Fleur Wolstenholme: Making connections face to face is still valuable for regional founders
Extend your network and back up your vision with data to combat tall poppy syndrome, says Taupō-based Treat NZ founder Fleur Wolstenholme
Contributor
Caitlin Sykes
After working in hospo, Fleur Wolstenholme did a career-180 and studied computer science before becoming a web developer. But those two paths came together when in 2021 she founded Treat NZ, a membership-based platform that offers dining out deals and discounts.
Inspiration hit on her boyfriend’s birthday when, as a poor student, she was looking for a place to head for dinner in her hometown of Taupō that was easy on the wallet.
“I thought, someone's going to be doing some kind of weekday burger and a beer deal or a happy hour,” she recalls. “But there was no easy way to do it….and I thought, someone else must be having this problem too.”
Wolstenholme continues to be based in Taupō and Treat NZ now has three brand representatives – one each in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington – who help get restaurants on board the platform and promote it locally.
She talks to Caffeine about the pros and cons of connecting virtually versus face to face and making the most of your networks as a founder in the regions.
Why did you start Treat NZ from Taupō?
It started here simply because I live here. I worked for years in hospitality, in bars and cafes in Taupō so I had a good network to work with to get it up and running.
Treat NZ was also a result of myself facing an issue living in Taupō – that I wanted to dine out, but couldn’t afford dinner for two on a student budget. And having worked in hospo I knew that many local eateries were struggling to fill sittings and keep up with digital marketing demands to attract a new, younger audience.
What organisations based in your region have helped as you’ve grown Treat NZ?
Soda Inc is just up the road in Hamilton and they collaborated on a Business Fundamentals programme with Taupō business support organisation Amplify in April. It was the first of its kind in Taupō, and myself, along with 15 other young businesses, did an eight-week course, which ended in a pitch night that Treat NZ was fortunate to win.
But since Covid-19, it’s easy to reach organisations in various locations remotely. I’m currently working with the Ministry of Awesome in Christchurch taking part in Founder Catalyst, which has been awesome. I’m also proud to say I was a runner-up this year in Icehouse Ventures’ First Cut programme, which is based in Auckland.
If you’re in the regions, it’s not so much of a disadvantage when it comes to these organisations and agencies. I’ve found everyone to be very supportive and encouraging.
Just by talking to the guys at Soda, they said ‘you should reach out to these guys’ or they’d share on their LinkedIn or email newsletter that there are other programmes going on across the country – like with the Icehouse or Founder Catalyst. It just snowballed from there.
A really good thing to do if you are in the regions is to use your social network as much as you can – use LinkedIn and try and leverage off other people's connections to have virtual chats. That's really how I've made most of my connections, and most of the programmes have been online as well.
What differences have you found between connecting in-person versus online?
With the in-person programme here in Taupō, I've made a lot of connections that I'm still in contact with and I've done collaborations on campaigns and giveaways. It's been really good to network locally and get a presence as a local business, especially as a digital platform when you don't have a storefront.
But then obviously with the virtual courses, the scope of connections that you can get is much broader and potentially more valuable. You're talking to quite high-profile people, which is awesome to gain those connections and again, broaden your network even further.
At the end of First Cut there was an in-person dinner that I went to in Auckland and it was really nice to meet people in the cohort and make deeper connections. When you chat to them on a screen you're like, ‘what you're doing is really cool’ but then sitting down and having dinner and talking to them, you get to a different level. Sometimes I see things and I'm like, ‘oh, I'll share that with so-and-so who I met that night, who I know is facing this challenge’. So for that reason, the in-person side is still massively valuable.
How have you built relationships with your brand rep team while operating virtually?
That's something I'm still learning about – how to create a positive culture, where you really want people to promote your brand and be the biggest cheerleader of Treat NZ.
They [our brand reps] are all foodie bloggers or influencers who I've followed for a while and also worked with. Through Treat NZ, we often get influencers to go to the eateries, take some content, do a post on their feed and promote it, and we have a handful of influencers we use regularly.
We had someone in Auckland and it had been a really positive experience working with them – we got a lot of engagement from their posts, we knew that their following was really genuine, we had positive feedback from the restaurants. So it’s those people who we've just then approached and said, ‘would you be interested in representing us and taking it a bit further – talking to restaurants and trying to get them on board?’.
It's been quite a natural progression; it hasn't been ‘we need a brand rep’ and then searching through the masses to try and find someone suitable.
What advice do you have for other founders starting out in regional areas?
Don’t underestimate the value of your network. Starting a startup in the regions can feel quite lonely, but you can feel connected by reaching out and having ‘virtual coffees’ with people. And if you do this, your network can be a whole lot wider than one location. I’d recommend travelling every now and then to events like Electrify or Sunrise and use that as a super-concentrated day of getting connections that’ll last you for the next few months of catchups.
I think ‘tall poppy syndrome’ is more prevalent in the regions and although the above helps, it’s true that not many people around you will be doing the same, or have the same vision as you. You need to have confidence in yourself and also, I’d back it up with data because even your imposter syndrome can’t argue with that.
Get feedback from your early adopters and audience to make sure that what you’re doing is solving an issue, and essentially doing what you want it to do. If it’s doing that, then just keep going.
As told to Caitlin Sykes
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