Shayne Currie continues his journey and makes his way to the top of the South Island, arriving in Nelson from Greymouth. Video / NZ Herald
At the age of 17 Steph Benseman started her first company. Ten years on, she’s dedicated her career to supporting and growing startups across the country.
Born and bred in Marlborough, Benseman - who was this year named in Forbes’ 30 under 30 Asia - spoke to the Herald as part of The Great New Zealand Road Trip.
The 27-year-old, who is a principal and head of community at Icehouse Ventures, created a young enterprise business while studying at Marlborough Girls’ College.
“I was nagging my teachers to let me do it … I’d played shops when I was a kid, I was like ‘I can do this’ and so I got my friends together, convinced them to do it, and then we launched a clothing label made out of recyclable fabrics.”
At the end of the school year, as the group of girls went their different ways, the company wrapped up, but the experience was enough to inspire Benseman to get into entrepreneurship.
With goals at the time of ending up in New York, she left Blenheim thinking she wouldn’t return.
In looking for companies to back, Steph Benseman says her main focus is on people who are “creating an unimaginable future”.
Benseman moved to Wellington, where she decided if she wanted to be a fashion entrepreneur, she needed to learn how to run a business and studied commerce at Victoria University.
“From there I got more involved in the young enterprise scheme and ended up working for them and supporting others and I just got so far into helping others start their businesses.”
After about seven years in Wellington, Benseman and her partner returned to Blenheim.
“Covid hit and we were finding we were going back to Blenheim a lot for all our hobbies and the good weather and so we were like, ‘Oh we’ll just give this a go’ and ended up loving it and basing ourselves just to be closer to the water and all the fun things that we enjoy doing.”
After working in the youth enterprise space running programmes for startups, she decided she wanted to be on the other end of the table handing out funding.
She then started her current role at Icehouse Ventures, where she works with the 300 startup teams in the company’s portfolio.
“A big part of that is discovering epic companies to back, so I’m always looking for founders to invest in and another big part of my role is once we’ve invested in someone, what are we doing to support the growth of their company. It’s my job to make sure they’re connected to all the right people, they have all the right resources to succeed in what they’re doing.”
When it comes to trying to find the right company to back, Benseman says the main focus is on people who are “creating an unimaginable future”.
“You’re looking for someone who is incredibly passionate and wants to make the world a better place but they’ve got some form of skill and some validation that their solution is the right one to do that.
“I always say it’s really easy to be optimistic in my job because there’s so many bad things happening around the world and it can really get to you, but I’m hanging around the people who are actually doing something about those problems and that’s just excessively inspiring all the time.”
Earlier this year, Benseman was named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia: Finance & Venture Capital list.
She said the recognition opened up more opportunities.
“It’s so funny when it happened, the public perspective of that changed a lot … I was like I’ve always been doing that work, like that’s just been so core to my job and just like my whole purpose and it’s just nice to be recognised for it.”
Living in Blenheim provides plenty of out-of-office bonuses for Benseman, with a family bach about a 30-minute drive away in Waikawa providing time for fishing, diving, and other water sports.
The Great NZ Road Trip heads from Nelson to Wellington on Sunday.
“I’m really lucky to work in a place that is really flexible … I can have my switch-off, calm-down time in Blenheim and just focus but I still work in such an aspirational space.”
She’s still able to take a direct flight from Blenheim to Auckland once every couple of weeks and is able to beat her colleagues into the office.
“Being in Blenheim actually helps me be more connected to the other regions so I can go to Christchurch a lot, and Wellington too … It’s a lot more central than people make it out to be which I’ve really loved.”
Benseman is also working on the launch of her own outerwear clothing label, Benny. She says she’s still referring to lessons from her business as a 17-year-old.
Her main advice for young entrepreneurs is to think hard about what it is they want to do, and the bigger purpose.
“It’s not just about creating something for the sake of it. It’s like ‘What’s the real big purpose here’ … I think people don’t understand what they’re actually capable of achieving and what impact their business could have on the world so I really like to encourage people to just think big first but then to take it back and just start.
“It’s always really inspiring once you actually do start what comes out of that and I think people underestimate what could come out of it when you do just give it a go.”
Asked what the future holds, Benseman readily admits there’s no five-year plan.
“It was just more about just doing something with purpose and just finding that freedom and doing what I love doing and doing it from the places that I love.”
