My main investment focus is on private companies in New Zealand, in 2014 through Punakaiki Fund and previous to that directly. However in the past I’ve occasionally tracked the performance of my US share portfolio, so let’s see how it did in 2014. The amounts are relatively small. Last year I have very little activity, continuing …
Category Archives: NZ Business
Why we need Skypath
My submission on SkyPath, the proposed clip-on high tech walking and cycling path across Auckland Harbour Bridge. I used Generation Zero’s very simple tool. You can too. Skypath will bring economic benefit to the region, from tourists staying longer and more tourist-related businesses being created as they take advantage of the resource. Skypath will bring further economic benefit by substituting commuter motor vehicles …
Punakaiki Fund news: New Funding and Vibe Communications
We re-invested in Vibe Communications I’m delighted to report that Punakaiki Fund this week reinvested in Vibe Communications, bringing the fund’s shareholding to 24%. The remainder of the shares are owned by the executive-founders, CEO and key staff. Vibe had a fantastic year in 2014, growing their network, launching new products and delivering for customers. It’s …
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Males only?
Like Vaughan Rowsell, I get asked to facilitate or be on panels and speak at events a fair bit. Actually not quite like Vaughan — he’s incredibly popular, and for good reason. Vaughan’s publicly announced that he will not accept being on panels with no women. Between us it’s actually a policy that he has …
Killer Whales in Auckland Harbour
(All photos can used for non-commercial purposes, but if you have ads on your site, are media, otherwise commercial or want to use more than a couple then please contact me.) It was wonderful to get out on the water today on a friend’s boat, and within seconds of leaving the boatyard we encountered killer …
Vibe appoints Rudi Hefer as CEO
Rudi ever started at Vibe Communications as Chief Commercial Officer back in August, and he has been leading strong growth in the business. I’m delighted that he’s now the CEO – press release below: Vibe appoints Rudi Hefer as CEO Vibe is pleased to announce the apointment of Rudi Hefer as CEO at Vibe Communications. …
Define Instruments Expands into South Africa
It’s always great to see companies grow – and Define Instruments recently took their first big leap. The team has followed existing international sales by setting up a South African office. It’s the first of many new overseas offices we hope to see over the next few years, as we seek to expand distribution and direct sales. …
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Portfolio Disclosure Oct 2014
A prompt from Rowan Simpson (16 investments, $4m) and Ben Kepes (14 investments, $500k) led me to update my own investment Portfolio page. I’ve personally invested $780,000 into 10 companies, and have equity received as a founder in several others, totalling over 15. Overall I’m really happy with the private investments. They are relatively small amounts …
Set a high bar and never compromise
Laszlo Bock, Google’s SVP People Operations, shares three secrets for how Google recruits. He does this at the end of a presentation he gave at a Linked-In conference for recruiters. Action starts at 2m:40s. Laszlo doesn’t mention it, but these are exactly the same (with a bit more science these days) “secrets” that McKinsey and many other …
Tracking the performance of the 1 hour Xero model
DISCLOSURE: I hold Xero shares. Last year I built a very quick and dirty spreadsheet to analyse Xero, and wrote Valuing Xero – in one hour. The article was cross-posted to the NBR, where it attracted far more comments. More on those comments below. I used Xero’s September 013 earnings release (and only that earnings release) to feed the …
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Don’t cough on me
It used to be acceptable to go to work or travel with a cough or the flu. That’s been changing over the last 10-20 years, and people who cough and sniffle in public are increasingly treated like people who smoke in the same places. Good. But now the stigma of being sick in public is even worse: Let’s be …
SellShed shedding money?
This is not how you are meant to do it: Online seller SellShed starts up The seven-person firm has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars building a website and free iPhone app and was now on the hunt for “smart money” A very bad sign. Rasing money just to build a website and app implies …
A victory for great coffee
Source: Restaurant Brands NZ Ltd 2014 Annual report
Are you innovative enough?
I’ve been reading Peter Thiel’s excellent and short book – Zero to One. It’s resonating with a lot of people at the moment, and justifiably so. It reminds me a lot of Peter Drucker’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship, published originally in 1984 and with very similar messages. My own take is that the art of business is …
Bonus growth for SaaS exporters
The currency fall has a wonderful effect for exporters, especially those who have most of their costs back here in New Zealand. As I write this, the NZD versus the USD has fallen about 10% since earlier this year. As an exampled of what this means I’ve made a simple spreadsheet estimating the impact on Xero. My take is that …
Lance Wiggs 