The logo parade on High Tech Capital’s website aptly illustrates how Wellington’s tech start-up scene just keeps getting better and better. In the depths of the global recession back in 2008, when we bravely launched iwantmyname onto the world stage, you could count the number of innovative, global-facing web start-ups on one hand. The mood was downbeat at that time, but the stage was set for what local angel investor Dave Moskovitz has labelled as a “Cambrian explosion” of innovation.

Way back about the same time the dot-coms were busting in the U.S., some of us saw that the tech and start-up ecosystem in New Zealand needed fixing. Through early initiatives such as Capital ICT cluster, Unlimited Potential Wellington to the World and Startup Weekend we set to work joining the dots. Building an ecosystem takes a long time because it requires some political risk taking and a cultural shift. With a long overdue re-draft of the regional economic strategy and the blossoming of other initiatives such as Macdiarmid, CreativeHQ, AngelHQ and  tech accelerator Lightning Lab, we finally have all the ingredients in place.

It also helped a lot that we have high tech movie and games industries and a couple of hefty counterweights in the form of Xero and TradeMe. There’s a free flow of talent across the semi-permeable boundaries between games, movie and software industries and the big boys keep Wellington in the global spotlight. The recent Green Button acquisition by Microsoft was a coup for local angels who invested and demonstrates how success springs from the tech talent pool, many of whom are skilled migrants.

Keeping talent engaged in our region involves creating an attractive cityscape and ensuring infrastructure such as broadband and transport links are world class. We also need to constantly invigorate the flow of capital and ideas through events, initiatives and global outreach to other start-up magnets around the Asia-Pacific rim.

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Pictured: Josh Forde, Paul Spence & Dave Moskovitz at R9SW. Photo credit: ParleyMedia