We’re excited to officially welcome Garden Genie, winners of the Global Startup Battle E-commerce Circle, to Bigcommerce HQ in Austin, TX! Garden Genie will be with us for the month of March to get hands-on mentoring and support as well as attend SXSW Interactive. We’ll be sharing the New Zealand-based startup’s story along with insights that could help you with your own business.
Many startups have a unique tale of how they got started. Our co-founders Mitch and Eddie met online through IRC and bootstrapped several products before going all in with Bigcommerce. At Startup Weekends, the live events leading up to the Global Startup Battle, entrepreneurs only have 54 hours to form a team, build a product and pitch their company. But they all share the desire to solve a problem through innovation.
The idea behind Garden Genie, an organic gardening platform, came from Jennifer Clamp. During the Auckland Startup Weekend, a five-person team with diverse experience in development, marketing and project management rallied behind her pitch. Here’s a closer look at the talents and personalities it took to beat 2,299 teams from 40 countries to make it to the winner’s circle.
Jennifer Clamp
An agile project manager with over a decade of experience, Jennifer has delivered technology, process and organizational design solutions for businesses including Skype, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Department of Health in the UK. She currently works for ATEED as a Growth Programme Specialist, focused on supporting innovation and entrepreneurship for the economic growth of Auckland. She was also a founding member of networking community Auckland Young Professionals, which connects graduates, professionals and entrepreneurs across a range of industries.
Originally from England, Jennifer moved to New Zealand 10 years ago and proudly becoming a citizen in 2012. She lives on Waiheke Island, a short ferry ride from Auckland. A few years ago, Jennifer decided to apply her skills to the things she is most passionate about – food, family and our beautiful Earth.
As a child, both of Jennifer’s grandfathers grew their own fruit and vegetables, and she’d often follow them around asking questions. This interest in gardening and sharing good food with loved ones inspired Jennifer to try growing her own produce. She helped deliver the first Waiheke Plum drive in 2009, coordinating a volunteer group of locals to turn the island’s annual windfall of fruit in to jam. The same interests and a love of business led her to the idea that has now become Garden Genie.
“I came to Startup Weekend because I saw it as a great way of gathering some impetus to start my own business,” she said. “I had previously developed a growing-themed board game and wanted to take those principles and apply them to a more scalable product.”
Jennifer led the team through Startup Weekend and continues to do so. She loves working with passionate people to deliver projects that make a difference and believes that enterprise has the ability to create positive change for individuals, community and the planet. She sees Garden Genie as one of those projects, on its way to becoming one of those enterprises.
Laura Kerrison
Laura is a designer and marketing coordinator. Her work has included graphic design, publication design, photography and digital illustration. She is also enthusiastic about typography, bookbinding, crochet and all things creative.
“I attended Startup Weekend with the intention of learning more about business and making connections but came away with so much more,” she said. “Through Auckland Startup Weekend and the Global Startup Battle, not only did I develop confidence and an understanding of business, I also had the opportunity to be a part of the creation of Garden Genie.”
Laura’s role within Garden Genie involves graphic design, PR and marketing. Her goal is to communicate Garden Genie to their audience in a manner that aligns with their values and stories.
“I am passionate about the integration of design thinking within businesses to sustain innovation,” she said. “I look forward to exploring this more in the future and relish any opportunity to learn.”
Masha Marks
Masha is an accomplished project manager with experience in change management, business development and HR management. Her career spans all major business functions from governance and finance to HR and marketing. She has established new offices overseas and created trading relationships capable of operating across borders. Her cross-cultural management skills were influenced by her international relocation from Iran to New Zealand in 2004.
“I am focused, extremely tenacious and driven to deliver,” she said. “Change fascinates me. Transformation inspires me. I love new ideas and I want to bring them to life.”
Masha enjoys sharing her passion for learning with others. She is a trained mentor under the New Zealand Project-K scheme. In addition to mentoring, which finds both challenging and extremely rewarding, she loves connecting with other entrepreneurs.
“I am a Startup Weekend ‘junkie’ having attended three Startup Weekends in Auckland,” Masha said. “Startup Weekends have given me the opportunity to work on new business ideas from concept to execution. To be a member of the winning team at the 2013 Auckland Startup Weekend was an amazing experience. I am so pleased the Garden Genie team decided to compete in the Global Startup Battle E-Commerce Circle, and by winning we all have the opportunity to attend SXSW.”
Mohit Singh
Mohit is a software developer at Datacom, specialising in CRM and modern Windows app development. His passion for market disruption is seen through the various startups that he has co-founded, some of which have been featured at TEDx, TechED and Imagine Cup.
“I often spend my spare time working with musicians in my West Auckland home studio,” he said. “I also enjoy speaking at technical community events, evangelizing about Windows and Windows phone app development.”
Mohit is a solution lead at Garden Genie, and is currently project managing the Lean Startup process.
“I remember watching last year’s Auckland Start up winners and I was truly amazed by seeing what could be achieved by a bunch of strangers in just 48 hours,” he remembers. “This motivated me to put my self in a position where I needed to work with people that I had never met before on an idea that never existed before. It’s this kind of accelerated innovation which will move our human race forward.”
Kiet Vo
Kiet works for Xlerate Technologies as a software developer specialising in building web applications utilizing Microsoft technologies and Google Maps API. He regularly attends IT meetups to learn about new technologies, and also enjoys playing badminton and going to the gym after work.
“I heard about Startup Weekend when I went online looking for startup opportunities at the beginning of last year,” he said. “What got me excited when I first read about Startup Weekend was that you needed to build a team of people with diverse backgrounds to work on a business idea in 54 hours. The event is set up to push the boundaries of innovation.”
Kiet works with the Garden Genie team to develop the best technology solutions to meet business requirements. He is looking forward to getting involved in mobile development and learning more about the business side of startups.
Interested in meeting the members of Garden Genie and the Bigcommerce team? RSVP for the #SXSMB Garden Party on March 7 at SXSW!
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