Whangarei entrepreneur Vanessa Wilson will head one of eight women-led teams at the 2016 Lightning Lab XX programme in Wellington, New Zealand's first ever female-founder focused business accelerator.
Slightly more than 140 teams applied for the programme and Ms Wilson says the standard was high. "The selection process is reallycompetitive, you have to be very focused and driven to get recognised."
The programme finishes at the end of June with a Demo Day during which her team will make a pitch to a room of investors.
As part of the programme Ms Wilson's four-woman team receives $20,000 of seed funding while in the programme, as well as more than $800,000 worth of benefits from partners and sponsors. It provides the opportunity to work full time to accelerate the start-up, gain access to a pool of world-class mentors, including Slingshot co-founder Annette Presley and Webstock co-founder Natasha Lampard.
She previously set up Supercute, a babyware retailer and Princess and the Pirate, a party programme for children. She sold both businesses but retains Deloraine Cattery.
Vanessa was helped in becoming business ready through the Regional Business Partnership programme, jointly run by the Northland Chamber of Commerce and Northland Inc.
