Matt Cowley Tauranga City Councillor

Imagine being a young entrepreneur and having access to free help and free mentoring from renowned business people to launch your idea.

That's what Start Up Weekend is all about. Many successful entrepreneurs wish it had been around when they were young. I enjoyed being part of the winning team last year.

Sun Media was one of many sponsors of Tauranga's Start Up Weekend, hosted by Basestation on Durham Street. I joined 50 strangers that formed eight teams to pitch business ideas to investors. This year the judges liked an application which helps staff easily engage with upper management.

Start Up Weekend is part of Tauranga's growing innovation ecosystem. A few weeks ago I was MC for the awards night of the Young Enterprise Scheme, where school students develop businesses and sell products over the school year. There is also the Young Innovator Awards and many more.

You don't need to go to the ‘big lights' to become successful. I believe young people have a greater chance of being a successful entrepreneur in Tauranga than other cities. Why? Because there are more opportunities and less competition.

We have one of NZ's strongest coalitions of angel investors willing to invest in local ideas - Enterprise Angels. We have local people able to connect you to Silicon Valley - Wharf 42. We have one of three government incubators - WNT Ventures. We also have two extremely successful product developers - Locus Research and Woods Creative.

You don't need to go to the bigger cities to be a successful business person. You can relish our lifestyle and relatively cheaper cost of living, and don't have to compete to be heard in Tauranga as you do in more competitive economies.

I support initiatives like Start Up Weekend, Young Enterprise Scheme, and the Young Innovators Awards because it helps stop the brain drain of talented young school leavers and young professionals leaving Tauranga.

Feel free to email me your thoughts (matt.cowley@tauranga.govt.nz), call/text me on 0276989548, and follow me at www.facebook.com/a.younger.voice.