HeadStart helping start-ups create next paperclip

HeadStart helping start-ups create the ‘next paperclip’

Kingston resident Tai Haronga is converting his home grown idea into a viable business, with help from Regional EDA Ltd’s HeadStart course for business start-ups.

HeadStart offers a free hour of expert business advice for people with new business ideas.

Hutt City Council is so impressed by Mr Haronga’s prototype they are helping fund a six-week trial in October, and WelTec’s Centre for Smart Product is helping Mr Haronga fine-tune the design before commercialisation.

The EnviroFlexiNet is a hard-wearing ‘easy on, easy off’ net designed to clip onto recycling bins of different sizes and stop paper and plastics blowing away onto streets, parks and waterways.

“Mine’s a simple idea and so was the paper clip – and look how successful that’s been,” says Mr Haronga , who works full-time as part of the Ministry of Education’s special education team.

Regional EDA Ltd general manager investment Suse Reynolds says: “Mr Haronga and his business have all the qualities our business development team love working with – he’s resourceful, ambitious and driven to grow”.

Hutt City Council’s Sandy Beath-Croft says: “We have passionate recyclers but we all suffer the wind, so Tai spent some time working with our recycling contractors and they gave his idea the initial thumbs up.”

Contractors said the EnviroFlexiNet saved them an hour’s work each day because they did not have to chase rubbish that had blown away.

Mr Haronga says Regional EDA Ltd’s HeadStart course helped give him clarity and background business knowledge, followed by ongoing advice.

“I worked with REDA’s business development team, they are impartial and helped me get it all together.

“I don’t think of myself as a business person, but it all began gaining momentum and they helped me find funding and manage the situation.

“Friends, local businesses and government departments have backed my idea and really got behind me, and I’ll stay with them when we go into production.”

New Zealand patents are pending on the design and Mr Haronga has not ruled out exporting the EnviroFlexiNet.

ENDS

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