At the Newmarket Innovation Precinct, a focused internship sparks a career pathway—a collaboration blending student talent, practical skills, and a full-time role at a high-growth startup.

The journey of Chris Manning, from part-time NIP intern to a full-time Sales Specialist at co-locator RosterLab, exemplifies how the Newmarket Innovation Precinct (NIP) internship programme effectively translates student potential into professional, industry-aligned impact.

Over the past year, Chris has not only gained crucial practical experience but has become instrumental in building community programs and momentum within the NIP ecosystem.

The Problem Solver with Grassroots Impact

Before joining the NIP team, Chris demonstrated a powerful “ship it and learn” mindset by launching SeedMap, a social venture that helps communities locate seed libraries. Its success, evidenced by over 10,000 uses, highlights the value of simple tools aimed at grassroots innovators. This entrepreneurial aptitude led to a paid internship with WasteX (Velocity 2023 winners) and subsequently secured his role as a part-time intern with NIP, focused on content, marketing, and communications.

Building the Ecosystem: From Intern to System Architect 

Chris quickly transitioned from support staff to a key system builder, fundamentally improving NIP’s capacity for industry-student engagement:

• NIP Connect: He helped establish and document NIP Connect, the practical pathway that connects industry partners directly to student talent and project coordinators across the University. This work underpinned a more transparent and efficient route for companies to engage in real student projects.

• Innovation Portfolio: Alongside JP Gillespie, Chris co-authored and produced the NIP Innovation Portfolio, capturing our mission and the impact of our co-locators—assets now essential for external partners and visitors.

• Community Support: He helped launch VC/Advisor office hours, a “by the community, for the community” offering designed to meet the immediate, evolving needs of our founders.

 Rolling Up Sleeves: Supporting Co-locators

Even as an intern, Chris’s initiative led him to support solo founders with vital business development and early sales work. This included contributing to ventures such as Capiche (a writing tool for dyslexic writers), SecuriChair (now a contracted NIP member), and the EdTech venture Jackbord.

From Campus to Company: Joining RosterLab

Chris’s ability to connect dots and sharpen commercial narratives led to an invitation to join RosterLab (a UoA PhD research-to-venture success story and Velocity 100K winner) in a full-time, paid sales role. RosterLab, co-located at NIP, recently completed a $1.75M raise in 2024.

RosterLab’s journey, spinning out of University research to solve complex rostering with optimization and AI reflects the kind of high-impact, end-to-end pathway the University aims to foster.

“When students and startups work shoulder to shoulder, good things happen fast.” – JP Gillespie, Community Coordinator, NIP

Chris’s trajectory, from student venture to essential system builder, to full-time employment at a highly successful co-locator is a vivid example of how student talent and co-location compound into valuable outcomes for the University and the region.

What’s Next?

• For Students: If you’re keen to work with real companies on real problems, explore opportunities via NIP Connect and start here: https://nip.auckland.ac.nz/connect/.

• For Founders: Talk to us about NIP membership or co-location and get connected to the talent, researchers, and peers who can help you move faster (contact Claire Bennett’s team).

The Newmarket Innovation Precinct (NIP) connects industry professionals with University of Auckland researchers and technical experts. Our R&D community collaborates especially on high-risk challenges with the potential to create new technologies.

Kate Lee,

Newmarket Innovation Precinct.