Free guides, tools and other resources.

A Leaders Guide To Coordinating Action A three-part webinar series providing developing leaders with the fundamental skills to effectively coordinate others to take action. Improve productivity Become a better communicator Create more leverage to get the most out of your time Tickets for next event on sale now Event series starting 21 October 2020, delivered […]

Top Tools for Executing a Content Marketing Strategy If you’ve got content creation as a marketing priority, but you’re struggling to make regular progress, here are three tools that will help you to create better content faster and with more confidence. These are the tools that I use personally. I make no revenue from recommending […]

How to do an end-of-year review for your startup or small business This blog stems from one of the questions asked at our Lean Coffee event. The problem was, how do you review your business at the end of each year? Most people take time out over Christmas and New Year and spend some time […]

A Framework For Creating Opportunities The key to finding opportunities is not waiting for them to arrive. Instead, it’s creating spaces for opportunities to arise and being in a position to take action when the right one shows up. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time learning about the variables that allow a person to […]

Competitor analysis template and strategy for start up businesses This article sets out a useful way of conducting competitor analysis before you launch your business, to work out how to best position a brand and product. When to do competitor analysis We recommend that people complete competitive analysis to assess whether they have a good […]

A list of really good seed pitch decks. The best pitch decks are the ones that do a good job of making the businesses seem simple, a no-brainer. They tell a compelling story about the startup and it’s potential, and demonstrate the founder’s ability to execute. This resource contains a list of our favourite seed […]

We hope to make your journey starting a business a little easier by letting you know the grants that are available and how to apply for them. This is a comprehensive list of the grants that are available to New Zealand startups and businesses. The majority of these are government grants and funding unless otherwise […]

It’s hard to build a business when you’re trying to target everyone In this resource we cover why it’s important to focus your efforts on a core group of customers with similar behaviours. The mistake a large number of founders make when they’re developing their product and strategy is targetting too many different types of people. […]

Product development is a journey with the ongoing objective of making the most valuable product for your users. It’s important that as a founder or product manager, you continue to make good decisions along the journey to achieve product-market fit. ‘Product-market fit‘ means the company has found the right combination of variables to create a […]

It’s common for people who are starting their first business to spend too much time and money building the first version of their product. This leaves them with little room to change the product, which will inevitably happen once they get it into the hands of customers. The first version of your product should be […]

When you’re first starting a business, the first big question you are trying to figure out is whether there is a market for your product or service. Customer discovery is the first step toward validating this. It’s an excellent way to get to understand the people who will potentially be your customers, what they want, […]

Kiwi Startup Tools Cheat Sheet Need legal help, website tracking, a payment platform etc? Here’s a bunch of services we recommend. Legal & Accounting Resources: Even if you don’t have much money when you start out, there are cost-effective solutions to getting your accounting and legal positions right from the beginning, saving you time and […]

New Zealand Startup Ecosystem Map Here’s a range of NZ support currently on offer to new entrepreneurs and growing startups Last updated 09/08/18 Add to this list We hope you find what you’re looking for in our New Zealand Startup Ecosystem list of resources covering these three areas 1. The Idea Stage A whole heap […]

The survival of a startup is determined by its ability to create something of value that enough people will pay for, before running out of steam (financially and emotionally). There’s a method for creating value. The better you understand it, the better your ability to achieve it. We’ll explore Value Creation in this two-part blog series. […]

The survival of a startup is determined by its ability to create something of value that enough people will pay for, before running out of steam (financially and emotionally). There are many ways you can create value, and in Part 2 of our series on Value Creation, we’ll share our top tips on what value […]

The creation of a ‘Startup DNA’ is one of the first processes we work with people on to transition their idea into an early stage company. The output is a foundational document that sets out principles that drive the unique value of a company. It gives an idea a purpose and identity of its own, […]

Brand Development & Positioning for Start-Up’s: A Comprehensive Guide Brand is an important component to the overall value proposition of a company. In this post, we provide a comprehensive guide to brand development and positioning strategy for start up businesses. Every successful company has something that makes it unique. In its essence, this uniqueness comes […]

You’ve been told that you need to validate your idea. You understand the purpose of validation, you know what assumptions you need to test and you’ve written your script. Now you’re trying to find people to talk to that are outside of your immediate friends and family circle. Here’s some suggestions we’ve found work, split into […]