Wellington
Technology incubators have come a long way since 2000 when the then science minister Pete Hodgsonsaid New Zealand needed something that replicated the highly successful Israel model.
We didn't have loads of emigrating Russian scientists, a highly developed military research ormanufacturing infrastructure nor the wealth of the U.S.A east coast Jewish community to pump venturecapital into new start ups.
But the nine incubators (see previous sticK story
There have also been a few other indicators that incubators in the New Zealand context areachieving positive outcomes for the country.
"We have a very good reputation for the way we're doing incubators," says
"Partly that's seen in the intensity and quality of services that our incubation managementprovides."
The history of overseas incubators often starts from a 'real estate play'. An old building isconverted to offices and start ups encouraged to use the shared services with their low rents.That's the first generation of incubation.
The second generation is when management is put into the mix to sit alongside the start ups.
The third generation is upping the intensity of that management and wrapping that around highquality entrepreneurs. This superior management helps provide access to capital and helps theentrepreneurs break into new domestic and international markets.
"New Zealand's considered to be ahead of others in the world," says White. "Part of the reasonfor that is because we're focused, small and have a good industry and government partnership. Wedon't have an us and them mentality and are working together on actual common goals."
Many overseas countries don't have the same incubator success, often having bureaucraticdivisions across federal, state and local levels among other challenges.
New Zealand incubators have also picked up a couple of international gongs; showing an externalvalidation that kiwis are keen on.
Auckland's
Icehouse
was recently namedby Forbes.com as one of the world's top 10 technology incubators.
The Asian Association ofBusiness Incubation also named Canterbury's
powerHouse
Venturesas its 2009 Asia Pacific incubator of the year.