Category Archives: Community

Bookhabit Acquisition Strengthens Web Venture Value Proposition

Posted on by
Reply

The reported acquisition of Wellington based Bookhabit by Los Gatos company Smashwords is an encouraging development. It demonstrates that we can incubate attractive, high value web-based ventures and get noticed globally.

About 18 months ago I was involved in some consulting at Bookhabit, working on building their user community. It was a great experience and a good lead in to my next project, which was of course, starting up ideegeo and then launching our domain registrar software platform iWantMyName. Perhaps the most useful lesson from that experience was observing just how much hard work is needed to to gain traction with a start-up business.

On that basis I’m tremendously pleased for Clare Tanner and her partners at Webfund, who I know put in a lot of hours to build their business. I’m also pleased to hear from Webfund that the company remains strongly committed to supporting the Wellington technology scene and that they are keen to work with Clare and others on future projects as they look to reinvest.

But, last week I was reading the painful story of a New Zealand biotech start-up that flushed tens of millions of dollars down the drain through mismanagement and bad luck. Why aren’t we playing to our strengths? The set-up cost for a web technology venture is a fraction of that for biotech and the innovation wavelength on the Web is a lot shorter. We can spread the risk by funding 50 Bookhabits for every single biotech punt. That is why ICT specifically needs to be back on the national economic development agenda.

W2W Tech Showcase Gains Traction

Posted on by
Reply

Unlimited PotentialUnlimited Potential’s W2W is the only event that brings together New Zealand’s technology innovators, entrepreneurs and investors under one roof for a half day of demos, presentations and networking. W2W attracted a stellar speaker line-up this year as well as increased interest from the investor community.

W2W is all about strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem for emerging tech firms by facilitating conversations between ICT researchers, business entrepreneurs and technology investors. The event focuses on specially chosen emerging ventures that have the potential to scale globally.

Entrepreneur presenters included Dan Lee, who discussed Beetil an I.T. management and compliance SaaS product and Jody Bullen from Yonix who provide software for business analysts. Both Lee and Bullen are recently arrived skilled migrants, underlining the importance of migrants to the regional economy. John Mitchell showed off Learning Source, a great tool that helps manage and administer training programmes, and Ben Nolan demonstrated the impressive capabilities of digital rendering software Indigorenderer.

Keynote speaker for the event was local hero Richard MacManus, founder of ReadWriteWeb, and one of the world’s most influential tech bloggers. Richard spoke about how he operates a virtual business. Other speakers included entrepreneur and author Ben Young and John Watt nanotechnology researcher and New Zealand Young Scientist of the Year.

Support for W2W’09 by Wellington City Council, Grow Wellington, UK Trade & Investment, Summer of Code, CafeNet, VicLink and iWantMyName was greatly appreciated. If you would like to support W2W 2010, please contact Unlimited Potential co-chair and W2W event project manager Paul Spence:  paul [at} up [dot) org (dot} nz

W2W Taking Kiwi Tech Global

Posted on by
Reply

Unlimited PotentialIts that time again already. Next week’s Wellington to the World event (W2W) picks up where the inaugural event left off in 2008.

W2W is the leading annual showcase for New Zealand’s digital innovation at a time when strengthening our entrepreneurial ecosystem has never been more important and topical. The event gathers technology innovators, entrepreneurs and investors for product pitches, new ideas and networking.

The theme for the event is “Going Global with Your Tech Business”. If you are a technology entrepreneur or investor you should be at this event. Speakers include Richard MacManus, founder of ReadWriteWeb and one of the world’s most influential tech bloggers. Nanotechnology researcher and Young Scientist of the Year, John Watt will also be there. MC for the half day event is Ben Young, author, entrepreneur and marketing wunderkind.

Registration is essential. You can find programme details here:

http://up.org.nz/w2w09/

Animation Digerati Illuminate Capital

Posted on by
Reply

As an already highly respected world centre for games, animation and visual effects, it is only fitting that our capital city plays host to AnimFX ’09, an event that has emerged as an increasingly noteworthy gathering amongst the global digital animation and movie effects community. 

The main conference programme kicks off on Friday November 6th and includes talks by none other than Weta Workshop founder Richard Taylor. His colleague Matt Aitken, who was visual effects supervisor for District 9, will also be speaking. If that weren’t enough, the impressive international line-up includes Sander Schwartz, formerly president of Warner Brothers Animation, and Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences stalwart Jeff Okun who masterminded the terrifying “nano-bots” in the most recent rendition of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Having such luminaries under one roof represents a huge opportunity for the New Zealand industry to form valuable network linkages into what is arguably the entertainment production capital of the world. Now in its fourth year, success stories from previous AnimFX event remind us how important it is for local technology firms to reach out globally and incidentally how we can leverage our natural attributes to lure highly acclaimed individuals to our shores.

W2W’09 is another event that aims to build capability and connect technology entrepreneurs globally. Focussing on web-based and ICT enabled ventures, W2W runs on the afternoon of 17th November. More about this next week…

The Day After – How You Can Help

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday was one of those days that puts our lives in context and reminds us of the fragility of our existence on this planet. In years to come, we will be able to look back and say, “I remember what I was doing the day the tsunami hit Samoa.”

The day was made all the more poignant for me because it was coincidentally also the day a long episode in my own life came to a close and a new one began in terms of my career. But the extent of the loss faced by our neighbours in Samoa far outweighed any uncertainties that may have been lingering in my own mind about becoming a full time self employed entrepreneur.

The islands of the South Pacific may be over the horizon, but their economic livelihood and stability is deeply entwined with that of our own. That is why New Zealand and Australia take such an active interest in Pacific island progress. The Pacific islands already receive a considerable amount of aid from abroad, but today we need to give a little more.

The ANZ bank will take care of cash donations at all their branches. You can also give specifically to the Samoa relief fund online at the Red Cross. Both ideegeo and GeniusNet have donated today and I urge others to do the same. Even a few dollars will help, if we all do our part.

ION e-Letter August/September 2009

Posted on by
2

GeniusNet is proud to host the ION e-Letter. ION is New Zealand’s original virtual community for innovators, entrepreneurs, mentors and investors. ION is kindly supported by EGL and Revera.

 EGLRevera

W2W W0W

The magic that is Wellington to the World returns on the 17th of November. Unlimited Potential are once again managing this annual technology showcase aimed at further cultivating the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Included in this year’s stellar speaker line-up are Read Write Web founder Richard MacManus, McDiarmid Young Scientist of the Year John Watt and Ben Young author, entrepreneur and social media guru. The event revolves around pitches from local tech entrepreneurs and presentations from the cutting edge of ICT research.

The central theme for W2W is “going global from New Zealand” so video content from the event is circulated to KEA‘s global network. Entrepreneurs from last year actually received phone calls from investors in the United States after seeing the online video content. Business intelligence software developer Futrix secured direct assistance from W2W co-sponsor UKTI to establish a market presence in Europe, after they presented at last year’s event.

Registrations are essential for this key event that aims to build bridges between technology innovators, entrepreneurs and investors.

http://www.up.org.nz/w2w09/

EDTalks Symposium

If you are planning to head to the capital for W2W, why not stay on for EdTalks the following day? The symposium will attract educators and officialdom from around New Zealand to hear about technology, learning, creativity and innovation. The programme looks great if you are in this field.

http://www.core-ed.net/edtalks-symposium

Icehouse Fast Pitch 2009

Fast Pitch is a real-life Dragon’s Den style business pitch competition for Kiwi entrepreneurs. Last year’s winner of the Best Funding Opportunity for Investors category was Sam Ng from Wellington. His company, Optimal Workshop, develops specialised feedback to enable software developers a way of getting and following-up feedback from end users. The programme offers pitching workshops and personal coaching and is great value at only $85.

Multicore Computing MiniConf

Interested in multicore and parallel computing? Come along to the MiniConf at the Linux conference in January. Multicore and parallel computing is an emerging area that promises to spawn some of the high growth businesses of the future. If you are a technology entrepreneur or investor, computing science researcher or software developer, the miniconf may well be of interest.

iwantmynameION Spotlight – Beetil

Beetil is a web-based service management solution by Wellington developers YouDo. Based around the ITIL framework, Beetil provides a seamless and easy to use framework for I.T. support and compliance. YouDo co-founder Dan Lee says that Beetil simplifies service management for small and medium enterprises who aren’t looking for a highly complex system. Beetil not only handles fault management, but also compliance around software changes. Users can also control customer access permissions through a unique portal set-up.

http://www.beetil.com/

Got an enterprising Kiwi tech story to share? I want your name! ION Spotlight is kindly supported by iWantMyName New Zealand’s most innovative global domain registrar.

ION Homepage Makeover

In case you have been wondering what has happened to our homepage – fear not. During October we plan to spend some time tidying up the site and returning it to its former glory. In the meantime you can still reach the ION forum here.

Got an event or story related to innovation or entrepreneurship in New Zealand? We’d love to place it in our bi-monthly newsletter. Reply to this blog or catch up on Twitter @GeniusNet.

BB Build Begs Benefits

Posted on by
Reply

It is certainly a relief to finally see some leadership from the government in terms of their expectations around the broadband rollout. But in 5-10 years time when the project is finally complete will we have found a way to leverage this huge investment of public funds?

Industry ginger groups are being politely optimistic about the plan but it remains to be seen for how long the honeymoon lasts. Telecommunications is a highly political arena with many vested interests. Indications that the Crown Fibre Holding company will remain a Crown entity rather than a commercial state owned enterprise are certainly encouraging however; because the last thing we need is the new network being flogged off to an incumbent player or other foreign controlled interests at some point in the future.

But what are we going to use high speed broadband networks for once they are built? One would like to think that there will be more lofty social benefits than facilitating faster access to pornography, violent online games and moronic TV shows. Of course despite all the clamour by telcos and their equipment suppliers for a bite of the apple, we have never yet seen a properly articulated explanation of exactly what the social and economic return will be.

That aside, there is a wonderful window of opportunity for the government here. Surely we now need to provide an innovation challenge to stimulate the development of novel online services? Imagine how many creative new start-up companies could be kick-started. It seems glaringly obvious, but this aspect of the plan appears to have been somewhat overlooked as the government instead heavily promotes cowshit and tourism as our economic saviours.

There is another issue that has been overlooked as well. Until New Zealand gets access to better bandwidth and some decent competition on networks across the Pacific,  improving domestic connectivity is likely to have only a limited overall effect on economic growth.

Gee Whiz It’s GGG’09

Posted on by
Reply

Unlimited PotentialIt’s almost time for Geeks, Gamers and Gadget lovers to converge upon Unlimited Potential’s signature event for the year.

Hundreds of tiny elves have been toiling day and night to bring GGG to Wellington once again. And if you don’t believe me, come along and check out this year’s free and hugely diverse trade show. There will also be engaging talks by local speakers from the movie effects masters of the universe at Weta Digital and games developer Sidhe.

Keynote speaker will be Bill Reichert, regarded as one of the leading lights in the Silicon Valley entrepreneur community. Along with Guy Kawasaki he founded Garage Ventures an influential early stage venture capital fund. GGG’09 kicks off at 4.30pm on Monday 24th at the St James Theatre in Courtenay Place.

Find out more about the event and sign up here:

http://www.up.org.nz/ggg-09/

..and if that wasn’t enough, next week Unlimited Potential is bringing you a fairytale event that turns the tables on local investors and puts them in the hot seat. So if you want to find out what dragons and angels look for in a technology investment, check out this event:

http://www.up.org.nz/damsels-den/

Cultivating an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Posted on by
2

seedlingI can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve attended recently where I was involved in explaining the importance of having an entrepreneurial ecosystem within which to grow high value technology ventures. Unfortunately it can be hard work explaining why social capital is important when people are focused solely on linear metrics.

Recently I was inspired by a great success story that powerfully underlined my long held belief that building healthy communities and networks is an essential aspect of cultivating an entrepreneurial ecosystem. This is especially so in New Zealand where we are disadvantaged by our distance from the major consumer and capital markets of the world. But that disadvantage can be overcome by leveraging the creative boundaries where local networks overlap with those offshore.

Networks have  multiplier effects, as witnessed by the density of economic activity found in Silicon Valley. By building and maintaining social capital in our local technology sector we are establishing the pre-conditions for new economic life and the basis for small seedlings to grow into very large Kauri trees. But it takes time, 5 to 7 years for a good idea to develop into a viable business and then emerge as a high growth venture. Unfortunately this timeframe can be a problem for sponsoring organisations which rely on political support for their existence.

Investors in technology start-ups typically take a 5 to 10 year view of how much time will be required to launch, grow and then exit a high value business. But securing investment in the entrepreneurial ecosystem that underpins such ventures can be highly problematic because social capital is intangible and cannot be transacted. However, building the ecosystem is about making the pie bigger for everyone. Please consider supporting initiatives such as Unlimited Potential and Global Entrepreneurship Week if we come knocking at your door.

Where’s the Vision?

Posted on by
5

If there is a change of organisational leadership within a business, one of the first tasks of the new leader is to review what values the organisation stands for. New ventures must also begin with a vision as a foundational building block. So when a new government comes to power you would think that this would be a project of some urgency for politicians. But neither the National government nor its predecessor have ever made any attempt to articulate exactly what we stand for as a nation.

The net result of this lack of leadership has been that policy-making is driven by subjective advice at departmental level, but without any central overriding objective in mind. This environment is a fertile breeding ground for politically correct personal agendas and is the basis for much of what is wrong about our public service. And whilst it may be the case that public agencies retain the specialist expertise needed by Cabinet to make decisions, it is not their role to set aspirational goals for the nation as a whole. That is the role of our leadership in consultation with the wider community.

In a country such as ours endowed with considerable natural beauty and a rich diversity of culture it seems almost irresponsible not to have a clear vision on the way forward. Instead we are continually burdened by short term decision-making neccessitated by petty politics and regional self interest. The media circus in Mt. Albert and the lack of due process around the “super city” debate spring immediately to mind. In stark contrast, Pres. Obama seems to have taken the bull by the horns in terms of re-stating what America stands for in a global context. I hope Mr Key accepted some advice on the matter during their phone exchange last week.

What is your vision for New Zealand?