Fry Up: So you want to be the next great Kiwi start up

To patent or not to patent

Fry Up guide to creating the next great New Zealand start up
(another in our series on getting ahead in tech, in the spirit of Vanity Fair’s guide to creating an Oscar-winning movie)

So you want to be the next great local start up, first decide what kind of product you will create:

• Financial/business tool
• Entertainment
• Technology tool

Who/what is your target market?

• Corporate
• Small Medium Enterprise
• Consumers
• Government

Seriously, who/what is your target market (the big guys will crush you if you go near their space)?

• SME
• Consumers

How will you fund it?

• Government/council grant
• Savings
• Mum and Dad
• Unemployment benefit
• Angel investor
• Initial Public Offering

How will you distribute your product?

• Web
• Mobile app
• Postie

How will you market your product?

• Social media such as Twitter, blogs, Facebook, Linked In (free - but be prepared for a hard, continual slog producing content).
• Become a ‘thought leader’ on topics such as How The Government Could Do Things Better (risky – could alienate influentials).
• Make an All Black a foundation investor so they will attract mainstream media coverage (risky two months out from the Rugby World Cup – they win and you strike the jackpot, they lose and you suffer by association).

It is advisable to join an IT lobby group, but be discerning.

For street cred:
NZ Rise

For access to influential politicians:
NZICT

You’ve got to know when to hold, and know when to fold – have an exit strategy ready should the following occur:

• You get offered $20 million+ by a US investor to sell up.
• You’re so far down the Google rankings even your mother can’t be bothered searching for you.
• You get offered a job at a business incubator – as cool as being in a start-up but with a proper salary and regular working hours.

All too hard? There is a bonus shortcut that allows you to avoid the above steps.
Make friends with this guy.





Sam Morgan
Trade Me founder and other things

Procurement process discriminates against local companies: NZ Rise
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Riverbed confirms purchase of Aptimize


Musical interlude 1.
How to become like Spinal Tap.

Musical interlude 2.
Chocolate - is there anything it can't do?




It's, like, Shakespearean

To patent or not to patent
That is the question
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of the open source community
Or take arms against a sea of trolls.


Patent IP will pass from Aptimize to Riverbed