Aspiring entrepreneurs are pitting their business ideas against other likeminded individuals as part of the second annual StartUp weekend in Tauranga.

StartUp allows people to come together and think of a viable business idea in a competition setting which will see the winning group receive around $18000 worth of prizes.

Team Hood Hubb. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

Head organiser of the 52 hour weekend, Sheldon Nesdale says the event is going well.

'We have had so much fun. We had 19 pitches on Friday night and out of that we had eight teams for the weekend.

'Some of the teams have stuck with their original idea, but three teams have completely pivoted in another direction and have changed their ideas.”

Sheldon says there were 46 people at the event last year, with the same number for this years.

'One of the ideas people have had is an app for sharing with your neighbourhood, to get them to come to a party. It makes it really easy for a party organiser to get a party going.

'Another one is for sharing resources amongst the community.”

Sheldon says teams are working towards their final presentation where they will have five minutes to present their ideas to the judges.

'That is their end goal, anything they can come up with to convince judges they have the most viable product, like finding an issue, coming up with a solution and proving it is already popular in the community.”