Hamilton, New Zealand  ·  Designer, builder, operator

Emma Dewhurst

I design brands, run events, and build the systems behind them.

Eighteen years across design, marketing, events and operations. I run two pole studios from another city, produce a national competition, and built Cruu, the staff platform both studios run on. Designer first, which is why the things I build get used.

See the work
Emma Dewhurst

Selected work

Things I designed, built, and then ran.

Cruu dashboard for a demo studio: covers needed, member checks, today's schedule

Product · 2025 to now

Cruu. The studio software I got tired of waiting for.

Gym and studio booking systems are designed to handle the student experience... not the staff one. They could not handle cover, building complex timetables, tracking staff training, or whose certificates had quietly expired. Cruu has been live in both studios since August 2025, and rolling out to new customers in 2026. KPI dashboard, a skills matrix across 15 class types, cover-gap flagging, certificate expiry tracking, payroll, and staff onboarding through one-time secure links instead of a shared password. Hono on Cloudflare Workers, Neon Postgres, React, Clerk.

getcruu.com
Dynasty 2024 trophies lined up on stage

Event · Brand · Web app · 2022 to now

Dynasty. The competition, and everything it runs on.

I co-founded Dynasty in 2022 to give New Zealand dancers something worth training for, then bought out my co-founders. I ran the 2026 event solo: two nights at The Globe Theatre, live-streamed, competitors and judges from New Zealand and Australia. I designed the brand, ran the marketing, social, ticketing and sponsorship, built the site and the entry system, and built the real-time people's-choice voting app the audience uses from their seats. Over 100 voters a show across both shows in March 2026. In 2027 an entire smart competitor portal launches, linking entries to the judges and every asset needed for a smooth night. $10k+ in sponsorship and grant funding secured for 2026.

dynastypole.com

Photo: Elle Catraz

Altitude Pole & Fitness Palmerston North studio

Operations · Systems · 2014 to now

Altitude. Two studios, run from another city.

I opened the first one in 2014 as Pole Dance Wanganui, joined the Altitude franchise in 2018, and opened Palmerston North in 2020. Since February 2026 I've run both from Hamilton on systems I built: lead automation in ActiveCampaign, a full booking-platform migration, staff training and cover frameworks, Xero, payroll and GST. Proof the systems work when I'm not in the room. As national head instructor from 2020 to 2024 I wrote the four national curriculum levels taught across 13 studios.

altitudepole.co.nz
Pacific Helmets product configurator, eight helmet colourways

Sales enablement · 2016

Pacific Helmets. A product configurator, hand-coded in 2016.

Customers built their own helmet on the site: colours, stickers, face shields, neck protectors, accessories. The widest set of options anyone in that market offered, and the sales team used the same tool to generate images for quotes and tenders. I built it while I was sales team leader, alongside the catalogues, the website and the tender documents.

Personal tooling · 2026

DewOS

Started as a fix for keeping nine to-do lists. Now one operating system for to-dos, goals, notes, wants, cashflow and invoicing, with every task scored against the goals I set for the year. Cloudflare Worker, D1, Cloudflare Access.

Rapid builds · 2025 to 2026

Small tools, shipped fast

A mileage tracker so my accountant gets clean data instead of my best guess. A cashflow dashboard that maps upcoming bills against expected income across every account and shows me the gap before it arrives.

Communications · 2008 to 2014

Anglican Missions rebrand

Six years of design and comms for a national church funding organisation. I took the work off the external agencies, rebranded it, and rebuilt the website. Tight budget, a lot of output.

How I work

I build it, then I have to run it. That changes what I build.

01

Design

I design it before I build it. The test is whether a manager opens it a second time. If the first screen doesn't answer the question, the second visit never happens.

  • Bachelor of Design, first class honours, Massey Scholar
  • 18 years of brand, print, web and information design
  • Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, dashboard and UI design
02

Build

Hand-coded sites since 2008, full applications since 2025, Claude Code every day. The useful part is knowing where an off-the-shelf platform stops and a custom integration has to start, because I've hit that wall with GymMaster, ZenPlanner and HubSpot.

  • Cloudflare Workers and Pages, Hono, React, Neon Postgres, D1
  • HTML, CSS and JavaScript by hand. Replit for fast prototypes
  • Custom API integrations across CRM, booking and payroll systems
03

Operate

Eleven years of owning the numbers. Payroll, GST, leases, hiring, and two studio managers I work with remotely. When a system gets it wrong, it's my money.

  • Xero, GST, payroll and P&L
  • HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, GymMaster, Monday.com
  • B2B sales team leader, accounts in the US, Canada and Korea

Background

Eighteen years,
three lanes.

Six years of design and communications at Anglican Missions. Four at Pacific Helmets, B2B sales first and then marketing. My own studios and a national event since 2014. Freelance design ran alongside all of it from 2011. Dates and titles are on LinkedIn.

Full history on LinkedIn

Bachelor of Design, first class honours

Visual communication, illustration and animation. Massey University, Massey Scholar.

18yrs
Design
12yrs
Studio owner
13
Studios on my curriculum
100+
Live voters per show
2
Studios run remotely

Identity work

Logos I've drawn.

Studios, a national competition, an app, and a few clients. The oldest has been in use since 2012.

Cruu logo
Dynasty Semi-Pro division mark
Dynasty Amateurs division mark
Pole Dance Wanganui logo
Anglican Missions logo
Two Right Feet dance studio logo
Celestial Pole Wear logo
Tiny Storms logo

Writing

I also write about the business behind the studio.

Short essays and two paid guides on studio ownership. Most of it I learned by doing it wrong first.

Contact

Let's work together.

Hamilton, New Zealand. I run two studios in two other cities from here, and I turn up in person when the job needs it. Email is the fastest way to reach me.

Email me LinkedIn
LocationHamilton, New Zealand
Full historyLinkedIn
Elsewhere@emma.nz