THIS WORKSHOPS STARTS IN:
CREATING YOUR STARTUP
"THE ROOKIE TOOLBOX"
Wednesday 27th October, Sherwood Queenstown, 1pm - 5pm
Are you thinking about starting your own business or wanting to sustain your current Startup journey?
Creating Your Startup – The Rookie Toolbox” is an immersive 4 hour journey, with Melissa Jenner – Founder of START NOW. This workshop will give you insights into what it takes to survive and thrive as a Founder – learning both about the Mindset and the Tools you will need to be a success!
Melissa has a 25 year background working in some of the world’s largest and most creative global companies including Saatchi, Microsoft, Barclays and in NZ – the NZ Stock Exchange and NZTE. Trained in Marketing, Leadership and most recently Design Thinking from Stanford’s prestigious D-School.
Melissa is an experienced business leader, innovation trainer, and creative thinker. Through her work at START Now, she helps both businesses and individuals design sustainable & purposeful jobs, teams and businesses. She is a tutor on the Tech Futures Lab Masters Programme, and the AUT Brightside programme.
Who’s It For?
This is for anyone considering starting their own business. Whether a NFP, FP or social enterprise, or those that have just started on their journey.
What Will You Learn?
We will introduce you to the core concepts that are critical knowledge for all new Founders. Following an introduction session featuring case-studies of some successful start-ups, you will have the opportunity to top up your existing knowledge, by joining one of the two streams of learning:
Stream 1: Mindset
Here you will learn about core ways of thinking, working and being to survive as a Founder. You will get to evaluate (in pairs or small groups) how resilient you are, your GRIT score, the difference between a Growth & Fixed Mindset, and navigating complexity & early failure.
Stream 2: Toolset
This workstream focuses on skills & methodologies that will enable you to select the right problem to solve, generate a range of ways to design your solution or business, evaluation methods, building prototypes, learning to adapt and iterate your concept, and some basics for taking your business live.
How Will It Work?
This is an interactive learning experience, you won’t be sitting back and taking notes from a presenter! You will be getting stuck in. Working on the tools, experiencing and sharing with others what you are learning, and will receive a take-away pack of templates to keep the learning going after you leave.
Not designed for wallflowers, you must be prepared to share your thinking and try stuff - all the hallmarks of great founders! Your journey starts here!
You will be sent a pre-work questionnaire to evaluate your existing knowledge. From this you will be allocated into one of the two workstreams.
Limited to 20 places – $49 p/p
(this is a subsidised cost thanks to our sponsor QLDC)
About your host
Melissa Jenner - Founder of START NOW
START NOW was founded by New Zealander Melissa Jenner in 2015, out of a deep desire to help others re-build their careers and find new joy after her own experience.
“I suddenly found myself wanting and needing a new direction, but with no idea how to begin. Everywhere I looked, everyone and everything was telling me “just follow your purpose” or “do what you love”. Fine, but how? What I realised was when you’re trying to build something new, you need a good process. It’s risky, and I needed a method I could rely on”.
Melissa left her role as Director of Better by Design for NZ Trade & Enterprise to create START Now. Trained in Design Thinking at Stanford d-School, Melissa pioneered the application of Human Centred Design to the personal innovation challenge many people face – re-imagining and building a career they love.
Before START Now, Melissa was a Marketer, a Strategist and a General Manager. With over 20 years experience, she has worked in senior leadership roles for a range of large corporates (including Microsoft and Barclays) some of the world’s most creative businesses (including Saatchi & Saatchi), and in some of the biggest cities in the world (including London & New York).
She has also gained a Certificate in Leadership from Columbia Business School in New York, accredited in Organisational Agility from Tech Futures Lab, studied Psychology at Auckland University and is a trained Lifeline Coach.
In addition to running START Now, Melissa is a coach on the Tech Futures Lab Masters programme in Auckland, a consultant with Leadership Lab in Christchurch, and a coach at AUT Brightside.
