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StartMeUp.nz Business Plan

1. Purpose & Vision

StartMeUp.nz exists to strengthen New Zealand's startup ecosystem and economic development by empowering purpose-driven founders and removing technical barriers to entry. We provide ethical, sustainable, and open digital infrastructure and consulting to early-stage startups, especially those working in the public interest.

Our vision is a thriving New Zealand economy supported by a startup ecosystem where infrastructure is not a privilege, but a shared foundation for innovation, equity, and sustainability.

2. Services

  • Domain registration and DNS support
  • Email hosting and configuration
  • Git and code hosting setup
  • Static site hosting and CI/CD bootstrapping
  • Infrastructure-as-Code templates
  • Technical consulting and coaching
  • Technology planning
  • Fiscal hosting for unincorporated projects via OpenCollective

All services are offered at low or no cost, depending on need.

3. Target Audience

  • Aspiring founders building mission-driven ventures
  • Charitable or community-based startups
  • Creatives and technologists lacking technical resources
  • Early-stage teams preparing to launch but not yet accelerator-ready

4. Revenue & Funding Model

StartMeUp.nz is committed to providing digital infrastructure and consulting at low or no cost to purpose-driven founders. To support this mission sustainably, our funding model combines philanthropic support, earned revenue, and strategic partnerships:

  • Grants & Public Funding: We will apply for grants from organisations that support digital equity, open source, and social enterprise (e.g., InternetNZ, MBIE, regional councils, philanthropic foundations).

  • Anchor Sponsorships: We aim to partner with innovation hubs, ecosystem builders, and ethical tech providers who can sponsor cohorts, infrastructure tiers, or open-source tooling development.

  • Sliding-Scale Service Fees: Founders with access to funding or resources may contribute through modest, income-sensitive fees. This ensures access while maintaining fairness.

  • Paid SME Consulting: We will offer tailored consulting and infrastructure support to small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) on a commercial basis, with profits subsidising our charitable work.

  • Equity Partnerships: Where aligned, we may accept modest equity stakes in startups we support, particularly where we provide high-leverage technical contributions or advisory roles.

  • Fiscal Sponsorship & Hosting: StartMeUp.nz will act as a fiscal sponsor for early-stage ventures that have not yet registered as legal entities but need to operate, receive funds, or partner with funders. We will also act as a Fiscal Host on OpenCollective, enabling projects to receive donations, pay expenses, and operate transparently. A small hosting fee (e.g., 5–10%) will cover administrative overhead, with the remaining funds going entirely to the hosted project.

  • Charitable Donations: We will accept donations from individuals and organisations who share our mission of removing barriers for early-stage founders.

Our initial funding will support:

  • Core operational capacity to deliver services sustainably
  • Platform development and maintenance costs
  • Direct support for early-stage ventures across New Zealand
  • Development of open-source tools and resources for the broader ecosystem

All surplus will be reinvested into open-source tools, platform improvements, and founder outreach.

5. Fiscal Hosting on OpenCollective

StartMeUp.nz is live on OpenCollective.com as a Fiscal Host (Discovery plan). OpsDev.nz is currently treated as a project under StartMeUp.nz; we are reserving the single free collective slot for an aligned partner (e.g., Easy Solar) while we validate our host operations.

This allows projects to:

  • Receive and manage funds transparently
  • Submit and be reimbursed for expenses
  • Avoid early legal and accounting burdens

The Open Collective platform charges a 5% platform fee on incoming funds, with additional payment processor fees (~3%) applied by Stripe or PayPal. StartMeUp.nz will apply a fiscal host fee (e.g., 5–10%) to support our administrative costs.

Our goal is to create a trusted umbrella for impact-focused collectives needing legitimacy and operational support during their formative stages.

6. Team

John Billings – Founder and Technical Lead

With 20+ years of experience in infrastructure, automation, and open source, John is building StartMeUp.nz to support others walking the founder path with limited resources.

Board of Directors

Juan Rossi - IT Professional, Site Reliability Engineer and Entrepreneur

Ian Welch - Associate Professor Victoria University School of Engineering and Computer Science

Soonsung Bae - Senior Data Scientist

StartMeUp.nz is registered as a Limited Company (LTD) and intends to apply for charitable status within the first year.

8. OpsDev Initiative

At StartMeUp.nz, we are flipping DevOps on its head — bringing operations into focus. With decades of experience running day-to-day systems and business-as-usual processes, our team knows that founders often struggle less with writing code and more with the ongoing work of keeping projects reliable, secure, and sustainable.

To address this gap, we are launching an R&D initiative called OpsDev.nz. Its purpose is to explore, prototype, and validate operational practices and tools that make modern infrastructure more accessible to early-stage ventures.

OpsDev.nz will focus on:

  • Sustainable Infrastructure: Experimenting with greener, more cost-effective hosting, automation, and CI/CD models that balance affordability with resilience.
  • Open Tooling & Knowledge Sharing: Publishing Infrastructure-as-Code modules, guides, and reference architectures that can be freely adopted by mission-driven founders.
  • Monitoring & Reliability Research: Testing and evaluating monitoring solutions to ensure critical services remain online without adding excessive cost or complexity.
  • Community Engagement (future scope): Exploring opportunities to sponsor or co-host DevOps events and conferences in New Zealand, bringing practitioners together to share knowledge and strengthen the ecosystem.

By investing in this operational R&D, StartMeUp.nz ensures that the solutions we provide are not just innovative on paper, but battle-tested, reliable, and aligned with the daily realities of founders building with limited resources.

9. Next Steps

StartMeUp.nz is currently in development phase, operating with one pilot client while building sustainable operational foundations. Key development priorities include:

  • Developing a comprehensive Concept of Operations (CONOPS) to define service delivery workflows, quality standards, and scaling approaches
  • Securing sustainable funding to support full-time focus on the initiative
  • Expanding client base through strategic partnerships with innovation hubs and ecosystem builders
  • Refining service offerings based on early client feedback and market validation
  • Publishing a fiscal host launch/update and end-of-year review on the public site
  • Evaluating static site tooling (migrated from Hugo to Zensical; Python-native, Rust-based, aligns with broader toolchain)