Venture Centre
Venture Centre launched and established its place-based entrepreneur support organisation in 2014 with the goal of enabling enterprising people in the Bay of Plenty to start their entrepreneurial journey and to support their progress.
Designed to address a market-failure, Venture Centre supplies ongoing support and guidance to people at the earliest stages of venture development before they become eligible for existing government-financed support, or can afford the professional service fees of experts.
Basestation was Venture Centre’s first product, a coworking space to reduce cost and simplify business logistics for entrepreneurs. It is still operating, now on three floors, with an event and maker space, an EV fleet. Basestation has now spun out as a separate company.
Venture Centre is a community-led organisation. It increases the resilience of the Bay of Plenty community by nurturing strengths-based groups. They form ‘communities of opportunity’ who participate together in solution-focused learn-by-doing events, activities, experiences, work on projects, start ventures, doing work that’s worth it to solve challenges, together.
It serves to increase diversity and democracy dramatically; including more people in the economy, distributing resources, and providing pathways along which people have the opportunity to innovate together. Often they tackle intractable problems leading to new, generative enterprises to serve whanau and whenua for generations to come.
Venture Centre
Address: Basestation, 148 Durham St, Tauranga
Phone: 0800 000 577
Email: info@venturecentre.co.nz
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/venturecentrenz/
Website: https://www.venturecentre.nz/.
In 2020, Venture Centre evolved to become a charitable company with the help of an Advisory Council made up of local experts and successful entrepreneurs.
Directed by two full-time founders, two part-time employees, multiple contractors, volunteers, pro-bono contributors and partners from across the Bay of Plenty and beyond, it helps people learn and grow, sharing resources and helping each other along the way.
