Published on the 16/05/2014 | Written by Hayden McCall
iStart’s Hayden McCall spoke with Cat Robinson at the Kiwi Landing Pad in San Francisco this week and found that the Kiwi tech start-up landscape is rapidly growing up…
Director of Kiwi Landing Pad (KLP) Cat Robinson has her feet firmly on the ground in her role representing New Zealand’s start-up community in the gateway to Silicon Valley. She has spent 10 years in San Francisco, and as one of the founders of Xero, along with an involvement in Aptimize’s exponential growth and eventual sale to Riverbed, she knows about start-up success.
Robinson laments the fact that Kiwi companies tend to be “a mile wide but an inch deep”.
“One thing that defines success up here is a single-minded crispness of vision, combined with an honesty and openness that has built a community around a specific need,” she said.
She said those lacking ambition for their project are wasting their time. “Go big or go home,” she advises. “Get your product established, get a passionate community around it, get your first customers on board and then be very strategic about how you structure your business to make it attractive for investment.”
There is no lack of capital around to support good ideas backed by the right people. “Strategic capital raising is not an issue. What is an issue is going to investors with messy capital structures, half-baked ideas or miss-matching the investment proposition against the specific objectives of the investment fund,” she said.
The strong start-up ecosystem in New Zealand is now maturing and is providing the kick board for the demands and opportunities of the US and global marketplace. The momentum of Xero and Vend’s success has created a bow wave that others are riding and learning from.
Ben Kepes, the respected Silicon Valley analyst who has his roots in North Canterbury, commented that he is now finding he is impressed with the start-ups coming out of New Zealand. “When I started knocking around the Valley all the action that caught my attention was up here, but increasingly I’ve had my attention turned to the innovation coming out of New Zealand,” he said.
IndieReign is one new KLP resident making strides in the North American market. The company provides a toolset that creates a marketplace for independent filmmakers to share their projects with audiences while also monetising their productions. Founder David White’s story typifies the experience of businesses expanding into the US and the benefits that come from the environment and mentorship available via the KLP.
At a mere $US500 per month, the KLP facility provides for a desk and associated office and physical US resident business services in a central San Fran location.
One suspects, though, that ongoing residency may depend on commensurate demonstration of the right stuff. Robinson had a rather direct expression on her face when she said “Go big or go home”.
