NZTE

About The Team
John Bryan
Top three apps: Card Munch, Genius Scan, Hello Sign
Coffee fix near the KLP office: Epicenter
Favourite SF Nabe: Civic Center

 

Tells us a little about what NZTE does:

NZTE is the export promotion agency for the New Zealand government. Specifically our charter is to help New Zealand companies succeed in markets around the world.

You’re a US native representing NZTE in San Francisco, what does your role involve?

My focus is helping New Zealand companies succeed in the US. Primarily companies looking to enter the US through the San Francisco Bay Area, and most of those are tech companies. Our goal is to accelerate their success in market in any way we can, whether that be through access to our networks, support in helping to develop their strategy, or introductions to venture capitalists.

How do you see the KLP’s role in facilitating that move for Kiwi companies to the US?

At the front end probably the most obvious thing is a place to stay, so when you land in San Francisco, the Kiwi Landing pad can offer you that. But I think what Catherine and her team are putting together, is a set of services around that. Whether it be the Catapult program, which gives entrepreneurs an early opportunity to come into market and to get a sense of what it’s like here - just to get that wake up call early, then to go back to New Zealand. The Landing Pad is critical for that.

Without the Kiwi Landing Pad it’s difficult to do that systematically. Because if every entrepreneur had to come and figure out real estate space in the city, find a good location, just for the month that they’re going to be here, it would never happen. With the Landing Pad being here it now creates that opportunity for Kiwi companies. So if I’m a company that wants to come here, get that early experience and talk to some people - here’s where I’m going to land, here’s where I’m going to have a desk, here’s what it’s going to cost me.

Then I think later on as the companies decide to come back, the Kiwi Landing Pad is a good way for them to enter the market. We’ve had a number of companies enquire about establishing a presence here because they’re big enough and they need to have a presence in California. They can very quickly get set up with the Kiwi Landing Pad and have a space in San Francisco, if the companies tried to do that themselves, it could take them months to find a suitable location, let alone one right in the heart of it all.

Are there an increasing number of NZ businesses looking to come over to San Francisco and enter the US market?

Yes, I think in tech it’s almost a given. For most companies who have bigger aspirations there’s almost an automatic push overseas. And as long as the innovation is happening, they’ll most probably be looking to enter the US market. There are more VCs here in San Francisco and Silicon Valley than anywhere else, and more capitol and investors here than anywhere else.

What advice or insights have you gained from being here in SF that could be useful to tech companies and entrepreneurs in NZ?

I’ll start with a few that keep coming back as reoccurring themes that can be helpful to New Zealand companies:

1. Look Beyond Silicon Valley

The first is being enamored with Silicon Valley as the destination and solely focusing on it. One of the things I’d like to see Kiwi companies do is to spend more time looking more broadly at the U.S. It’s a much bigger market than at home, and for all the wonderful things that we have in the San Francisco Bay Area, it is still just a very small part of the U.S. market.

2. Look Beyond Venture Capitalists

I would also suggest that there’s been a fascination with venture capital. While venture capital is great, I think there’s a much larger opportunity in corporate venture capital. Big companies, like Cisco and Citrix, with large ecosystems actually have money put aside specifically to invest in innovative new companies. There are many more of those and the investment criteria far broader than a VC.

A typical VC is a financial investor looking for financial return. In corporate venture capital the financial return is not really the point. The point is the innovation. It could be competitive, it could be something they want to keep out of competitor’s hands, or it could be something that they need to stay close to.

3. Start looking for funding before you need it

Don’t wait until you have two or three months of funding left to start looking for funding. You want to be looking for funding when you don’t need funding.

4. Constantly think about the big picture

Many companies start out in New Zealand, then once they saturate their home market they start looking at where they can go next, and typically that’s Australia, or the U.S. The problem with that is often times you’ve made decisions about the product and your feature set based on the needs of the local market that may not translate into the U.S. If you’re already thinking about it from day one, at least as you make those trade-offs, you are fully aware of what you’re building for long term, what you’re meaning to do short term, and making sure that there’s a bridge between the two. Bake that stuff in early.

5. Get market knowledge earlier

Part of my push is to be engaging earlier with companies, so that I can get that market knowledge to them earlier. When they tell me that they’re thinking about doing a,b,c and d, we can say well hold on, that’s fine from a business stand-point, but just recognize that in the U.S. market that’s not going to work, or that’s going to be difficult, or that’ll put you in direct competition with Facebook. So in getting that knowledge across early, I think we’ll see better results coming out at the other end of the pipeline.

How do you view the businesses that you’re seeing in NZ today?

I think there’s a good set of innovation going on in New Zealand right now. If we can get across that business knowledge of what’s happening in the U.S. market and what it’s going to take to succeed here, I’m confident that that pipeline will start to grow.

If we can get some of that rigor in earlier, it’s going to drive the results in market and also when they leave New Zealand and come to they US, I think they’ll be better prepared to succeed.

How receptive are San Franciscans generally to new companies and ideas coming out of New Zealand?

One great thing about the valley is that companies are looking for innovation - fresh ideas and fresh thinking. They don’t care whether you’re from India, New Zealand, Israel, or the U.S. In New Zealand’s case, we’re actually starting to build a bit of a reputation, and obviously that is part of my charter over the next couple of years. My goal is to be able to get that a point where there’s almost an immediate recognition within the tech world of “New Zealand - they’ve got some great innovation, great products, great companies”.