Startup Dunedin draws together links to assist new businesses

Startup Dunedin general manager Rachel Butler with the organisation’s plan to support local...
Startup Dunedin general manager Rachel Butler with the organisation’s plan to support local businesses. PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSON
A new plan designed to help support Dunedin’s startup businesses could be used to help others throughout the country.Startup Dunedin, with funding from Callaghan Innovation, has created an information link which gives people wanting to start a business in Dunedin with directions on what organisations could provide them with support.

The aim was to make that support easier for businesses to find and more accessible for businesses to use, Startup Dunedin general manager Rachel Butler said.

The information, which would be available online and in print, featured 41 different local and national organisations which could assist businesses in their growth and development.

Callaghan Innovation partner manager Max Thompson said the Dunedin scheme could be used as a test and they wanted to see how it could be used on a national scale.

"It is a good example of the city going above and beyond to achieve wider outcomes and we are really interested to see how it works."

Dunedin was "very good" at supporting its startup businesses and the plan would help keep the community connected, Mr Thompson said.

Ms Butler said it was "very important" to have a clear path for founders to follow when they were getting starting.

"It is about breaking down those barriers for people wanting to start up," she said.

Dunedin needed to highlight what it had to offer businesses so more people want to build their company in the city and it was hoped the information would help with that, Ms Butler said.

Mr Thompson said now the information was available, the challenge was to follow it through and make it work.

"One of the challenges for new businesses is to know where to go to start and this really addresses that.

"The key now is to make it happen," he said.

The information would now be taken to other organisations in Dunedin for consultation.

riley.kennedy@odt.co.nz

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