Andrew Lark

NZ Tech Icon Passes

Angus Tait - the founder of Tait Electronics, has passed. While some might not have agreed with his moving Tait into a trust structure similar to Bosch - a move that required considerable personal financial sacrifice - you can't deny the incredible impact he had by creating a lasting NZ export powerhouse. 

Angus epitomized all that is great about NZ entrepreneurs - unrelenting persistence, deep technical smarts, a belief in the team over the individual, and a commitment to building great NZ-based technology companies with a global footprint.

No matter how great the legacy he leaves - and it is great - he will be missed.

Bring Back The Cup

New Zealand are back at it, trying to bring the America's Cup to New Zealand. As much as I was disappointed to see Alinghi and it's crew of Kiwi traitors win the cup - one of the many good things to come out of it has been the America's cup web site. It's got everything you could want (well, it's close) and more.

Stunning graphics, real-time race scoring and radio, plenty of history and commentary - brilliant. What's missing? Well - most of the things I normally hold dear - stuff like focused RSS feeds, community (and related ranking of content), blog aggregation... The rest makes up for it though.

Compare this to Toyota's pathetic effort only available to Kiwi's onshore. Nuts! It's a global event with a global audience. What are you thinking!

Team NZ's presence it very light-weight also. Pretty much a standard site with little sizzle. The downside to this is probably going to be most felt in merchandising and growth of the TNZ community. You've got to activate the community through participatory technology or, excuse the pun, miss the boat. Ok, Oracle BMW racing has a bigger budget but that's no excuse - I know plenty of Kiwi talent that would have done the TNZ site for the privilege. Their site is a stunner. Blog, great photos, live racing and more. Still, in both cases, no apparent RSS -and TNZ has them on downloads and content. I hope they also take them on the water....


Technorati Tags: America's Cup, Team New Zealand

Turning CO into Ethanol

Very cool story in the New York Times about a Kiwi company - LanzaTech - that has secured funding here in the US to produce ethanol from an untapped source — carbon monoxide gas. Vinod Khosla had this to day:

When I passed it on to my partners for due diligence, the technology stood up to every test, and the intellectual property protection was awesome,” Mr. Khosla said.

Then, referring to the bacteria that are key to the process, he said, “The performance of the bugs was frankly mind-boggling to me, not something I would have expected from a tiny research effort in New Zealand.” He said his firm “sent the best process engineers we know to evaluate the technology and could it be industrialized, and the answer was yes.”

Four Nippled Sheep...

OK, enough NZ stories for a bit... but I couldn't resist this one from El Reg...

New Zealand scientists plan to tackle the thorny problem of ewes producing more lambs than they have nipples to accommodate, by simply upping mum's teat-count, Stuff.co.nz reports.

Apparently, NZ's ovine population has become more fertile over the past 10 years and females often drop triplets. AgResearch Invermay scientist George Davis solemnly explained: "A triplet, if he is the runt of the litter, is usually doomed."

Comparisons Come Up Short...

NZ is a broadband backwater. I'm a big advocate of waking up NZ to what it is missing in terms of broadband connectivity. What won't help is drivel and comparisons that contain no evidence (I'm guilty of this too:-). Witness this peice in ComputerWorld with this little gem from really smart guy David Skilling:

Local companies with an overseas presence have told him broadband infrastructure is five to ten times better in China “which most people think of as a developing economy” than it is in New Zealand, and have pointed out that it’s much cheaper to get a document electronically from Sydney to London than it is from Auckland to London.

Five to ten times better than nothing? Than what? And what garbage on the cost of moving a document... on what transport? Nothing beats free and that is precisely what my Internet connection cost me in a Hotel in Shanghai. So, to get  a document from Shanghai to London costs nothing making Sydney a highly uncompetitive market? Hmmmmm... don't think so.

What is more amazing is how the Telcos are putting-up with this nonsense. Why aren't they correcting the facts and helping set the agenda rather than being slaughtered by competitive framing...

... this debate is getting more ridiculous by the day....

The Cost Of Living In the Valley

The cost of living and working in the Valley is obscene. Take a look at this...

A software developer might earn $99,250 in San Jose - the highest paying market in the US. But adjusted to $51,693 in real terms - #7 in the bottom 10.

I wonder how this compares to NZ?

Technorati : NZ, VC

NZ Start-ups & The Valley Of Death

Rod as an interesting post on "The Valley of Death".

I view this principally as a mental rather and physical issue. Contextually NZ businesses sit far from the rest of the world and therefore they frame everything in terms of distance. Distance begets an attitude of scarcity -"I don't have enough because I am a long way from everything..." ... "I can't raise capital because I am so far from it..."

Because I sit in San Jose, CA, I frame everything in terms of proximity. I am close to capital and markets. I have lots because I am close to everything. It takes me a night or day to get to New York. It takes a Kiwi a night or day to get to San Francisco. Arguably, my trip is the more exhausting of the two... really.

How do you change the mindset? First, act like you work and live in Silicon Valley. Switch to the timezone. Work the hours. Network via Skype, Twitter and other tools. Plan a week a month there. You don't have to drink the crap coffee though.

Second, dream your enterprise as it was going to scale like a US business.

Third, if you think there is a Valley of Death it is likely you will fall into it. Imagine there is a highway instead and go ride it. This is critical. Most NZ businesses plan very conservatively in the hope of mitigating risk and failure. They do so so severely that they constrain growth and expansion, choking the company to death.

Fourth, you focus on what is closest to you. Closest to you mentally. The UK is closer mentally to NZ than the USA. So, Kiwi entrepreneurs, despite the distance, focus on the UK. Or, they focus on local customers first. I know some great NZ start-ups that did the opposite and are thriving in the US. To avoid the trap of focusing on what was closest to them they deliberately chose instead to only focus on the West Coast of the US.

And then, you need to turn-up. Some say that a great part of success is in turning-up. Most NZ businesses never break-in to the US market because they don't turn-up.

I'm not going to make light of the many issues a Kiwi business faces in breaking into the US market. Two biggies for me are lack of capital and a scarcity of experienced talent. In the Valley we have an incredible investment ecosystem - from VCs and Angels through Venture debt. And there is a very deep bench to draw on. For other start-ups issues like Government procurement rules come into play.

These are all issues faced by - and overcome - by Israeli companies. I wish more NZ companies would look at Israeli companies as a model rather than nations like Singapore or Ireland. Go on, give me more than two superstar, NASDAQ listed companies from either...

It is amazing how quickly all the physical and market issues start to vaporize when you shift your context, aspirations, focus and frame of reference. Lets look to a new set of role models and move the mind-set.

Technorati : NZ, VC

The IPO Market

I was asked on my recent trip to New Zealand about the US IPO market. Somewhat fortuitously I received an email from America's Growth Capital with a good summary. Here is the rub:

The U.S. IPO market thrived in the 1990s, averaging more than 500 IPOs per year over the entire decade.  However, as we entered the new millennium, the once vibrant IPO market drastically shrank, not only because of the implosion of the Internet bubble, but also due to the following reasons: i) the market cap threshold of targeted investments for mutual funds increased as these funds ballooned; ii) the most active IPO underwriters either disappeared or moved up-market; and, iii) overzealous regulation and costly litigation significantly deterred both executives and private equity players.

These factors led to the dip in IPO volume that we saw from 2001 - 2003; however, the U.S. market has clearly rebounded with a strong finish in 2006.  In Q406, 89 IPOs were priced- the highest quarterly total the market has seen in recent years.  228 IPOs were priced in 2006 on U.S. exchanges, compared to 202 in 2005, an overall increase of 13%.  So far in 2007, 48 IPOs have priced, compared to 40 IPOs at the same time in 2006 (as of March 16). The tech IPO market saw 41 deals priced in 2006, the same number as in 2005.  Tech IPO filings increased by 35% from 2005 (51) to 2006 (69).  Expect substantially more tech IPOs in 2007-2008 compared to the post-bubble doldrums of 30-40 IPOs a year.

We believe that this increase can in part be attributed to an influx of private companies that sat on the sidelines during unfavorable market conditions and are now considering going public.  Most are successful later-stage companies with $30-100 million in revenues.  While many of these companies need capital for growth or liquidity, they may be unwilling to raise another round of private equity due to unattractive private valuations and often onerous liquidation preferences.  In other cases, these companies do not yet want to sell to a strategic acquiror or have not generated a compelling offer.  In early 2007, there is now an abundance of private companies that are proven with strong market penetration, established customer bases, and demonstrable growth and profitability (or near-profitability).  However, these private companies do not meet the minimum IPO criteria as determined by the bulge bracket banks and traditional large fund IPO investors.

An Economist's Courtroom Bonanza

Great profile on Kiwi David Teece. The one thing it doesn't mention is the incredible job he did with Stephen Tindall in creating KEA.

Meet David Teece, renowned expert on lots of things and pioneer of a lucrative consulting niche that has transformed business litigation. The University of California, Berkeley, business-school professor is one of America's busiest expert witnesses, billing corporate clients as much as $850 an hour for his insights. He has built a publicly traded 1,300-person research shop, LECG Inc., that does much of the legwork for him and other economists, so they can zoom through more assignments.

And this made me smile... "And his New Zealand accent worked nicely on the witness stand; it made him sound erudite without being pompous."

Move over SV, here comes NZ....

It's time we heard this said of NZ's start-ups!

Several organizers noted that Silicon Valley's original success as an innovation center was largely because of business and social networks developed over several decades in a community of venture capitalists and technologists.

The Net's level playing field
Now, they said, with the Internet supplementing and replacing traditional face-to-face social networks, Silicon Valley might be losing its competitive advantage.

"The epicenter was Silicon Valley, but that has created a wave of innovation that has now reached the entire world," said Yossi Vardi, an Israeli entrepreneur and investor who financed his son's development of ICQ, an early Internet chat program later sold to America Online.

Also, some interesting stats on Skype:

Like many participants here, Zennstrom voiced the opinion that Internet-based commerce would accelerate in its disruptive effect on traditional businesses. Skype, for example, now says that it carries 4.4 percent of all worldwide long-distance calling.

Kiwis urged to turbo-charge start-ups

Some comments from me on what Kiwi's can do to drive their start-ups to new levels. At the end of the day I believe that NZ's lifestyle is not a negative influence on entrepreneurship. In fact, it's an advantage as this post from Rod points out.

We need a deeper shift in thinking and approaches to occur. I also don't think that this should be viewed in a negative light but rather as part of the natural evolution of entrepreneurship in NZ.

I haven't met a great entrepreneur that doesn't think they could be working harder or smarter. I've met plenty of Ok entrepreneurs with lots of reasons why they didn't go the extra mile.

New Zealand's lifestyle is a competitive advantage. New Zealand entrepreneurs should revel in it and use it to attract talent. What we shouldn't do is confuse working long hours with productivity and output. While there is no short-cut to building great companies, they do require a combination of working hard and working smart. Platitudes aside, it's the smarts we have to build. Plenty of Kiwis are willing to work hard.

We also need a shift in the DNA that can only come from experience and role models. As new bars for creating value get set, a new generation of Kiwis will rise to that bar. Look at what we have seen in the past few years with Aftermail, 42 Below, TradeMe and Endance. These entrepreneurs will excite and inspire more to follow in their steps.

Longer-term we need to get more entreprenurial training and skills into our Education system. And that Education system needs to encourage students in disciplines like engineering, sciences and software development. If we don't do that we will face a worsening skills shortage that can't easily be corrected through immigration policies.

New Zealand is at a really exciting juncture. The Internet is a terrific leveler, getting about the planet has never been easier, and new models and standards for entrepreneurship are emerging in New Zealand. There is lots to be positive and excited about.

Choose Thrift...

There is a clear impression among NZ entrepreneurs that Silicon Valley-based start-ups get big cash from VCs and spend like crazy. Reality couldn't be more different. The WSJ this morning throws light on prevailing the "thrift" is good mentality.

Some great quotes throughout:

"Cash is queen these days," says Mr. Thomas, who estimates Sharpcast can last another two years even if it doesn't produce any revenue. "Fiscal discipline is harder to teach later in the life of a company, and we want to be the last guy standing."

"Indeed, while tech start-ups are raising less funding these days -- an average of $8 million each time, down from $11 million in 2000 -- they are making the money last longer. According to research firm VentureOne, tech start-ups in Silicon Valley now survive an average of 17 months on a single round of funding before needing to raise more money, up from just 10 months in 2000. (VentureOne is a unit of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of this newspaper.)"

Made From NZ

Cool site promoting NZ. Like the PR stunt with the Silver Fern!


Technorati Tags: NZ

Do Start-Ups Need A Business Plan?

Yes! The WSJ also has some other thoughts -subscription required. I look at lots of business plans in my other life as a VC. My main message keep them simple and focus on illuminating the idea. Only include data you really understand. Some highlights:

• Matt Coffin, founder and chief executive of LowerMyBills.com, a Web site sold to Experian Corp. in 2005 for $330 million, says he used a 10-page PowerPoint presentation that he spent four to six months gathering research for instead of a formal business plan when pitching his idea to investors in 1999. He succeeded in raising $4 million in venture capital by convincing them that the market for people needing a one-stop place on the Internet to refinance was ballooning.
• Tim Petersen, managing director of Arboretum Ventures, a health-care venture-capital firm in Ann Arbor, Mich. says he generally prefers getting five-to 10-page summaries of business ideas or PowerPoint presentations over lengthy business plans.
• Benson Honig, a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada, says his research of 396 nascent entrepreneurs in Sweden from the late 1990s also found no correlation between business planning and profitability. Instead, his study found the biggest predictor of success to be knowing customers in advance. Mr. Honig says he teaches "contingency planning" to his students -- or thinking about a business as constantly progressing, changing and making decisions based on the market climate -- instead of traditional business planning.

The WSJ also includes links to some relevant research:

Plans and Performance

Study: "Pre-startup formal business plans and post-startup performance: A study of 116 new ventures" by Julian E. Lange, Aleksandar Mollov, Michael Pearlmutter, Sunil Singh, and William D. Bygrave (all Babson), June 2005.

Summary: The study compares the success of 116 ventures started by Babson College alumni between 1985 and 2003, using performance measures such as revenues, employee numbers and net income. Researchers found no statistical difference in performance between those businesses launched with formal business plans -- roughly half of the 116 -- and those started without them, and concludes that "there is no compelling reason to write a detailed business plan before opening a new business" unless the entrepreneurs needs to raise substantial amounts of start-up capital. Instead, the researchers say start-up entrepreneurs should generally just make some financial projections, especially cash flow, and open the business.

You'll need a plan to get funded but it's like the old saying about memos "I didn't have time to write a short memo, so here is a long one". Make the time.

Leave The Squid Alone...

If they ever do find the giant squid, I wonder how they squid will feel about it. Giant squids don't seem to be the kind of creature you really want to disturb...

Marine biologist Peter Batson says he plans to try photographing giant squid at a depth of 3000m off the coast of New Zealand.

Dancing With the Stars, of Rugby - New York Times

The New York Times now takes on the Haka and like those before it gets a little confused. This time round mixing one haka - "Ka Mate! Ka Mate! Ka Ora!" with another - "Kapa O Pango" (Team in Black)

The new haka (Kapa O Pango) was developed partly in response to an challenge related to the ownership of "Ka Mate!". The new war cry was written for the team by Ngati Porou's Derek Lardelli. The response was immediate. One one side you had the Sth Africans:

"It was fantastic. It's always awesome to stand in front of the haka," says South African captain John Smit. "It's probably one of the most special things about playing the All Blacks."

On the other you had those offended by the throat slitting motion at the end of the Haka. If they'd taken the time to understand the symbology they might have been less offended. It isn't about slitting the oponents throats (although one could certainly read that into the motion), it is about releasing the warrior (performing) the Haka's spirit in battle. Frankly their is a ton of confusion over the gesture, not helped my multiple explanations by the Haka's composer who once said the motion was intended to describe:

"Playing rugby at this level, with this intensity, is the cutting edge of sport. "The players are on the knife edge. They are gladiators in the arena. If they win they are heroes, if they lose they are taken apart."

The New York Times cconfuses the issue suggesting that this is what caused the stupid decision by the Welsh Rugby Football Union. It wasn't that Kapa O Pango was going to be performed. In fact, The All Blacks performed "Ka Mate" which features no such motion.

It was about grandstanding, cultural insensitivity and disrespect that ultimately deprived fans of something they wanted to see.

The Haka is a point of pride and identity on the world stage for all New Zealanders no nation gets to dabble with it at their leisure.

Link to Dancing With the Stars, of Rugby - New York Times (subscription required)

We Forget How Lucky We Are

Just got off an email exchange with my Mum who has moved from Tauranga in NZ to Rotorua - both reasonably large New Zealand towns. Her Internet provider (Clear) has told her that she will need to go onto an indefinite waiting list as they don't have any more broadband connections left.

At first I laughed - they have to be joking right? You actually have to wait for broadband? A list? Any Mayor of any city in New Zealand that can't readily offer it's citizens and business high-speed connections on the spot should be desperately concerned for its future. I know there are other pressing matters. But this is one of them. Broadband is a source of economic, cultural and developmental advantage.

Which leads me to a question I have posed before. Why is NZ such an appalling broadband backwater? Why is high-speed Internet so incredibly over priced and affordable only to the elite and privileged?

Now, there is the obvious frustration and disappointment of my Mum not being able to see her Grandaughter each week via the web. We will sort that out. But I do really wonder though if community and business leaders realize that this is their problem. Unless they demand and orchestrate the access to the Web and all the benefits afforded by modern technology they are not likely to get it. Citizens will leave. As will businesses. Children will not get educated as they should. And high net worth tourists will not come.

Not a pretty picture.

Tradition Matters. Culture Matters More.

The Haka is something most American's haven't had a chance to experience. It's something to see.

While a recent headliine in the WSJ described it as a Tongan war dance the article did go on to reference it as a Maori war dance in fact - made popular by The All Blacks, New Zealand's national rugby team. A Tongan war dance is known as The Kailao but this again is different than and should not be confused with the Sipi Tau, performed by the 'Ikale Tahi', the national rugby union team before each match.

It is pretty impressive as well but very different. Both the Haka and Ikale Tahi would be performed the moment before each game, before the teams "go into battle" - that's the symbology. Take a look at this to see both in action.

"Ka Mate! Ka Mate! Ka Ora!" (We're going to die! We're going to die! We're going to live!), has nothing to do with Tonga - the Odessa Permian Panthers are in fact taking a leaf out of the All Blacks who perform the Haka before games.

As insulting to any Kiwi as The Wall Street Journal headline was, the Welsh Rugby Football Union insulted us more this morning by requiring the All Blacks to move the Haka to another stage of the pregame entertainment.

I'll go as far as to accuse them of racial insensitivity and ignorance. It isn't about entertainment. All Blacks' captain Richie McCaw said it best, " “The tradition needs to be honored properly if we're going to do it,” said McCaw. 

“If the other team wants to mess around, we'll just do the Haka in the shed.  At the end of the day, Haka is about spiritual preparation and we do it for ourselves. Traditionally fans can share the experience too and it’s sad that they couldn't see it today,” he said.

At the end of the day the All Blacks did the Haka - those of use watching the came on the web got to witness the weird spectacle while 70,000 fans could do little more than boo the absence of a mighty tradition - and then watch as the All Blacks destroyed Europe's five nations champions 45-10. Back at'cha. A shame for Welsh spectators. A win nevertheless for All Blacks fans.

NZ Companies Interested In Attending ANZA Gateway to the US Conference

Viki has kindly offered you a free pass to the event if you are up here in the Valley.

On Tuesday 31 October ANZA Technology Network brings the best of Australian technology to Silicon Valley for the ANZA Gateway to the US conference. The range of companies is impressive; from search engine marketing to cool Web 2.0 offerings to nanotech ‘green’ solutions.
 
We’d like to invite you to be our guest for the day. Space is limited so register now using your VIP pass code viptue to enjoy the Tuesday Company Pitches and lunch as our guest. You can see the full conference program online.

Road to Silicon Valley turns rocky

I'm quoted throughout this piece on the decision by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise not to back ANZA here in the Valley... It's a conference for emerging technology companies from downunder. I really like ANZA - and would have supported it by participating on panels if I had time.

When Peter Griffin of the NZ Herald asked me for my thoughts, here is what I told him. I'd say the road to Silicon Valley is as rocky as you choose to make it and that ANZA should continue to be a success and avenue for NZ companies:

I can’t speak for NZTE. What I would say is that any NZ company can still get involved with ANZA so the avenue is open. And ultimately they (the companies) have to determine the success of the program via their participation – not the sponsors. So, if NZ pulls out of ANZA it will be because the Entrepreneurs didn’t see value in it – not NZTE.

How many NZ companies are signed-up to go? Not sure on that.

I definitely know ANZA is not the only organization setting out to link NZ & Australian start-ups with investors and partners in the US. Let me address that on several levels:

1. The US beachhead program is targeted at companies of all levels – not just established. For the past few years we focused the program heavily on the early stage start-ups and now NZTE is balancing the program out with more mature tech companies – that is the right thing to do. If I look at the current portfolio of companies it is a blend of the likes of Sonar6, SurveyLab, Hyperfactory, Esphion (all early stage) and more mature companies like Rakon and Tait (who are all challenged by the same market entry issues as the start-ups). Disclosure – I helped found the beachhead program and chair the technology beachhead in the US market.
2. One of the primary activities we engage in is linking start-ups and Entrepreneurs to partners and VCs. Case in point – next week I have two companies – both very early stage, here in the Valley for no less than 10 meetings that we have arranged.
3. There are many other avenues a NZ start-up has to the US market from networking organizations like KEA through VCs in NZ, consultants and NZTE itself. They could also choose to attend any number of US events such as AlwaysOn and RedHerring (like Eurekster has done). I think that NZTE would be supportive of this should they approach them.
4. I do believe that NZTE is doing the right thing in focusing its efforts. They/NZ have scarce resources so concentrating on things like the Beachhead program and delivering results through that is critical.

Should NZ companies attend ANZA? I think ANZA is a very useful educational forum and venue for sharing experiences and networking within the start-up community. I am not sure what metrics they have for securing funding etc for participating companies so can’t really speak to their value on that front? I’d suggest that NZ companies looking to achieve this check-in with other NZ companies that attended in past years as to its effectiveness for them. The companies I have spoken to about ANZA have seen value in the panels and speakers – and the post event networking.

Remembering that these companies are competing for money with US companies – I’d recommend that they invest in events like AlwaysOn, RedHerring and Demo.

Also interested in your views on the overall appetite in Silicon Valley for incubating and investing in companies from this part of the world. Are you seeing enough innovative NZ start-ups coming through to attract attention over there? Is the Government doing enough to encourage the development of strong ties between New Zealand and Silicon Valley companies?

I’m very active in both markets (VC and NZTE USAB in NZ) + CEO/CMO of start-ups in the Valley (working with many of the top VCs here)… So, I think there is always an appetite for great ventures, ideas and talent irrespective of where they have come. In fact, I think the flattening of the planet and willingness to engage in ventures in China and India will only benefit NZ over the long run.

I’m seeing more and more tech companies looking at the full range of funding options – from AIM, to the Valley and US-based angels. At the end of the day I don’t think the Government can play a big role in building those ties directly. Remember that the culture and approach to business here is very different.  What NZTE can do is serve a group of ventures – not all of them.

What the Government can do via things like the Beachhead program is make terrific connections and light-up networks for the Entrepreneur to take advantage of. They can also marshal expertise and smarts onshore and bring them to bear on early-stage enterprises – strengthening them before they do head offshore. An example of this is the recent addition of Rod Drury to the NZ Beachhead onshore – a terrific move. I also think some of the new brand work around “New Thinking” is great and will help us define an investor-friendly brand for NZ that leverages recent success in the entertainment sector. This is a good example of how the Government can provide great air cover.

I do think there is a lack of knowledge and maturity in how NZ companies seeking funding approach funding in the US market. And, that this will require new approaches to increase the number of companies getting access to offshore capital. For instance – tighter mentoring and discipline through the investment process. It is something I am going to track over the coming year. It might also require a more commercial approach than we have now.

At the end of the day though these companies need one thing more important than capital – they need smart money. Money that comes with brains and connections. Without that they would have been better off securing the money onshore at a cheaper rate.

If you are interested, ANZA takes place in the Valley over the next week.

To all of this I would add that Governments can only bear the burden of growing companies for so long. NZTE have taken a good swing at it. How about some of the Enterprises in NZ step-up - especially those who directly benefit from global commerce - airlines, telcos, software platform and tools vendors...

NZ Gets Gaming Studio...

NZ has a real richness of interactive talent so this is great news:

Microsoft announced Wednesday that it will be creating a video game studio in collaboration with "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson. Wingnut will be based in New Zealand, Henson said. He would not elaborate on the business terms of the arrangement.

Link to Microsoft, Peter Jackson to form game studio | CNET News.com

NZ A Topped Rank Place To Do Business...

Bloody easy says the World Bank... I think they kinda miss the point though. Might be easy to do business there but most entrepreneurs I know are more interested in doing business here. That would be another axis on the chart that I might fear lead to a different outcome than this:

1. New Zealand
2. Singapore
3. United States
4. Canada
5. Norway

So, entrepreneurs in Serbia and Montenegro can register new businesses online, and if the entrepreneur has not heard from the government in five days, the business can start. Now try getting your product to market in Japan or the US.

Sorry for the cynicism but I deal with Kiwi companies trying to break into the US every day and am all to familiar with the real challenge they face.

Thanks to Guy & Peep for flagging.

No 8 Blog

N0 8 Ventures has a new blog and web site to boot thank to the team at Marker. No 8 Ventures is New Zealand's leading technology firm and where, I am proud to say, I'm a director. So, if you are a Kiwi entrepreneur, tune in - or even better still, subscribe. Thanks to the team at Marker for their hard work on this one.

Technorati : N0 8 Ventures

Bill & The Kiwi...

That's Bill giving Kiwi (and big IT guy at Chevron) Alan Nunns a copy of Vista. Cool.

Associated Press

Google Maps NZ

Looks like NZ is finally on the Google map... Here is one of the first mashups...

Air NZ First With The Dreamliner...

So, the airline with the dreamiest business class gets The Dreamliner first. Can't wait to fly it.

Having just flown to Tokyo with American I hope every AA exec at some point gets to fly Air NZ - they are everything you should be. Stunning and comfortable interiors, great food that also flys the flag for the Nation's produce, terrific service (employees empowered to do great work), and an upgrade program that works. (To earn loyalty you have to reward it with action, not token miles).

Saying that, boy could Air New Zealand do with some help on the Web and in reservations in the US - just getting to talk to someone (if you can find a 1-800 #) is a shocker of a process. And, why just encourage me to fly to NZ with you. Having won my loyalty, I'll give you my San Fran to UK business as well...

An Awesome Achievement...

Kiwi conquers Everest - Mark is a double amputee...

NZ Defnitely Not For Sale...

A comedic incident makes the front page of The Reg.

An Australian man, obviously a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock, tried to flog off Aotearoa* on online auction site eBay.

Bidding started at just one cent, and 6,000 hits and 22 bids later, only AUS$3,000 was offered for the "half gallon, quarter acre, pavlova paradise" before eBay pulled the auction.

Now, as El Reg points out, Aussies have been stealing from Kiwis for years - pavlova, Split Enz, Sam Neil, and Russell Crowe, to name a few. Remember, it was El Reg that said it, but...

But even for a nation of convicts, their latest attempt at a land grab rates as the biggest case of green eyed monster we've seen yet.

But if they did have a clue they'd know that eBay is zippo in NZ. Local firm TradeMe is the leading auction site in the country. So, if you were hoping to wind us up you might have chosen an auction site that we actually use.

Technorati : NZ

Technorati Tags: NZ

Speedy Kiwi...

Ok, so Kiwis are a slow moving nocturnal bird.... Not this Kiwi though:

Ian Wright has a car that blows away a Ferrari 360 Spider and a Porsche Carrera GT in drag races, and whose 0-to-60 acceleration time ranks it among the fastest production autos in the world. In fact, it's second only to the French-made Bugatti Veyron, a 1,000-horsepower, 16-cylinder beast that hits 60 mph half a second faster and goes for $1.25 million.

The key difference? The Bugatti gets eight miles per gallon. Wright's car? It runs off an electric battery.

Wright, a 50-year-old entrepreneur from New Zealand, thinks his electric car, the X1, can soon be made into a small-production roadster that car fanatics and weekend warriors will happily take home for about $100,000 - a quarter ton of batteries included. He has even launched a startup, called Wrightspeed, to custom-make and sell the cars.

Ian, if you need a test driver, I'm in Silicon Valley as well... :-)

For you Kiwis...

Maitland's developed a cool little widget for keeping an eye on traffic - which can be as bad in NZ as anywhere.

Woz + Drury = International Segway Polo!

Some great photos from downunder as the Silicon Valley Aftershocks (Segway Polo!) visit New Zealand to play the Pole Blacks. Hey, the NZ Polo gang let the Segway riding maniacs onto their grounds! Steve Wozniak turned-up, much to the delight of my mate Rod - one of NZ's hottest tech entrepreneurs.

Less Venture Capital

Good read from Clarence Wooten via the 37 Signals blog:

The average venture capital fund size currently stands at $280 million, which presents a problem for VCs focused on investing in early-stage software companies. Generally speaking, the larger the fund, the more money it must invest on a deal-by-deal basis in order to justify the time commitment by the fund. But significant venture funding is not what today’s capital-efficient, Web 2.0 startups need—especially those that leverage the LAMP -stack, open-source frameworks and blog-fueled promotion. The old style of venture capital just doesn’t work for the type of company generally seen profiled on TechCrunch.

He goes on to say…

Instead of VCs changing their model to invest smaller amounts, we are seeing an increase in Series A valuations. It’s not that startups have suddenly becoming more valuable, it’s that funds need to deploy larger amounts of capital. Considering the movement towards less capital and competition by the likes of Google, VC’s are increasing the valuations of young companies. The valuation increase enables the fund to deploy enough capital to make the investment worth their time.

But…

The problem is that increased capital is always accompanied by expectations of increased return, which translates to increased time to liquidity and increased market risk. Unfortunately for the entrepreneur, additional capital seldom equals additional return. If the company is going to be sold, the acquisition price has to be significantly higher than it would be had the entrepreneur taken less venture capital to begin with. If it isn’t significantly higher, the entrepreneur stands to lose out on all or a substantial portion of their return. As many experienced during the bubble, this outcome was the norm, not the exception.

Me Over At NZBC

Five minutes with me has posted to the NZBC (the New Zealand Blogging Corporation). Love the site.

Shaking Up Oxofrd...

BusinessWeek covers John Hood - big leauge Kiwi businessman turned educator that is shaking-up Oxford. They end it all with:

"Will Hood be able to pull off a major restructuring of one of the world's oldest institutions? "I think he is going to take Oxford all the way," says Anthony Smith, the recently retired president of Magdalen College. "He knows where Oxford needs to place itself in the world." He'll certainly need a thick skin to get there."

I wouldn't bet against him.

Colored Bubbles

OK, so don't accuse us Kiwi's of not being inventive... Congrats to  Guy Haddleton and team on making Popular Science with their colored bubbles. Awesome. I'd like some in LogLogic orange please.

 

Time For NZ To Wake Up As Well...

BusinessWeek reports that Silicon Valley CEOs are issuing a wake-up call to America. The same call needs to be issued in NZ. One of the central gating factors is broadband - which is  a critical innovation enabler. It's just too expensive. It just takes too long to get installed. And once you've got it, punitive billing strategies limit use. It's not so great in the US either:

Jerry Yang, co-founder and chairman of Yahoo! (YHOO), pointed out that the U.S. remains far behind some Asian countries in broadband. Korea and Japan, for example, offer consumers far faster broadband connections than the standard in the U.S. 

 

That's a problem, said Reed Hastings, CEO of the DVD-rental service Netflix (NFLX). Hastings thinks the next phase of the Web won't arrive until people in the U.S. can get bandwidth of 10 megabits per second, or about 10 times the common rate here, at a comparable price. Only then, for instance, will people really be able to watch video online comfortably. But he says that's now three to six years off.

Just as these CEOs are doing, NZ needs to recognize that it isn't the threat isnt the US - it is Asia. Driving home, I can barely hold a mobile phone call in the Valley. During a week in China, I didn't drop a call. And my minutes cost me a fraction of what they did in NZ.

 

Dyson was the most direct:  "The country has grown lazy and complacent," she said. "We've created a country where we've outsourced the intellect to other countries." Instead of trying to figure out how to beat the Chinese, she said, we need to try to "beat ourselves and help the Chinese" succeed, so that the U.S. has that huge market to sell to, she said.

Kiwis Want Kiwis Back...

Seems that NZ wants their Kiwi expats back! A new site from the NZ Govt aims to further that goal. The TV ads from NZ beer Tui and soft-drink L&P are worth a look.

Chris Shipley Heads Downunder...

Chris heads downunder to speak at Electronics South. Profiles an interesting Kiwi company, Visual Footprints. There is a ton of innovation occuring in NZ. Lots of that has to do with being at the edge of the planet.