BUILDING A CONNECTED TRANS-TASMAN STARTUP ECOSYSTEM

When I heard that the Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC) was heading to Oceania for the first time since it was established in 2009, I jumped into action making plans to travel to Melbourne (19 to 22 September) and join 2,000 like-minded people from 123 countries to celebrate the global rise of entrepreneurship.

Melbourne is projected to become the largest city in Australia by 2031 and the alignment of city and state-level investment to grow its entrepreneurial talent, has led to the city becoming home to more than 2,600 startups which is rivalling its tourism sector in size.

It was awesome to be part of the Aotearoa New Zealand delegation, with a 56-strong cohort of entrepreneurship enablers coming together in unity to connect, learn and share. The recently launched GEN NZ manifesto and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Upstart Nation report, provided our group with a collective approach to raising New Zealand's entrepreneurial capability and advocating for government policies that will result in more, higher-quality, entrepreneurs and startups.

Much aroha to Pascale Hyboud-Peron for her leadership in building our GEC delegation, arranging connection opportunities in Melbourne, and securing six of our cohort to represent NZ as speakers during the congress programme.

In terms of stats, the latest US Genome Report found that New Zealand is home to 2,400 startups – the majority based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. One of the quotes in the report that really resonated with me and reflects the strategic focus at Tātaki Auckland Unlimited - via our GridAKL network - to build a resilient and inclusive startup ecosystem focused on solving those pressing problems:

‘Kiwi founders are ambitious, not just to build successful companies, but in their striving for a greater purpose. Over 90% of those interviewed stated that they wanted to change the world with their startup, a much higher number than the peer average.”

GridAKL is Tātaki Auckland Unlimited’s innovation campus based at Wynyard quarter. It supports entrepreneurs, creators, and innovators, and plays an important role in building strong communities, nurturing skills and talent, growing businesses and capability, connecting businesses with capital, and embedding innovation in Auckland’s DNA.?

Knowing that founders across Auckland are striving toward making a positive impact across the world, only reinforces the efforts of Tātaki Auckland Unlimited and GridAKL to build trusted partnerships with other like-minded startup hubs across the world, and to provide landing pad support for our Auckland-based entrepreneurs as they expand their innovation out to other markets.

While attending GEC, I met with the operators behind some of Australia’s leading innovation hubs in Melbourne, and took the opportunity to travel to Brisbane and Sydney to explore their startup hubs and innovation precincts. Big thanks to Greater Cities Commission , City of Sydney , City of Melbourne and Brisbane City Council for all their support in setting up each of the tours. The hubs I visited included:

It was so inspiring and energising to visit each of these spaces and hear about the investment behind them, as well as taking a behind-the-scenes look at their operation models, resources, and investor communities.

The team at Stone & Chalk , led by Group CEO Christopher Kirk , stood out for the way in which they share the same values and approach that we have at GridAKL toward supporting startups. Having already visited GridAKL earlier this year, the Stone & Chalk team were familiar with our hubs and we had a great time sharing our knowledge with each other. I enjoyed learning about how Stone & Chalk is building positive startup communities, as well as exploring how we can better connect our founders to build a strong Trans-Tasman startup ecosystem.

We know how important Australia is to our founders as the first export market they expand into, before heading out to other global markets. For the past five years, Australia has consistently been a key export market for our tech startups (22% of exports in 2022), followed closely by USA and Asia.

Across each city, I also met with regional and city economic development peers to learn about their approach to supporting tech industry growth and increasing entrepreneurship and innovation capability. Auckland has an enduring sister city relationship with Brisbane and it was fantastic to meet with the team behind Brisbane Business Hub and continue building our relationship with them.

It makes perfect sense that we build relationships with hub partners in Australia – to provide our founders with a trusted place to land, where we know they’ll receive the right support, connections, and access to other founders and investors.

Tātaki Auckland Unlimited is busy with work underway to build a landing pad approach in key international markets for our startups, and we look forward to sharing more news soon about a partnership agreement that will grow New Zealand and Australia’s innovation ecosystems.