There are no concrete answers in entrepreneurship

Concrete is the second most-used substance on Earth after water, yet cement production is responsible for around eight percent of global carbon emissions. It is a problem start-up Neocrete is working to address by developing technology to enable lower-carbon alternatives to replace traditional cement materials.

Neocrete co-founder and CEO Zarina Alexander was the keynote speaker for the Velocity Ideas Challenge prizegiving, delivered through the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Her talk was less about climate technology and more about what it means to build a start-up from scratch.

“Running a start-up is like preparing for a major assignment for 12 weeks, only to be told eight weeks in that the assignment no longer counts and now you have four weeks to complete something entirely different,” Alexander said.

“It requires a new set of skills and probably a different team.”

The comparison reflected a reality often hidden behind headlines about funding rounds and rapid growth. Building a company means adapting constantly, learning quickly and operating through uncertainty.

For Alexander, resilience matters more than following a perfect plan.

“You need to be adaptable, you need to learn fast and understand what’s required, then put all your effort into achieving that.”

Her own team reflects that mindset. Neocrete includes graduates from across Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, with backgrounds in biomedicine, chemistry, earth sciences, construction management and marine science.

“There’s no single degree that prepares you for a start-up. The technical knowledge matters, but so do the skills you build around it,” Alexander said.

Neocrete is now entering a new phase of growth after closing a pre-Series A funding round, but the journey there was far from straightforward.

One of the company’s defining moments came early, after completing trials with a major New Zealand concrete supplier. Alexander entered the meeting confident the data would speak for itself.

Instead, the company was dismissed.

“The chief engineer said not only does this product not work now, it will never work in the future,” Alexander recalled.

The experience triggered a period of self-doubt.

“I was the youngest person in the room. I was the only person not from the industry. I was the only non-local and the only woman in the room.”

Leaving the meeting, she questioned whether she was the right person to lead the company.

“What people don’t put on the graphs is the amount of self-reflection and self-doubt that happens along the way.”

Rather than abandoning the idea, the team doubled down on research and development while funding was running low.

A turning point came through government grants - New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi's Innovation Fund and Ākina Foundation - that provided funding upfront rather than reimbursing costs later.

The funding allowed Neocrete to strengthen its research capability, build its intellectual property position and continue refining the technology.

Eventually, the company found a customer in Southeast Asia willing to run independent trials.

“That changed everything for us.”

While the venture has continued to grow, Alexander’s message to students remained grounded.

Start-ups are not built through certainty. They are built through repeated learning, uncomfortable feedback and the ability to keep moving when outcomes are unclear.

For Alexander, the ability to continue learning may matter more than any single qualification.

“The most important thing is being willing to adapt, because every stage will ask something different of you.”