Bootstrapped NZ Edition #4
💵 $20M for purpose-led business 🎤 Pitches galore and Ξ what does it take to build a startup community DAO?
Hello old and new friends!
This edition of Bootstrapped was brought to you by paracetamol, keeping my COVID rigors at bay while I lovingly type up edition #4 for all 408 of you 🦠
Anyway, enough of that - it’s been a busy fortnight so lets unpack…
🦸♀️ Supercharging social entrepreneurship
Brianne West (founder of Ethique) announced the launch of Nous, a mentoring, coaching and $20m investment fund, supporting early-stage start-ups with a purpose in Aotearoa.
The focus on mission-led business is notable. According to Brianne:
“Only around 5% of social enterprise startups survive through their first decade. Businesses which are mission-driven often face additional barriers in reaching the next stage of their lifecycle and lack the support and infrastructure needed for long-term viability”
Read the full writeup in Stuff here.
🎵 Noteworthy
Ora Pharm were awarded a Callaghan Innovation Grant to develop eco friendly technology to cultivate medicinal cannabis in New Zealand 🌿
Excio were featured in StopPress as a fresh alternative to traditional stock photos that rewards photographers fairly 📸
UK based Environmental Justice Foundation chose kiwi startup Starboard to enhance their effectiveness in monitoring illegal fishing 🐟
Massey Ventures were featured in Stuff for having 5 successful spinout companies in the last 18 months 🚀
🎤 Pitch Perfect
There was A LOT of pitching going on across the motu. Some highlights were:
⛰️ PowerUp Kickstart Taranaki
We heard pitches from Planta Mate, EzSoil, Hiko Surf, Surface Swimgear and Tokaroa Diagnostic at Venture Taranaki’s PowerUp Kickstart competition.
Tokaora Diagnostics won $10,000 to develop their RAT test like product to detect facial eczema in sheep and cows
Surface Swimgear won the Witt People’s Choice Award and $2000 towards developing their (literally) life-saving flotation shorts
🌎 Climate Response Accelerator showcase
Circlr, Solid, Planetary Insights, Mutu, Taurus Concrete, ARCubed, Capture6, Alimentary systems, Donut and Bspkl all pitched at the Climate Response Accelerator showcase, the culimation of a 12 week programme for startups working on climate, CleanTech and circular economy solutions.
Missed out? Don’t worry! You can still read about the startups and watch the pitches.
🍷 Startup Weekend Marlborough
80 year old Ronald Ragen and his teammates Alexandra Diethelm and Jennifer Steingraeber won with their business idea “Dog Along” at the inaugural TechStars Startup Weekend in Marlborough.
💰 Funding highlights
Portainer closed a US $6.2M funding round (this round was an extension of its Series A that closed in May 2021)
Fergus Software raised $15M in its series B round led by Octopus Ventures
✋ Capital Raising
Speaking of capital, Territory 3 shared this (non-exhaustive) list of Kiwi startups that are currently raising:
See the original post here
*If you’re still trying to wrap your head around how startup funding works, you are not alone! This article from Investopedia is helpful and includes videos if you’re more of a visual learner (I have revisited it a few times myself!)
📚Worth a Read or Listen
🔖 A 2 min read by Venture Centre on Seven Words You Need When Talking Startups
Ξ If you’re interested in the intersect of startup growth, community and Web3, check out Dan Khan’s summary of what the Positive Sum team learned in the first 90 days of their mission to build a Startup Community DAO.
🐦 Phoebe Harrop from Blackbird shares her thoughts on the changing crypto investing landscape
🙋🏼♀️ Cool people doing cool things: Meet Kevin from HireLyte
HireLyte offers high-growth startups services in talent acquisition and growth marketing, becoming an in-house part of our client's teams to help them kick goals and scale their startup!
Hi Kevin! What's your story?
My entrepreneurial journey started in the same way as many other Kiwis when I participated in the Young Enterprise Scheme back in high school. After finishing high school, I moved from Wellington to Auckland for uni and got involved with the tech and startup ecosystem.
Last year, I was fortunate to get involved with a startup community that became the Phase One community and met a bunch of early-stage founders, as well as my future Directors at HireLyte.
What I love about the startup ecosystem in New Zealand is how close-knit it is. There truly are only two degrees of separation!
How was HireLyte born?
Long story short, a couple of us were involved with NZ ScaleUp (where Phase One came from) and ran the talent acquisition arm of the business. Soon after, as NZ ScaleUp broke off into three separate businesses, HireLyte was born!
Talent acquisition isn't rocket science, but what we've found is that there are only a handful of players in the AU/NZ market that really understand talent acquisition for startups like we do.
Recently, we've had a bunch of startups come knocking, asking if we offer growth marketing and content marketing services. Given that we have a track record of executing for high-growth startups, it was a no-brainer to expand into marketing services for startups too.
To date, we've worked with over a dozen startups, with names including VEED, Simply Wall St, Eva, Cake, Melodics and more.
How's it going?
The last year has been filled with ups and downs, but it has been the most incredible journey of learning from and working with founders and senior execs at these startups.
Exciting times are ahead for HireLyte! We've now grown to a team of 6 and have included growth marketing as part of our services. We're incredibly proud of the business we've built and the results we've delivered to our clients. Hearing from clients how much value we've been able to deliver for them validates that our model works and that we can execute well.
What's your vision for the future?
I would love to see more Kiwis become part of the startup ecosystem! New Zealand has so much talent and I truly believe that there are many more startup success stories yet to come from our country. It'll also be great to see more minority communities in New Zealand get involved with tech and startups too. I'm hoping to address some of this with StartUp Club NZ, which I started this year with one of my Directors from HireLyte.
Do you have an ask for the community?
HireLyte is always looking for new startups to work with! We love getting to know our clients intimately and work together to kick goals and deliver results.
If you or any startup that you know are looking to have a hand with talent acquisition or are needing some growth marketing work done, hit us up! We're always keen to chat.
You can email me at kevin@hirelyte.com or reach out via LinkedIn.
💼 Cool jobs
Timely are looking for a Product Designer
Hnry are looking for a Social Media Coordinator
Jack Dustin is looking for a co-founder to help take Roof Space to the next level
🏎️ Jack has built a community of 1850+ people with a shared mission to safely and affordably send and transport sports items around NZ. To learn more about Roof Space and the co-founder role check out the company notion page here.
Want more? Check out the Matchstiq, Icehouse, HIRE HER and AirTree job boards.
Have you been affected by the recent tech & startup layoffs?
Our Australian cousins Earlywork and Afterwork have launched an incredible trans-taman initiative called BetweenWork. BetweenWork helps tech & startup workers affected by the recent layoffs in Australia & New Zealand to find their next role.
They’ve already had 100+ companies sign up who are hiring for 1,000+ roles. If you’ve been affected by recent layoffs and are looking for that next step, make sure to check it out 👏
🤩 Funding, Accelerators, and Incubators
Got nous? If you are an early-stage, purpose-led venture apply to win your share of an $140k prize pool and backing from the Nous team
Innovate are looking for Manawatu’s best entrepreneurs and innovative businesses
Applications for the CreativeHQ GovTech accelerator close mid-July
📆 Upcoming Events
🖥️ Virtual
Capital Raising in the Changing Environment (7 July) Explore capital raising a rapidly changing global market with this virtual fireside chat
Co-Founder Networking: Find a Business Partner (7 July) Maybe you’ll meet your new co-fonder at this virtual networking event 👀
👯♀️ Hybrid
HerFi Workshop @ Manzana (8 July) Head down to Manzana (or join online) for a session on “how women founders can play offensive in a recession” with Hesha Irani
IP Seminar: Part 1 (19 July) Calling all early-stage deep-tech startups, bring all your IP questions for this two part webinar series by Dr Tim Stirrup (hosted by Outset Ventures)
👱🏻 In Person
Wellington Founders Meetup - Territory 3 (12 July) Come along to connect with fellow founders over drinks and nibbles, organised by the Territory 3 team
Blackbird Roadshow (until 14 July): The Blackbird team are wrapping up their roadshow with their final stops in Wellington and Auckland
Festival for the Future (29-31 July) Head along to Aotearoa’s biggest summit on leadership and innovation for impact at the end of this month
✨ If you missed her debut, make sure to check out the Kiwi Startup Supercalendar! She’s a subscribable google cal pulling together all the events in the NZ startup ecosystem ✨
Thanks for reading, friends! I would love to hear your thoughts via this cheeky one-minute survey, a LinkedIn DM, or a reply to this email 🙌
See you next time!
Izzy 👩🏽💻