Can you believe it?
Audacious Semester 2 for 2022 is already done and dusted. After 8 weeks of prototyping, pavement-pounding, and polish, we've seen our Audacious students turn their emergent shower-thoughts and business brainwaves from “that could be cool” into “this is actually happening”. We’re stoked to officially bring you the results for this semester’s showcase.
If there’s something we have learned after the last 15-ish years of Audacious running, it’s that there is no wrong way to be an entrepreneur. Over 28 majors and minors made up our Audacious cohort this year, from all levels of study.
While entrepreneurship might have previously had a reputation for only being for business students, this year’s cohort is living proof that this is not the case. Audacious is for any and all Ōtepoti tertiary students, no matter if you’re studying business, physics, music, or anything in between.
111 students did Audacious this year.. We welcomed the brand new Bachelor of Entrepreneurship students for the first time, too. It’s been great to see how such a wide mix of ideas and areas of study have come together to produce some real gold.
Keep reading for more on our prizewinning students this year.
Our Winners & Prizes
Best Entrepreneur: Abalro Health - Abby Green
Best Pitch: Club Caia - Georgia Cleaver & Liam McGuire
Most Audacious: UniRent - Georgia Hawthorne
Cheeky Tea Best Food & Beverage Product: Crave Conscious - Connie Searle, Lauryn Stewart, & Simone Hamilton
Best New Business: Club Caia - Georgia Cleaver & Liam McGuire
The Polson Higgs Premiere Award: Abalro Health - Abby Green & Alex Livingstone
People’s Choice Award: Club Caia - Georgia Cleaver & Liam McGuire
A little about our Audacious startups
Club Caia
Club Caia is a sustainability-focused razor brand, specifically for the bikini line.
Founded by Law/Commerce student Georgia Cleaver & Law/Psychology student Liam McGuire, the idea came to them after finding out that an overwhelming amount of people who shave their bikini lines were using disposable razors, or having to purchase razors from companies like Manscaped, which weren’t designed for them.
Club Caia razors are designed especially for bikini lines, and minimise waste so they’re kinder on the planet.
This was Georgia’s second time through Audacious, and she and Liam took out the Peoples’ Choice Award, Best Pitch, and Best New Business.
UniRent
Social work Masters student Georgia Hawthorne’s idea for UniRent took out the prize for Most Audacious. This startup aims to make the textbook user experience at university easier and much more affordable.
Research shows that digital textbooks aren’t for everyone - many students learn best with a hard copy in their hands. With so many textbooks purchased and barely used every year, UniRent can cut down on both cost and landfill - a real win/win for our tauria and our taiao.
Crave Conscious
Food Science/Agricultural Innovation student Connie Searle, Nutrition Student Lauryn Stewart, & Marketing/Business student Simone Hamilton are the team behind Crave Conscious.
This fresh idea for a remix of a traditional bedtime snack is designed to be delicious, health-promoting, and good for your sleep cycle. Their Night Bites are made using flavours their customers love, with wholesome ingredients that promote satiety, and are high in magnesium for a good night’s sleep.
Not only that, but they brought samples to the judging panel, and we can confirm this was a winning recipe. Crave Conscious took out the Cheeky Tea Best Food & Beverage Product Award this year.
Abalro Health
Abby Green & co-founder Alex Livingstone are the team behind Abalro Health, who took out the top spot this year; the Polson Higgs Premiere award. Abalro Health is making an effective health food supplement powder & natural skincare support system out of the Iranian superfood, the barberry. After their success with Young Enterprise Scheme and The Global Kaitiakitanga Project, they went on to sell over 5000 units of their product, and have made over $135,000 in revenue already - we predict some very big things on the horizon with this team!
Abby Green also took out the Best Entrepreneur award.
If you’d like to learn about Audacious, feel free to pop over to the Audacious page on our website to read more, or give us a cheeky follow on Instagram.
Since 2020, Audacious has supported 468 students - some of whom were starting up, whether with new businesses, not-for-profits, or social enterprises. Others went on to find their feet in other workplaces or areas, with transferable entrepreneurship skills being in hot demand in 2022. The impact we’ve felt and the tight-knit community that has formed around these students has really been nothing but warm fuzzies.
Thank you again to our judges, sponsors, guest speakers, and most of all - our students. We could not do what we do without the support of our amazing community. Of course, we have to give an extra-loud, extra-special shout out to our sponsor Polson Higgs for their sponsorship of our Premiere Award, a top prize of $2,000 cash plus mentorship. Their support truly makes a huge impact in getting these student ideas off the ground.
And to everyone reading - you are the reason Dunedin is so cool. Thank you so much for your support, it means a lot to have so many people backing Ōtepoti students and supporting entrepreneurship in our community.
