Innovate 2021 Winner Announced

History was made on Thursday night when the Innovate final was transformed into a live virtual event.

More than 300 people tuned in to watch Innovate online through Zoom and Facebook, including the four judges. The seven finalists had each pre-recorded a five-minute pitch with the aim of convincing the judges that theirs was the best idea and to take home the $5,000 cash prize, plus entry into The Factory’s accelerator programme, and the opportunity to pitch to the Manawatu Investment Group of angel investors. For the seven entrepreneurs, going virtual also enabled their pitch presentations to be viewed by people all around New Zealand and the world.

Dave Craig, CE of The Factory was impressed by the calibre of the finalists. “Once again, our finalists were superb,” acknowledged Dave. "It’s very humbling to watch people grow through a programme, albeit short this year due to the circumstances. Innovate’s core mission is for our founders to fall in love with the problem, then validate a market and create a proposition. Every year we are blown away by the quality of the ideas but more so the people behind the ideas. Our tenth year was a bit different, but the end result was exactly the same – seven businesses that have a stable platform to continue to grow. And for me personally, that is what Innovate is all about.”

The winner of Innovate ’21 was Rachel O’Connor with Reachible, an intelligent web-based self-service platform that makes it quick and easy for businesses to get in front of their next customer through accurate and unbiased channel selection.

“Being chosen as a finalist was amazing in itself,” says Rachel. “And then being selected by the judges as the Innovate 2021 winner was incredibly humbling. Having that external validation for an idea you’ve been working on for a while is an amazing feeling.”

Having been in marketing for over 20 years, Rachel knows that it can be a mystery to many. This often means people keep doing what they’ve always done. Or worse, they don’t do anything at all. She wanted to find a way to help businesses be more effective with their marketing, ultimately saving them time and money.

The Innovate process provided the direction, guidance, and support to deep-dive into the problem definition and validation stages, fast-tracking Reachible’s proof-of-concept and enabling Rachel to secure their first customer, GlobalHQ. “Dave and the team at The Factory have a wealth of knowledge and connections that are second-to-none,” explains Rachel. “The Innovate programme has given me, and the other finalists, such a strong foundation to grow our businesses and I recommend it to anyone who has an idea that solves a problem.”

“It was great to see the ideas in this year’s programme really focus on articulating their problem,” explains one of the judges, Tim Myers. “Rachel’s idea, Reachible, is a disruptive solution to a problem many businesses understand.”

As well as the overall winner, this year also saw the introduction of a new category focusing on social enterprise. The inaugural winner of the Innovate Social Enterprise Award was Peter McLean with Pete’s Disabled Tours. The judges felt that Peter’s business offered a very compelling proposition that all corporates and socially minded entities in the Manawatū should get behind and that Peter’s programme will definitely change people’s lives.

A judge since it began ten years ago, Simon Barnett is continually impressed by the calibre of the people and their ideas. “Over the past 10 years, I have been lucky enough to be around Innovate and its core is people. Tonight was no different. The passion on screen was second to none and what we saw in regards to presentations was first class. Congratulations to everyone.”

Rachel has some advice for budding entrepreneurs. “If you have the spark of an idea, some creativity, and a tonne of passion, then just give it a go. It really is an adventure not to be missed!”

Innovate is delivered by The Factory across three regions – the Manawatū, Hawke’s Bay and Whanganui and is coming to Taranaki next year. To date, 1,759 ideas have come through the Innovate programme and many have turned into businesses providing employment across the region.

The judges for Innovate 2021 were Max Thompson from Callahan Innovation; Britta Fromow, a consultant with James & Wells IP; Tim Myers, CEO of Norwood; and Simon Barnett, founder of Obo. The Master of Ceremonies on the night was Gareth Pringle.

The Factory would like to thank our sponsors who helped make Innovate 2021 happen:

• CEDA
• Massey University
• Norwood
• MediaWorks
• UCOL
• Innove Design
• CR Law
• Morrison Creed
• OriginEight
• Image Group NZ
• Two36
• ITL
• Kevin Bills Photography
• Empire Public Relations and Events
• ABC Business Sales
• Latham Lockwood
• James & Wells
• Palmerston North City Council
• Manawatu District Council

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