At most high schools, Year 13 is about exams, university applications and waiting for the real world to begin. At Westlake Boys, it can also mean starting a company.
That idea became The Openground Foundation of New Zealand, a hands-on entrepreneurship programme where students don’t just learn business theory, they build real ventures, work with mentors and pitch for funding. Launched in 2022 with support from the Westlake Foundation and long-time entrepreneurship champion Bill Smale, the programme set out to give students something school rarely does….. the chance to test ideas in the real world.
One of those students was William Montague-Brown.
After going through Openground and winning its top award, Will has become one of its biggest champions. Now based at B:HIVE, he still runs his Openground-founded AI consultancy while working to scale the programme beyond Westlake, building the platform, partnerships and community needed to bring the model to more students across New Zealand.
This year, Open Ground launched an additional extracurricular programme at B:HIVE. Fifteen year 12 students come in after school, on their own time, to build real businesses with mentorship from real world business people. Eight weeks in, every one of them has started a business and is either already making sales or on track to close their first within the next two weeks.
The goal isn’t just to teach business. It’s to help young people develop confidence, resilience and the mindset to create opportunities for themselves, whether that becomes a startup, a career, or simply the belief that their ideas are worth pursuing.
What started as one bold idea inside a school is quickly becoming something bigger.
And from B:HIVE, the next chapter is being built.
Will MB Featured in front of the iconic B:HIVE staircase.