Young entrepreneur
competes in New York
26 November 2011. Ex Westlake Boys' High student Jonathan Wrait was this month announced as the winner of the New Zealand Finals of the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards and flown to New York city to represent New Zealand.
The Global Student Entrepreneurship Awards recognise top student leaders who operate their own profitable businesses while studying. Over 2000 students across more than 40 countries competed this year. The 2011 Global Finals were held at the New York Stock Exchange, with Jonathan the only New Zealander amongst 30 finalists from 22 countries. The finalists competed for a total prize pool of US$250,000.00.
Jonathan’s business is Virtuoso Tutoring, which started life as a Westlake Boys' High School company created to compete in the Young Enterprise (YES) Scheme. The company facilitates tutoring of juniors by top senior students, who are approved by the Heads of Department at that school. Parents book, pay and monitor progress online.
Jonathan is now back in New Zealand after his whirlwind trip to New York, and although he didn’t win he describes the experience as ‘amazing’ and has set up meetings for January 2012 in New York, Boston and L.A.
“I made some excellent contacts, and the feedback from the judges was so positive,” he says.
“The judges said Virtuoso is a fantastic idea that has the potential to be scaled overseas. They told me to catch up with them when I am back in the U.S, and they will introduce me to some useful people. It was so motivational and inspiring to hear the speakers, and to be in a big group of entrepreneurs – there was one guy my age whose company was turning over $10 million a year in revenue. I have learned to not be afraid to ‘go for it’. In New Zealand we don’t think big enough. I want to see how big our company can get.”
The African contestants were especially interesting, Jonathan says.
“There was a guy from Ghana who has created a property business. He was born in London, and has taken models he learned there and introduced them to Ghana.
That surprised me. He showed me that you can take an existing idea to a new market and have success, you don’t necessarily have to invent the idea yourself.”
The New York Stock Exchange was itself a surprise, Jonathan says.
“I expected it to be like a bank environment, but it wasn’t at all. It has so much marble – it looked posh but with an antique feel. There were lots of rooms with fireplaces and Greek-looking statues.”
Jonathan Wrait began as a tutor for the Virtuoso YES team while he was a student at Westlake Boys' High. He and business partner Jonathan Lawry took over Virtuoso when the school year ended, saving the company from being wound up when YES finished for the year. Bill Smale mentored the fledgling company at Westlake Boys' High. He has since been appointed Chairman of Virtuoso Tutoring by Mr Wrait and Mr Lawry, who are now students at the University of Auckland Business School.
Virtuoso has real commercial potential, Bill Smale says.
“It’s the simple-to-use things that work well in life, and the Virtuoso concept is extremely practical,” he says.
“The child does not leave the school, so parents can simply pick them up on their way home from work. Every school teaches their subjects in a different way - external tutors may know their stuff, they don’t teach course material in the same way as the school. Virtuoso ensures students are taught the material the way the school wants them to learn it, using tutors approved by that school’s Heads of Department. It’s a brilliant system.”
Virtuoso has partnered with Westlake Girls' High and Northcote College and also supplies tutors for Rosmini and Hato Patera.