Teams at Taiki e! continue their Startup projects

Back row, from left, Ieme de Wolf, Regina de Wolf-Ngarimu, William Schierding, Matt Oakley, Jeanette Lepper, Tabea Walker, Patrick Ondracsek, Perry Walker, Maryam Tayebi, Maria Wynne, Adrianna Hoogland, Josh Cohen and Danny Wilkinson. Sofa row, from left, Cherish Wilkinson, Mariska van Gaalen, Hannah Magan, Mania Taare, Melka Oakley, Mereana Leaf-Kahurangi, and Ralph Hamon. Seated, from left, Tim Marshall, Donette Kupenga, Christian Rangi, Jacopo Orazi. Picture by Avneesh Vincent

Six entrepreneurial teams gathered this week, a month after they first got together, to give one-minute updates on their progress.

They first met at the fifth edition of the Tairāwhiti Startup Weekend initiative at impact house Taiki e! on April 21-23.

The project helps participants learn how to shape solutions into business models, build products and launch start-ups.

This year’s theme was Imagine If.  First place went to Arohamai Funeral Services, and team member Christian said the team had been having weekly meetings since their inception.

Funeral services were usually quite expensive and the startup planned to make such services more affordable, Christian said.

“We are lucky to have the wisdom of our pakeke on board. At the moment we need more validation from our community to make our services the best for our community.”

Runners-up Slash for Cash team member Jacopo Orazi said they were making “great progress” and were “super motivated”.

Their game-changing idea aimed to fix the build-up of slash on the beaches and in waterways, turning slash into products such as activated biochar which would “heal the land”.

Mr Orazi said the team were holding workshops to train the community on how to make activated biochar and briquettes.

Pitching for the third-placed Nexus Scholar project, Dr  Maryam Tayebi, said her team were looking at areas of law and finance.

They were excited to have some new team members, she said.

Her project aimed to create an open-source platform to connect researchers who needed methodology with experts.

She hoped to improve access to the latest research tools, techniques, and methods, which would enhance research reproducibility and save time.

Fifth place Gizzy on Wheels co-founder Adrianna Hoogland, who was the youngest participant (17 years) said she was planning to hold a few skate events during the first week of June.

Her roller-skating startup stemmed from the fact that she thought Gisborne did not have a lot of fun things to do.

The sixth startup, called DNA (Dads Need Awhi), earned an honourable mention during the weekend. It was pitched by Tauawhi Mens Centre coordinator Tim Marshall.

Updating the whānau at Taiki e! on Wednesday, he says his team is planning to hold some events soon.

The problem they found was that dads are often absent in the first 1000 days of their baby’s life and that is harmful. Their solution is to walk alongside 1000 dads for 1000 days to give their tamariki the best start in life.

“We have been doing work around getting more validation. It’s important how we walk  alongside our dads and men for a thousand days and we are looking to all different types of relationships from biological, stepdad to distant dads,” he said.

The fourth-placed project After Hours Creative Cafe team said they were not getting ahead with their idea.

Startup Weekend Tairāwhiti organising team member Cherish Wilkinson said 35 people signed up and pitched their ideas at this year’s event. A total of 18 ideas were considered, but only a third (six ideas) were selected to be developed and worked on over the weekend.