Category Archives: Entrepreneurship

Bookhabit Springs from Webfund Stable

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“E-reading has come of age”, says Clare Tanner director of bookhabit.com a New Zealand website that assists fledgling authors to find a market for their work by employing a “long-tail” approach to demand aggregation. The new site is also a perfect exemplar for why we need much better Internet bandwidth across the Pacific to markets in the Northern Hemisphere.

The venture, which launches this week, allows authors to upload their works in pdf format and employs a graduated reward system as sales increase. Readers can view the first chapter for free but pay as little as US$2.50 if they choose to upload the entire book. The price of a book rises once it passes through certain sales thresholds.

Tanner says the site is ideal for new or unpublished authors wishing to test the market because it instantaneously exposes their work to a global audience and the author receives up to 40% of the sales revenue, compared to around 5-12% with traditional publishers. 

To promote the site there will be a book writing competition with a top prize of US$5,000 commencing on 3rd of March. The ten authors who receives most downloads will go forward to a judging panel for final assessment on merit. Tanner says that the world of publishing is like a mine “full of undiscovered gems” because only a tiny percentage of submitted works ever make it to press.

Bookhabit.com is an early spinoff project from Stefan Korn’s Webfund initiative. Korn, a Wellington based entrepreneur with a strong e-commerce background, started Webfund to aid others in realising their online dreams. Webfund evaluates web-based business ideas, matchmakes projects with investors and then helps to build and implement the ventures cost effectively.

Korn says there is no limit to the creativity out there in terms of new business ideas. Webfund provides a one-stop shop for getting new web-based ventures up and running in double quick time as well as a means for investors to participate at entry level in highly innovative new service offerings.

Esphion Goes Softly into the Night

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I have to admit I was a little surprised and saddened to read news of the Esphion sale. Five mill U.S. seems like a low price to me. In fact by my accounting, the sale price is less than the total amount placed by investors in the company since it was founded in 2002! Something doesn’t add up here. Possibly the NZ Herald article does not relay the full story and there may well be good reasons for such a hasty exit. But touted in 2005 as one of the top 100 leading edge tech companies in Asia by Red Herring and having secured several major product installations; Esphion seemed destined to succeed. 

But it looks horribly like yet another example of a clever Kiwi idea struggling to gain traction in a global market and then getting gobbled up by a more powerful competitor. I thought the idea was to grow these companies from home and build a high tech economy?  Will the taxpayers, who subsidised the firm with grants and seed coinvestment, have an opportunity to realise an economic return? There’s little point in business leaders and scientists pitching for more government support for technology commercialisation if there is no accountability about keeping these businesses local.

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In the meantime scroll down half a page and we read that China Railway Construction, a former operating division of the Communist Red Army, is about to undertake a $4.5 billion market listing in China and Hong Kong. How ironic is that? Perhaps we should simply forget about the technology business and get into construction instead?

Scaling Up Kiwi Tech All About Attitude

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Serial technology entrepreneur Selwyn Pellett makes a strong case for scaling up tech sector businesses in a frank interview posted on M-Net earlier this year.  From humble beginnings as a telco engineer to CEO owner of one of New Zealand’s hottest technology firms, Pellett has lived the dream and survived to tell the story.

Pellett’s company Endace is one of a small handful of high growth firms that have kept faithful to their Kiwi roots whilst building revenues into tens of millions. In fact Pellet has set his eye on $100 million plus in revenue and sees little downside. It’s that kind of focus that makes the difference between enduring a mediocre performance or riding a sky rocket to the moon, says Pellett who wants to see more Kiwi firms reach for the stars.

By setting goals high plus leveraging executive sales expertise in big markets like the U.S., Pellett reckons NZ tech firms can indeed go stellar. But it takes determination, long hours of work and lots of travel, he says. The Endace story revolves around a great piece of technology and some good timing. But it is equally about attitude.

There’s now a new multimedia resource available called the Leadership Pathway that provides videocasts of well known New Zealand technology entrepreneurs as they share their inspirational personal journeys in life and business. Cultivating a highly aspirational mindset amongst the next generation of innovators suddenly seems more important than ever.

A Mighty Kauri Has Fallen

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The news of Sir Angus Tait’s passing will no doubt be greeted with much sadness throughout the New Zealand business community, but especially that of the Canterbury region. Tait was appropriately regarded as the founding father of the local electronics industry with his firm Tait Electronics rising to become an export pioneer and role model for many across the ICT sector. That Canterbury has a thriving technology sector is in large part due to the family of firms that arose from and clustered around Tait.

Even at the age of 88, Sir Angus was still actively involved in the business and was often called upon to speak at industry events, meet with business delegations and sit on various boards. Tait was also passionate about reinvesting into research and development and helped to broker linkages between academia and industry. Few individuals have played such a pivotal stewardship role in the technology industry and he will be sadly missed indeed.

An Icy Adventure

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sled.jpgA good friend of mine has recently returned from a ten day commercial walking expedition to the North Pole. He described the adventure as the greatest experience of his lifetime so far. This was despite having to deal with extreme physical stress, near blizzard conditions at times and an air temperature that never rose above minus 15 degrees C. In his account of the epic journey, Thomas reports that he was extremely fortunate to complete the trip with all his digits intact, having suffered bad frostbite after just a few moments of accidental exposure to the savage environment.

The team had the benefit of helicopter support, GPS and other modern equipment on their 120 km odyssey hauling sleds across the ice from Barneo in the far north of Norway. It puts into context what the early polar explorers must have endured. Despite this, it was a huge undertaking the likes of which most of us will never experience within our own lifetimes.

Entrepreneurs have much in common with polar explorers. Like the explorer, a successful entrepreneur is prepared to take on calculated risks in the knowledge that there is a rich reward to be claimed. An explorer trains for the physical challenges ahead and carries out a great deal of logistcal planning. An entrepreneur writes up a plan of action and learns as much as possible about the product and the marketplace before launching into business. Both make use of expert mentors and have a healthy grasp of their own personal limitations.

I guess where intrepid explorers part company from trail blazing entrepreneurs is that if you make a mistake in a blizzard in the Arctic, then you are dead. Entrepreneurs get to learn from their mistakes and live to fight another day.

Mobile is King in Developing Nations

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Young people obviously have way too much time on their hands these days judging by the volume of bizarre content sitting around on servers out there. It must be a great time to be a hardware manufacturer. But is anyone actually making any revenue by hosting and sharing the stuff? Perhaps the trick is to guess which kind of hardware is going to win out and become a reseller or manufacturer?

When you think about developing countries, my guess is that mobile devices like phones, notebooks and i-Pods already way outnumber PCs. That leaves us wondering what kind of content sharing and business applications could be usefully deployed to cater for mobile but connected users. I’m involved with a project in India at present looking at this very problem, having last year successfully assisted a New Zealand digital technology exporter to find a product champion in this market. We find that the number of mobile users to (reportedly) be a staggering 115 million, whereas the number of individuals with direct access to a PC is only about 40 million. In fact if you look up almost any source it’s clear where the growth path lies.

With this in mind, a New Zealand startup venture called Voeveo has set out to corner the market on mobile content by devising a trading portal that allows mobile content producers to market and sell their wares online. It will be interesting to see how this evolves, given the high global growth rates in mobile phone usage.

Crossing the Creative Chasm

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exploreI have often thought that technology entrepreneurs have a great deal in common with artists. They are creative and passionate about their work, they need a healthy sense of self-belief and they must both struggle to have their creative output adopted by the mainstream.

Amanda Tomasoa is an Auckland artist whose colourful work reflects her passion for life and a love for the people that she encounters. Like many artists (and entrepreneurs) she has had her ups and downs as she sought to establish herself on the local scene. Choosing a “go-to-market” strategy can be as difficult for an artist as it is for a technology entrepreneur.

Fortunately her work is highly attractive to the eye, reasonably priced and makes great talking pieces for corporate foyers to domestic living spaces. Her abstracts in particular have received acclaim and sell steadily. She has even been approached by galleries as far away as New York who sense there is a market for vibrant Asia-Pacific works. New Zealand’s reputation for unique brilliance in creative endeavours still carries some weight.

 But you can’t ship artwork over the Internet, airfreight costs a lot and you also want to know you are getting your money up front first. It’s a problem. You can however licence images, create a fashion franchise and export your creativity in other ways – which is what Amanda really wants to do. She just needs someone to help make it happen.

Contact Amanda through her website or meet up with her at the Idealog/AUT Innovation Series launch event.

[tags] New Zealand, art, marketing, entrepreneurship [/tags]

Opening the Door to Economic Wealth

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Nick Willis, the Auckland inventor who developed the cellphone lock opener, says that if you “make success your dominant thought” that is where you will gravitate towards. His story has captivated the business media and looks like a PR person’s dream come true. Not only has the guy made a lot of money for himself by licensing the technology, but he’s intelligent, articulate and has a highly photogenic family. The fact that he’s on a first name basis with both Sam Morgan and Stephen Hawking is just the icing on the cake.

Willis is very much the poster boy for the government’s economic development strategy right now, illustrating that a little intervention can be a good thing. He benefitted from publicly funded business training and startup programmes and also secured financial backing through the government’s Seed Co-Investment Fund. That’s good news. But we need 100 more companies like this.

Frankly the government needs some good news on the economic front right now! The departure of “iconic” Fisher and Paykel to Thailand came as no surprise, given the current economic settings. However the news that Australia’s GDP per capita is now a huge 38% more than New Zealand is somewhat more alarming. This startling fact received scant coverage or analysis. Where it was reported on, the media got their numbers wrong.

I know F&P have a proud history in New Zealand, but if the global price for an assembly line worker has dropped to $20 a day, do we really need that kind of industry? Wouldn’t it be better to grow some more high value, low density industries such as electronics, optics, biotechnology and software? For that to happen there needs to be a complete remodelling of the culture around research and development. That includes tax treatment, education and incentives on the government side. But it also calls for businesses to underwrite risky ideas and good people like Nick Willis.

Perhaps we need to take Nick’s advice and make success the predominant thought for the national economy.

[tags]globalisation, export, technology, New Zealand, innovators[/tags]

ION e-Letter – March 2007

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dubai.jpgION is New Zealand’s leading innovation and entrepreneurship online community. ION provides an informative and interactive virtual knowledge sharing forum plus a private business matchmaking service for emerging technology enterprises.

www.ion.net.nz

We are hosting this newsletter on the GeniusNet blog to allow participants to opt in and engage in the conversation. GeniusNet is project manager for ION.

Auckland MBAs to Look at Dubai Marketplace

A group of MBA students from Auckland University are heading to Dubai shortly as part of their research practicum. The group are keen to make connections for Kiwi tech businesses and to dig up some inexpensive market research. Notwithstanding the troubles in other parts of the Middle East, the UAE is booming with huge investments in infrastructure planned and a rapidly increasing standard of living. Dubai itself is also a key trading post in the region and garners most of its revenues from trade, finance and tourism – rather than oil.

NZ technology firms interested in receiving research from Dubai should post a response to this thread prior to the end of March, 2007.

ION Connects Mobile Developers to India

We can report that ION has brokered a valuable relationship with one of India’s leading mobile content aggregators that has led to Christchurch company Zodal to break into the world’s second fastest growing mobile market. New connections are around the 5 million per month mark!

The company is capitalising on the Indian love of cricket by providing a nifty multi-player mobile game with the sport as its theme. The revenue-sharing partnership provides access to one of India’s most popular short code service portals.

We are currently in the process of introducing a Wellington company to the same provider, a subsidiary of one of the largest entertainment conglomerates in that market.

Forum Assists Skilled Migrants to Acclimatise

There has been a lot of discussion recently about concerns that skilled migrants are experiencing problems integrating themselves into NZ society. There is a good chance your immigrant taxi driver has a PhD, but cannot find other work. Some give up and return home frustrated. At a time of skilled labour shortages, it seems like a wasted opportunity.

Because of the importance of this issue to the economy, ION has been hosting an online forum aimed at skilled migrants and migrant entrepreneurs. The aim is to provide a collegial environment for knowledge sharing and to tap into migrants’ stories about both the obstacles and successes on their journey to New Zealand.

Danes Leverage Networks to Top EU Innovation Stakes

The European Commission reports that Germany and the Nordic states are leading the charge in terms of rapidly catching up to levels of innovation in the United States. Interestingly, around 40% of Europes business enterprises consider themselves as innovators, with suppliers and customers perceived as the main partners and collaborators, rather than research or educational institutions.

Well established business networks are critical to the task of innovation, hence networking is an area that Denmark has put a lot of effort into. Copenhagen (one of my favourite cities) has a well established ICT Cluster and pitches itself as an enabler for the nearby ‘Medicon Valley’ cluster of biopharmaceutical firms. Medicon Valley is regarded as the poster boy of cluster success in organisational research circles.

But around 91% of all businesses in Europe have less than 10 employees. ‘Mikronet’ is another Danish network established to link knowledge and arts based micro-enterprises. Similar to ION, it runs an online community forum and weblog. Encouraging collaboration amongst smaller firms is seen as an important part of driving innovation and business growth in the region.

Kiwi Steers Canadian Software Venture Towards Success

An ex-pat Kiwi is applying his knowledge of capital markets and technology commercialisation to guide a Canadian software firm to success. Darren Sissons already had a very solid track record as both a VC investor and tech startup guru when he was asked to step in and assist with a new project. Log in and read how he took a technology venture from zero to hero in the highly competitive North American market. This informative article is exclusive to ION. Post comments on the forum or reach Darren here by adding a comment to this blog thread.

Need more info? Lost your password? Want to profile your New Zealand based technology venture? Post a reply to this weblog thread and we will endeavour to help out or to connect you to someone who can.

Entropy and Entrepreneurship

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I was, at best, only an average student of physics much to the disappointment of my professors at Victoria University. They were however sufficiently benevolent to award me a pass at 100 level. I wanted to understand, but it seemed to be mostly about calculus and less about actually describing the (more interesting) theoretical physical models that define our universe and that I later went on to explore in other courses.

One foundational concept that I do remember (ok I’m a wee bit hazy) is that of ‘entropy’. It came up in a conversation with my son recently after we had been sharing a book about space and time (little boys love stars and planets).

I recalled that entropy relates to the distribution of energy throughout a closed ‘system’ and that it tends to increase throughout the universe over time. This has significant implications for thermodynamics. I think it has some philosophical implications as well, especially when you consider that the universe is apparently expanding. Sociological research often draws upon parallels in the natural world, which got me thinking about some possible analogies.

One way of looking at the problem is that, in nature, systems have a tendency to move from uniformity to chaos. By systems we could mean our universe, a refrigerator or even a glass of water falling onto the floor. Mathematicians call it ‘system complexity’.

I explained this to my son by asking him to consider his own bedroom. After Dad does the housework, the bedroom is in a pristine state. However, over time the room becomes gradually more disordered until chaos finally ensues. He seemed to be able to grasp this concept. It then occurred to me that we could also apply this idea to social systems such as business organisations, marriage and political parties. Think about it.

Of course this thought occurred to economists a long time ago, especially when a fellow called Schumpeter wrote something about “creative destruction” and the role of the entrepreneur in disturbing economic equilibrium through innovation.

[tags]entropy, entrepreneurship[/tags]