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Start-ups

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Kia ora, I currently work in the early year’s space focusing on early childhood development and in particular have a passion for the acquisition of te reo Māori as foundational for Māori health and wellbeing. I have been researching a gap in the education landscape for the provision of quality bilingual and immersion EC options for whānau/family. Whānau are currently having to wait for available spaces to access local Kura Kaupapa Māori placements, drive long distances to access quality providers, or place their children in English medium.Home-based EC care is the fastest-growing section of the EC sector, constituting 65% of total growth in the market since 2007. Whilst the provision of home-based care offers more options, inconsistent quality is a major issue.  70% of providers have no formal teaching qualification, 22% have a lvl 3 qualification and only 7% of providers are fully trained.  The Minister for Ed, C. Hipkins, announced in 2019 a number of policy changes to regulate the home-based market.  The policy requires home-based providers to work toward a level 4 EC qualification & submit to ERO review.Without sufficient support to level up, many home-based providers will struggle to meet these requirements for ongoing funding.  Māori providing bilingual or immersion services will be most impacted as the equivalent qualification is the level 5 kōhanga reo qual.  Formal teacher training opportunities don’t cater well for home-based providers who don’t get relief time to study or can’t afford it.  My business idea is to create a hub called Kainga Tupu (HomeGrown), which aims to develop the Māori home-based EC care provider workforce and enable continuous improvement. The hub would support Māori providers to link to teacher training options through micro-credentialing so they can meet the policy requirement of working towards a level 5 qualification. The hub would also be a digital platform to access: peer-to-peer support; professional teaching supervision; subject matter knowledge around child development; experts in te reo and tikanga; assessment & audit support to meet ERO standards, etc.The long-game is to impact Māori health and wellbeing by growing quality te reo Māori learning environments for pēpi and tamariki Māori to have early access to their language, culture, and identity.  The toxic-stress on whānau Māori would reduce from having readily available options. The growth in Māori practitioners to provide te reo based EC options will meet the growing demand for te reo Māori language acquisition.  Digital badging supports workforce development to address the qualification gap. Digital servicing through the hub will mean that service quality is flexible and accessible; it also provides for business continuity in the current Covid climate. So what advice do I need from the gurus at Manaaki?  Well, if I was to develop an investment proposal around this idea, where would be the best place to take it? Should I try to attract philanthropic investment to support the initial development & test/evaluate it as a model for quality improvement over 2 years?  Are there government funding options for this type of initiative? Other funding streams? If the model works locally could it be scalable nationally & beyond?  Kia ora and thanks for your advice/assistance.

Question submitted by @anonymous 27/08/2020 @ 10:10 pm
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Hey there team. It’s Toby here a 20 year old student from The University of Auckland. I started working on my start-up EasyRent earlier this year and released it to the public in September. In short, we are the first platform in New Zealand tailored to connecting students and landlords. Our point of difference is we are the only platform that allows students to rent properties during their university calendar year from February-November (9-months). Rather than getting stuck in a 12-month lease and having to pay over the summer when most students return home. We do this through our unique 9+3 model which offers the best of both worlds for landlords as they are able to rent long-term to students for 9-months and 3-months short-term accomodation capitalising on the peak summer rates. EasyRent provides a win-win solution for both landlords and students as we increase the landlords rental yield and provide furnished 9-month rentals for students. We currently have 315 students registered with us looking for properties and 11 properties. However, 70% of our current students are looking for 3 bedroom plus houses or townhouses. We only have 1-3 bedroom apartments as we can’t persuade or find an inlet into 3bedroom+ landlords to use our service/platform. We really need help with getting these bigger properties as then we can start solving thousands of students flatting problems. The properties are preferred furnished but if they are not then we can also furnish the homes free of charge at the start. Any help would be seriously appreciated. I’ve been through this problem and have witnessed thousands of students complain about paying rent over summer and we want to solve this issue once and for all. Kind regards, Toby Founder – easyrent.nz 

Question submitted by @tobyeasyrent 16/12/2020 @ 10:35 am
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Kia Ora,My name is Louis Gordon. I am a 23 year old Masters student from the beautiful Bay of Plenty.I’m building a seaweed business that aims to deliver across a quadruple bottom line (culture, economic, environment, and society) whilst restoring the Mauri of our oceans – and I would really appreciate some help.Like most Kiwis, I have a strong affinity for our beautiful Moana (oceans and beaches) – spending much of my time in, on and around the water. Recently I decided I want to give back to it, as it has given me so much. As I looked into what I could do, I realised just how serious the threat to our oceans is…. From loss of biodiversity, to overfishing, to acidification, to effluent run off, the list of threats formidable. The more I looked the more of a problem I saw, and the more determined I became to start an initiative to help.What if we could make NZ Carbon Neutral through seaweed carbon sequestration?What if we could create more high-value products to support our economy, and subsequently create jobs, quality jobs, for hundreds if not thousands of people?What if the research was already there, but we just aren’t doing it yet? I am currently studying a Masters of Technological Futures through Tech Futures Lab, and am using my studies to address this problem – and answer these questions.The primary aim of my project is; To explore regenerative approaches to aquaculture in New Zealand, validating the need and corresponding opportunities as to how the apply across cultural, economic, environmental and societal aspects.And the question I’m looking to answer is; How might seaweed aquaculture be enabled to make a significant contribution to our economy while positively addressing climate change?Now here’s where I am stuck.I’m not sure how I go about getting water space to test my hypothesis, and prove that seaweed is viable, desirable and feasible. Is there any chance you could help?I’m trying my best and would be extremely grateful for any pointers for any aspects of the project!I truely believe that this project has the potential to deliver real value to our country across cultural economic, environmental and societal aspects. As guardians of the land and the sea, we need to start taking the things seriously so that we, our kids, and their kids, can go pippi dancing at low tide in whangamata, or catch a fish thats ‘this big I swear!!’. Thank you,Louis Gordon

Question submitted by @louis 28/10/2020 @ 5:19 am
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Hi Manaaki team,Thanks for this amazing help you provide!I’m working on introducing an innovative sustainable FMCG product to the NZ market. NZ does currently not have this product but they are available in several European markets but still fairly early stage (some facing supply issues due to high demand and not being able to scale fast enough). There are 3 options for me to get this product into the NZ market as far as I can see.1. Formulate and manufacture with a local contract manufacturer. Pros: NZ made, supporting local, potentially higher profitability. Cons: NZ manufacturers retain the IP on the formulation, NZ manufacturers currently don’t have the capability required to complete the entire product (although they are very keen but it will be at least 6 months from now before they will even start looking into it). according to manufacturers they have existing clients who are also interested to produce these products and i get the sense they will likely be prioritised once the capability is there.2. Partner with one of the European companies in some way be it via licensing or even purchasing their product at the beginning and rebrand to enter the NZ market fast before competitors do. Later potentially changing to local production if possible. Pro: first mover/early to market, ease and speed, tried and tested product, potential to benefit from higher order quantities/larger scale of European company. Cons: potentially less revenue per unit through fees, transport, import etc.; not clear if Europeans interested in partnering, existing supply constraints on their end.3. Lastly, there could be the option of working with a formulation scientist to create the formulation (retain the IP) and purchase the ingredients (easily sourced ingredients) and either self-produce or work with local manufacturer.Any thoughts, advice or potential contacts/networks to get in touch with would be much appreciated!Many thanks!

Question submitted by @anonymous 10/11/2020 @ 5:30 am
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