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Auckland pushes for Lean Startup Machine

Support is building for the Lean Startup Machine entrepreneur workshops to launch in New Zealand, with more than 70 signed up using a web page to ‘unlock’ the city.

One of the ‘lead evangelists’ is the organisation’s founder and CEO, New York based Trevor Owens. Owens created the weekend-long business building bootcamp in 2010.

He’s joined by Kiwi commercialisation specialist Dr Claire McGowan. “Startup Weekend is doing well and the lean model is really awesome and New Zealanders have a passion for all those models coming out of the US,” she says.

Like Startup Weekend, the events begin with product pitches for attendees to build teams around. They then build minimum viable products, carry out market validation and finish by pitching their final idea. Winners aren’t judged on the best idea, service or product, but on evidence of what they’ve learned about the lean startup process and pivoting accordingly.

Lean Startup Machine has expanded into more than 50 cities. Andrea Luxenberg, who oversees operations for Lean Startup Machine in New York, says the organisation launches the events in cities where demand is highest, then finds local organisers and asks the community to suggest mentors for it to train.

She adds the event has performed well in Sydney, which encouraged the organisation to look at other cities that could benefit from the workshops.

Lean Startup Machine’s workshops put into practice principles of Lean Startup, the methodology that aims to improve the way startups are formed and built.

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Amanda Sachtleben is an Auckland writer and social media type, who's also Idealog's former tech editor and business journalist.

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