The Idealog Blog
| 4 comments
As governments worldwide search for that elusive economic growth, some eyes are turning to Israel, the self-styled 'Startup Nation'.
2011-11-07 13:33:20 // Nick Churchouse
// The Idealog Blog
| 2 comments
Local startup uSnap.us, which provides a mobile and web application for guest-sourcing wedding photos, has been crowned winner at Startup Weekend Wellington.
2011-11-03 10:39:32 // Michael Elwood-Smith
// The Idealog Blog
The best teams are lovingly nurturing, brutally honest (or honestly brutal) and devastatingly effective together.
2011-11-02 19:00:18 // Esther Goh
| 2 comments
The Kiwi-invented Greenkeeper – a system that helps companies reduce their carbon footprint, not a golf maintenance pro – has walked away from the Bright Ideas Challenge with a cool $25,000 to accelerate its growth.
2011-11-01 15:21:25 // Dave Allison
// The Idealog Blog
| 1 comment
Why your nugget of brilliance needs to be shunted into the light of day and beaten to a pulp by everyone you know.
2011-10-27 12:24:50 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
The 2011 University of Auckland Business School Entrepreneurs’ Challenge has come to to a close – and the four winners hail from financial services, pet food manufacturing, tourism and photographic design.
2011-10-26 12:29:36 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
There's no shortage of great ideas emerging from New Zealand, but Kiwi companies need a stronger connection to the rest of the world, according to Alcatel-Lucent.
2011-10-21 12:34:43 // Idealog
| 1 comment
Sir Richard Branson has issued a challenge to New Zealand businesses: Prove you have the mettle to go global.
2011-10-13 11:03:11 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
| 2 comments
DesignCrowd, an online marketplace providing logo, website, print and graphic design services through freelancers from around the world, has just launched its New Zealand chapter. And to mark the occasion, it's compiled a roundup of 20 'hot startups' from down under.
2011-10-11 13:48:26 // Idealog
| 2 comments
Waikato business incubator SODA has joined forces with NZTE to increase the number of high growth startups in the region.
2011-10-03 08:32:48 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
A young New Zealand entrepreneur has taken out the top prize in the 2011 AUT Venture Fund with his concept for a tablet app that enables children to create their own picture books.
2011-09-28 10:18:52 // Esther Goh
New Zealand entrepreneur Michael Green is heading to Chile in November after his goal-setting social network, Day Zero Project, was selected to take part in a government-supported initiative intended to grow the country's startup ecosystem.
2011-09-26 11:01:29 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
| 1 comment
After spending 35 years building a world-beating business, 67-year-old Bill Buckley is "still in his overalls" and loving every moment on the shop floor, as evidenced by his win at the Ernst & Young New Zealand Entrepreneur of the Year awards last week.
2011-09-20 12:36:36 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
A maturing startup scene and the recent success of several Kiwi software businesses are paving the way for local tech companies to go global, the head of Massey University’s business innovation centre says.
2011-09-14 15:12:21 // Idealog
// The Idealog Blog
| 4 comments
It comes wrapped in plastic, but the content is definitely G-rated. Taschen's new tome on making wicked websites is helpful, but also heavy.
2011-08-29 09:27:01 // Idealog
Nearly half of Kiwi business owners are working to reach a lifestyle goal and believe they can maintain an appropriate work-life balance, a new MYOB Business Monitor report suggests.
2011-08-25 10:14:27 // Idealog
New Zealand businesses have a positive attitude both towards expanding internationally and the support they get from government agencies to do it, says a Victoria University professor.
2011-08-23 11:35:05 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
It was a dream prize for any tech startup, but ultimately there could only be one winner of BoosterSeat2011 – and that's IntuitionHQ, soon to be taking a free trip to San Francisco thanks to a group of Kiwi entrepreneurs paying it forward on the back of their own Silicon Valley success story.
2011-08-23 11:00:42 // Mark Tomlinson
// The Idealog Blog
| 1 comment
What's social media got to offer a budding entrepreneur? Mark Tomlinson blogs from the eSprint programme.
2011-08-18 09:33:38 // Esther Goh
| 2 comments
Tech entrepreneurs are the target of a $2.8 million talent development programme on track to launch in the new year in partnership with the private sector, designed to bring various players in the innovation space closer together.
2011-08-11 10:10:00 // Andrea Rush
// The Idealog Blog
| 2 comments
New research puts the Maori economic base at $36.9 billion and Maori as the world's third most entrepreneurial indigenous people.
2011-08-01 12:06:13 // Andy Kenworthy
// Idealog #34: features
A combination of Kiwi practices, verdant land and cash from clued-up investors like Sam Morgan yields Leitíssimo three times the production it would generate in New Zealand. Is this the end of our dairy industry - or the next step for IP?
2011-07-27 09:50:19 // Esther Goh
A Masterton man’s plan to sell his patented steel-mesh safety goggles worldwide has been awarded a $60,000 prize package to further expand his business.
2011-07-22 17:48:17 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
Wellington freelancers, contracts and entrepreneurs now have access to to a collaborative workspace with the launch of BizDojo
2011-07-11 10:39:51 // Idealog
The Icehouse strikes again, this time with a “KICK ASS” initiative with a vision of 3000 internationally competitive kiwi companies by 2020.
2011-06-24 09:25:00 // Vincent Heeringa
// Idealog #33: features
Everything is wrong with this business: wrong place, wrong product, wrong people. So what makes an entrepreneur, a chef, Jim Bolger and 31 of their friends think that Mt Cook Alpine Salmon will become a $60 million export success in the next five years? Vincent Heeringa investigates.
2011-06-21 17:05:58 // Esther Goh
// The Idealog Blog
BNZ and NZTE have announced a new funding venture to assist SMEs in completing the Icehouse's programme for owner-managers.
2011-05-06 09:49:12 // Rowan Simpson
// Idealog #33: features
| 1 comment
An online idea that’s snapped up for squillions—it’s the modern fairytale, but tech startups don’t always have a happy ending. Rowan Simpson has been a key part of startups-done-right Trade Me and Xero, and as a tech investor he’s been pitched some great ideas and some real dogs. Along the way, he’s learned a few things about building teams, raising cash, learning from mistakes and getting customers who pay.
2011-02-24 12:16:55 // Duncan Greive
// Idealog #31: features
Campbell Hooper and Joel Kefali’s design
house Special Problems became a music
video powerhouse quite by accident.
But as they tell Duncan Greive, they’re
counterintuitively resisting expanding their
business
2011-02-17 12:29:08 // Rebekah White
// Idealog #31: features
| 2 comments
The long summer days, the idle time,
friends, a change of pace—it’s the perfect
time to think up new ideas for the New Year.
To get you started, we talk with some of
New Zealand’s most serially creative ideas
people. By Rebekah White
2010-11-03 11:05:58 // Matt Cooney
// Idealog #30: workshop
A good Central Otago pinot is imbued with the dust and the scrub of its provenance. Alan Brady, like his fruit, turned out to be the right grape in the right place.
2010-10-19 17:28:08 // Vincent Heeringa
// Idealog #29: now
This year, US angel investor Bill Payne spent five months touring New Zealand, dishing out wisdom about early-stage companies. The engineer, recovering entrepreneur and active investor reflects on his stay downunder.
2010-10-15 10:42:43 // Mitchell Hall
// Idealog #29: features
| 1 comment
Derek and Geoff Handley created The Hyperfactory, a high-tech Kiwi business that competes with the world’s best, and in July they sold it for megamillions. Mitchell Hall asks what they’ve learned about entrepreneurship and dreaming big—and why New Zealand needs more like them. Plus: An investor speaks.
2010-09-24 06:00:00 // Ulrika Hedquist
// Idealog #29: features
| 2 comments
Glenn Jones’ t-shirt designs are designed in Auckland, printed in Texas and popular all over the internet. Ulrika Hedquist tracks the success of Glennz Tees.
2010-09-10 09:36:58 // Matt Cooney
// Idealog #29: now
Eighteen thousand kilometres from home, wandering through the 2,000-year-old ruins of a Roman city, Glen Barnes had a vision of the future.
2010-08-23 15:18:01 // Cassie Doherty
// The Idealog Blog :: The Idealist
Got the mid-winter blues, stuck in a rut, don't know where your life is going? Don't worry: this could be Your Big Year. A worldwide competition that's part of the UK's Global Entrepreneurship Week in November, Your Big Year's extremely lucky winner will embark on a 12-month, all-expenses-paid tour of the world, meeting celebrities and entrepreneurs, learning new skills and rolling up their sleeves for some volunteer work. Attend a conference in New York, take a limo ride in Vegas, learn photography in Africa, scuba dive in Australia, teach English in Ecuador, visit the Taj Mahal ... The aim is to encourage global citizenship and social responsibility through entrepreneurship. Whatever: it would sure beat surfing the net, watching telly and wondering how long till Labour Weekend.
2010-06-17 12:52:15 // Mitchell Hall
// Idealog #27: features
| 5 comments
The world’s biggest companies have a new strategy: outsourcing innovation. At the forefront of this new industry
is the founder of New York-based Fahrenheit 212, Geoff Vuleta from Timaru.
2010-04-23 11:48:21 // Matt Cooney
// Idealog #27: interact
Eric Ries has watched promising companies burn, accidental ideas succeed and bad products turn good. Working out why has led him to his own methodology, the Lean Startup. But will Silicon Valley’s rules work in Enzed?
2010-03-11 16:20:53 // Peter Griffin
// The Idealog Blog
| 2 comments
An entrepreneurial dream team is set to finally give Kiwis the internet as it should be—fast and uncapped. Oh, and lend a hand to our Australian cobbers too.
2010-02-23 22:44:00 // Vincent Heeringa
// The Idealog Blog
| 1 comment
A new report by IBM and the Univerity of Auckland into the state of Kiwi innovation reveals two surprising facts, and one dismally old one
2009-10-13 10:57:04 // Tara Jahn-Werner
// Idealog #23: features
… but can you turn it into a business? Meet four New Zealand women who have turned their love of dance—and the skills they learned—into their own creative ventures. By Tara Jahn-Werner. Plus a rich and energetic tradition.
2009-09-07 15:59:37 // Frances Chan
// Idealog #23: interact
Whatever your Big Idea is, pitch it to the Icehouse and you could win $15,000 worth of prizes, including three months in the Icehouse business incubator to develop your product and offer to investors.
2009-09-04 13:28:52 // Felicity Monk
// Idealog #23: celsias
| 2 comments
He took Bendon from a knickerwear manufacturer to a global lingerie brand; she holed up in a Wellington yoga studio before deciding it was time to join the ‘real world’. Felicity Monk asks how Stefan Preston made the leap from Stella McCartney to Jyoti Morningstar, and how Morningstar moved from teaching yoga to launching an ambitious fashion eco-label.
2009-08-13 14:47:39 // Deirdre Robert
// Idealog TV
Walking through the supermarket with wires running through your cheek and a camera in your mouth may sound odd to most, but for AUT Colab resident Matt Kenyon, it's all in a day's work. Seeking to challenge the 'powers that be' through the appropriation of popular culture, Kenyon not only challenges it, he throws it on its head and turns it inside out.
2009-07-27 09:00:00 // Deirdre Robert & Vincent Heeringa
// Idealog TV
Todd Wackrow spent just 3 months at the Icehouse and now look, he's really tall. Idealog asks why.
2009-07-21 15:17:41 // Deirdre Robert & Vincent Heeringa
// Idealog TV
James Madelin had an idea. Now it's a global business. Vincent Heeringa meets the man from Orbis.
2009-07-17 12:27:49 // Deirdre Robert & Vincent Heeringa
// Idealog TV
The Icehouse Business Growth Centre is opening its doors to all tyre-kickers and wannabe billionaires at an Open Day on July 29. Idealog asks startup director Ken Erskine what it takes to become the next Sammy Morgan.
2009-07-17 10:04:05 // Anya Kussler
// Idealog #22: features
| 1 comment
A dry, stony bit of Hawke’s Bay, once a speedway and a quarry, now produces full-bodied red wines the equal of thousand-bucks-a-bottle Bordeaux. What’s the secret? Anya Kussler discovers what lurks in the once-unwanted soils of Gimblett Gravels. Plus beau Bordeaux and the top six.
2009-07-03 15:25:08 // Matt Cooney
// Idealog #22: now
| 5 comments
It seems Lance Wiggs is always on a journey. Even home in Godzone, he’s not standing still: he has companies to mentor, connections to make and, on his blog, clueless corporates to skewer. So just what is Wiggs looking for?
2009-05-26 16:04:03 // Simon Young
// Idealog TV
| 2 comments
Tim Chang, Principal of Norwest Venture Partners in Silicon Valley, sees New Zealand as a source of unique and refreshing ideas, born out of our distance from easy capital. Being a VC from Silicon Valley, you'd expect him to advise Kiwi businesses to chase American money, but you may be surprised at his answer.
2009-05-26 15:11:10 // Simon Young
// Idealog TV
Vishal Gondal's business card says he is God-in-Chief at IndiaGames. A business owner since the age of 16, he’s got a lot to say about the Indian business philosophy of Jugaad. Kiwi businesses are more creative than Vishal expected, but do we need a healthy dose of Jugaad?
2009-05-24 19:09:44 // Simon Young
// The Idealog Blog
X-Media Lab was all about companies getting one-to-one advice, but some advice is true for all entrepreneurs.
2006-07-06 00:00:00 // Eleanor Black
// Idealog #4: features
| 2 comments
Tanya Thompson’s transformation from ‘waif-like graffiti artist to mini-corporate’ has some predicting that it’s just a matter of time until she has her own fashion empire. Thompson—better known as Misery—is turning her cute-but-creepy creations into a global business. By Eleanor Black
