STUDENTS STARTING UP


You will get an understanding of the realities of starting your own business, meet other students interested in starting up, network with fellow entrepreneurs and business people, attend workshops, get advice, and hear about other support and opportunities for budding entrepreneurs in Dunedin, New Zealand and internationally.

You will develop fantastic new skills, meet new people, it looks great on your CV and you’ll be in to win money and prizes to get your business off the ground. Last year, competitors shared in a jackpot of $40,000 in cash, services and other prizes to help them start-up – what have you got to lose?

How does it work?
Those entering the Audacious competition are required to submit a business idea, a detailed business plan and pitch their idea to the Dragon’s Den. Check out the Programme page for further details. Throughout the competition, students attend a range of start-up workshops and have access to a Business Coach for one-on-one advice.

Who is it for?
Audacious is for students of all disciplines at the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic – not just business students.

No matter what you study, if you are creative, energetic and keen to expand your horizons – Audacious could be perfect for you. If you are worried you lack business skills, or any other skills, we will do our very best to help you find team-mates with the skills you need.

Individual entrants must be current University of Otago or Otago Polytechnic students. If you are entering as a team, at least one member of your team must be a current student and that person must be your nominated main contact when submitting your ideas.

But you don’t even have to enter the competition, if you are thinking of starting up, you’re welcome to join the community – attend Audacious events, hang out in the Audacious space, speak to our Business Coach or simply ask for help!

Categories
To organise the wide range of ideas submitted every year, and to compare apples with apples, Audacious is split into five categories. In your Round One submission you will be required to nominate the category in which you think your idea fits, but they become more important in Round Two. As you can see, any idea can be a winner!

THINKING BIG

Don’t play safe, think long term. Bold ideas that are relatively untested and may have a long development phase, but could find worldwide success.

ACTING NOW

Get out there and make it happen. Ideas that are relatively straight forward, low risk and easy to bring to market.

DOING GOOD

Look after people and planet. Ideas that benefit society – for social entrepreneurs, not-for-profits, sustainable ventures and the like.

GETTING CREATIVE

Think outside the box. Ideas that are innovative in the design or marketing that is leading edge and provides a competitive advantage.

MAORI BUSINESS

Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi; engari, he toa takitini; our achievements are a collective endeavour, not a solitary effort. For Maori students and those with a Maori-focused business idea.

RULES
Read the Audacious Challenge rules 2014. Competitors must agree to these rules in the submission process. Entries can be submitted via the Challenge section of this website. Any questions regarding these rules should be directed to [email protected].

Blog archive

  • Audacious > Blog

    Posted by kari.petroschmidt This is a part of what we want to explore this semester with the Audacious profiles. The stories surrounding the start-ups that have gone through this program before – the passion, fears, articulations – and how they can motivate, inform and inspire us in regards to our own endeavours. For now, here’s a…

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  • Audacious > Blog

    Posted by kari.petroschmidt I was a voracious reader for as long as I could remember.  I read everything I could.  I went through the horse stories stage, the dog stories stage, the fairy tale stage, the scary fairy tale stage, and then one day ended up in Sci-fi and Fantasy.  I ended up there because…

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  • Audacious > Blog

    19 Jul Posted by kari.petroschmidt It was 3am and I had to be in the city for my ‘real job’ in three hours and thirty minutes.  I gulped back the last of my cold coffee and pulled the homemade respirator over my face. The filters were long dead but I figured it was better than…

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  • Audacious > Blog

    Posted by kari.petroschmidt A couple of years ago, a movie critic named Rodger Ebert wrote an article about why he thought that games could never be art. It sparked outrage from the gaming community, orders of magnitude larger than what he expected. As a result, he ended up conceding that games could in fact, be…

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  • Audacious > Blog

    Posted by kari.petroschmidt I slid my seat all the way forward and hunched over the steering wheel screaming wildly at Carlos to throw himself onto the dashboard, “THE FRONT WHEELS ARE LIFTING OFF THE FUCKING ROAD! I CAN’T STEER CARLOS!  GET FORWARD, GET FORWARD!  The $200,000 uninsured sail that was bricked up in the back…

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  • Audacious > Blog

    What is design? Having just completed a design degree and now working as a designer, this is a question I get a lot. I am constantly attempting to explain to people what it is that I actually do and was being taught for the last four years. Often the immediate assumption is that I mean…

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  • Audacious > Blog

    01 Aug Posted by kari.petroschmidt Last week we had the official launch of the 63 Clyde St space and also introduced the new Entrepreneurs in Residence. The house was packed and it was great to have a sense of the different individuals and institutions that surround this program.  I talked about my conversation with Logan…

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  • Audacious > Blog

    Posted by kari.petroschmidt If following your bliss was easy, everyone would be doing it.  At least that is what I keep telling myself while I try to follow mine.  For me this includes writing Sci-Fi/Fantasy, going back to University to study German and bass guitar, and last but not least, starting Throw Like a Girl. …

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  • Audacious > Blog

    Posted by kari.petroschmidt So where were we… right, okay so you have an idea for a business, a burning little nucleus of uncertain fate smoldering away in the back of your mind.  Only, it’s fate is certain if you do nothing about it, CERTAIN DEATH; and certain regret, and the “woulda, shoulda, couldas” that inevitably…

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  • Audacious > Blog

    Posted by kari.petroschmidt                                                   This is Helen Keller – otherwise known to me as the woman I did my very first book report on way back in second grade.  I say…

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  • Audacious > Blog

    Posted by kari.petroschmidt A business plan must conform to the same criteria.  Vaughan Evans (“Writing a Business Plan – How to win backing to start up or grow your business”, Pearson, 2011) says a business plan must especially be clear on risks and written so as to convince potential backers and investors.  There is also…

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  • Audacious > Blog

    Posted by kari.petroschmidt Louis Brown t was already going to be a tight squeeze to meet Louis at our planned rendezvous time of 3 P.M, and when he texted me around noon asking to move it to 2 P.M I cringed, but agreed. There is something honest and delicate in his nature that one simply…

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