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Ask HN: Any New Zealand HN readers out there?

9 points by pjmurray ↗ HN
Just curious as to if there are any HN readers from NZ, and if they know of (or involved in) any startup's on the go down under?

I realise the NZ market is very small but I am eager to get into the startup industry and what better way than working/volunteering for one in my home country (unless someone can make some better suggestions to getting involved.. working remotely maybe...)

6 comments

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PostOnce
When you say market, you mean the size of your potential customer base as a percentage of New Zealand's population? I've thought of this, and New Zealand does have a small population, but the internet has a large population, and it is there that I shall establish my startup. If your product is digital, you can sell to anyone, no matter their distance.

I'm not in New Zealand now, but I expect to move there at year's end. (It's my wife's home.) I'll keep an eye on this thread, because I'm also interested in what the startup scene is like in New Zealand. It'd be nice to have a little preexisting knowledge of the industry when I got there.

pjmurray
This is true - it requires you have a product that is not intrinsically linked to the country you're developing it in. I would imagine something like Groupon.com or foursquare may be hard to get going in NZ. Where in NZ are you thinking of moving? Like squidsoup said, there seems to be quite the community in Wellington.
squidsoup
I'm from Dunedin, and we have a local group of web entrepreneurs called The Distiller (http://thedistiller.org/). I would imagine there would be something comperable in Wellington, given how many web based businesses exist there.
pjmurray
oh nice! yea I originally grew up in Dunedin but have since moved to Christchurch (and am actually in Western Australia for the time being but am keen to come back soon). I might be coming down to Dunedin 20th/21st-would be a great chance to see what you guys are up to if you're free.
CyberFonic
Think local act global ! It worked for Weta Digital ! In case you didn't know Avatar SFX house. Also a lot of Harry Potter was filmed and SFX done in NZ.

I was brought up in NZ, but now live on West Island (Sydney, Oztrayla). If you create some sort of blog, etc let me know, I'll read it. Majority of my wife's family still live in NZ.

Cheers !

pjmurray
Yea I will do - I've been meaning to start one up but at the moment I don't have enough spare time as it is (working 12 hour days and spending all my spare time learning). When I've got something worth writing about I'll let you know.