Take action and make an impact. The Impact Challenge is your opportunity to work with new technologies, and inspiring mentors in NZ's innovation ecosystem, to tackle global issues outlined by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. 

When starting a business, there are a lot of things on your plate to consider. Often, the product or service itself takes a lot of the attention and rightfully so. However, there is more to building a successful company than simply building a good product.

An early and crucial point in your business’ life cycle is validation. In an age where new products are coming out every day and whole television shows are developed to pitching to investors; validation matters.

As an entrepreneur, launching your business is a series of trials and errors. While some startup founders are experts in one field, few have experience in all the areas required to be successful. As such, starting a business is the definition of a learning experience.

Innovation efforts traditionally focus on the offering. Other areas of your business – such as your revenue model, target market, supply chain, brand, and pathway to market, have a significantly greater potential to create value. Learn about different tools to create new business models, and try these tools for yourself.

After several months of hard work, the Go Innovate! idea competition culminated in a dragon’s den style pitching competition, held in the Wonder Room at Massey University's Albany campus. Finalist teams pitched for a grand prize worth including seed funding from Massey Ventures, a place on the ecentre’s Sprint development programme, and services and software package from Microsoft.

Uber and Airbnb changed the game in the taxi and accommodation industries by making inaccessibility obsolete through shared economy. Now All Space is taking on the storage industry from its base in New Zealand after completing the ecentre Sprint programme.

The ecentre at Massey University has reaffirmed its place as a leading incubator hub for tech startups, winning a Callaghan Innovation service expansion contract, announced by the Science and Innovation Minister, Paul Goldsmith. And from next month, the North Shore, Auckland-based ecentre, will work with Northland Inc, Northland’s Regional Economic Development Agency, to deliver services to startups from the Te Tai Tokerau region.

Ecentre CEO, Jackie Young, says winning the Callaghan Innovation contract is a significant indicator that its programmes deliver results.