The Kiwi startups being powered up

Taking residency in Generator’s new Wellington building is creative and production studio, CreateNow - a full-service agency that provides clients with a one stop shop for advertising campaigns, offering photo and video production, creative and strategy.

Creative Director Sam Pietras says the CreateNow team is thrilled to be moving into Generator's new Wellington site, as until now they were conducting most of their work from home or at a small workspace that wasn’t big enough for the whole team.

“For us, winning the competition means less time zooming and more time collaborating. It means working better as a team to grow and expand the horizons of what's possible with our content. We're looking forward to working in the center of Wellington, in an amazing building in the middle of the city and being a part of the Generator community.”

Moving into one of Generator’s Auckland sites is the team from Stylefit, an interactive writing tool that enables writers to analyse and enhance their writing. Stylefit provides students with immediate, valuable feedback on their style of writing and inspires them to keep editing and improving their writing before handing it to their teachers.

Stylefit Founder and Creator Suraya Dewing says the win has inspired her and self-directed writing ambassador Anna Zhigareva to double their efforts to engage with teachers and students.

“We feel incredibly privileged to have won the PUYSU competition. We know that employees of the future will need to write well to effectively communicate in a digital world. Generator will provide an environment where we can develop our links with schools and grow our presence in other markets.

“Since May, Anna and I have operated from opposite sides of Auckland. We rarely meet in person but now that the business is growing, we need to physically meet regularly. We also need a central place to hold workshops, writing seminars and to give presentations. Generator’s location is perfect for that and also puts us closer to organisations that support us, like Callaghan Innovation and companies we do business with. We are looking forward to meeting other business owners and being inspired by them too.”

The two winning businesses will be able to plug into the vast range of business services and products offered by other members of the Generator family including a digital marketing audit courtesy of Krunch.co, a 40% discount on a 12-month Salesforce subscription, free tickets to the next TEDx event thanks to TEDx Auckland and meeting and event suite usage thanks to Precinct Properties.

The competition was judged by a panel of business leaders and Generator members, Generator General Manager John Moffett, Managing Director of Salesforce NZ Hamish Miles and Co-Founder, CEO and Managing Director of Krunch.co Darren Kirkland.