Startup Weekend Comes to New Zealand

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Startup Weekend is a life-changing creative workshop for web entrepreneurs that has been held all over the world from Boston to Bangalore. Participants have 54 hours from 6pm on the Friday evening to strategise, build and launch a brand new web business. It’s a pressure cooker event that ensures everyone leaves with new ideas, brilliant personal networks and maybe even a new business. The great news is that the very first New Zealand Startup Weekend will be held in Auckland on 1st-3rd of April.

About a year ago, Startup Weekend global director Marc Nager approached me about bringing the event to New Zealand. But anticipating a very full year at Unlimited Potential plus lots of hard work growing iWantMyName, regrettably I had to decline. So I’m really pleased that Jason Armishaw and his team have stepped forward and I’m chuffed to be invited along as an advisor to the initiative. I’m looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and getting stuck in with some brain-storming on the day. It’s an opportunity for me to share some of the lessons learned within a high growth web start-up business and no doubt to learn heaps myself from a bunch of much smarter people.

With the event only a few weeks away, we need to muster resources and get folks signed up pronto! Developers, designers, business strategists, marketers, investors. Get your dream team together or just rock up by yourself and be ready to contribute your particular skills. If you know of any companies that can help out with some resources please contact Jason as soon as possible. There will be media involvement, so it’s a great opportunity to share what you do. See you there.

Fantastic Plastic

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Plastic Logic, a company founded to commercialise research from Cambridge University recently secured one of the largest venture capital funding rounds of any company globally. But it has not always been plain sailing for the business which aims to devise and manufacture consumer applications for plastic semi-conductors based on organic polymers.

The US $700 million investment was led by Russian interests who plan to establish a production facility on the outskirts of Moscow. The funding was a lifesaver for Plastic Logic which almost tanked in 2010 due to production delays and intense competition from Apple’s highly successful iPad. Like many technology companies, there will continue to be challenges; but the upside is enormous considering the possible applications of its polymer research such as ultra-thin screens.

Ironically, although research and development was performed in Cambridge, the company initially moved quickly to establish a facility in Germany, in order to capitalise on Euro zone incentives that were unavailable to it in Britain. It makes for an excellent case study into why blue skies science research should receive substantial public funding and why regionally targeted economic development aid should not.

The foundational research behind the company has a New Zealand connection. The research team is directed by Sir Richard Friend a British physicist who currently occupies the Cavendish Professorship in Physics at Cambridge. New Zealander and Nobel laureate Ernest Rutherford occupied the same position from 1919 to 1937. Professor Friend visited on a speaking tour recently at the invitation of the Royal Society of New Zealand and the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology.

Bank You Very Much!

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Over the last year or two I’ve learnt a lot about banks and especially the ways in which they don’t serve their customers. When are we going to build a technology that solves this pain?

Managing an online e-commerce platform means you simply cannot avoid the bureaucracy that is the global banking system. You have to fill out endless forms, pay extortionate fees and generally play their silly game or get cut off. After two years of trading we took the step of opening a foreign currency account for iWantMyName. Six weeks down the track we are finally in a position to accept our first U.S. dollar transfer from our payment gateway. That’s not all. It turns out that I have to actually go into a branch each week to physically transfer money. There is no online banking facility (at least not for small businesses or individuals). It shouldn’t be that hard!

Economists and business commentators have been urging us to participate in the “weightless economy” and go global. Banks on the other hand have no interest in uploading risk by dealing with more small companies. Banks and financial institutions have a vested interest in the status quo and are reluctant to allow a frictionless flow of capital across international borders. Of course if you are a large enterprise, the banks will bend over backwards for you. I’m sure the financial controller at Fonterra doesn’t have to pop down to his local branch to sign a form to transfer a few million Euros in proceeds from the latest global milk auction.

Amazon, PayPal and even TradeMe gave us a taste of what a universal payment system might look like; but these services remain heavily dependent upon the existing banking system because your credit card or bank account is involved at some point. But it’s a starting point at least. Notably, there are increasingly vocal calls for a completely new value system involving the Internet that enables easier payments and that excludes banks altogether. For example, with some services you can perform virtual tasks to earn bartering credits. But that won’t pay my rent or buy me dinner – at least not yet.

Money is a deeply ingrained social institution around which economic commerce has conveniently been constructed. It has no inherent value in itself yet leads to huge inequity in society. Creating a safe, universal online payment system that not only circumvents the banks, but also engenders trust is possibly the greatest challenge facing developers and entrepreneurs today. Let’s do it!

100% Puree

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The recent media clamour criticising Tourism New Zealand’s new campaign threw up some intriguing responses from a seemingly random selection of  “marketing experts” who had been canvassed for their views, but who completely missed the real problem with the new approach.

With New Zealand already ranking as third strongest “country brand” for tourism last year, you would think that Tourism New Zealand might think twice about giving up on their successful twelve year old promotional style that focuses on New Zealand’s natural attributes such as landscapes, flora and fauna. 100% Pure New Zealand has evolved into 100% Pure You. I’m not sure if that is a reflection on our increasingly tenuous environmental credentials or the fact that the next generation of global travellers are more self-absorbed. Perhaps both.

The new campaign is obviously a response to the Aussie battle cry “where the bloody hell are you?”. All of the actors in the video clips are youthful, white, middle class, which not only belies the multicultural nature of Australian society to which it is targeted, but also politely ignores the fact that the fastest growing inbound tourist sources are in fact other places like China and India. The new campaign strengthens the message that New Zealand is all about hedonism and short term gratification – a message that resonates with young backpackers.

Unfortunately backpackers have the lowest per diem spend of any segment in the market. Shouldn’t we be focussing on attracting more of the upper end of the market? Don’t get me wrong. I’ve backpacked all over the world myself and it was character building and great fun at the time. I’m not for one minute suggesting we limit access on the basis of disposable income. I’m simply suggesting we revisit where our tax dollars might best be spent for greatest return.

Tourism is a huge part of the New Zealand economy, but it has a considerable environmental footprint and creates little ongoing value. It’s all about extracting short term gains from renting as many seats as possible. Jobs in the tourism service sector are generally amongst the least well paid. Perhaps we need fewer “freedom campers” pooping on our roadsides and more doctors and their families from Bangalore enjoying our sparsely populated geographic beauty. Dare I suggest it, but maybe we could also get them thinking about investing in New Zealand, whilst we have their undivided attention.

Touch Tech Turntables Triumph

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Ever since the movie Minority Report hit our screens we’ve all been fascinated by the promise of touch screen technology. I think touch tech is going to be big this year, which is one reason why I’m currently working with a young entrepreneur on an interesting project involving tablets. More about that soon. In the meantime, there are other companies in New Zealand that are already well advanced in this field.

North Shore manufacturer Kevin Andreassend grew up dreaming about futuristic multi-media too and he now runs a company called ICE AV that assembles and re-exports tailor made big screen and audio set-ups around the world. The company recently had the opportunity to work a high profile stage equipment provider in London, delivering large screens for a massive DJ gig in the city. The same company also works with other huge touring acts such as U2.

But it will probably be much smaller screens that drive the mainstream adoption of this technology in 2011. Most smart-phones and tablets now have touch screen tech. In fact much of the new technology now driving workplace and personal productivity tools ironically had its origins in the home amongst an earlier generation of electronic games platforms. This will inevitably lead to greater interest amongst the general public in future applications. ICE AV have capitalised on this interest by creating a clever system called Holodesk that integrates a fully interactive touch screen system with a DJ turntable set-up. This creates a new kind of experience for part-goers and has (literally) been receiving “rave” reviews in Europe and the UK.

More Kiwi tech going global – Got an interesting software product or app that you’d like me to review? If it’s made in New Zealand and a little bit left field, please drop me a note.

A Tale of Two SOEs

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Two recent media articles illustrated the different approaches to innovation taken by a pair of high profile state owned enterprises (SOEs) with which I am well acquainted. What these stories have in common are the fact that both businesses were turned around by strong leadership.

Rod Oram’s pre-Christmas cracker about Air New Zealand’s cabin layout innovations was a timely reminder about how (with an injection of taxpayer funded capital) the national carrier went from being a basket case to business success. I love Rod’s work and the fact that he has been for many years a tireless champion for innovation and technology as a way for New Zealand businesses to add value to exports and grow the economy.

The second story was about MetService, my former employer. The NZ Herald article outlines how the company leveraged a stake in a UK company to acquire expertise in the European marketplace. The company executed this strategy under the tutelage of Paul Reid, who is about to move on from the company. Reid inherited a mess when he took over the CEO role several years ago but he forged ahead and infused the senior management with some core competencies that had been somewhat lacking previously. Incredibly for a knowledge based business, the company had limped along for many years until this time without either a human resources manager or a CIO. He also took the time to genuinely listen to any staff member, his door was literally always open.

Being a former Air New Zealand staffer himself and mindful of the highly competitive nature of the industry, Reid actively led MetService away from its traditional aviation market base and into the media and consumer markets of Europe and the Middle East. This has proven to be a good move, although in light of volcanoes and snowstorms and rapid developments in platform technology, aviation still looks like a missed opportunity for the company. Unfortunately, it was very clear to me at the time that it meant a death warrant for the position I was employed in. But now that I’m engaged in a challenging role developing a high growth technology export business that I actually have a stake in, it seems like the best possible outcome all round.

Best wishes for 2011.

2010 Rocked Us, Roll On 2011

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To say that 2010 was a year full challenges and opportunities is somewhat of an understatement. For many people in business it was a case of  hanging in there as a recessionary economy misfired and struggled to get up off its knees. But much worse than this, New Zealand (and in particular the south) was stricken by the triple tragedies of a huge investment business failure, a destructive earthquake and a terrible mine disaster. Whilst these events provided a much-needed distraction for the government, they were devastating for the people directly affected and shocked all of us.

When national morale takes a hit, I’ve noticed the economy tends to suffer as well. Good spirits lead to more spending which in turn leads to more optimism. It’s a virtuous circle. On the plus side, we have been sheltered a little from the storm by high global dairy prices and the fact that our banks are stable and government debt not completely out of control like elsewhere. But there’s still lots more work to be done on diversifying the economy and I don’t think we should rely entirely on the Thugby World Cup to reignite our passions in 2011. We can’t afford to sleepwalk through another year.

The government needs to be looking at providing a more aspirational science and innovation framework that goes well beyond moving the deck chairs around with yet another departmental restructuring. In the lead up to the election, we also need to start thinking about reforming our entire legal system. When a senior judge thinks it’s ok to preside over a court case involving a business partner and peeping toms get longer prison sentences than drunk drivers who kill and maim, we know we’ve got a serious problem.

On a personal level I had the immense satisfaction of working with two great teams. The first was the crew at ideegeo from whom I learn something new every day. We headed into our third year of domain renewals this month at iWantMyName and grew revenue at over 200% during the year. We also addressed some growing pains by improving our platform technology as well as our management systems as we position for the next chapter. The most exciting aspect of going global with the technology was that we secured a core following of early adopters amongst the developer community worldwide that may open some interesting doors for us in 2011. Watch this space.

My other team are the good folks at the Unlimited Potential committee who help bring the coolest events to the ICT community here in Wellington. We had a very busy year with a strong focus on promoting technology entrepreneurship through a number of well supported events. We also completed our wonderful new website. All of this was achieved in a very tough funding environment. Because of UP activities, teams got built, tech businesses were started and people found jobs. Real life social networking is important. Thanks to the supporters who made it happen and let us know if you’d like to get involved as an event partner or committee member in 2011.

Best wishes for a safe and happy holiday season and a prosperous 2011.

What’s Wong?

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Pansy Wong was New Zealand’s first member of parliament of Asian descent and our first Asian Cabinet Minister. By all accounts she has been an effective and hard-working representative. Her early departure from the halls of government is an unnecessary loss and points to why there is such a dearth of talent amongst our legislators.

Whilst Pansy Wong was deciding her future over the weekend, Labour Party President Andrew Little was denouncing Labour MP George Hawkins as a “lightweight” after the retiring MP scuttled a bid to install a pro-union candidate in his safe Manurewa seat. Little is quite right however, Hawkins has contributed very little to the business of government of late. But perhaps Little should have kept this view to himself. No matter. What Hawkins lacked in intellectual capacity he made up for in much needed Labour votes, which is why he was kept on well past his use by date.

Wong resigned over the media clamour about her husband doing some business on a tax-payer subsidised trip abroad. Now she wants to retire so she and her husband can get on with their entrepreneurial endeavours out of the public eye. Who can blame her? But shouldn’t we be encouraging our MPs and Ministers to go out and represent the country? If they pull in some more business for New Zealand, how is this a bad thing? 

With the departure of Wong, Parliament will become less diverse and an even more unwelcoming place for high calibre individuals. Meanwhile, plonkers like George Hawkins will sit quietly on their bottoms waiting to collect fat retirement pensions. Somehow this doesn’t seem right.

StartupDigest Offers Event Buffet

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It has been a busy year, but I always manage to keep some time free for an important project close to my heart. It involves curating content for the New Zealand StartupDigest. The weekly publication provides a quick reference summary of all the best start-up, technology and innovation events across New Zealand.

StartupDigest was co-founded by Chris McCann who describes himself as an “entrepreneurial activist”. Based in the heart of Silicon Valley, Chris has managed to motivate around 50 writers, entrepreneurs and fellow activists from around the globe to contribute all of the event content that goes into the various digests each week. It’s a much needed (free) service that helps everybody to connect within the tech start-up ecosystem.

You can subscribe to StartupDigest by selecting a country, city or university community that interests you. It is also possible to subscribe to specific verticals such as green tech or mobile, for example. This week’s NZ StartupDigest is available here. If you have any start-up, technology or innovation related events coming up in 2011 we’d love to hear about it. There is no cost for listing an event and it’s a great way to connect with hundreds of people interested in the tech start-up scene.

W2W Strengthens Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

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Recently Unlimited Potential ran Wellington to the World (W2W), New Zealand’s leading showcase event for early stage web and software ventures. W2W is about building bridges, so we invite technology innovators, entrepreneurs and tech investors to network over beer and pizza and encourage young companies to share what they are working on through either talks or at the demo zone. This was the third year that we have run the event and  I’m personally very proud of what has been achieved so far.

Much of the progress that is being made in promoting technology entrepreneurship in New Zealand is underpinned by communities of interest that are flourishing right now. I shared some remarks about this at the opening of W2W in my capacity as Chairperson at Unlimited Potential. We think it’s important to support developer communities and start-up groups because they nurture the seeds of future ventures and provide a deep pool of knowledge for new entrepreneurs.

If you didn’t make it to the event this year, check out the W2W entrepreneur videos. There is also some images and an event review available.

Thank-you once again Wellington City Council, Grow Wellington, Viclink and Summer of Tech for helping make this event possible.