MEDIA RELEASE

20th December 2013

Garden Genie a Win for New Zealand in the Global Startup Battle

The Startup Garden Genie includes a new smartphone app designed to make it simple and easy for people grow their own produce, won the latest Auckland Startup Weekend in November and will today be announced as a winner in the Global Startup Battle.

The team behind Garden Genie beat out stiff competition from 11 other innovative startup ideas in the Auckland Startup Weekend contest that enables entrepreneurs to launch businesses in a single weekend.  They then entered the Global Startup Battle(http://www.globalstartupbattle.co) competing with over 1,000 startups in 40 countries and have been announced as the Grand Prize winners of the E-Commerce Circle.  

Jennifer Clamp, a Growth Specialist at ATEED pitched the Garden Genie concept at Startup Weekend and has led what was a team of strangers that first night to their success in the Global Startup Battle.  

Clamp says Garden Genie is an easy solution for people who want to grow their own produce but don’t have the knowledge to do so and are short for time. On downloading the Garden Genie app, users are asked to provide basic information about their garden and what they want to grow.

They are then sent instructions for growing produce and reminders for when it’s time sow seeds, prune trees and for watering. Users can also purchase their gardening supplies through the app, and have them delivered to their home.

The Global Startup Battle required Garden Genie to submit a 60 second video within 24 hours of winning Auckland Startup weekend.  The team then had to win a votes based popularity contest getting them in to the top 15 teams before being judged by a panel of seven including Bigcommerce Founders and CEOs.

Garden Genie achieved almost 750 votes in the Global Startup Battle.  “The support we have had in getting to this stage has been such an encouragement.  It feels like New Zealand has rallied behind us, with organisations like Startup Weekend New Zealand, Kiwi expat community KEA and Garden Genie’s own facebook community all getting the message out to vote.” says Clamp. Garden Genie has also attracted international interest on twitter with celebrities Jamie Oliver and Simon Gault re-posting tweets.

The E-Commerce circle prize includes a month long e-commerce immersion at Bigcommerce’s US HQ in Austin Texas including flights, accommodation and expert mentorship and coaching for four of the team of six.  “The team were all aware that the prize was for just four people so there was a nervous moment of wondering who would get to go after the initial excitement.” says Clamp. “The team at Bigcommerce have been great and are open to all six of us heading over.  We hope we’ll be able to find the funds to make that happen.”

Watch Garden Genie’s 60 second video and sign up to be one of the first to download the Garden Genie app here: http://gardengenie.co/  You can also follow the team’s journey on their facbook page www.facebook.com/gardengenieco and twitter @GardenGenieco

ENDS

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