Here’s an extract from www.movac.co.nz worth a read…
We need to speed up, get hungrier
I had a great conversation with a Silicon Valley investor a couple of weeks ago who regularly travels through New Zealand. While being thoroughly enthused at how buoyant the entrepreneurial sector was in New Zealand he was very critical of what he saw as lack of hunger, and slow pace in the development of New Zealand businesses. He noted a tendency we have to protecting or hiding our toys before sharing them with potential offshore partners – a desire for perfection and a general risk aversion. I’ve worked in the US and understand what he’s referring to. In fact all of you reading this who have spent time working overseas in places like London or parts of the US all know that when you’ve returned home you’ve had to apply the breaks / slow down the pace that you used to work at. It could be that due to our isolation we don’t see our competitors sitting next to us and hence we lack urgency. We need to change this if we’re going to compete globally, we need to get offshore early, we need to partner with others who know more than we do with access to much larger markets, we need to network and get good at doing deals. Intsilling this sought of passion, hunger and demand for quick results is one of the roles that investors must play.
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