Your sponsorship contributes to making the Startup NZ Entrepreneurs Programme available to people who may not otherwise be able to participate.

The programme teaches practical skills around:

• Developing and assessing business ideas
• Understanding customers and markets
• Validating an idea before investing heavily
• Building a business model
• Developing a go-to-market strategy
• Finding and working with co-founders
• Understanding funding and finance
• Launching and growing a business

We're particularly interested in making these opportunities available to aspiring entrepreneurs who are currently underrepresented or face barriers to accessing entrepreneurship education.

Our annual Startup NZ Scholarship Drive helps more New Zealanders take their first step into entrepreneurship. Read about Startup NZ's impact here.

As a Startup NZ Sponsor, FoundrPR will develop and deliver a complete PR campaign around your company and its technology story.

We'll work with you to identify what makes your company interesting, develop the strongest stories and angles, create the content, and put those stories in front of relevant audiences and media.

View examples of our work in the media here.

Your PR campaign includes:

• Story and media angle development - we'll identify the strongest newsworthy stories and angles emerging from your company.
• Professionally written company feature - we'll interview you and develop a compelling feature about your business, its innovation, the problem you're solving and the people behind it.
• Proactive media pitching and liaison - our experienced media team will pitch relevant stories and angles to appropriate New Zealand media and journalists.
• Founder video interview - a professionally produced 10-minute video interview giving customers, partners, investors and other audiences a chance to hear directly from you.
• Marketing content you can reuse in your own channels - all content created from the campaign will be provided for you to use across your own website, social media, newsletters, sales collateral and other channels.

As part of your PR campaign, your company will be included in Innovation Nation 2026, an annual celebration of innovative Kiwi businesses by online magazine NZ Entrepreneur, during Global Entrepreneurship Week in November.

Since 2020, Innovation Nation has showcased 300+ entrepreneurs, startups, innovative businesses and organisations helping shape New Zealand's future.

Your inclusion includes email and social media coverage and gives your company another opportunity to tell its story as part of a broader celebration of Kiwi innovation.

All part of a comprehensive PR programme designed to generate useful content, visibility and media opportunities for your business.

The Startup NZ Entrepreneurs Programme is Founder Media Group's social impact initiative, designed to make entrepreneur education welcoming and accessible for aspiring first time entrepreneurs no matter where in New Zealand they live, work or study. Launched during the COVID-19 pandemic to help newly redundant Kiwis by startup mentor and Founder Media Group founder, Richard Liew, the programme has since assisted nearly 2000 Kiwis to take their first steps - safely - into entrepreneurship. Read about our impact here and here and see what programme participants say here.

We're aiming to bring together 30+ innovative New Zealand companies for the 2026 scholarship drive, resulting in 150 scholarships for the Startup NZ Entrepreneurs Programme to be distributed over 2027.

No.

This is a sponsorship arrangement. Your company sponsors the Startup NZ Scholarship Drive and, as part of the sponsorship package, FoundrPR provides your company with the PR campaign described above.

Startup NZ scholarship eligibility criteria are designed to identify aspiring entrepreneurs who have the commitment and drive to complete the programme but may face financial or other barriers accessing it. Over the years we have partnered with numerous regional economic development agencies, community groups, trusts and schools to help distribute the scholarships where needed.

Absolutely!

If you have specific recipients or a group of people you'd like your scholarships to be allocated to, our Startup NZ partnerships manager will work with you to make it happen.

Yes.

This is an invitation only campaign and as such invited sponsors have been pre-approved for inclusion in Innovation Nation 2026, published by NZ Entrepreneur, as part of the campaign.

No.

Our PR team have a track record of over 90% in achieving independent media coverage and we will develop your stories, identify appropriate media opportunities and proactively pitch relevant journalists and publications using industry best practices. However independent media decide what they publish, so while the probability is high, additional coverage can not be guaranteed. See examples of our work in the media here.

The Innovation Nation series has showcased 300+ innovative Kiwi businesses and entrepreneur support organisations from 10 regions since 2020. Annual campaign impressions reach over 750k, resulting in thousands of hours of fan engagement and readers spending an average of 3mins and 44secs for each story read. It really is New Zealand's innovation story.

Launched in 2012 to help New Zealanders learn about entrepreneurship, NZ Entrepreneur Magazine is published by Founder Media Group and holds a highly regarded niche in New Zealand business media, as a leading publisher of stories and insights about Kiwi innovation and entrepreneurship. They are New Zealand's #1 ranking website for searches related to entrepreneurship and startups and are regularly named in the worlds top 10 entrepreneur magazines and publications by Feedspot. Their content reaches a monthly audience of 65,000+ across web, email and social media. They have a particularly strong following among business owners, advisors, investors, innovation hubs, economic development agencies and other media.

Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) is an international initiative held each November to celebrate and empower innovators, startups, and job creators across more than 180 countries. Organized by the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) and supported by the Kauffman Foundation, it connects millions of participants through local and virtual events to foster stronger economic ecosystems. Its massive global impact drives economic growth and expanding access to mentorship, funding, and resources for aspiring entrepreneurs worldwide.

Yes.

The Startup NZ scholarship drive and accompanying PR campaigns are designed to be accessible to all our supporters in the business community and can be implemented as stand alone "one time only" campaigns to complement any existing marketing, communications or PR activities. Our focus is on making an impact for our supporters and scholarship recipients!