Blog.

Team Profile

Posted on May 10, 2013 · Posted in Founders

Questo – CEO David Allen

A gamified mobile experience to connect family and help organisations analyse the metrics of customer experiences to increase engagement and strengthen loyalty.  Taking the mechanics of games and evolving it by way of integrating rules for shared family connections through an organisations real world experience, in the process creating a tool that builds bridges and strengthens relationships. Giving back to Kiwi kids, using the gamifying of shared family experience to grow community, is a key motivator for David Allen (CEO and father of three) and the team.

David lights up when he talks about the potential of this tool to connect families. Essentially taking the gaming aspect and using it to positively effect real world activities such as interpersonal relationships in families and the community.

Steve Jobs (and Pixar) is a source of considerable inspiration. David recounts the story of how Steve and his team worked incredibly hard to get Pixar off the ground and demonstrated incredible resilience throughout. “They created a formula that worked and stuck to it.”

Living and breathing a startup as a family man and father of three young children continues to be challenging. Particularly when Questo has in a short space of time evolved through three separate iterations with changes in the team. Resilience is pivotal in the fast-paced evolution of a digital startup and something David and his team are developing at lightning speed.

Teamisto – CEO Patrick O’Reilly

Teamisto is a fundraising platform for sports clubs. Co-Founder Dan O’Reilly say the companies inspiration comes comes from personal experiences playing amateur sport. Along with brother/partner Pat, they’re lifelong sport nuts who used to go door to door, fundraising for their cash-strapped football club.

They want to make it easier for sports clubs raise money from sponsorship. At the moment clubs essentially rely on donations from the business community and it’s extremely difficult to attract adequate funding. Using Teamisto’s social media and mobile technology sports clubs can offer businesses a more lucrative proposition – huge advertising reach across the social web.

“If the team has a superpower it’s the ability to be super quick and nimble,” Dan says. “Being in a startup involves building a business quickly and changing direction even faster when roadblocks are presented.”

Indeed, Dan names former All Black coach Graeme Henry as a source of inspiration. In particular the resilience and resolve he displayed under both internal and external pressure when things weren’t going well for the All Blacks. Qualities which Dan recognises are essential immersed in the world of a startup, a world which is both daunting and awe inspiring at the same time.

KidsGoMobile – CEO Pam Ward

The team at KidsGoMobile – an app for children’s mobiles facilitating independence and safety – were part of the first generation to have mobile phones as young teenagers and consequently have first hand awareness of the risks. The empathy the team has for the situation, due to their personal experience, drives their passion for combating risks like text and cyberbullying, and the detrimental affects it has on a young persons well-being.

Pam Ward (CEO) believes their software has significant potential to revolutionise the way parents supervise their children’s digital communication. The moment of truth for KidsGoMobile is seeing parents delight and obvious peace of mind when they discover how the software allows them to view important information on their child’s smartphone easily and transparently.

A graphic designer by qualification, Pam is inspired by Tim Brown at IDEO. She particularly likes the way IDEO considers design thinking and applies it to business, a world that – as a new graduate – is new to her. Speaking of being new to business, Pam describes the start up experience, particularly the amount she is learning, as an intense challenge peppered with excitement.

Intern in a startup at Lightning Lab

Posted on May 7, 2013 · Posted in Various blog posts

The perks of being an intern in a startup

Startups are hard work. Anybody who’s anybody knows that. Enter interns. Most people think of interns as those who slink around and deliver coffee to those higher up the food chain, but, when used effectively interns can help produce results. Especially in a startup environment.

As a marketing intern for KidsGoMobile, I’ve entered the team with a clean slate. Sure, I may have done a few social media campaigns here or there, but nothing prepares you for the grind of startup life. Everything happens at 200km’s an hour. The amount of progress that can be accomplished in a single day fascinates me, and it’s all down to hard work, motivation and enthusiasm. As a student in my final year at university scraping the barrel to find a place to put my classroom knowledge into practice in the real world, I heard about the opportunity to work as an intern in a fast paced environment and couldn’t turn it down. I’ve learnt more in the few weeks here than I have in the past eight weeks at university.

The best thing I have learnt so far about working as an intern in a startup is that no idea is stupid. Startups are fueled by the collaboration of ideas, thoughts, people and minds. Two minds are better than one. You can bounce ideas back and forth between your team mates and watch as a simple idea turns into something great. At KidsGoMobile we take pride in learning along the way and accept the fact that none of us as individuals are geniuses. But together, we are.

I’m only working hands on with the team about twice a week. The advantage of this is that every time I come in the amount of progress that has been made is motivating. Watching the team move from step to step and seeing their progress reignites the flame to work harder to help achieve goals and targets which, once met, feels awesome! While sometimes the going gets tough, it’s always nice to know that there’s a fridge endlessly stocked with Red Bull two feet away.

As an intern at Lightning Lab you have the freedom to take a great idea and run with it. There are no university style rules put in place as boundaries and no superior CEO judging your every move like a hawk. At Lightning Lab you make it your own and bring small ideas to life.

- Femke van Schoonhoven

twitter: @femkesvs

New Zealand Startups

Posted on May 3, 2013 · Posted in Uncategorized

The goings good for New Zealand Startups 

That’s a fact and it’s even better for the Startups at Lightning Lab’s. What qualifies me to say this well for starters I have been involved as a mentor & participant with at least six accelerator programs all around the world in India, Austin TX-USA, Poland, Wales (UK), Iceland & Netherlands and the bottom line was that at the end of the show there just was zero investor interest & most of the startups were not accelerated. To put it bluntly the ecosystems never picked up as it takes two to tango & the startups did not find their partners in the so called angels & investors there

What makes New Zealand awesome is the fact that it takes multiple players with equal participation to make this ecosystem vibrant and that’s happening! The highlight reel example is all the action at Lightning Lab’s and the support startups are getting from mentors & investors. A few startups have already got their investment act together with a funding pledge & relationship in place with angels. Also, considering demo day is approaching all of last week mentors & investors came in to help the startups with their pitches and they literally spelt out what they look for and how they invest. That’s more like knowing the questions before the exams and clever startups would capitalize.

I would also like to take the example of the lean startup events organized by webfund, its very un-conference style where the startup founders do most of the talking and ask for help. I attended the lean startup clinic this week and it was awesome where there startup founders pitched and over twenty five attendees offered them help in some way or the other

Honestly all this was missing in all the other places & though the startups were game the mentors, angel investors, enthusiasts  & accelerators just did not play their part

As an observer of emerging global startup ecosystems I say this ‘The New Zealand Startup Ecosystem is coming around & shows promise’ moreover the investors, mentors & accelerators have played their part and now it’s up to the startups to make it happen. Its pretty much the other way around & I think what New Zealand startups should realize is the going is comparatively good here and they should capitalize.

Blog post by Ashwin Bhambri