Help us build something different for New Zealand.
We're looking for one creative person in NZ to help shape Yardzzz from the ground up. Not a marketing job — a founding role in a brand that's still being written.
What Yardᶻᶻᶻ actually is
Yardzzz lets people in New Zealand share their backyard with travellers for a night. Just the outdoor space — somewhere to pitch a tent or park up, no house access, no long stays.
The host approves every single request and decides whether it's free or a small koha. There's no instant booking and no payment platform sitting in the middle. It's closer to someone saying "yeah, come on over" than to booking a room.
It's early. It's New Zealand only. And most of the brand is still unwritten — which is where you come in.
Kia ora 👋, I'm Leon! Back in 2018, I backpacked through NZ and fell in love with the country. As a budget traveler curious about meeting locals, I sometimes wished I could just pitch my tent in someone's backyard. That idea stuck with me, and now I'm bringing it to life in New Zealand. I personally run Yardzzz to make hosting simple, safe, and fun for both hosts and travellers 🙂
Leon, founder
What you'd actually do
There's no playbook to follow here. This is a rough shape, and we'd expect you to change it.
Shape the brand story
Work out how Yardzzz sounds and what it stands for. You'd help define it.
Make real content
Get out to actual backyards and actual hosts. Film it, shoot it, write it. Unpolished is fine — unpolished is better.
Run Instagram and TikTok
Own the channels end to end: the concepts, the posting, the comments, the tone.
Build the community
Find the hosts and travellers who'd love this, and give them a reason to talk about it.
Try growth experiments
Have an idea, run it small, see what happens. Most won't work. That's the job.
Bring your own thing
The parts of this that end up mattering most will probably be things nobody's listed here yet.
Who we're looking for
Someone who reads all of the above and has already started imagining things. If the idea of backyards, strangers and one night in a small country doesn't spark anything for you, this probably isn't it.
Someone who knows travel, the outdoors, and how New Zealand actually works — ideally because you live here or have spent real time here.
Someone who can make content that feels like a person made it. Phone footage over production budgets, every time.
Someone who'd rather start something than be given something to run.
What you don't need
You don't need a large following.
You don't need a marketing degree.
You don't need agency experience or a case-study portfolio.
You don't need to have done this before.
Genuine interest, creativity, and initiative. That's the whole list.
Who you'd be working with
Small on purpose. You'd be the fourth.
Leon
Founder & passionate backpacker
Rui
Mentor and advisor
J.P.
Technical consultant
Let's be straight about the arrangement
Yardzzz is early and self-funded. There's no marketing budget to pay a salary out of right now, and we're not going to pretend otherwise.
We want someone who joins as a partner, with real ownership on the table, and real influence over where the brand goes. The specifics of that stake are something we'd work out together, properly and in writing, rather than something we'd wave at you in a landing page.
Practically: you'd set your own hours, you'd work remotely from wherever you are in New Zealand, and you'd talk to Leon directly rather than through anyone.
Tell us about you
Five minutes, no cover letter. We mostly want to see how you think.
Leon reads every application himself. If it's a fit, you'll hear back within a week.
Know someone who'd love this?