Vladivostok to St. Petersburg by Car (Russia Insider)

Danielle Ryan

Ever wanted to pack a bag and travel across Russia by car? Here’s how to do it the Russian way

Travelling from one side of the world’s largest country to the other by car is a dream that has no doubt been jotted down on many a bucket list — but how many people actually set out to make the daunting journey?

Tim McCready, a business development expert from New Zealand is one of them. Using the hashtag #TimInRussia, he has been documenting his journey with two friends. The trip, with the odd deviation from the route plan, will span five weeks across July and August, and McCready’s updates are a fascinating insight into its highs and occasional lows.​

So far, the three friends have taken in Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Blagoveshchensk, Chita, Ulan-Ude, Lake Baikal, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk Novosibirsk and Omsk — and that’s just the first half. From Omsk, the journey will take them to ​Tobolsk, Yekaterinburg, Perm, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Saratov, Volgograd, Moscow, a few of the Golden Ring towns to its north, Novgorod and finally, St. Petersburg.

Russia Insider caught up with Tim at the halfway point of his journey — the city of Omsk, roughly 7,500 kilometres from where he started.

What inspired you to get in a car and travel across Russia?

After my first visit to Russia [for a business trip], I became increasingly fascinated with the history, the culture, the food, and the people, and wanted to learn more about the country that was previously completely unknown to me. Over the last year I have been planning this trip with a Russian friend, Igor.

I had initially considered the trans-Siberian railway, but I felt like traveling by car would be a better way to experience ‘real Russia’ and would allow us more freedom to choose our own path and stop where we wanted.

How do you split up all that driving time?

We are dividing the driving roughly into thirds, taking turns where one drives, one entertains the driver, and the other sleeps in the back. So far we have insisted that Igor do all of the city driving. The roads and the drivers within cities seemed terrifying to begin with, but I think we are adapting well to the Russian driving style.

There are a huge number of trucks to constantly pass, and as most highways are only two lanes, it requires an intense level of concentration. Highways between cities occasionally have long stretches of road that are made up of gravel, rocks, and large potholes, but are mostly in surprisingly good shape.

How thoroughly did you plan your route beforehand? Is there any leeway for detours?

Fairly thoroughly. Over the course of a year I read a lot of books on Russian history, and watched several documentaries about cities across the country. I made a rough itinerary which we were all able to work on together to finalise which cities to visit, and how long to spend in each. We’ve kept the document as a live Google document and made constant alterations, even during the trip — so we do have a little bit of leeway for detours.

What’s been the most enjoyable aspect so far?

The most enjoyable aspect has been getting to know some Russian people. They have been incredibly hospitable – even when language has been a challenge, and made me feel extremely welcome.

Igor’s brother and his parents looked after me incredibly well in Vladivostok, baking us traditional Russian food, taking us to their dacha, and driving us around the city. We also stayed with Igor’s aunt and uncle in a small Siberian village who didn’t speak a word of English. Despite the language barrier, they spent a huge amount of time with us, taking us through the Siberian forest, showing us old family photos and videos, and over-feeding us with amazing meals and homemade vodka.

In terms of sights in Russia, seeing the incredibly diverse Russian geography, and how warm and green Russia is during summer has been a huge surprise. The amount of time we have spent in a car has really emphasised to me just how enormous this country is – particularly since I come from New Zealand, which is comparatively tiny.

And what about the most annoying thing so far?

Booking accommodation has been a frustrating challenge. We have opted to mostly stay in apartments. They’ve been cheaper than hotel rooms, provide more space for three people, and allow us to do washing and a bit of home cooking.

But booking accommodation in Russia has been less predictable than I have experienced in other countries. Even when using websites like booking.com, we have had the accommodation provider phone us on the day of check-in to tell us the apartment is no longer available, or the current guests want to stay on longer. There have been a fair few days when we have had to scramble to find accommodation for the night.

What’s the weirdest or best thing you’ve seen on your travels?

The best thing I have seen is definitely the architecture. The churches, and the buildings – particularly some of the traditional wooden buildings in Tomsk are incredibly impressive.

Some of the more unusual things would have to be the sheer number of unexpected and unusual monuments located across Russia. Tomsk has the monument to happiness, a cabbage monument outside a maternity hospital, a monument to a state traffic inspector, and a monument to football fans. Novosibirsk has a traffic light monument, a monument to electricians, and a monument to lab rats that have given their lives to medical research. This last one required us to detour for almost an hour to see, but given my background in biotechnology was one I was particularly keen to visit.

Is there any place or city that really surprised you?

Siberia surprised me a lot. I think generally Siberia is thought of as a region of the world where nothing much happens, and not much exists. What I discovered is that there’s a lot of great cities in Siberia, they are all quite different from one another, and there is a lot to see and do. Ulan-Ude stood out as an incredibly different city to the rest. The Buryat people, culture, and food all felt quite different from other parts of Russia.

There is still of course a lot of forest, and long stretches of highway with nothing much in between them besides a few gas stations.

How are your Russian language skills? Has not being a fluent speaker hindered you a lot?

I’ve been learning Russian recently, but my language skills could be described as beginner, at best. I had no problem getting by in Vladivostok, which is reasonably well set up for tourists, but navigating some of the other more remote cities we have stayed in would be extremely difficult without having Igor traveling with us.

He has made the trip feel seamless, although I know at times some of the unexpected complications have been stressful for him. He is doing a really great job at showing us the best of his country.

Okay, if you had one piece of advice for someone setting out on the same journey, what would it be?

If you are able to convince a Russian friend of yours to travel with you, you absolutely should. Not only do you have a handy translator — for both language and culture — but you also get to explore Russia a little more off the beaten track than I think would be achievable as a foreigner.

Also, make sure you allow yourself enough time to get between cities. The longest drive we have done was between Blagoveshchensk and Chita, which was 1600km (990 miles). We initially thought this journey would take just over 16 hours, but by the time you factor in the unpredictability of the roads, extremely long stretches of roadworks, and brief bathroom and food stops, it ended up taking much longer.

Korean reunification – Bonanza or Bust? (NZ INC)

Tim McCready

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, and also the 70th anniversary of Korea’s division into North and South. Last month the World Journalists Conference was held throughout South Korea under the theme ‘the 70th anniversary of the division of Korea: Thinking about unification on the Korean Peninsula’.

Na Kyung-won, Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee of the National Assembly, posed the question: What is North Korea for South Korea? Her response – “On the one hand, a serious security threat, but on the other hand, a partner with which we have to work together on the way leading to the unification of Korea.” This stance isn’t surprising – the requirement to seek peaceful unification is included in the South Korean Constitution.

South Korea established a Ministry of Reunification in 1998, which works to establish North Korean policy, coordinate inter-Korean dialogue, pursue inter-Korean cooperation, and educate the public on unification. In Korea there is an old saying, ‘ten years can change even the rivers and the mountains.’ However any progress on reunification to date has been largely non-existent.

From 2000 until 2008 liberal governments in South Korea put in place the Sunshine Policy under the leadership of President Kim Dae Jung. The policy resulted in greater political contact between the two countries, two Korean summit meetings in Pyongyang, several business ventures and brief meetings of some Korean families separated by the Korean War.

Kim Dae Jung was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his successful implementation of the Sunshine Policy. However, following nuclear and missile tests and the shooting of a South Korean tourist at the Mount Kumgang Tourist Region, the Sunshine Policy was deemed a failure and wound up in 2010. The Sunshine Policy is dead, and so are the key players on both sides.

Sadly there are an estimated 6,700 people from separated families living in South Korea. The tragedy of the division is most prominently seen through those people who have not seen, spoken to, or even sent letters to their family members. Those people with the closest ties to the North are getting very old. Koreans, who are extremely family-centric, are very conscious of the fact that there is not much time left. The older generation passionately long for reunification, and believe it is imminent. Younger Korean’s seem to be agnostic about the prospect and worry about the economic cost.

Aside from reuniting disrupted families, South Korean government officials frequently spoke about ‘hitting the jackpot’, or the ‘bonanza’ that would come with reunification. The Korean Peninsula would be thrust into the role of an Asian hub. China, the world’s second largest economy lies to the West. Japan to the East is the world’s third largest. The virtual island of South Korea that is so evident from nighttime satellite photos would become connected through rail, road, and pipelines through to Eurasia.

South Korea’s population of 50 million combined with 25 million in the North would develop an entirely new market. North Korea has 20% more space geographically than South Korea and an abundance of natural resources including coal, iron ore, gold, rare earths, hydroelectric and seafood. South Korea would suddenly become resource rich, and South Korean companies would gain access to a pool of hardworking, inexpensive North Korean labour.

On the flipside, Andrew Salmon, an author and high-profile journalist based in Seoul had a more pessimistic stance. He noted that if you look at North Korea through only the lens of the leadership, nothing much has changed. His view is that the most exciting and underreported story in Asia is that North Korea is becoming a de facto capitalist state.

During the 1990s North Korea suffered from horrific famine. The State distribution system imploded and North Korea had no choice but to go across the border to China, start trading, and run primitive markets. These markets have not gone away and have instead expanded nationwide to the extent that you can now buy almost anything – food, consumer goods, even electronics. Instead of North Korean currency the traders use international currencies and communicate with each other to set exchange rates. While it may be primitive and unofficial, for the first time in history change is coming from the bottom up.

Salmon believes there are rewards just ahead. Under Kim Jong-un, we have seen incentives and autonomy for factories, agricultural and fishing industries. A real estate market is becoming established in Pyongyang and even a venture capital market is becoming established.

The Kaesong Industrial Zone was established and is run by the South Koreans. While it has been open for ten years, there are only 123 small South Korean companies operating there and is unlikely to get any bigger. The original plan was for this to be the first step for South Korea’s economic recolonisation.

On the flipside, North Korea are establishing additional special economic zones. They are seeking foreign trade and investment, with China moving in very aggressively. The Rason special economic zone is in the far northeast bordering Russia and China and serves as a warm-water port for both countries. Foreign currency is permitted, and there are no poor people there.

Salmon’s view is that there is some hope in the future. But it doesn’t lie in the hands of the generals, the politicians, or the diplomats. It is up to business leaders. The Sunshine Policy wasn’t instigated by a politician, but by Chung Ju-yung – the founder of Hyundai conglomerate. Salmon argued that South Korea needs to get rid of sanctions that prevent any trade or investment in the North outside the artificial Kaesong Industrial Zone and stop the incessant focus on denuclearization – because it won’t happen. He argued that we should instead separate business from politics so that we can all have a stake in the North Korean economy.

As a country that assisted in the Korean War, I was invited to take part in a panel discussion on reunification, and share lessons that could be learnt from a New Zealand perspective. With speakers from powerful economies of Russia, China, the UK and South Korea, this was formidable, but the Korean’s were interested in hearing about New Zealand’s much admired strong relationships with nations around the world.

Reflecting on Korean reunification from a New Zealand perspective, our close partnership with Australia in particular offers a number of lessons instructive to prospects for such a future partnership between North and South Korea.

Despite our entwined history and combined military efforts, it would be fair to say that our relationship with Australia has remained strong due to our successful economic and trading partnership. Although the countries have their differences – cultural, political, nuclear, and commercial – they both represent an important trading partner to the other, supported by what is often referred to as “the world’s most comprehensive, effective, and mutually compatible free trade agreement”.

New Zealand’s close relationship has endured with Australia because we are stronger together. If New Zealand can share something with the world, it is that careful navigation of trade issues is something that can strengthen relationships, and over time build trust.

Word from the officials is that unification will be a jackpot not only in Korea, but for the rest of the world. Whether that is right or wrong, a divided Korea is a very sad reality. Progress has been slow, but ultimately the key to resolving conflict and division on the Korean Peninsula will come down to demonstrating that the interest in reunification is mutual and that benefits long term will extend the potential – for both economies.

Tips from the best – Raising capital in Los Angeles (NZ INC)

Tim McCready

Panel discussion: Investor Guidance for Raising Money in Los Angeles

  • Mr Bruce Stein, Principal, Westridge Consulting, LLC
  • Mr Robert Perille, Partner, Shamrock Capital Advisors
  • Mr Craig Cooper CCP, LLC
  • Chance Barnett, CEO, Crowdfunder
  • Moderator: Mr Mitchell Berman, Managing Partner Zen Media Entertainment Group

People in the private equity space are miserable at the moment because they are finding valuations at a record high. That means that there really couldn’t be a better time than now for venture funding – for the entrepreneur. There is no shortage of capital in Los Angeles or the United States, but there is a shortage of really good ideas.

Investing used to just happen in boardrooms. Now it can happen online. The floodgates have opened for people to advertise – it is an entirely new industry and crowdfunding allows you to get yourself in front of potentially thousands of investors. Last year saw $14B in crowdfunding. The estimate for 2015 is $34B. Crowdfunding doesn’t have to come at the expense of angel and VC funding. There are a host of investors that are using the internet to find funding opportunities.

Investors are now looking for those businesses that have had some traction. That may mean they have established themselves, have customers, or are experiencing some kind of growth. They don’t have to be profitable but it has to be a profitable business model that makes sense.

Investors like to invest in people that have an unfair advantage. It could be that you have a PhD in a very specific area that no one else would ever know about.

Richard Branson is very candid about not taking much credit for his wins – he chalks some of them up to being in the right place at the right time. In saying that, the team is critical to any investor. An investment decision is generally made 80 percent on the team and 20 percent on an idea. A great team can make a mediocre idea work – but a bad team will kill a fabulous idea.

To get the attention of an investor, try to teach them something. If you are solely pitching for investment, your pitch may or may not be heard. But if you teach someone something, they will take notice of you.

When you are pitching, make sure you are able to deliver it so that someone can understand the core idea immediately. You don’t want to ask someone to delve deeply into a topic area they don’t understand. You will get a false negative if your presentation material is poor. Equally, flooding a pitch with keywords like ‘big data’ will never count for anything if it isn’t clear what your business does.

LA investors will be looking for something that is not a provincial application. This is a risk coming from New Zealand. Your product must be immediately globally applicable. If you don’t have a platform to leverage and build on then you will have a very difficult time to gain the attention of the investment community.

Be persistent and resilient. At seed and early stage it is hard to differentiate people from one another. Investors hear a lot of pitches all the time and they tend to blur together. It is a very competitive market. A big mistake is to not be persistent in follow up. More people lose opportunities because they fail to follow up until someone says no. It is a huge differentiator if you’re kindly persistent to the investor. It demonstrates resilience and that you are more organised than most other people are.

NZ INC. traveled with the Auckland business delegation to the tripartite summit in Los Angeles. Representatives from 43 Auckland businesses took part in the inaugural Tripartite Economic Alliance Summit in Los Angeles. This follows the signing in November 2014 of an alliance designed to boost economic co-operation between Auckland, Guangzhou and Los Angeles. Len Brown and councillors Bill Cashmore and Denise Krum led the delegation. Auckland Council organised it with the support of Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED), NZTE and MFAT.

Media contact at Auckland Council: Glyn Jones 021 475897
ATEED (Auckland Tourism Events & Economic Development)
NZTE (New Zealand Trade & Enterprise)

Living and working in Los Angeles – the reality (NZ INC)

Tim McCready

Through no fault of their own, New Zealand (and even different parts of America) have a cartoonish view of cities in the United States. People tend to think of Los Angeles solely as Hollywood and made up of “fake” people. New Zealand companies – particularly those involved in technology, think of San Francisco or Silicon Valley as their default launchpad.

The United States is a very large country – a market of markets – and it is very important to consider that it may be Austin, Seattle, or Los Angeles could offer the best opportunity.

The reality is that Hollywood is highly visible, but makes up only a fraction of LA’s economy. The vast majority of marketing money for Los Angeles goes into tourism. The tourism dollar for the city is so valuable that it has made it difficult for the start-up community to shine.

LA is the third largest tech ecosystem in the United States (behind Los Angeles and New York), but it is the fastest growing. 12% of early-stage start-ups are located in Los Angeles, and there is now a large number of companies including Snapchat ($10B), SpaceX ($5B), Beats ($3B and aquired by Apple) and Oculus ($2B and acquired by Facebook) that were built in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles is the largest manufacturing centre in the United States, and a hub for aerospace, logistics, clean technology and innovation. Los Angeles port is the largest seaport in the western hemisphere. Southern California graduates the most engineers in the United States from some of the most prominent schools, including USC, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA and others.

Los Angeles Mayor, Eric Garcetti, describes Los Angeles as ‘the western capital of North America, the northern capital of Latin America, and the eastern capital of the Pacific Rim’.

Despite all of this, there is no denying that Los Angeles is the creative capital of the United States, specialising in video content. One in seven people in LA are employed in a creative field. It is the number one metro area for art, design and media employment, and the creative industry provides more than $140B of annual economic impact to the city.

Video and content start-ups are succeeding in Los Angeles. Maker is the number one producer and distributor of online video, with 6.5 billion monthly views and 450 million subscribers. DeviantArt is the leading artist social network, and Mitu Networks is the largest online Latino video network.

New Zealand’s fastest growing export is IP. It grows at 10-15% each year, and has done so since the GFC. The United States is our number one intellectual property export market. Venture Capital companies in New Zealand do not have the scale of connectedness as capital that comes from the United States. It is important to think about the people behind capital – the right objective shouldn’t be to raise $5-10 million. The right objective is to find the capital provider that can help your business grow in line with its strategic objectives.

The stereotype about Los Angeles traffic is largely true, but if you can base your office near the people you want to attract for work, it is very easy to have a choice about where you base yourself. There is no one tech hub. Pasadena, Silicon Beach, USC, UCLA, Santa Monica all have significant human capital, infrastructure, and co-working spaces.

Los Angeles can offer a great lifestyle. LA is a city of cities – it offers a beach lifestyle, Hollywood, an urban downtown experience, hiking, and ski fields close by. Los Angeles has 300 days of sunshine every year and is offers more affordable living compared to other tech centres like San Francisco or New York City.

Without forgetting that California is currently facing one of the most severe droughts on record, a water metaphor was used to describe the nuances of Los Angeles which stuck with me. “New York is a river, Los Angeles is a lake”.

If you step outside in New York you will naturally go somewhere, because the city itself will take you and it is simple to navigate. In Los Angeles, to get anywhere you have to actively swim there, or you risk never getting anywhere at all. It’s a city that increasingly unfolds as you spend more time there.

But that’s what makes it so exciting.

NZ INC. traveled with the Auckland business delegation to the tripartite summit in Los Angeles. Representatives from 43 Auckland businesses took part in the inaugural Tripartite Economic Alliance Summit in Los Angeles. This follows the signing in November 2014 of an alliance designed to boost economic co-operation between Auckland, Guangzhou and Los Angeles. Len Brown and councillors Bill Cashmore and Denise Krum led the delegation. Auckland Council organised it with the support of Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED), NZTE and MFAT.

Media contact at Auckland Council: Glyn Jones 021 475897
ATEED (Auckland Tourism Events & Economic Development)
NZTE (New Zealand Trade & Enterprise)

From Soju to Sauvignon blanc – Korean FTA (NZ INC)

Tim McCready

When the New Zealand – Korea free trade agreement signed in March enters into force, tariffs will be eliminated on 48% of current goods. New Zealand’s exports to Korea current attract $229 million every year in duties.

In the first year alone the free trade agreement will save an estimated $65 million in duties, and within 15 years of establishment the remaining tariffs will be largely eliminated. The industries that will see the most benefit are those exporting dairy, red meat, kiwifruit and wine.

The current tariff on wine exports to Korea is 15%, and this will be wiped immediately as the agreement enters into force. This tariff concession will provide a good boost to exporters, but despite the removal of tariffs, exporting wine to Korea remains a challenge for New Zealand.

This is largely due to the tax and distribution system. When wine arrives in Korea, a liquor tax of 30% is applied, along with an education tax of 10%. This is even before it hits the distribution networks, a value-added tax of 10%, and retailer markups.

Korea produces and consumes a large amount of liquor locally. Beer and Soju make up 86% of locally produced alcohol. Wine makes up approximately 20% of imported alcohol. Wine is considered to be a luxury product and is consumed by only a small fraction of the population. Red wine is dominating wine imports at 71%, but white wine is beginning to gain more traction.

With the removal of tariffs, New Zealand wine producers will now be placed on an equal playing field with major international competitors in the market including the US, EU, Chile and Australia. However, the rest of the taxes that make up the total cost of wine are payable whether a free trade agreement is in place or not.

The combination of taxes, high distribution costs and mark-ups can make New Zealand wine significantly more expensive in Korea than in many other countries. And because New Zealand wine is typically sold as a premium product, and tax is applied as a percentage of price rather than a cost per unit, this can increase the markup on a bottle of New Zealand wine significantly when compared to budget brands of wine. This differs to Japan where tax is applied per bottle, and education tax doesn’t exist.

In the year ending June 2014, South Korea accounted for just $2 million of New Zealand’s $1.3 billion wine export business globally. That said, New Zealand wine is increasingly becoming of more interest to South Korea. Until 2001, only one New Zealand winery had a presence in the Korean market. The number grew to 38 in just six years. Demand for New Zealand wine is growing as consumers become more aware and curious to try white wine.

But we still have a way to go.

I visited three cities during my visit to Korea, and one thing that surprised me is that I was frequently asked if New Zealand produced any alcohol. High-end restaurants had New Zealand wine on their wine list, but my experience demonstrated that the average consumer was largely unaware of our ranking in the wine world.

The free trade agreement will undoubtedly be great for New Zealand’s dairy, meat and horticultural industries. But the wine industry will be one to watch. Chile had a noticeable boost in wine exports after their free trade agreement was signed with Korea, and it is likely that New Zealand will see a similar lift.

But it could be that the free trade agreement gives New Zealand the impetus it needs to boost the recognition and acceptance of our wine brands in Korea. And if that occurs, the benefit of the free trade agreement would vastly exceed any reduction in tariffs.

http://nzh.tw/11447897

Tim McCready

Silicon Valley investment an art, not a science says expert.

A leading American venture capitalist, Bill Reichert, believes entrepreneurs and investors have a huge opportunity in New Zealand, particularly in the areas of graphics, animation and agriculture.

Reichert, managing director of Garage Technology Ventures which is based in California’s Silicon Valley, says New Zealand has a unique and compelling advantage across a variety of sectors and is ripe for disruptive innovation.

He says New Zealand now has strong angel groups that have made good investments, and some have graduated to small venture-style funds. However, he feels angel resources could be more aggressively pooled so that capital is set aside for follow-on investment when companies go global. A beachhead adviser for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) Reichert travelled with SVForum chief executive officer Adiba Barney to Auckland and the other main centres, making presentations and meeting entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders.

They were supporting Callaghan Innovation’s incubator programme and providing local technology businesses with a connection in Silicon Valley. Barney believes New Zealand should leverage the success of technology companies like Xero — just as Sweden, her home country, has done with the likes of Skype, Spotify, Minecraft and Candy Crush. They have strengthened the Swedish innovation ecosytem.

She says Xero is a trailblazer and the network it has created will make the path easier for future companies to follow.

Reichert outlined his 10 investment myths New Zealand angel investors and innovators could learn from (below):

His parting advice was that the water separating New Zealand and Silicon Valley shouldn’t matter – there is also a lot of space between Silicon Valley and New York. New Zealand should recognise its strengths and successes, feel the pride and not be afraid to brag about it.

Myth 1: Invest in what you know.

If you have become an angel investor, what you used to know is unlikely to be relevant. Instead, you should be technology agnostic and consider all opportunities. Most winners are black swans – random opportunities where success seems obvious with the benefit of hindsight.

Myth 2: Focus on making money

You can’t look at a start-up company the way you look at the stock market. The margins and projections an inventor or CEO provide are almost always wrong. Focus on whether they are creating value, and in turn, a valuable company.

Myth 3: The key is good due diligence.

Investors often feel a robust due diligence process will result in a good decision. But you cannot capture the data required to show if there is inherent value in a start-up. Instead, you have to develop good intuition and use your heart to make decisions. This is not something that fits into a standard due diligence checklist.

Myth 4: Don’t let emotions cloud your decision.

Since start-ups can’t give you reliable data, you have to pay attention to your emotions. If, for whatever reason, you don’t like the founders, it doesn’t matter how amazing their business model is.

Myth 5: Build a consensus among a syndicate of investors.

Most investors look for consensus. But historical data shows the best investments are controversial. If an idea is obvious it is unlikely any particular company will dominate the industry.

Myth 6: Success comes from adding value.

Everyone working in investment likes to think they add value. The harder you have to work for an investment the less likely it is to succeed. Instead, invest in a team that has the technology and understands the market. Investors don’t build companies, entrepreneurs build companies.

Myth 7: Protect yourself from follow-on investment.

By including protective provisions for yourself, you will likely poison the company. If you think you need them because you don’t trust the entrepreneur, don’t invest in the company.

Myth 8: Valuation is important.

You can focus so much on valuation that you lose sight of what is important. So often after signing a deal investors go through a surprise at the first board meeting. They were buried in term sheets and negotiated from a presentation that is now long out of date.

Myth 9: It is cheap to start a company now.

This is true, but it is more expensive than ever to build a successful company. Anyone can start a company, which means there is a lot of competition. Growth costs money, and a flat open world doesn’t necessarily make things cheap.

Myth 10: Diversify your portfolio.

There is no point diversifying into arbitrary categories. Diversify your entire portfolio, but not your angel investments. Instead of chasing hot sectors, invest in ideas that are exciting and have an edge – things that could be the next black swan.

Touring the UN Memorial Cemetery in Busan (KBS News)

Visiting every London Underground station

When I arrived in London, I asked several of my London-born friends if they had visited every station on the London Underground. Once they finished laughing at me, they told me they hadn’t  And that it was a ridiculous idea. Which only made me more determined to do it.

The world record for passing through each station (without getting off the train) is 16.5 hours. There are near weekly attempts to beat this record, so I couldn’t help but feel an attempt at the record was futile. Besides, the stations are what interested me.

I thought it would be far more interesting (and yet to be done), to get off at each platform, and get a photo taken next to the station name. This meant that I saw some fascinating things on my journey, and spotted interesting anomalies at each station. It also meant that I needed to get out at each stop, take a picture, and wait for the next train, which took a minimum of two minutes, and in some cases up to 40 minutes. In addition to this, my idea of creating a stop motion animation of my movements once the photos were placed in alphabetical order meant that I had to carry a fairly sophisticated spreadsheet with me – to tell me where I should be standing and what I needed to be wearing, holding, and doing at each station. Altogether it took about 50 hours to complete, spread over seven (non-consecutive!) days. You can view the finished video below.

My story has been featured as part of the London Underground’s 150th anniversary celebrations on the BBC, CNN, London’s Evening Standard, The New Zealand Herald, and Italian media.

TimMcCready_newspaper

Spending 50 hours on the London Underground meant that I experienced a lot. Some of the more memorable moments include:

  • Being told over the loudspeaker at Clapham Common “Can the person taking pictures on the platform turn their flash off. It is distracting to our drivers” – even though a flash was never used.
  • Having friendly Londoners (usually older people) spot me as a ‘tourist’ and tell me interesting facts about the underground (some of which I knew were incorrect but I enjoyed their stories nonetheless!)
  • Realising that the Central line trains out in the far east loop come only every 20-40 minutes. That was not fun in the winter, especially when every station required taking off my scarf, jacket and gloves for the picture. I spent a lot of time in the heated waiting rooms – until they were locked at 9pm!
  • Six of the underground stations (Barking, Gunnersbury, Kew Gardens, Richmond, Upminster and Wimbledon) don’t have the iconic roundel signs installed on the platforms. I had to compromise somehow so I held up the sign (underneath whatever signs they did have on the platform).
I often get asked which was my favourite station. That’s tricky. A few that stand out are:
  • Marble Arch, Tottenham Court Road, Baker Street and Charing Cross for station art
  • Canary Wharf and Westminster for station design
  • Epping for its garden – with all the plant pots and tulips around it seemed like I’d popped up in someone’s garden
  • Greenford Station was memorable because it has the last remaining wooden escalator in the underground system after the Kings Cross station fire.

Converge+UK: creative, business & technology abrasion

When I arrived in the UK from New Zealand I was chatting with two friends who had also recently relocated – Peter Thomson and Klaus Bravenboer, about the types of business events being held in London. We were surprised that the events we had been to tended to be very sector-specific, and that innovation, collaboration and access to capital in London didn’t seem as far ahead of New Zealand as we had expected.

We recognised that the most exciting part of working in start-ups is when people from different backgrounds come together to make something exciting happen. Aristotle was exactly right: ‘The whole is more than the sum of its parts’ (we prefer the term ‘creative abrasion’,  proposed by a little known book from the 1980’s with the same name, which postulated that genuinely new ideas emerge from the debate, disagreements and diversity that only happens when really opposing viewpoints collide).

Off the back of this conversation we created a non-profit organisation – “Converge+UK”.

GET SHT DONE POSTER PRINT

Converge+UK runs events that bring together disparate groups of people from creative, business, and technology sectors.

For the first event we partnered with Google and hosted at Google Campus. Continuing to run our events in London start-up incubators we have also held Converge+UK events in the Innovation Warehouse and at Wayra.

Over time we have refined the event to include:

  •  Three blocks of “5in5“ presentations – five slides, one minute per slide. Five minutes is enough to cover five key points of a topic, and one minute per slide is a good length for storytelling and
  • Two group exercises before breaks
  • Plenty of networking opportunities between blocks of speakers

Bringing designers, developers, entrepreneurs, scientists, angels, corporates and industry leaders together has provided the opportunity to produce remarkable solutions to extremely disparate problems. Group exercises we have run include discussing how LOCOG (the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) could have better dealt with the problem of empty sponsor seats in the Olympic stadium, and how we could use ‘creative abrasion’ to better educate the community about the problem with payday loans – an increasing problem in the UK.

converge_TimMcCready

converge_TimMcCready_Klaus

To find out more about Converge+UK, visit our website, follow us on Twitter, connect with us on facebook, or sign up to come along to our next event at Meetup.com.

“There were just so many meetups in London that it’s overwhelming, there’s something on every night, but it’s impossible to know which events are worth going to and even when you find a good event, it’s all people from the same discipline. It’s like partying in a giant echo chamber. I wanted to start something that bought people together in new ways.”

– Klaus Bravenboer

“There is a rebel spirit to most entrepreneurs that is somehow lacking in the events and support for innovation in the UK.”

– Peter Thomson

“Innovation is now so important to every sector. In every industry from supermarkets to social networks, if you don’t constantly delight your customers then two guys in a garage somewhere are coming for you.”

– Tim McCready

Converge_Wayra

 

APEC 2012 CEO Summit – Vladivostok, Russia

In 2012 I was asked to represent New Zealand at the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit in Vladivostok, Russia.

The summit is the Asia Pacific’s premier business event, with the Asia-Pacific’s political leaders and the regions leading CEOs in attendance. The theme this year was “addressing challenges, expanding possibilities”, and with it being held in the Russian Far East, delegates were shown an impressive country with bold ambitions – many embedded in the Asia-Pacific, that dispelled myths and stereotypes.

Video 1: APEC 2012 Overview

Video 2: Behind the scenes in Vladivostok

Political Leaders
One of the biggest highlights of attending APEC was the opportunity to attend the plenary addresses from global leaders, as they outlined their visions, experiences and perspectives on issues of discussion. Leaders included:

  • His Excellency Mr. Hu Jintao, President of the People’s Republic of China, who spoke about the challenges and opportunities China has in their relations with Russia. He also outlined the measures and leadership China is aspiring to take on intellectual property, and inward and outward foreign direct investment throughout the APEC economies.
  • The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State of the United States of America, addressed the importance APEC plays with members accounting for 54% of world GDP. She spoke about the potential of the platform for economic growth, and the responsibility we have in areas such as security, and assistance for women and minorities in small business in developing countries, so they can also reap these benefits.
  • His Excellency Mr. Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, spoke of opportunities in Russia and outlined measures being taken to ease logistics through upgrades to the Trans-Siberian railway. He fielded questions into Chinese investment in Russia and the on-going negotiations into a New Zealand – Russia/Belarus/Kazakhstan Free Trade Agreement. President Putin acknowledged that developing regions will continue to grow far more quickly than traditional markets, and that the former Soviet-era port of Vladivostok is poised to become a gateway for Russian trade and investment with Asia. Russia has finally joined the World Trade Organisation after an 18 year wait, and having Vladivostok chosen as the APEC venue marked an exciting time as Russia becomes more integrated into the global economy.

I formed part of the Small and Medium Enterprises working group at APEC, and was elected by my working group to present the declaration back to the wider APEC community – which included Russian media and APEC officials.

Tim_McCready_APEC

Meeting with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key

The New Zealand Voices of the Future delegates were fortunate to have twenty minutes with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key. Meeting their leader wasn’t possible for every Voices of the Future delegate, and spoke volumes to the accessibility and transparency of the New Zealand government. The meeting offered a great opportunity to hear more personally about New Zealand’s priorities at the APEC Summit, and openly discuss topics ranging from:

  • New Zealand’s place at the APEC table and what is being done to ensure the voices of smaller developing nations are being heard at forums like APEC and at trade agreement negotiations such as the TPP
  • recent calls for the strengthening of the Waitangi Tribunal, and where the government thinks the Treaty of Waitangi stands in New Zealand’s future.
  • how to best harness business opportunities in Russia, given New Zealand’s limited capacity of SMEs and the current focus on opportunities in China, India and other parts of Asia
  • the Prime Ministers upcoming meeting with Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, and the status of the New Zealand – Russia free trade agreement.

Tim_McCready_John_KeyNew Zealand Prime Minister John Key, Tim McCready

Business Leaders
As well as leaders from the APEC economies, the Summit had addresses and panel discussions into many critical areas of focus for the Asia-Pacific from prominent CEOs and business leaders throughout the region. These sessions included:

  • Food: Feeding seven billion people. Speakers including Sergey Polyakov (General Director of United Grain company) and Samuel Allen (Chairman, John Deere & Co), who discussed the challenges we have with a growing global population and depleting resources.
  • Health is wealth. Panelists included the CFO of Johnson & Johnson, the Chief Research and Strategy Officer of Microsoft, as well as New Zealander Ian McCrae (CEO, Orion Health). The changing landscape of healthcare was discussed, and it was noted that we have reached a time where medical knowledge has surpassed what healthcare practitioners can know, which creates a discontinuity in how medicine is practised around the world. One of the most inspiring moments was when the panel discussed how investment in health can provide a significant social and economic return to economies. The panel agreed that people should be thought of as an investment, not as a cost – because without people, you won’t have a company.

Tim_McCready_working_group

Concluding thoughts
The theme of APEC this year was “addressing challenges, expanding possibilities”, and the summit did a great job of covering these topics. On a more personal level, having the opportunity to attend APEC as a Voices of the Future delegate has encouraged me to reflect on my own challenges and possibilities within the Asia-Pacific region. I have previously done business with major Asian markets, but my eyes have truly been opened to the opportunities within emerging APEC economies. Business and political leaders from those regions are excited about their potential – and they have good reason to be. That excitement has been infectious, and the experience and insights I have left Russia with will stay with me always.

Tim_McCready_debate