Exploring entrepreneurship
Commerce student Finn Carroll shares his experience participating in youth entrepreneurship programme VentureUp, and encourages his fellow students to explore the University's opportunities.
I was born and raised in Kilbirnie, Wellington, and have been super excited to study at Victoria University the last few years.
As I head into my last year now, I’m constantly asked what my direction in life is from the end of this year. It seems like the expectation is always to work hard for one of the internships at ‘the big four’, but there are so many options that never get mentioned.
I’m motivated by creativity, whether that be about the freedom to implement creative solutions or the ability to explore creative ideas. I aspire to be someone that creates, if that’s drawing or writing or graphic design, and that philosophy fits perfectly with the start-up ecosystem in Wellington.
Over the last four weeks, Venture Up has introduced me to the start-up world and opened my eyes to an amazing community of founders and creators. From my awesome team at Lavender Games (our Venture Up company), to the whole Venture Up cohort, to the amazing mentors and staff from CreativeHQ, the people I’ve met over the last four weeks have been some of the most creative and talented people I’ve met in my life. Without a doubt, the best thing about the Venture Up programme is the people. Yeah, learning the tools and going through the process of creating a start-up has been invaluable, but the people will stay with me for the rest of my life.
The best thing I’ll take away from Venture Up is the skills to network, to forge those connections with people that otherwise wouldn’t happen. In New Zealand, we have an amazing culture of openness and giving which is exaggerated in the start-up scene. The first thing we were told was, no matter how great your idea is, the first three most important things are team, team, team. Venture Up gave me the skills to connect with the people that I know I’ll work with in the future, the Kiwis that I will collaborate with to build and create in the future.
To the students out there looking for opportunities, some of the best resources available are the Victoria Entrepreneurship Bootcamp (which runs over the summer), the Vic Entrepreneurship Collective (an entrepreneurship club), and the MGMT 307: Entrepreneurship course.
Vic is growing into a more engaging and capable environment for fostering young entrepreneurs every year. I can’t wait to see what students can do with the support of Venture Up and the University.
Finn Carroll is a final year Bachelor of Commerce student majoring in Management and Film.