The Dunedin City Council – Economic Development Unit, Upstart Business Incubator and The Distiller have joined forces to commence the Entrepreneurship Collaboration project, with the objective of boosting business startups in Dunedin and creating additional job opportunities.

As part of the scope of the project a “matchmaking” component will facilitate the bringing together of entrepreneurs, technologies and business concepts, specialist skills and expertise, resources and investment to enable start up businesses to be established and to facilitate bootstrapping.

As an example, a person may come up with a great idea for a business that requires technical development, but they don’t have the money to invest to make that happen. Through this project they can be introduced to an IT developer who is happy to work for a share of the business (sweat equity), and a mentor who is willing to donate their time and expertise to point them in the right direction. A local print company may recognise that by providing some business cards now for free, they are likely to win a long term loyal customer as the business grows and thrives – and it is a very low cost of acquisition for them.

If you feel you have something to contribute to starting a business, or would like to be involved in this project we invite you to communicate your interest by email to info@upstart.org.nz.

Tags: bootstrap, business, entrepreneur, startup