Mt Maunganui based Critical Supply and Come Clean were selected from over 500 businesses that entered a nationwide competition for Kiwi entrepreneurs that can help solve a societal or environmental issue.
Businesses were asked to present their idea to an expert panel – including identifying the social or sustainability problem they are seeking to change and details of how that will be achieved.
The winners of the competition, which will share a cash and mentoring prize pool valued at $140,000, include Mt Maunganui based Critical Supply, a fair-trade instant coffee brand that returns profits to local community, and Come Clean, a local company producing a sexual wellness product from organic hempseed which aims to destigmatise the use of lubricant.
Tom Lear, co-founder of Critical Supply, says finding expertise to help guide them through the initial stage of their company’s lifecycle is necessary to support their growth.
He says while around 70% of the coffee consumed in New Zealand is instant, there is a lack of support for Fair Trade suppliers in this industry niche.
“As a purpose-led startup, we have been keen to avoid entering the marketplace blind and incurring the costs of learning from our mistakes.
“The opportunity to work with experts who can help guide us through these pitfalls and develop an offer that will resonate with consumers will be invaluable to us over the coming months – it will provide a bigger boost than the financial contribution.
“The idea that you don’t have to be not-for-profit in order to make a difference is a really key message for startups to understand today and one that we want others in our position to hear,” he says.
Daisy Hylton, founder of Come Clean, says the development of products using sustainably sourced ingredients is a key mechanism for reducing environmental impact of consumer goods.
“It can be challenging, even overwhelming at times getting a new business off the ground.
“We are competing against well resourced, mainstream incumbents and having access to mentors that understand what it is like to be a sustainably driven business in an unsustainable world helps provide the motivation to keep us focused on growing the business.”
Nous, a new organisation which provides mentoring, coaching, investment and marketing support for environmentally and socially focused Kiwi enterprises in their early stages of growth, is the creation of Brianne West, founder and CEO of the country’s largest regenerative beauty product exporter, Ethique.
West launched the ‘Got Nous’ competition during the first stage of the fund’s launch to help raise awareness of the challenges faced by social enterprises – which have a failure rate of 95% within their first decade of operation.
“It is critical that more is done to support these businesses, not simply through the provision of financial aid but more importantly by offering the structured guidance needed to navigate the unique set of challenges they face.
“The Bay of Plenty firms we will be supporting are examples of startups that have the potential to help address some of the myriad of issues that are becoming increasingly prevalent in our society.
“In nurturing these businesses through to the next stage of their development we want to show others in the region that these business models can be adopted
“We know now that there are many more startups in the region that also can make similar inroads into addressing systemic societal issues we face as a nation and they require customised support to grow to fruition,” she says.
