Tim Calder

Kickstart is an excellent promoter of Entrepreneurship in Dunedin and has helped a surprisingly large amount of students in from the University of Otago and the Otago Polytechnic. Kickstart representatives are present at all the major business seminars held in Dunedin by either the University, Polytechnic, Chamber of Commerce, or other organisations like BioSouth. With the support of the University of Otago School of Business, Kickstart has a ‘Start-up’ lounge where students have access to business material, meeting rooms and internet. ‘Start-up’ is a great place to meet like minded people, share some ideas you’re working on, and make some good business contacts. I am encouraged to read how many students have taken advantage of Kickstart’s resources and setup their own business.

Some statistics to date (as at November 2007):

• Over 2700 students spoken to at lectures across a wide range of departments
• 1505 one-on-one student consultations since February 2005
• 230 have started a business alongside their study
• Wide range of study majors (45% Business, 36% Science, 19% Humanities)
• 61% of the general student population has considered their own business
• 31% of the general student population knows of the Kickstart service

Kickstart also runs the NBR Audacious Otago Business Plan Challenge which is held annually and makes available prizes to the value of $50,000 to launch student business ideas and plans. More valuable than the money is the UPSTART Business Incubators services which includes professional mentoring from very experienced current business people who can also put you in front of Angel Investors when your business is ready.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 18th, 2008 at 7:10 pm and is filed under Blogging, The Otago MBA.