Getting the most out of Economic Development Agencies

Went to a very pleasant forum on Wireless Technology out of Canada, organised by Canadian consulate http://bit.ly/bghGY + NZ Wireless Community http://bit.ly/MmmFo
part of the wider NZICT group http://www.ict.org.nz/ which was formed in December 2008.

After a visit to Australia, NZ was a calling off point to the trade delegate and representatives from 3 of the 4 orgs on the trip, prior to an onward trip up to Japan. I met Sabrina Chan from their Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, who talked about Ontario's offer www.ontarioexports.com and we heard from:

- Wavefront (wireless commercialisation centre - not for profit - quite interesting - the usual incubator offer PLUS a mobile wireless testbed for US and European networks - avoids the need to fly there to test things!). Good location in Vancouver, close to Seattle where AT&T and Microsoft and.... etc have large R&D facilities.

- Redline Communications who didn't speak. (Their speaker had the 'flu and so was not able to attend - its not that they were shy!). Provider of fixed and mobile wireless broadband solutions.

- Fieldworker Products - mobile data solutions..for businesses with 'field workers' funnily enough. Probably have some competition here in NZ, but seem to be doing very well in Canada.

- SandVine Inc who ' protect and improve the quality of internet experiences'. Meaning they have kit and software that helps ISPs manage broadband traffic. Very interesting presentation from the point of view of the graphs showing the breakdown in type of traffic (P2P, web browsing, email, tunnelling etc) and time of day. Those damn P2P networks chew through a lot of brandwidth!. Very thoughtful and well paced presentation by Richard O'Halloran who spoke.

Anyway - the point of the post..how useful are trade organisations like this for NZ companies going overseas?. I think I'm reasonably well qualified to talk on the subject having also represented UK Trade and Investment in the past.

Well, I think they can play their part. But you also need to know what you want in advance. Often you get presented with a range of assistance and services along the lines of cheap office space, legal advice, visa assistance, introduction into local networks etc. I think the last 2 are probably most helpful, especially local networks. And this is where you really need to know who you want to be introduced to in advance. Which means you have to do some homework first, and then figure out if the representative that you are talking to is well connected or not-or if not, willingly to go search on your behalf.

Ideally if you are looking at a location where NZTE also has a presence, then you may be able to get support from the local NZTE trade / investment rep as well. This can be helpful in some countries since the local NZTE rep + in country inward investment contact can put on a bit of a show and tell event and roll out the red carpet for delegations. They ARE often well connected and are known for providing good networking opportunities as well as a good spread..which helps.

I think one of the challenges for NZ companies is that typically an initial presence in an overseas country might be fairly small by world standards - 1-3 people lets say. Whereas many of the performance criteria that the development agencies have to work to measure things like 'jobs created', ' factories built' etc. Perhaps a little out of touch. But we cannot poke fun at the Government statisticians and corporate performance measure developers too much..they want continuity in order to demonstrate progress and that a difference is being made...and they want to compare themselves with other countries, who use similar measures. What's that? we should poke fun anyway? Ok. Fair enough. Flipping pencil and paper pushing out of touch number crunchers..what do they know?. Ha. : ) I can only say that because I may have been part of that infrastructure once, briefly, in a former life, for a short period of time...etc etc. (And I was part of a team that was changing the way performance was measured). Honest.


Seriously though, the point is that for NZ companies to break through that ' oh..you only want an office for 1 person' moment, and to secure help from said agencies, I think you have to have a pretty strong proposition formulated before you approach them for help. And it is possible to make a good case: my results, those of my predecessor and the guy now in the job at UKTI demonstrate that many NZ companies can do well on the international stage, even from an initially small beachhead. Just be prepared to have to argue your case, and point to examples like Metra, Orion Health, Jade, 42 Below, A2, Xero...

More than a great quote

Live as if you were to die tomorrow.

Learn as if you were to live forever.


Mahatma Gandhi

What is Microsoft® BizSpark™ ?

Just stumbled upon this in an early sunday morning pre-coffee random net surfing exercise..

According to the blurb, Microsoft® BizSpark™ is "a global program designed to help accelerate the success of early stage startups by providing key resources when they need it the most".

At first read, it looks quite interesting...the key resources being..

• Software. Receive fast and easy access to current full-featured Microsoft development tools, platform technologies, and production licenses of server products for immediate use in developing and bringing to market innovative and interoperable solutions. There is no upfront cost to enroll.
• Support. Get connected to Network Partners around the world — incubators, investors, advisors, government agencies and hosters — that are equally involved and vested in software-fueled innovation and entrepreneurship who will provide a wide range of support resources.
• Visibility. Achieve global visibility to an audience of potential investors, clients and partners

To qualify you need to

• be fairly young and small ish (your company that is!) " most privately held software development startups in business for less than 3 years that are generating annual revenue under USD $1 million can join"

• "Connect with a BizSpark Network Partner or a Microsoft BizSpark Champ to get your BizSpark enrollment code"

Enrollment is free, you just pay a 'USD $100 program offering fee at program exit'...whatever that means?!

Going to have a dig around further and perhaps Tweet on this to what the experiences of others have been..

Market research and market validation...easy as..?

For my sins..

(which, for the record, might include setting up the original Unlimited Investment Challenge with Julie Gill of Unlimited Magazine, and, initially, before he left the organisation, Ian MacDonald from what was Connect New Zealand, now KEA New Zealand to promote investment and overseas expansion of companies into the UK with support from UK Trade and Investment through the local British Consultate office in Auckland)

..I've been asked to speak at the 3rd Unlimited Investment Challenge http://unlimited.co.nz/unlimited.nsf/investmentchallenge which kicks off with a series of seminars and other information sharing events in Auckland next week in Auckland.

While we were finding our way with the first event, and very lucky to get support from people like Andy Hamilton from the IceHouse, and from other incubators around New Zealand, from government run schemes such as NZTE's Escalator Service, from professional service firms like James and Wells IP lawyers, Ernst and Young, FCM Travel Solutions and from some well known faces like Sir Stephen Tindall and his investment firm K1W1 , as well as many other angel investment firms and business growth advisors, it's been great to see The Challenge growing year on year...hearing the feedback, seeing a few companies get funded, and many more entrepreneurs getting something out of participating. This year I see that there are several other 'challenges' taking place - Auckland Uni has one going..and there is also a Health Innovation Challenge too..


Anyway, back to the subject of my 20 minutes of fame..I've been asked to speak to being 'Market Validation'. Dry as old boots! Well, it could be...but I won't let it be.

In my mind, I could make market validation a huge discussion piece...or summarise it down into a sentance or two. Now I only have 20 minutes..so I'm going to have to be reasonably succinct. I've waffled on enough here, so I should give just the summary now...and post separately on the longer version - perhaps when I've actually composed the slides! : )

So Market Validation in a sentance (or two)...Making sure that there exists, and that you have a viable business model and sales / marketing approach to go after, the right early and later markets (or niches) that will allow you to MAKE SALES and build a sustainable business, given the existing macro conditions, and likely responses from curent and future competition...

Open to comments on whether that hits the nail on the head or not ?...

Time management

Where did it go?

2 months have passed by since I last found myself here. Wow. Its been a busy 8 weeks - several consulting projects have come to a happy conclusion; others have started up. I've had a productive and refreshing trip up to the UK in the height of summer for a family wedding. Brilliant. Nothing like attending a wedding on the north east coast of the UK, in a village that dates back to Roman times, and being able to walk around (and on top of) the ruins of a former Roman villa and spa to set things in perspective. Where the stone steps are literally worn down to half their height by the footsteps of thousands who passed that way many many many years ago.

What also struck me from that trip to the UK was the general sense of well being. Yes, well being. Not depressing recession. The tide is starting to turn. Mortgage rates at an all time low, loan to value ratios increasing back up to 95%, real estate sales improving, GOOD start ups ARE securing investment (admittedly in smaller chunks, with more levers attached, but still, it's happening). Generally there was a buzz in the air - quite exciting actually.

August has been very busy, with several unexpected, very positive surprises. Long may it continue. Things are looking up..up and up.