School | Hutt International Boys’ School
YES Product | Craze Clothing
Former YES team mates Matt Rowe and Tim Pointer co-founded Wellington based digital marketing agency Uprise in 2009.
Starting a digital marketing agency wasn’t on the horizon for either when taking part in YES. “I always knew I would eventually be my own boss, I just never thought it would be in digital marketing as I was heavily into sports at college. I thought that would be my career path,” said Matt, while Tim was aspiring to get into film editing and start a production company.
Uprise offers a range of digital services to its clients ranging from search engine marketing and online media strategies, to building a full online business with the partners both loving all things digital.
Matt credits YES with being the spark that ignited the business fire and Tim says, “YES was by far one of the most rewarding classes I took at school. Using the real world as my exercise book helped me learn first hand what works and what doesn’t”.
Matt & Tim’s three tips for budding entrepreneurs:
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help, and when you do, listen to the advice and act on it.
- Prioritise! Don’t do the easy stuff first, do what has to be done first… first. An hour a day is all you need to get an idea going and that way there is no risk if it doesn’t work out or you discover you are not passionate about the idea. By doing it this way are no worse off than when you begun.
- Procrastination is like the residue left from milk in a glass. If you clean it straight away, you can wash the glass out with little effort, simply just using water. If you leave the glass to sit for a day, you will need to use water, soap and potentially, even a light scrub. If you leave that same glass for a week, you need to put in some elbow grease and a lot of effort to get that milk out of there. So… just do it straight away and save yourself the pain!
