Alex Thomson and Gabriel Dykes admit their friendship is a classic Dunedin-born relationship.
The pair study commerce and law at the University of Otago and are in their second-to-last year.
Mr Thomson, who was brought up in Dunedin, and Mr Dykes, from Wellington, met in their first year at university, in 2018.
The pair were in the Arana hall of residence and became best friends.
Last year, Mr Dykes, who had no background in the horticulture sector — began seeing headlines about New Zealand products achieving record prices on the global export market.
He wondered how everyday New Zealanders could profit from its success.
"Traditionally, there has only been two ways to profit from Kiwi horticulture: owning an entire horticultural development or investing via NZX-listed companies. I thought we could change that," Mr Dykes said.
He approached Mr Thomson about his idea which was similar to online investing platforms such as Sharesies or Hatch — and "it went from there".
The online platform — called Split — aimed to provide everyday New Zealanders or "retail investors" with access to "high value, high growth assets" in the horticulture sector.
Split would source new development opportunities and established horticulture assets which investors could buy a proportion of — a split — for as little as $250.
The horticultural businesses would not be NZX-listed companies but established business or development companies looking to raise capital.
Split would partner with the companies to find retail investors instead of wholesale investors.
"We know there is customer demand out there — our market research has shown that very clearly — but it is just about building the connections so people who want to invest can invest," he said.
Business meetings between the two founders were not hard to set up, as the pair flatted together.
"I just literally yell through the wall, ‘Hey Gabe, see that email?’ If we need to meet up, we just meet in the lounge or walk up to the uni," Mr Thomson said.
While the pair were interested in the business world, entrepreneurship was not a particular interest.
"There are some people that ran a lemonade stand on the street side and sold it to the neighbours but that wasn’t me. What university has taught us is you don’t have to be that sort of person, it is about trusting yourself with the idea.
"So we aren’t here for the hustle of entrepreneurship, that isn’t us, we are just here because we enjoy this project.
"We are here to build a good business at the end of the day," Mr Dykes said.
Last year, the pair went through Start-up Dunedin’s Audacious programme which Mr Dykes believed helped them firm up their idea.
They were also selected for the Future Food Aotearoa (FFA) incubator programme in Christchurch.
Most recently, they were accepted into agri-tech business accelerator programme Sprout.
They headed to Palmerston North last weekend for two days of coaching from industry professionals.
The pair went north feeling confident about what they had planned but the advice "completely blew the plans out of the water," Mr Thomson said.
"We had these pitches prepared for the final day and they said scrap them, you have 15 minutes to come up with a new two-minute pitch.
"We came out of there with a beautiful new pitch which kind of sucked because we thought we came prepared but really our preparation sucked but when we left, we were set on a new direction which is great," he said.
The pair had weekly catch-ups with mentors from Sprout and would head to Auckland for another weekend seminar later this year.
Mr Dykes believed the different programmes had helped them "square" their idea into a business.
"Audacious angles you this way, FFA angles you this way and each time you are getting closer to where you need to be," he said.
The pair admitted their knowledge of the horticulture sector was slim before they started the business.
"I think we all like fruit but no, we didn’t know a lot. I think we really grew the right network and did the right research so we weren’t two young guns who had some vague idea," Mr Dykes said.
Depending on how the launch of the platform went later this year, the pair would either drop their studies or reduce their number of papers.
"It is a bit of risk but we could either come through here with our classic degrees and get our classic graduate jobs but we don’t want to do that.
"It is exciting, it is something fresh. There is this stereotype that if we drop out, we will never ever be able to get back into it but actually, if it doesn’t work, we can get back into it.
"We see it as a value-add because at the end of the day people don’t work from text books," Mr Thomson said.
The pair had mixed feelings getting closer to the launch — it was "less exciting, more daunting".
"That level of trust people are going to place in us when we launch is quite daunting, so I think from here it is less of the exciting stuff and more about the fine details.
"Really, making sure we have the right company processes in place — back end structures, legal structures, which is interesting but I wouldn’t call it exciting," Mr Dykes said.
