5 minutes with Marco Dingemans at Start up Queenstown Lakes

Startup Queenstown Lakes’ business coach Marco Dingemans has recently stepped into the newly-created role of General Manager. Startup Queenstown Lakes (SQL) helps local entrepreneurs launch, run, and scale their businesses through courses and workshops.
Marco’s diverse background has led him to his current role and owning his own Pilates studio on Glenda Drive – growing up in the Netherlands before moving to London for ten years, he has a background in marketing and is excited to hit the ground running in 2023.

“The role will be new – the role before was the CEO position, which was held by Olivia Wensley, who found another job. I was already working as a business coach and in talking to the other team members and the board, I expressed interest in taking up the role as General Manager, and also wanted to do this part time because I also run my own business. It’s a combination of General Manager and Coach.

“I see it as looking after the business and with the team looking after our entrepreneurs. Helping people to find out if they want to be an entrepreneur, because that’s also what we do, as well as running activities, organising workshops, and continuing my coaching role – sitting down, talking with entrepreneurs, talking about struggles and wins, and taking steps forward and showing them the way,” says Marco.

As a business owner himself, Marco can relate to those he helps, and has some pretty strong insights into starting a business around the Whakatipu. At the moment SQL are running a new programme called Summer Spark Up, which is a short course of three workshops to give individuals the basics of what they could or should do to bring their business ideas to life. Expanding and building on the current entrepreneur ecosystem that has formed in Queenstown is one of the biggest things on the agenda for Marco and SQL this year.

“Any economy is thriving on also having entrepreneurs, and that is really fun to build and grow. It will help to diversify the economy in Queenstown – the ecosystem has already been built, so we’re just building on from there. The community will see more of that from us this year.”