"I was always trying to hustle some cash somehow or somewhere."
Peter Ramsay’s entrepreneurial spirit was evident at a young age.
As a boy growing up in Wellington, he went door-to-door trying to convince his neighbours to buy random stuff he had made.
Having dyslexia made it tough for Mr Ramsay to learn in a big classroom, which caused him to "hate school".
However, the condition helped him to focus his studies on something he was passionate about — entrepreneurship.
His first real dabble in the entrepreneurial world was the Young Enterprise Scheme (YES), a programme run for secondary school pupils to create their own businesses.
His YES group created a coloured roll-on surfboard wax, similar to deodorant.
"Having it as a roll-on form made it much easier to apply and people could make art on the bottom of their surfboard."
The group was a regional finalist but Mr Ramsay and another member decided not to take the business any further and sold out.
"New Year’s was coming up and I needed a bit of money," he said, laughing.
The last member left went on to sell the product to surf and clothing company Billabong for an undisclosed sum.
After leaving school, Mr Ramsay headed south to study business at the University of Otago, majoring in marketing, management and tourism.
While there, he discovered the entrepreneurial course, and it stopped him dropping out.
"For a while there I probably shouldn’t have been at university, but when I found out I could do entrepreneurship as a degree, I really saw my grades improve," he said.
In the summer break, Mr Ramsay returned to Wellington to "sling ice creams" working for a local gelato producer.
He then thought he would give it a crack himself and set up an ice cream operation with a business partner.
He designed a custom trailer and called the business Inside Scoop, given Wellington’s political background.
"It had a very start-up feel to it; the trailer sat in a friend’s driveway when we weren’t using it," he said.
Mr Ramsay’s former employer was "very supportive" of the idea and even let him make the ice cream in his kitchen.
"We had an agreement that we wouldn’t sell our product near his shop."
After doing that for several summers, Mr Ramsay sold to his business partner to focus on his life in Dunedin.
The idea for his present start-up came from the ice cream trailer, when he used to mix lemon sorbet with sparkling wine or vodka.
The idea was to create a dispensing unit for the alcohol, which was blasted into the ice cream to make a slushy.
"It was just a hit, everybody loved it," he said.
After trying that idea and facing tough alcohol regulations, he landed on his current idea: Elixa — a capsule-coffee-like water bottle machine for vitamins.
The start-up had attracted interest from the medicinal cannabis industry to replicate it for use in that field.
"We were getting ready to launch into the market and our patent got published overseas.
"Overnight we had emails from cannabis companies asking what we were doing with the project."
Working on the idea had thrown up a few challenges, and one was trying to find local investment.
Mr Ramsay spent the first three years developing Elixa, which was mainly self-funded.
"For someone who was still studying and fresh out of university in that time, it was tough," he said.
Two years ago, the business needed investment to scale up and enter the New Zealand market, but it took more than a year to get the money.
The Mainland Angel Investor Collective (MAI) was launched last year and aims to Dunedin, Queenstown and Invercargill start-ups from having to look too far for investment.
Knowing the network manager job was coming up and having faced the struggles of looking for investment, Mr Ramsay thought he would throw his hat in the ring.
"We were literally stalking LinkedIn, looking for people or waiting to be introduced.
"So I’m thrilled to be able to give back and help others.
"The whole idea of a network in the lower South Island will be a lot more beneficial and having something that can connect the two is crucial."
Mr Ramsay believed start-ups in the lower South could benefit from international wealth moving into areas like Queenstown.
During last year’s Covid-19 lockdown, some start-ups were created which were now looking to expand.
"There are some ideas from the lockdown that are starting to get to the point where they have tested their assumption and are now trying to make it a reality.
"They are starting to come through and start on the investment train.
"There were some start-ups that had to hit the pause button during the lockdown that are also just getting back on their feet and looking to expand."
Mr Ramsay believed that would lead to demand for good investment opportunities.
Alongside Mr Ramsay’s appointment at MAI, Sarah Ramsay (no relation to Mr Ramsay) has been appointed chairwoman.
Ms Ramsay recently stood down as chairwoman of Startup Dunedin and has been replaced by lawyer Wade Pearson.
