Social entrepreneurs get ready for demo day

Participants in Live the Dream receive a work space, business coaching and mentorship. Photo / Supplied

On a sunny day in Wellington, instead of throwing down towels at the beach, a group of young entrepreneurs are working on ideas to improve New Zealand.

It's the second-to-last week of Live the Dream, a pilot ten-week social enterprise accelerator programme, based at Massey University's College of Creative Arts.

The university is providing the space; the programme itself is run by charitable trust Inspiring Stories in partnership with businesses and organisations including the Tindall Foundation, Vodafone, Hikurangi Foundation and Enspiral.

About 50 teams from around New Zealand applied to take part in the programme, which provides a work space, business coaching, mentorship and other support. The ten selected teams are now down to seven and busy preparing for a showcase event in Wellington on February 19.

Unlike some other accelerator programmes, Live the Dream doesn't provide funding or take an equity stake in participants' ventures. It's free to take part and participants are offered discounted accommodation through Victoria University's Victoria House but they must pay the rest of the way themselves.

"To be honest, I've been hugely impressed," Inspiring Stories Trust CEO Guy Ryan, who helped set up the programme, said. "The fact that these guys are giving up their summer to bootstrap their ventures says a lot."

Each venture is focused on a particular social or environmental goal. WHAM offers tailor-made wellness programmes for businesses; Boom wants to help young people plan events and campaigns for causes they care about, with activities already planned for Seaweek 2014. Another team, Rate My Flat, is working on a database for housing ratings and tenant support.

The programme's organisers look for projects with the potential to combine social, environmental and economic value. "All of the ideas have the potential to have a positive impact for New Zealand but some have a clearer business model than others," Ryan said.

A report by visiting Fulbright scholar Mary Jo Kaplan in August 2013 suggests that New Zealand's social enterprise sector -  and support for it -  is immature compared to the UK, Australia and the US. While direct comparisons are difficult, Australia, for example, is home to about 20,000 social enterprise ventures and a dedicated AU$40m public-private investment fund.

Kaplan's recommendations for New Zealand included a social enterprise national strategy and seed fund and more work to support youth engagement.

It's too early to say what shape Live the Dream will take in 2014/2015. "We'd like to be rolling the programme out in at least Auckland and Wellington next summer, potentially Christchurch," Ryan said. "We could be running this on every campus nationwide and are looking for partners to make that happen."

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