Award-winning marketer, published author, and stalwart of the Dunedin startup ecosystem, Leanne Ross has a lot of serious accomplishments under her belt, and with those accomplishments comes good wisdom (and some great stories).
A recent alum of the Startup Dunedin Board and originally from Ireland, Leanne began her career in Dunedin as a freelancer in Digital Marketing. Within 6 months she had given that up to take a role with a games studio in the city that was growing fast, citing it as just too exciting and too welcoming to not get in amongst it.
Fast-forward to present day, Leanne is now the inaugural Executive Director of the New Zealand Game Developers Association, which includes more than 60 digital media and video game studios. In 2021, that was $270m+ in exports alone.
It’s safe to say there’s some true nuggets of brilliance and industry expertise in that brain of hers, and how often do you get to pick a brain like that? So - here’s 5 things we learned from Leanne Ross.
1. We’re all in this together.
Leanne has watched the Dunedin startup ecosystem grow for years now, and has seen the biggest change in the connections made between sectors: “Academia, businesses, government bodies, and the general public have created more and more connections, so that the city’s entrepreneur-scape began to resemble a web of interconnectedness.” A web is certainly a great way to describe it (and if you haven’t seen the ecosystem map, be sure to check that out here). Alongside this, the sheer fact we made the news 34 times in 2021 speaks to increasing public awareness of our local success stories, and as Leanne describes it, “a momentum in the city that started to make waves and get us noticed around the country”.
2. Small town mindset is not such a bad thing.
Our humble city of Dunedin is 18,000 km away from Leanne’s family - so there had to be a very good reason for her to choose to live here. In her eyes, one of Dunedin’s greatest assets is that we toe the line between small-city big-city, which means it still feels like a community, even though there’s heaps going on at any given time. Leanne’s favourite part of that is the fact that someone will know someone who can help you, and they’re not too busy to introduce you, or meet for a chat. It’s easy to form connections, and networking is much easier.
3. Ask not what your board can do for you…
Truth is, life wasn’t easy for anyone in 2020/21. During our first Audacious cohort of 2020, the Startup team pivoted to support students in a fully online cohort - and the result was inspiring. Leanne zoomed in to deliver a standout Marketing workshop that year, and the feedback from students was incredible. She also helped create a new fundraising strategy for the organisation, given that we had grown considerably in those few years and needed a good hearty refresh.
Leanne knows most people won’t see that work. But she still counts it as one of her proudest moments, saying “you “serve” on a board for a reason. It’s not about what it gives to you, it’s about what you give to them.”
4. Learn from your peers.
Before Startup Dunedin, Leanne hadn’t served on a board before, with her only experience of governance being on a regional sub-committee to a board.
With baby napping on maternity leave, she studied the Institute of Director’s six Governance Essentials module, and learned a lot from our chair, Wade Pearson.
Wade was continuing the Startup Dunedin Board’s march towards strong governance practice, and Leanne credits him with much of her learning - specifically the difference between strategy and operations.
“It’s been invaluable to me moving into my first CEO role reporting to a board, to understand what a board needs and how to be that bridge.”
- Leanne Ross
5. There ain’t no place we’d rather be. La da de da.
Thinking of moving here to start up? Leanne says DO IT. “I can’t recommend it enough! Startup Dunedin will be the springboard you need to take your business wherever in the world you believe it can go… but you can then be home from your commute in 20 minutes and walking on the local beach with your family/dog!”