Source: Talent Army
Wellington, 4th October 2022. Despite mass layoffs hitting the global tech sector, New Zealand’s tech industry is thriving, as startups make the most of the traditional Kiwi ‘number 8 wire’ culture – using innovation and ingenuity to grow organically making them desirable prospects for investment.
Top IT industry recruiter Talent Army says many new global tech startups are dealing with the fallout from the ‘false’ Covid boom, where thousands of new companies emerged, growing through rapid investment and hiring rather than sales, and have now had to scale back as the venture capital tap is turned off.
New Zealand’s naturally more cautious and down-to-earth approach to growth has become an organic insurance policy for the tech sector. While offshore businesses are scaling back Kiwi businesses are primed to “bat globally,” says newly appointed Talent Army CEO James Wood.
Wood says tech is NZ’s second largest export, making up eight percent of the country’s GDP.
“Every 4 per cent growth we see in productivity delivers an additional $2.7 billion to our GDP, which is only good news for our tech sector and economy. New Zealand is a great place for tech startups and is poised for Kiwi businesses in the sector to compete in the international market,” he says.
“Despite the continued impacts of the pandemic, the tech sector in NZ is growing at almost double the pace of the general economy. It employs five percent of the entire New Zealand workforce and has the highest median base salaries of all industries. The government is also very visible in media about wanting to bolster our tech industry. We are very excited about the future of New Zealand start-ups because of this moment right now”.
Cloud software firm Timely is a recent NZ tech success story, having been acquired last year by US-based EverCommerce for over $100 million. The company worked closely with Talent Army as they scaled from 10 to over 100 staff, citing Talent Army’s ability to understand the skills and experience needed and to source highly talented people. Co-founder Ryan Baker says New Zealand is a great environment for a start-up to grow and achieve global-level results as a business.
“When we started Timely in 2010 it was becoming more possible to have customers all around the world, especially for a software startup, so that’s what we set out to do from day one. People are now able to work from anywhere, and customers are selecting the best products, regardless of what country they are seen to be from. We would often have NZ customers surprised to find out that Timely was founded in New Zealand,” he says.
Baker says though, that while a more cautious nature may make it easier to get started in NZ, it may also make it harder to grow to scale because we compete in a global marketplace.
“The same things that helped us weather the pandemic are unlikely to be the things that help us scale and compete globally,” he says.
Early-stage NZ digital security start-up Authsignal is at the beginning of its journey, having launched a year ago. Founder Justin Soong says the approach of the Kiwi tech sector to growth and scaling is confidence-inspiring and results in resilient tech businesses.
“We’re at the bottom of the world so we have to be ‘scrappy’ because we don’t have the same resources at the click of our fingers – everything we do needs to be super optimised. In New Zealand we see the tech sector take a more nimble approach to solving problems, which is different, even, from the approach in Australia. That, and the fact our talent pool is world class means we are resilient.”
Soong has been both a candidate and client of Talent Army and more recently used them as a service supplier, sourcing key early hires for Authsignal.
Talent Army co-founders Troy Hammond and Dan Buchanan recently appointed James Wood as CEO for the business, which was launched in 2015 and continues to grow alongside international and local demand, as well as expanding into Australia. They are working with the likes of Australian-based Atlassian, and alongside some of NZ’s biggest tech success stories.
James Wood says the innovation they’re seeing the in the sector is exciting, particularly as the country emerges from pandemic restrictions and the world opens up again.
“Our experience across recent years is that the resilience of the tech sector stands us in good stead as the global economy revs up again. If our founders, start-ups and scale-ups can not only survive, but thrive, then we’re well placed to make the most of the opportunities ahead of us”.
About Talent Army
Founded in 2015 by Troy Hammond and Dan Buchanan, Talent Army finds the best talent for New Zealand’s tech sector, helping start-ups grow from garages to campuses as well as working alongside international tech companies looking to grow their Australasian presence. A trusted advisor to the sector and with offices in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Melbourne and a team of 15 it is anticipating growth of 150% this year.
