NZ Entrepreneur Issue 12

NEW ZEALAND’S E-MAG FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND BUSINESS OWNERS

October 2013

10 Questions with

Rebekah Campbell of Posse Finding The Money To Grow Your Business The Truth About Entrepreneurship

by Ollie Langridge

Profile on #nzentrepreneur Carl McNulty Entrepreneurial Intelligence With Sandy Geyer Ecosystem - Eight Wire Data & Creative HQ

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Contents 4

From the Editor

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The Truth About Entrepreneurship

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10 Questions With Rebekah Campbell of Posse

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Finding The Money To Grow Your Business

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Profile: Eight Wire Data

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Ecosystem: Creative HQ

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Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs

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Profile: Carl McNulty - Snaffle Jobs

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IP In Action: The Privacy Act

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Entrepreneurial Intelligence With Sandy Geyer

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Parting Shot

Subscribe to NZ Entrepreneur for free!

ABOUT / Short and sharp, New Zealand Entrepreneur is a free e-magazine delivering thought provoking and enlightening articles, industry news and information to forward-thinking entrepreneurs.

EDITOR / Nick Harley ART DIRECTOR / Jodi Olsson GROUP EDITOR / Nick Harley CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER / Alastair Noble CONTENT ENQUIRIES / Phone Nick Harley on (021) 052 9770 or email nick@nzentrepreneur.co.nz ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES / Phone Jennifer Liew on (027) 4398 100 or email jenniferl@espiremedia.com

From the Editor

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ADDRESS / NZ Entrepreneur, C/- Espire Media, PO Box 99758, Newmarket, Auckland 1151, NZ WEBSITE / www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

ISSN 2253-5683

any people rate having the freedom to be their own boss and do what they like as one of the key reasons for starting their own business.

Fair enough, but many new entrepreneurs get a rude awakening when they realise that along with now being free to choose how they use their time (no clock watching bosses, regular hours, or company KPI’s to adhere to) they are now

NZ Entrepreneur is a GREEN MAG created and distributed without the use of paper so it’s environmentally friendly. Please think before you print.

Thank you!

also completely 100% responsible for doing whatever needs to be done to make their business a success.

Once the excitement and euphoria of telling your boss to stick it wears off, and it’s just you, your laptop and your phone alone at your kitchen table, it becomes a matter of the self motivation, self discipline or proactivity needed to be a successful entrepreneur.

The hard part comes when times get tough and things don’t go to plan, but you better be ready, because once you have a taste of the freedom that comes with building your own destiny, it’s extremely difficult to go back to that regular job.

But maybe that’s a good thing.

Nick Email nick@nzentrepreneur.co.nz LinkedIn http://nz.linkedin.com/in/nickharleynz Twitter www.twitter.com/nickharleynz

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP

TheTruth About Entrepreneurship Successful entrepreneurs achieve hero status – we all look up to the Sam Morgans, Victoria Ransoms, Rod Drurys and Claudia Battens of this world. The word ‘entrepreneur’ is bandied around a lot and has a certain ‘sexy’ tone to it. But before you leap in, you should be aware of what you’re taking on, and understand hidden risks. Ollie Langridge shares his story.

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healthy economy needs entrepreneurs. They look for unmet needs and then try to fill them with new products or services. They take risks without any certainty

of reward. They push forward new technologies and create jobs. They try things that others might consider downright crazy, and occasionally this can result in spectacular success that would never have even been attempted otherwise. NZ needs entrepreneurs like never before.

Many entrepreneurs can harbour secret demons – many will endure moments of near-debilitating anxiety and despair, and go through a regular emotional roller-coaster when it seems everything might crumble.

Of course, admitting to it is mostly taboo – we’re not taught to show vulnerability in business. You could be on the brink of financial ruin and mental collapse, yet you can’t let others see that. Right? So what is it exactly that makes people leave secure, well-paid jobs, work crazy hours and risk everything to do this? I may not have the answer, but I can at least share my story.

I’ve had a few startups – four to be precise. The first failed horribly, the second broke even, the third was a moderate success. The current venture, Expander, which helps companies combat counterfeit and fake goods, has secured substantial investment after going through the Lightning Lab Accelerator Program and is now my full time job.

The first point I need to clear up is this - it’s ok to have failed, in fact it makes you stronger – and it’s fine to be able to talk about it as next time you won’t make the same mistakes. The majority of successful entrepreneurs have failed at a venture before they succeeded. You can’t harbour regrets.

Second, know your own risk parameters. For me it was a bit easier than most. With one brief exception, I’ve always been a contractor/freelancer and have gone through my entire career never knowing what a regular paycheck looked like. That develops a certain professional acumen, survival instinct and mental toughness so it was (I thought) easy to lock into the entrepreneur mentality.

Long story short, Expander was selected for the business accelerator Lightning Lab, provided we got a CTO on board as a co-founder. Two days out, we found him. The Lightning Lab process was an intense time for everyone. A two year MBA compressed into three months. We saw it all. Exhaustion.

Tears. Nerves. Riotous laughter. Screaming. Teams imploding.

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Ollie Langridge

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Really, it was like being punched in the face repeatedly, whilst being shot out of a cannon, after having been set on fire.

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Have solid reasons for doing what you do.

Really, it was like being punched in the face repeatedly, whilst being shot out of a cannon, after having been set on fire. I highly recommend it.

One of the key learnings for me was this – no matter if you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right. You’ll attract what you think about the most, and if that is taking on the world and never, ever giving up on what motivates you, and the vision you have for your business, then you could be in real danger of actually getting there. Given that it’s a reasonably unique, solid and scalable business proposition in the first instance of course.

That was a revelation. We knew we would do it because our belief in finding the answer to do so was so strong. Of course they didn’t actually teach us that in the lab, but that’s what I took away.

There were a few mentors (but only a few) that said “You can’t do that” and we’re like “Why not?” It just strengthened our resolve. Success doesn’t lie in being rational either – it lies in a blend of clear-headed logic with a healthy dose of intuition, wrapped in a singular vision of where you want to go – if you dare to.

More than anything I am grateful every day for the opportunity of going through the Lightning Lab process. The mentors were some of the best business minds in NZ and offshore, and at times it was overwhelming, there was so much value added.

There are so many of them I still want to thank.

Anyone going down this path, prepare for an intense time.

Make sure you keep a solid eye on your personal relationships with your significant others and children if you have them, they are your support team, and it may be hard for them to understand what you are going through.

The other thing was make sure you are financially equipped to handle the process of going through the startup journey.

It’s tough to go for such a long time on what is very often the smell of an oily rag. And that’s just the business accelerator.

After that you’ve got to cross the valley of death which is usually having bugger-all cash trying to get the due diligence process together, which is always longer than you expect.

By the time you’ve secured investment you can feel like you’ve crawled across the desert on your hands and knees for months, and the oasis is hopefully real, not a mirage.

I’ve got a long-suffering wife and three kids, and having almost zero income for nine months can take an extreme toll as you can imagine. I’ve got some stories which I won’t share – unless you buy me a beer and you’re not a journalist!

By the time you’ve secured investment, just when you’ve got to the starting line, you’d better be in shape to start sprinting because that’s what your investors are expecting you to do. So keep fit and look after yourself – I didn’t, I wasn’t going to the gym, and work was my excuse, and that was a mistake.

There have been some amazingly positive outcomes as well of course - I’m very fortunate to have been working for several years with my co-founder Paula Nightingale who’s our brilliant ‘Director of Doing’ and totally nails stuff like you wouldn’t believe, every bit as important to the success of the business as I am - so we can juggle stuff as a team.

Culture is vital to building our team. I believe it’s very important to have solid reasons for doing what you do. It’s not enough to have a company that is built around making money for the sake of making money itself.

I’m a big fan of Kevin Roberts and he once wrote something that really turned my head. To paraphrase, he was saying that the market for something to believe in is infinite – as humans we want to believe in our own species and want people, companies and products in our lives that make it easier to do so. It’s no longer good enough for people to believe that your product does what it says on the label. They want to believe in you and what you do.

Ollie (far right) was part of the first Lightning Lab programme

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E R ENN E U R S H I P S NETCR TE PI O I love that concept, and with Expander I finally found the drive and passion I’d been looking for for years. The further we dug, the more we saw the pain point and the need for a product like ours.

We want to make the world a better, safer place. We want to contribute to society. The rising tide of counterfeit activity affects individuals, companies and nations alike. The effects have horrendous social and economic consequences. It kills hundreds of thousands of people every year, destroys communities and undermines economies. It funds organized crime on a massive scale. Counterfeit goods now account for 8% of world trade, 92% of Fortune 500 companies are affected. US$2 trillion of counterfeit goods will be shipped in 2015. The FBI calls it “the crime of the 21st century”. What bigger pain point in the market could you possibly ask for?

Writing from a personal perspective and having seen what contaminated milk powder had done to hundreds of thousands of children in the melamine debacle of 2008, I had found a calling, using the associated skills of custom QR codes and applying that to an anti-counterfeit platform.

This is because I have lost one child, and had another who has undergone multiple open-heart surgeries. I understand what a parent goes through with death or disability of a child from first hand experience, and if I could do anything using my knowledge to stop this happening to other people, then I would do it, with a burning passion.

There’s a special place in hell for those that are willing to contaminate milk powder and pharmaceuticals with concrete thickener and rat poison, and with our system we’re developing at Expander, (with packaged goods) we believe we can do something about that.

personally I had to (and continue to) learn a whole lot of new business skills to do it, and need other people on our team and board to support that drive, which was built on solid belief, instinct and vision, not always on a practical skill set.

Other team members are far more practical, and that mix is very much needed.

The other day I was reading an article on some entrepreneurs and the hardships they went through on their own journey, and they were saying: “My wife and I would share a bottle of $5 wine for dinner and just kind of look at each other - we knew we were close to the edge.” And it just made me laugh out loud - they could afford wine? Dinner even?

Don’t let me put you off. But the glam images we’re fed of entrepreneurs can come at a price. Many start ups will fail, and that’s just the way it is. But are you willing to give it a go?

To quote the editor of this magazine Nick Harley from the last edition: “What if you did nothing? What if you had an opportunity and you didn’t leap on it? What if you wake up one morning and you wonder what happened and where all of that time went?

Wouldn’t you prefer to have at least tried? Whatever you want sure isn’t going to come along and fall into your lap” Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Life is a constant process of trial and error. Expander is on the journey. Let’s see where we can drive this thing. You know we’ll be going hard.

Ollie Langridge is CEO of Expander Limited. Get in touch with Ollie and find out more about Expander at www.expander.co.nz

As you can imagine, I’m prepared to go through a lot to drive that vision forward, and it’s a tremendous challenge as

The Expander team - Paula Nightingale, Ollie Langride & Roman Kudiyarov

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ISNETC ER W T VI IOE N

10 Questions with

Rebekah Campbell of Posse Great businesses are started every day when people act upon an opportunity. Rebekah Campbell pivoted on her original business idea and has now established Posse, a community for the best rewards and recommendations anywhere in the world Hi Rebekah, tell us about your latest venture, Posse. How did you come up with the idea?

The idea was originally for a music site that helped bands connect with their fans. I built that site and although it worked and we sold around $2M of tickets in the first 18 months – the model didn’t scale and we couldn’t make it profitable. So I sold the music site to our biggest client (Future Music who still run it today as FutureFans.com.au) and I went about creating the exact same thing but in retail.

What about before Posse, have you always been entrepreneurial?

I started my first business when I was seven selling flowers on the side of the road. Then when I was eight I started collecting lost golf balls and selling them back to the shop.

When I was at school I never thought ‘what job am I going to get one day’ or how I should build a good resume like my friends did. I thought about what kind of business I would

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create when I left school and what I wanted to contribute as a result of that business. So yes, you could say I’ve always been entrepreneurial – I guess it was in the blood which is odd because neither of my parents are in business.

At University, shortly after learning Wellington had the highest youth suicide rate in the world, I came up with an idea for a music festival aimed to raise awareness of all the support organisations available to young people. Neil Finn played at the festival and it was a huge deal at the time. After Uni I moved to Sydney and I started my own music management company. A year later I built that company to become one of the top three music management businesses in Australia, representing artists such as Evermore, Matt Corby, Alex Lloyd, George, Lisa Mitchell and many others.

What was the most painful lesson you’ve had to learn in business? Have you experienced any bad times?

There have been many painful lessons and many bad times

The Posse team sharing news in their daily standup meeting

but they’ve just helped me learn and make the good times so much sweeter. The most painful lesson was probably when I started Posse. I gave away a good chunk of shares to a few people at the beginning who were supposed to help in various ways. A couple of these people completely dropped the ball and gave up helping as soon as the first tough times hit. They still had their shares and I can never get them back, plus I lost a couple of friends, and that hurt.

You’ve successfully raised capital over in Silicon Valley. What are the differences between what happens in New Zealand and what happens in Silicon Valley?

The biggest difference is the stages of businesses that get funded there and the size of the ecosystem. There’s a thriving Angel investment scene in New Zealand and Australia where you can go to and raise your first $500K - $1.5M, and then there’s large VC funds who will back companies with significant revenues and want to grow. Problem is, there’s a lot of companies who are in-between. They’ve done a Seed round, built a team, launched a product, shown some proof of concept but don’t yet have explosive success or lots of revenue. There’s no one to fund that stage of a company’s life in Australia or NZ and so they often fall between the cracks.

That’s where we were up to and why I chose to go to Silicon Valley to pitch even though it’s much tougher and more competitive there.

The other difference is the number of venture opportunities in Silicon Valley. Every building is packed with funds and there are loads of Angel investors who’ve made money working at Google, Facebook, e-Bay or any of these companies. You could probably pitch all day every day for a year in Silicon Valley and not see everyone.

What are the three most important business skills you would advise up and coming entrepreneurs to develop?

1. Learn to sell. The ability to win people over is a must – whether you want to raise money, attract talent or sign-up customers. Do a public speaking course, study good sales people and practice.

2. Always look for opportunities to learn.

From left to right: John Banks, Tim Alpe, Dan Alpe 3. Never give up.

If you know how to sell you shouldn’t run out of money so as long as you keep learning and never give up, I don’t see how you can’t get there in the end!

My bonus tip is to never tell a lie. Try being 100% honest and transparent even when you don’t have to be and you’ll see how powerful it is.

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I lost a couple of friends, and that hurt .

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INTERVIEW What has been the lowest point you’ve faced in your journey so far and what do you do to keep yourself going when it all gets too much?

There was one stage where the music product wasn’t profitable (and it was clear it wasn’t ever going to be), one of the members of the board had become very difficult and it looked like we’d run out of money. We hadn’t yet come up with the retail idea or seen how we could sell the music site. It was an incredibly stressful and dark time.

When it gets too much I focus on being exceptionally healthy by exercising, doing yoga and meditating. I find that really helps my state of mind and then I try to spend time with friends who have been through similar experiences and that puts things in perspective.

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It is the vision and ability to inspire others that makes you an entrepreneur

What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur?

You’ve got to be optimistic and have vision. The ability to see how things could be rather than how they are (or are not) and build a dream. You then need to be able to make that dream a reality in the minds of other people.

The rest is all execution and tenacity but lots of people are good at that stuff. It’s the vision and ability to inspire others that makes you an entrepreneur.

What do you think are the things New Zealand needs to improve upon when it comes to creating more successful businesses?

I think we need to change how we teach kids to think about their careers. Schools teach kids to study hard, go to university, perhaps do some voluntary work – all in order to get a great resume that leads to a great job where you’ll get well paid and be able to afford a nice house for you and your family.

Life is not about what job you can get. It’s about finding what you’re passionate about and contributing to society. We need to teach kids to aspire to create jobs, not get jobs.

You’ve already achieved so much in terms of business success. What’s next for you?

I’m pretty passionate about education. I’d like to start another company after Posse and I imagine it’ll be in the education space. I just want to keep creating fun companies and great products that people benefit from and learn as much as I can in the process.

You can find out more information about Rebekah and Posse by visiting their website at www.posse.com or her personal blog at www.rebekahcampbell.com

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Rebekah originally started Posse as a way for bands to connect with their fans, but adapted the business to suit the retail market

iSign Not for Profit 5 staff 4 Mobiles Auckland Joined 2012

NZSL Interpreting

BUSINESS 13

G SE etting C T I O N I t D one

Finding the money to grow your business What are some of the avenues available to home and small businesses for raising the necessary finance? What are the benefits and drawbacks of each? Heather Douglas takes a deeper look into your options.

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hen your business needs money to get off the ground, develop a product, or create a strategic plan, where can you turn? While Kiwi business-

es have a reputation for entrepreneurship, innovation and achieving the next-to-impossible on a shoestring budget, there comes a point in the lifecycle of many home or small businesses where, without additional resources, they cannot take the next big step, gain market share or remain competitive. Others may simply need help getting a start-up off the ground. There are several places the necessary money may be found - and there are pros and cons to each. Let’s look at some of them.

Family and friends The first place home and small businesses usually turn for help with finance is to family or friends. After all, these people have a vested interest in seeing the business succeed.

Generally, finance from friends and family falls into either debt financing (if you offer to repay their loan) or equity financing (if you offer to share the profits of the business),

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Friends and family are often not skilled at determining the potential for a business to succeed 14

and experts usually recommend avoiding this option. If you approach friends and family as sources of finance, consider carefully the risk to relationships - and if you are determined to go ahead, discuss what will happen in the event of business failure, set limits and parameters, draw up and discuss a proper business plan and have proper legal documentation drawn up.

B e n e f i t s : It is often easier to persuade friends and family to provide finance than it is to secure a bank loan, sell part of the business or secure venture capital. Friends and family may be less pedantic about seeing a proper business plan, or asking for security.

D r a w b a c k s : Friends and family are often not skilled at determining the potential for a business to succeed. While their faith in you in the beginning is flattering, and none of you expect the business to fail, many a relationship has soured over money lent for a business venture.

Debt financing Traditionally, businesses have raised money by asking the bank for a loan. To do this, you will need to meet the bank’s criteria - including proving the viability of your business with a well-substantiated business plan, and providing security for the loan, frequently your home or other substantial asset.

The criteria according to which banks decide whether to grant the loan, vary from bank to bank. Factors such as the kind of industry your work in, your personal financial history, and even who you speak to and when in the bank’s monthly budget cycle you make your approach can all influence the outcome.

B e n e f i t s : If you have a good business plan and can provide the required security, you have a good chance of getting a loan. If at first you are not successful, you can shop around at other banks.

D r a w b a c k s : It is often harder to secure a loan than anticipated, and if you use your home or other large asset for security, there is a risk you could lose it if you are unable to repay the bank loan.

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Investors will want to see results and have some say in the decision making process.

Equity financing The second option open to businesses is equity financing or venture capital. This usually involves giving away a share of the business to an investor or co-owner willing to provide capital. You will need to convince a potential equity financier that investing in your business will provide a worthwhile return on their investment and that potential rewards outweigh any risk of losing their money. They, too, will want to see a proper business plan before deciding to invest, and will want some hands-on involvement in the business or control over the decision-making process.

B e n e f i t s : Equity finance provides access to funds without having to take on the risk of losing an asset such as your home. The past few years have seen an increase in investment capital available to businesses in New Zealand.

Potentially, venture capitalists or investors can add value to the business by providing a network of contacts and their expertise. A co-owner may also help share the day-to-day workload.

D r a w b a c k s : Investors will want to see results and have some say in the decision-making process. This can lead to conflict between the original owner and the venture capitalist.

Venture capital may be withdrawn from the business when the investor wants to exit, which may not tie in with the original owner’s plans and may even jeopardise the business itself.

Grants, awards, subsidies and government funding This type of funding seldom comes without strings attached.

It’s often misunderstood but broadly speaking it’s money which home or small businesses can access in the form of grants, awards, subsidies or, perhaps, low-interest loans and is typically part of a government or occasionally specialinterest private initiative. Criteria are fairly rigid, and usually relate to innovation, technology, belonging to a specific demographic group, or long-term unemployment.

In many cases, too, this funding is contestable - meaning you will need to prove you deserve it more than other businesses which may be applying for money from the same, limited, source. Many government grants are for a proportion of the cost of an eligible project, and in most cases businesses are expected to contribute their portion in cash though in some instances the criteria for application allow in-kind contributions provided a reasonable and accurate dollar value can be attached to this. In addition to these sources of funding, there are a variety of sources of low-interest loans or organisations willing to advance money to those who meet certain criteria and have had applications for commercially available finance turned down by lending institutions.

Whatever funding you are applying for, remember that noone is going to give you money without assessing the risk and looking for some kind of reward. Irrespective of the criteria, it’s a business proposition, and there has to be a win-win in order for it to work. Be professional in your application, think about what might appeal to whoever is making the funding available, and remember you will have to give to get. Securing the right funding can make a big difference to your business.

Work out what your options are, and the pros and cons of each, before taking the leap.

Written by Heather Douglas, founder of www.BizBuzz.co.nz

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Securing the right funding can make a big difference to your business.

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Profile

Eight Wire cofounders Jason Gleason (left) & Nigel Thomas (right)

Eight Wire Data Briefly tell us about your business. How did you first come up with the idea?

for every business so they don’t have to spend money fixing the same problems over and over.

Over years of working in IT consulting, we found that our customers’ IT systems would often crash from changes to their source data. So we wondered ‘what if they had a system that fixed these changes before they impacted on business systems?’ We then designed and built a SaaS application that can that will fix errors in transit between databases, text files and spreadsheets to protect businesses from these minor, yet expensive changes.

As we have worked on this application, our customers have said that they would use it in ways we never intended, such as integrating operational and business systems, migrating from legacy systems, and merging databases across different platforms. We can see this becoming a tool that takes the cost and headache out of managing data and that is our big, hairy, audacious goal: help businesses manage data smarter, not harder.

We also thought that the tools used for moving data around were needlessly complex and poorly designed. It takes years of training and experience to be able to carry out the relatively simple task of importing a spreadsheet into a database which causes IT projects to bloat in time and expense. Many businesses just put up with reoccurring data issues because they can’t justify the expense and risk. Or, loading a few text files into a database can easily cost $50,000 and will still crash if somebody tweaks the text file slightly.

What inspired you to start your business?

So, we were having a curry and beer for lunch during a very difficult project and saw that nobody had fixed these problems. Worse, these were seen as the way life worked, and data errors and expensive risky projects are an operational expense. So, we started designing and coding and launched Eight Wire a few months later.

What is the big goal for your business?

The big goal of our business is to improve the way businesses manage their data. We want to push for real improvements

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We realised that we had the skills to fix this problem and there was a real need for it in the market. We were also having to deal with this problem on a daily basis and both of us were tired of patching systems to have them crash a week later for a different issue.

Our inspiration was seeing this gap and knowing we could do something about it. We spent months designing how it would work, and looking for anybody else who was doing the same thing. When we saw that we could do something that had a real impact for businesses and nobody else appeared to have a similar application, we started building in earnest and resigned our jobs to push this over the line.

What have you found to be the most challenging aspect of building your business so far?

The most challenging aspect has been trying to find the right message for what we do. Our application is both a business

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“ Residents relax in the ecentre kitchen

and IT tool, so it has been very hard to explain to customers how we can help them without confusing them.

A lot of potential issues were avoided through doing a market verification before we wrote a line of code. We met with a dozen potential customers and talked through the concept so we could see what our customers would use, and what wasn’t that important to them. This has helped us through our first few phases of development, and well probably continue this for all new features.

What keeps you going when you feel like giving up?

We both have complete faith that what we are doing is going to benefit our customers. It helps to have a zealous belief in your product and company to get you through the days when nobody is returning your calls, the code isn’t compiling, and you forgot your laptop charger at home...

Another thing that helps is being in an environment like Creative HQ where we can work with other companies going through similar experiences. We also have easy access to our strategists to work through the questions we have around pricing, marketing, reseller licensing, and all the other things they don’t teach you at IT school.

Finally, doing demonstrations for our customers really helps.

When they see what we have built and see how it can fix data problems on the fly is a real boost. The hard part is not letting them use the application until we have fully tested it!

What advice would you give to any people reading this who are thinking of starting a business?

If you have an idea and see a market need, go for it! I would definitely recommend doing a market verification first to make sure that there is a need for what you are doing and finding out how much to charge for it. Also, talk to everybody

you know about what your product is and how you see customers using it. A lot of people have put time aside for us to talk to them and practice our pitch which has been invaluable.

Also, we have found it is important to build early and often.

So, rather than spending six months on coding and testing, we would turn something around in a few weeks and get it in front of customers to see what they liked. Without this, we may have had to delay our launch since we would have been flying blind.

Finally, there are a lot of resources in New Zealand that will help you when you start out. Incubators such as Creative HQ, NZTE for expanding overseas, and networking groups such as NZ Entrepreneurs are great for support and expertise.

How did you get involved with Creative HQ and how have they helped you and your business?

When we were finishing up our first round of market verification, we went to a Startup Head2Head session at the Southern Cross to meet with Nick Churchouse and explain to him what we were working on. Nick liked what we were talking about and invited us to apply to join the incubator.

From there it was a bit like going out on a few dates, we met with the other advisors and went through the due diligence needed to join.

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It is important to build early and often.

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E cos y ste m

Creative HQ have helped us in many ways. Working in the incubator is fantastic since it allows us to bounce ideas off of like-minded entrepreneurs and the energy of the office is contagious. The contacts and advice that the strategists bring has been a real benefit, we wouldn’t have been able to get in the door with some customers without their help. And having the necessities for a company provided to us helps shield us during the early stages from the distractions of working from home, or the high costs of rent in the CBD. What are the best things about working at Creative HQ? Being in the positive and driven environment of Creative HQ is probably the best thing about the incubator. We can trade ideas and concepts with other start-ups and everybody is in the same boat which makes the rough days easier. Having a base to work from every day keeps us from the distractions of home and we can focus on what we need to do. We could both work from our home offices, but I don’t think we would accomplish as much as we have in a short amount of time.

The contacts and advice from the strategists has also helped us immensely. They have pushed us when we needed it, been a confidant when things get rough and have seen our pains before so they can advise us on how to get things sorted. Also, when we focused on a delivery channel, they were able to immediately get us in front of the necessary CEOs, saving us a year of networking and door knocking.

Also, their office has the best coffee machine in Wellington.

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“

If you have an idea and see a market need, go for it!

Would you recommend other people to work with Creative HQ? We would recommend working with Creative HQ for the support and drive that they give you to succeed. There are not just technology companies in the incubator, there are non-techinal companies such as Hunter Safety Lab and Archer McRae. These companies are doing very well and are successfully growing into overseas markets which is great to see and gives us a perspective beyond software.

The relationship between the companies and Creative HQ is a partnership and we both want our company to succeed. Life is better if listen to each other. With them helping us we feel like we can take on the world.

For more information www.eight-wire.com www.twitter.com/eightwiredata www.facebook.com/EightWireLimited

The Creative HQ office

Creati ve HQ What exactly is CreativeHQ? Creative HQ is Wellington’s startup and business growth hub.

Creative HQ supercharges startup ventures through its digital startup accelerator Lightning Lab, its business incubation programme, and commercialisation services to the science and research community through the NZ-wide Return On Science programme and other institutions we have partnerships with.

We are charged with building high growth startup ventures into global markets by helping them go bigger, better, faster.

Our stakeholders are NZTE and regional government, the startup community and research and development institutions. Â

Lightning Lab Demo Day 2013

What services do you provide to early stage businesses?

We back high potential startup teams with resource matched to the difficult and fast paced business growth most of them face. All of the companies we work with have different requirements, but all of them are targeting big things with few resources. We help bring talent, investment, and strategy to the company’s early stage growth phase. Our help is tailored to startup companies and teams, and has been honed over the past ten years looking after all sorts of small companies chasing big wins.

We aim to amplify the talent and resource each company has. We do this by providing in-house strategic advice, direct links to growth capital and help in preparing the pitch for investment, pathways to find and engage talent both at an operational level and a governance level, and a strong

community-driven support networks of professionals and mentors, other startup entrepreneurs and strategic service partners delivering top end legal, accounting and other services for preferential rates.

Creative HQ companies learn from mistakes made before, connect with people and processes who can help them go the next stage, and get more bang for the limited resources they have.

Find out more at: www.creativehq.co.nz www.lightninglab.co.nz

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T o m o r r o w ’ s E nt r ep r ene u r s

Young Enterprise Terry Shubkin, CEO Young Enterprise Trust

I

t is slightly terrifying to realise just how quickly this year is flying by – there are less than three months until Christmas and our students have just one term left

opportunities have meant that some teachers don’t feel confident teaching Business Studies yet.

For the team at Young Enterprise Trust, we use this time of year to reflect and plan for the following year. We’ve worked with 50,000 students in 2013 and in February, we’ll meet more amazing young New Zealander’s who are hungry to learn.

To help solve that problem, we’ve created ‘It’s Business Time 2013’, a professional development conference for current and prospective Business Studies teachers. The conference, which will be held in December, will feature presentations from leading entrepreneurs and current Business Studies teachers.

Teachers are a key partner in our work with students, and we literally couldn’t survive without their support. In June, we realised there was a small window of opportunity to connect with more teachers across the country. Business Studies was recently introduced as a subject option at secondary schools, but limited professional development

We are really delighted at how the business community has supported this conference. The lineup of speakers is amazing and we know that delegates will learn so much during the conference. We have over 100 teachers already registered to attend, which we think is awesome – that’s 100 more classes that we might be able to connect with in 2014.

before they break for the summer holidays.

Teachers get down to business

T

eachers will get to learn more about the business world at a free two-day conference in December in Wellington.

‘It’s Business Time 2013’ is being co-ordinated by Young Enterprise Trust, and is designed to support current and potential business studies teachers. It will be held on 11-12 December at the Shed 6 Conference Centre on the Wellington waterfront.

The conference will feature best practice examples and advice from NZQA; case studies from prominent New Zealand business leaders and entrepreneurs; and workshops from current Business Studies teachers “The aim of the conference is to share knowledge, so that more teachers can feel confident in delivering Business Studies for their students,” says Young Enterprise Trust CEO Terry Shubkin. “This is a relatively new subject for secondary schools – Business Studies was only fully introduced in 2012. It presents huge opportunities for both teachers and students, and we’re hoping the conference will do just that.”

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Xero founder and CEO Rod Drury is the keynote speaker and will discuss ‘The opportunity from NZ. Using technology to rethink our place in the world.’ Rod earned a World Class New Zealander award in 2008, was awarded New Zealand Herald Business Leader of the Year in 2012 and was in August named as Unlimited Magazine’s Supreme Influencer for 2013.

Other speakers include Rhys Faleafa, General Manager of Huffer; Sarah Gibbs, co-founder of Trilogy; Tim Alpe, founder of Jucy; and Rachel Taulelei of Yellow Brick Road.

Young Enterprise Trust is dedicated to growing a more prosperous New Zealand through enterprise.

Our aim is to ensure all New Zealand students participate in experiential enterprise education and financial literacy programmes. Young Enterprise also runs the Fairfax Media NZ Business Hall of Fame, which recognises New Zealanders who have made outstanding contributions to business and the community.

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21

T SAEKCI NTGI OT H NE P L U N G E

Profile:

Snaffle Jobs

Carl McNulty Profile by Nick Harley

Each month, we talk to up and coming New Zealand entrepreneurs who have set about turning their idea into a real business. Here we speak with Carl McNulty about his company - Snaffle Jobs.

Briefly tell us about your business. How did you first come up with the idea?

Snaffle is a revolutionary online tool, which was inspired from a real world problem which employers use to filter and match job seekers based on their objective employment needs.

The technology behind Snaffle has been in development for the last 18 months, where Snaffle officially went live at the beginning of August. Our point of difference lies in our extensive industry specific research carried over the past 8 months, which has allowed Snaffle to get to the heart of each industry like never before.

I had the idea for Snaffle in May 2010 when I was working for my step father, Gavin Spencer - Spencer Engineering, in his engineering workshop in Alexandra, Central Otago. I was fresh out of school and Gavin had employed me while I was taking a gap year before seeking tertiary education. Coming from high school, you feel young, enthusiastic and full of idealistic expectations about what the ‘real world’ would be like.

I experienced a rude awakening.

Hitting the workshop floor was certainly an eye opener! I learnt a great deal about safety, hard work, expectations, performance and most of all, about myself. After my first five months in the workshop, Gavin was trying to fill a full-time position for a fitter welder. He advertised using a major job vacancies website and through local papers but for all the results, nothing came through.

He was tired, frustrated and desperate for a way to get in touch with the right person, with the right skills and qualifications. Five men had come and gone where none had been right for the position, he looked to me and said with exacerbation, “Sometimes, I wish it was around the other way.” I responded, “Perhaps it should be.” not realising that I had triggered something which is quite possibly the most infectious and influential thing in the world; a thought - Snaffle.

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Snaffle’s Carl & Amber McNulty

What is the big goal for your business?

Throughout New Zealand and Australia; when you hear or see Snaffle, you think a career, jobs, employment tool. When you hear or see career, jobs or employment, you think Snaffle.

What inspired you to take the plunge?

After spending my first year at university I quickly realised that to get a job in the world of work it either came down to an outstanding resume, connections or chance. It was apparent to me that there needed to be a system of constants, where we could eliminate a lot of chance while delivering only what is relevant to an employer.

I continued to come home from uni over my breaks to work so I could pay my way, however by late 2011, I got the push that I needed.

Each day I would have to take a 100km round trip to get to work with my step dad, Gavin. So, here’s me, full of thought and banter about the idea I had and Gavin was trapped with me for over an hour each day, listening to me ramble about what I was thinking. After three weeks he had enough and said to me, “Stop talking about it, and do something about it!”. So I did. That night I found half a dozen developers that may have been interested in the project and Snaffle has grown organically ever since.

What have you found to be the most challenging aspect of building your business so far?

Each day at Snaffle we strive for disruptive innovation and ingenuity, requiring meticulous reengineering of the userinterface, creating a seamless and intuitive piece of software that is perceived by the user to be, pure simplicity. From a design perspective, this has been by far the hardest aspect to achieve in the development phase and should always be the end goal! However, the most challenging aspect of building

Snaffle, has been the building of Snaffle itself. Creating a system which closes a lot of holes in an old business model requires creativity and a lot of foresight; seeing and solving problems that don’t even exist yet, poses an interesting conundrum to say the least!!

What keeps you going when you feel like giving up?

Family. Of course there are motivational videos*, poetry (IF, Rudyard Kipling; THE QUITTER, Robert Service; THE ROAD NOT TAKEN, Robert Frost), daily quotes and inspirational leaders to follow, however nothing keeps you going like those closest to you.

When the days are hard, Amber and I have our family to support us. To guide us and advise when we ask for help and to be the foundation we need. *Motivational Videos www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvro7goOfbc www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnFxOZf0m1o www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rpss5ukgV4 What advice would you give to any people reading this who are thinking of starting a business?

Take a moment. Consider all that you are, and all that you may become. Think about where this will take you, what you will have to sacrifice in order to make it a reality. Will it be your education, your friendships, livelihood, lovers or your future that could have been.

You have the rest of your life to live with the decisions you will make tomorrow. Don’t commit with haste and above all, listen. When the time comes, you need to be certain, ‘confident’ won’t cut it, because once you commit yourself, there’s no turning back.

Would like to tell our readers your own story? Get in touch with Nick at nick@nzentrepreneur.co.nz

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I P / I nno v a tion

Intellectual Property The Privacy Act 1993 – not just a political hot potato

O

ver the last 18 months, we have seen a deluge of high-profile privacy breaches in New Zealand The breaches include:

•

ACC emailing the confidential information of over 6000 people to Bronwyn Pullar, including information about the victims of sexual abuse

•

blogger Keith Ng accessing personal information about WINZ clients from public kiosks provided by the Ministry of Social Development

•

EQC emailing the details of about 80,000 claimants to the wrong person, and following up with a second email to another wrong person that same week, this time containing the personal information of 2000 people

•

employees from the West Coast and South Canterbury District Health Boards accessing Jesse Ryder’s medical records while he recovered from an assault. Those employees had no involvement in his care or treatment.

Privacy is not just about “sensitive” information Actually, the Privacy Act applies to any “personal information”. “Personal information” is any information about an identifiable living individual. It is not limited to only “private”, “sensitive” or “medical” information. Think about it-if your business has employees, contractors, suppliers or customers, and you have names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, mailing lists, photos, or information relating to their credit cards, billing, bank accounts or tax, you definitely have “personal information”.

So what is the Privacy Act all about then?

The Privacy Act sets out guidelines on how personal information is to be collected, stored, used and disclosed by agencies, in the form of 12 information privacy principles (principles).

The opposition pounced. The media had a field day actually many field days. Complaints were made to the Privacy Commissioner and others. Reviews, reports and recommendations were commissioned left and right, from inside the government and externally. A CEO and chief executive fell on their swords, and a government minister resigned in the fall out.

The principles are broadly divided into four categories: collection, storage, use and disclosure of personal information. They deal with: •

how to collect personal information

•

how to store it, and what security measures you need to take to protect it

•

the need to keep personal information complete, up to date and accurate before using it

Privacy is not just a public sector issue

•

how long personal information can be kept for

“So what?” you might say. “These are government bodies, and I’m in business. This is a public sector issue. The Privacy Act doesn’t apply to me.”

•

the purposes it can be used for

•

when it can be disclosed it to others

•

how you must allow the person the information is about to access and correct it.

Wrong. The Privacy Act applies to all “agencies”. “Agency” is expressly defined to cover both private and public sector organisations. It covers companies and other kinds of bodies corporate, as well as sole traders and partnerships.

To which you might say: “Well, those cases are about really sensitive information, like personal injuries, sexual abuse, claim information and medical details, and well, that’s not the kind of information I handle in my business.”

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What happens if I don’t comply?

Most allegations of a breach of the Privacy Act are initially dealt with by a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner.

The Privacy Commissioner’s office can investigate, and they generally try to resolve the complaint through conciliation.

Unresolved complaints can be referred to the Human Rights Review Tribunal who can make determinations, award damages or grant declarations or other enforceable orders.

To date, the highest monetary award made by the tribunal is $40,000.

How do I comply with the Privacy Act? A well-drafted privacy policy is an efficient way to meet many of your obligations under the principles. But as recently noted in the media, a privacy policy is only the beginning.

You will also need to consider the security measures for the information you store, and how long you will need to keep that information. Your business is also required to have a privacy officer to manage compliance, personal information and be the contact person for any individuals about Privacy Act issues.

If your business is implementing a new system or service that will handle a lot of personal information, it is becoming increasingly common to undertake a privacy impact assessment to help ensure compliance.

What exactly constitutes compliance with some of the principles is not prescribed. It will depend on the circumstances, and the nature of the personal information held or used.

Written by Mark Hargreaves and Belinda Sidnam

NZ Entrepreneur Club is a supportive community group for individuals who are currently in the process of building new businesses and startups. We get together on a regular basis, face to face (where possible) to talk about entrepreneurship, business, marketing and success in life. Come along to our next meetup!

For more information visit: www.meetup.com/The-Entrepreneur-Club-NZ

ecentre is taking you into the cloud ecentre is taking you into the cloud: Whether you want to start a business in the cloud, migrate an existing one or find out how you can overcome challenges related to cloud computing, join us on the 21st Nov for an afternoon of interactive sessions and discussions.

Topics covered include the future of cloud computing, tax issues, effects on business model, cloud analytics and cloud based development. Cost: $50 (incl. GST).

Secure your spot by emailing sabrina@ecentre.org.nz

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PS E ER C STOI O NN AL T RA I N E R

Entrepreneurial Intelligence with Sandy Geyer How do I Find a good business idea?

By Sandy Geyer

I’m still studying at the moment but I already know I want to start my own business. The only thing is that I haven’t been able to come up with a good business idea yet. How can I come up with a great idea, and how do I know if an idea is worth pursuing?

Over and above my immediate respect for your entrepreneurial spirit, I have a few concerns I would like to raise before we get to the idea and product. The first is that you need to be fully in touch with the “why” behind starting your own business before you set off in any direction.

You might well be aware of the “why” now, but you haven’t mentioned this and it’s worth being aware that your drivers or motivations will become key to your resilience when the going gets tough, as is so often the case in this profession. My second concern is that you might not have any experience of a fully functioning business or any one part of a business at all. This can be a positive influence in some ways, in that you don’t have preconceived ideas about how things should work and can think more creatively in finding different solutions that work. However, the reason I raise this point is that having to build up knowledge in just about every aspect of business in its entirety at the same time as driving, growing, and structuring a business sounds like an overwhelming task that could erode your entrepreneurial drive very quickly.

Even if you are currently studying for a business degree, the university of the real world has a lot to offer you before you can cast off on your own, with sufficient know-how to stay afloat whilst you learn more as you go. To finally get to your product question, my advice is to look towards industries and vital services that are always needed, regardless of trends or the state of economies. These would include industries such as education, and you can research what current successful companies are doing in those markets.

You might spot a gap. Be sure that you choose carefully, though, and do some carefully researched calculations of where your market will be found, how to interest them, and the cost to deliver to them. Of all the aspects of entrepreneurship that have the most influence on eventual success, the actual product or service is by far the highest.

In each issue Sandy will be answering commonly asked questions from new entrepreneurs.

If you have a question for Sandy to do with entrepreneurship, building successful businesses or the challenges and difficulties faced by entrepreneurs, email the editor at nick@nzentrepreneur.co.nz.

Sandy Geyer is an entrepreneur and mentor and teaches the principles of entrepreneurial intelligence (EnQ), to entrepreneurs in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. You can visit Sandy’s website at www.enqpractice.com

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“

SECTION

If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”

Milton Berle

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