Isolation a draw as N Zealand makes push to get tech talent
IN THE South Pacific, software no longer needs a hard sell. New Zealand has long wanted to be a tech hub, but distance was an issue. Now, at a moment of global upheaval, that isolation has become a selling point.
A municipal program to fly in 100 developers next month – wine them, dine them and offer them jobs – was expected to draw 2,500 applications. But the recruitment effort, called LookSee Wellington, was besieged with more than 48,000 entries, including workers at Google, Amazon, Facebook, MIT and NASA.
New Zealand suddenly makes sense. The cost of living is less than in San Francisco and commuting is easier. And US politics, “Brexit” and Islamic State are on the other side of the world.
“It’s just one of those things where the stars are aligned,” said David Jones, general manager at the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency.
New arrivals describe New Zealand as more idealistic and less frustrating than other places.
“In the US, I feel extremely disconnected,” said Alanna Irving, 33, who came here from San Francisco to start two companies. “Things happen all the time that I don’t agree with or understand or think are really good for most people, and I just don’t see any way that I can change that.”
Peter Thiel, the contrarian investor who made his fortune with PayPal and Facebook, made an irresistible financial proposal to New Zealand. He would bring the local economy into the high-tech era. Thiel would serve as the country’s roving tech ambassador, opening doors that are closed to mere government officials.
Even before applying, he set upValar Ventures, an investment fund named after the gods in The Lord of the Rings. Valar put about $3 million into Xero, an accounting software firm, and was part of a $4 million infusion of cash into Pacific Fibre, which proposed a trans-Pacific undersea cable.
And that, Thiel signalled, would be just the beginning.
“I intend to devote a significant amount of my time and resources to the people and businesses of New Zealand,” he wrote in his citizenship application.
New Zealand gets around 30,000 applications for citizenship annually. Fearful of the potential for exploitation, it expedites only a handful. Thiel was one. The process was so painless that when the news came out about the investor’s dual two months ago, the official in charge said he remembered nothing about it.
“We were so blown away that Peter Thiel was interested,” said Rod Drury, the chief executive of Xero. “Him getting a passport wasn’t a big deal at the time. No one really thought about it.”
Drury is the biggest name in New Zealand’s tech scene. He recommended Thiel for citizenship, and Xero was held up as a model of what, with the investor’s help, all the new startups could become.
Valar is now based in New York, where it has been investing in European and Brazilian companies.
“It’s sad for New Zealand that Thiel and Valar didn’t follow on with more investments,” Lance Biggs, a local investor, said. “We are starved for cash.”
Thiel has been focused elsewhere, including on a long-shot donation of $1.25 million to US President Donald Trump’s campaign last year. When Trump unexpectedly won, that paid off for Thiel in a wide-ranging portfolio. Last month his top aide, Michael Kratsios, became the White House’s deputy chief technology officer.
Xero, which has 1,400 employees, took a different path. Its goal is to turn accountants into “growth consultants”, becoming a platform that soars above national borders.
“Gay marriage, cultural tolerance, refugees, active strategies to address diversity – more than ever our leadership here is important,” Drury wrote in an email to his staff immediately after the election. He proposed setting a moral example by bringing “some refugee groups into our Wellington office”.
The LookSee Wellington initiative to bring in 100 software engineers was initially focused on Americans. Then word began to spread. By the time the contest was finally cut off on March 30, India had overtaken the US in applications.
“We’re in a global talent war,” said Chris Whelan, chief executive of the Economic Development Agency in Wellington.
Drury is already looking to make LookSee an annual affair. After all, it takes the expensive problem of recruitment off Xero’s hands and lets the government do it.
“It’s boom time for the next 10 years,” Drury said. The more immigrants, the better.
“We’ll take a lot. We’ll take hundreds.”