From the CEO – July 2012
I have four things to talk to you about this month – new talent, funding for your business, The ICE Network Event and a tip of the month.
We welcome a new set of members joining The ICEHOUSE board; they’re a great group of people who are excited about assisting Kiwi entrepreneurs to be more successful. It is also appropriate to acknowledge and recognise the four members who are resigning and the service they have given to the company during their time – thank you so much to Geoff Whitcher, Jon Hooper, Trevor Smith and Sir Ken Stevens. Read more about the new members here – welcome to Claudia Batten, Tim Williams, Bernie Crosby, Sally Synnott and Sean Simpson.
Rob Adams – he’s a global guru on market validation, starting new businesses and product development for established companies. Rob is back in the country for three weeks touring a number of locations holding workshops. These workshops are a great opportunity to understand a bit more about taking a product to the market. Check out the events guide on the website for a list of dates and which sessions still have places available.
Funding – I have two initiatives to talk about this month. First is the Global from Day One Seed Fund which is about early stage funding for high growth start-up businesses. We’re looking for opportunities across NZ to invest in. Read more about the fund here.
Secondly, The University of Auckland Business School Entrepreneurs’ Challenge is a fantastic initiative into its fourth year. It provides up to one million dollars of growth funding for SMEs who really want to take their business to the next level, organisations like Jucy and Allpress have received funding in the past. Check out the Entrepreneurs’ Challenge website for more information. Entries close end of July. This is not a competition – it provides investment!
The ICE Network Event was held last Friday at The Viaduct Events Centre and was all about the future. We heard from futurist Tim Longhurst; Sarah Gibbs, co-founder of Trilogy; Vinny Lohan, founder and CEO of OneBeep; Mark Edwards of BNZ; Rob Adams; and Chris Quin, CEO Gen-i. It was a fantastic afternoon away from the office and we hoped all attendees enjoyed themselves. Read my full re-cap of the event here.
Finally, my tip of the month. Every now and then we pull our top 10 suppliers and customers and have a conversation about what we are doing for each of them on both sides of the business. It’s a really interesting thing to do. I suggest you do the same – pull your top 10 suppliers and customers and go out and do something for each of them.
See you in August.
Andy Hamilton
Bill Payne
Dr. Leith Oliver
Josh Rea