A vintage year for Kiwis?
Posted on 19. Mar, 2010 by Adrian Pearson in Thoughts
The bottle of red wine on my table just provoked a realisation for me – it seems that Kiwis are behind many of the new web-based services on the market. I wonder what it is that makes our friends from New Zealand so good at this stuff?
Here’s a list of some of the products I know of that are the result of Kiwi brain power:
Xero – online accounting
PlanHq – online business strategy
Minutedock – online time recording
PocketSmith – online personal finances
Sharesight – online portfolio management
ProWorkflow – online project management
These are the first names that came into my head and, of course, there will be many more.
I think this struck a chord for me because the developer I am working with on my Ledgerscope project is, yes you guessed it, a Kiwi. And bloody good he is too.
You may be thinking this is unremarkable and that there are thousands of services out there, developed by clever people from all over the globe. However, New Zealand is a relatively small country with a relatively small population and it just happens to be on what most of us would describe as “the other side of the world”. So, I think it is notable.
It seems that technology and, particularly, the Internet has indeed made the world flat – and this is great news for all of us.
Hi Adrian, I get asked this question a lot. The reason is that as a small country we all know each other and share experience. We’ve always done software here but the Internet is allowing us to scale and cover overseas markets.
Wellington is particular hotbed for software. http://www.siliconwelly.com Probably because of the weather.
It’s also in our culture to travel out of NZ and see the wider world, so we’re happy to get on planes and build networks overseas.
Ponoko is another good one. They made the cover of Inc: http://www.siliconwelly.com/brand-new-zealand-on-cover-of-inc-magazine
You should come over and check it all out,
Rod