‘Crazy’ business idea built on fresh Kiwi air

‘Crazy’ business idea built on fresh Kiwi air impresses Innes48 judges

The idea of exporting clean Kiwi air to residents of smog-infested cities has seen a team of students from Waikato Management School win a $1,000 prize for the Gallagher ‘Craziest Idea that Might Just Work’ Award at the Innes48 Business Startup Competition 2016.

After reading that air pollution is one of the world’s top 10 killers, the students came up with the idea of selling portable canisters of fresh New Zealand air – attached to easy-to-use breathing devices - to wealthy consumers living in smoggy cities like Beijing or Moscow. Each canister would hold around 150 breaths of New Zealand air.

“A decade ago, the world was shocked by the introduction of bottled water – a commodity that literally falls from the sky,” says team leader Deanna Morse, who is studying for a Bachelor of Communication Studies at Waikato Management School. “The bottled water industry is now worth over $100 billion globally. Will this be the future of clean air?”

Innes48 is the largest business start-up competition of its kind in New Zealand, open to people of all ages, and was held at Wintec in Hamilton from 8-10 April. Each of the 15 participating teams was given just 48 hours to come up with an original business idea, conduct market research, and write a business plan. Just six teams made it through to the final pitching round.

Along with Deanna, aged 20, the Waikato team included students Emily Svadlenak, 20, (Bachelor of Communication Studies); Richard Liu, 19, Rhandal Meijerink, 21, Mitchell McNae, 20, and Zack Pentecost, 20, (all studying for a Bachelor of Management Studies). Between them, they have knowledge of strategy, international management, finance, supply chain, marketing, public relations and leadership communication.

Deanna says her team deliberately chose a revolutionary product idea that would disrupt society. “As soon as Rhandal pitched the idea of selling air, we knew this was it. It was crazy and we do crazy!”

“Our Friday night was spent researching and discussing how we could differentiate ourselves from our competitors. We went big – shocked by the fact that 40% of the world’s premature deaths are due to air pollution in China. We wanted to make a social, long-term difference – providing New Zealand air as a ventilation system for rooms, focusing on maternity wards and hospitals.”

During Innes48, teams gained new insights from inspirational business mentors and guest speakers about what it takes to become an entrepreneur. Teams also attended quick-fire workshops on business validation, problem-solving, business modelling, finance and pitching.

“We pitched last so we knew we had to project energy, and most importantly, our personalities,” says Deanna. “People laughed; they looked engaged. That was awesome. We were pumped. We put everything into the competition and had fun.”

The judging panel included software entrepreneur Melissa Clark-Reynolds, director of ACCURO and Radio NZ; Robett Hollis, a former pro-snowboarder who now owns several media ventures, including Airtime, New Zealand’s largest action sports network; Graham Gaylard, chair of SODA Inc business incubator and founder of Real Time Genomics, and Chip Dawson, a technology investor who has been a CEO of global organisations for the past 12 years.

The competition’s supreme $10,000 award for Most Viable Business went to DoseDirect, a prescription door-to-door delivery service targeted at the elderly. The $1,000 award for Best Pitch went to Step-by-Step, a New Zealand-based destination wedding service catering exclusively to Chinese couples.

For more information see www.innes48.com/blog

ENDS

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