Ms Speer came to Dunedin in January last year to study communication design at Otago Polytechnic, gaining her bachelor's degree in December.
But instead of returning home to Germany when she completed her studies, she has chosen to stay on and develop MOOJ, an app which gathered information on what kind of music a person liked or disliked depending on the time, their mood and what they were doing.
It used the user's digital music collection and suggested ''the right music at the right time''.
Ms Speer likened it to ''music recycling'', saying it was a pity people forgot about many of the songs in their collection.
''Our lives are often just too busy to go through our music to prepare the right play list to suit the current situation,'' she said.
She had always wanted to travel overseas and New Zealand, in particular, had been a country she wanted to spend time in ''even before Lord of the Rings'', she said, laughing.
She had enjoyed her time at the polytechnic, and entering the first round of the Audacious business challenge had been a course requirement.
She liked the course so much that she entered the second round herself with her MOOJ app idea.
She was encouraged by the support from the business community and also the ''great spirit'' in the local start-up community.
She had so much good feedback on her business plan that she decided to stay on in Dunedin after she completed her studies to give MOOJ ''a go''.
While she missed her family and friends, she had made many great connections and she also felt very comfortable living in the city.
She also believed that networking was ''more natural and easy'' in New Zealand than in Germany.
She would decide during the year whether to apply for residency or not.
She was working with Dunedin-based electronic product design consultancy company Tussock Innovation, which was established last year by Jesse Teat and Mark Butler.
It had been ''awesome'' to work with them, she said.
She was trying to raise funding for MOOJ through global crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to develop the product.
''Crowdfunding is an amazing thing. I think it's great we can nowadays put money towards ideas we love and make things happen.
''It's all about supporting others fulfilling their dreams. Most of the time, it's for a good sake,'' she said.
She had also founded a design company, which she needed for her app, so she was looking to develop that, Ms Speer said. She was also still casually employed as a designer at Otago Polytechnic's innovation workSpace.
