RECOGNISING THE STARTUPS ALL NEW ZEALAND FOUNDERS SHOULD BE LEARNING FROM

By the mid-2030s, technology is set to become New Zealand's largest export, a sector with the potential to be more economically productive than dairy alone. New Zealand has a natural 'right to win' in dairy that we don't have in tech. Creating a stable, growing tech export sector means becoming unusually good at building large, valuable tech companies. Getting there requires our current and future founders learning from the companies building sustainable enterprise value at scale and pace. Each year the Caffeine Prize identifies the most outstanding high-growth New Zealand companies, captures what they've learned, and shares that with all New Zealand founders.

The mission of The Caffeine Prize is singular - to circulate the most important knowledge being gained by startups and scaleups among current and future founders, so that that Aotearoa New Zealand becomes a global leader in technology. No pay-to-play entry - companies are nominated by industry leaders, cannot enter themselves, and pay nothing. No 'most innovative', 'best culture', 'most sustainable' etc - The Prize is singularly focused on the companies pulling any or all of those levers to create value at scale.  No boozy gala dinner - our Prizegiving is about founders sharing genuine learnings. It's in the afternoon. It's alcohol-free until the drinks reception after the main event.