It is with great pride and excitement that we’re able to announce our first semester of Audacious for 2022 has officially wrapped up. We were able to complete our first fully-in-person cohort this time, and thanks to the perseverance and resilience of our students, it was a huge success all round.
Every year, students bring something new to the table. These incredible tauira have spent the last 9 weeks honing their pitches, developing their business cases, and perfecting their products, services, and ideas. It goes without saying that the entire cohort deserves a massive round of applause.
Judging is always a very challenging process, and this year the pitch quality was truly second to none. Although narrowing down the winners was very difficult, luckily we had the awesome team of Bex from Firebrand, Kylie from Igtimi, Jason from Pocketsmith, and 2020 Audacious alumni Oli from Cheeky Tea to help us through the process.
Once again, we felt the support of our whole community and ecosystem behind us. We couldn’t run Audacious without support from our founding partners, Dunedin City Council, Otago University, and Otago Polytechnic; and our awesome sponsors Polson Higgs & Cheeky Tea.
Our Winners & Prizes
Best Entrepreneur: Tutor4U - Jason Hart
Best Pitch: Atlas & Sage - Olivia Marshall
Most Audacious: Yezmac - Cameron Templer
Cheeky Tea Best Consumer Product - Tempest - Tom Geary
Best Positive Impact: Wayfinder - Julia Imo
The Polson Higgs Premiere Award: Wayfinder - Julia Imo
People’s Choice Award: Wayfinder - Julia Imo
You can also have a read of this great Otago Daily Times article on Wayfinder, founded by Julia Imo.
If you missed the showcase, you can find it here: Part One / Part Two.
Tutor4U
Med student Jason, founder of Tutor4U, took out Best Entrepreneur for his idea - a business designed to provide the student with a quality tutor. With students looking to improve their grades and tutors looking to make some extra cash, Tutor4U’s online marketplace makes those connections easier.
Atlas & Sage
Atlas & Sage are an eco-friendly alternative to fast fashion - using sustainable materials like hemp to make backpacks with a difference. Entrepreneurship student Olivia’s pitch deck was engaging, featured great design, and was a pleasure to watch - hence Atlas & Sage winning Best Pitch Presentation!
Yezmac
The team behind Yezmac is made up of Entrepreneurship student Cameron and his business partner Sophia. Yezmac aims to tackle the modern issue of online ticketing scams, doing so by utilising blockchain and NFT technology. A big problem, and a bigger idea - Yezmac deservedly took out the Most Audacious award.
Tempest
This year, Cheeky Tea sponsored a brand new award - the Cheeky Tea Best Consumer Product award! Commerce Student Tom, won this award for Tempest, his line of hypoallergenic, all-natural cologne products. Tom was watching from home as he couldn’t pitch in person, but it was great to have so many virtual supporters commenting and engaging with us on the livestream.
Wayfinder
Finally, the big win of the night was that we all got to watch Bioengineering student Julia Imo walk away with over $4,000 in prizes for her mental health focused business, Wayfinder. Julia won both the $2,000 Positive Impact award, given to startups with the potential to do the most good, and the top prize of Polson Higgs Premiere Award, giving her another $2,000 plus bespoke mentorship to help get things moving. She also took out the People’s Choice award!
Wayfinder is a truly innovative idea in health-tech, using technology in one’s shoes to detect early warning signs of mental health deterioration. It turns out one’s way of walking can say a lot about their state of mind, and Wayfinder aims to take advantage of that to help bring about better mental health outcomes for users.
Julia has already honed her pitch in front of the team at Momentum & Return on Science, and with so much support from our region behind Wayfinder we’re very excited to see where she goes next.
If you’d like to learn about Audacious, feel free to pop over to our website to read more!
Audacious is open to all Dunedin tertiary students, no matter if you’re studying business, physics, music, or anything in between. No prior experience is required, and it’s totally free. Keep an eye out for updates on our Instagram page, as well as our Startup Dunedin Facebook page.