Start-ups shine as incubators grow new crop

A support network helps build a bright future for young Kiwi businesses. Tim Hunter reports.

At about 1am on Friday, our time, a helicopter took off from New York on the first leg of a round the world record attempt, aiming to circumnavigate the globe in under 17 days.

Aviation fans can watch the progress of pilots Scott Kasprowicz and Steve Sheik live on their website, thanks to some clever tracking technology provided by a small company from a start-up incubator in Princes St, Dunedin.

It was a good week for TracPlus Global - the company also won Start- Up Exporter of the Year at the Incubator Awards in Wellington on Tuesday.

Founder Chris Hinch has no doubt that without the support of the UpStart incubator and its CEO Norman Evans he wouldn't have made it this far.

"UpStart has been an absolutely critical success factor for us," said Hinch. "If you go back three years to the first time I met Norman - he kicked me out of his office saying 'come back with a better idea'.

"It's always challenging when a technologist meets an entrepreneur of the calibre of Dr Norman Evans, but I have nothing but enormous respect for the man."

As an emerging technology entrepreneur, Hinch had a useful apprenticeship at Ian Taylor's Animation Research, the company behind America's Cup viewing software Virtual Spectator. But after "five wonderful years" he decided it was time to step out on his own.

"I wanted to know if I could walk the walk as well as have an opinion," he said.

The result is TracPlus Global, which hit the market a year ago with a product designed for air, sea and land rescue services. Its focus is to help organisations locate and track their vehicles, boats and planes anywhere in the world, without tying them to any particular hardware package.

The technology has been used to support several high-profile expeditions, such as Pete Bethune's Earthrace biofuel-powered circumnavigation and Australian kayakers James Castrission and Justin Jones Tasman crossing. A big local contract is with the Coastguard, which is using TracPlus to monitor 87 vessels and six aircraft.

Hinch is now preparing the company to move out of UpStart and stand on its own.

"We're three-quarters of the way through a funding round at the moment, which should take us through to trading profitably at the rate we've projected."

Leaving UpStart does not mean leaving Dunedin however.

"It's not as easy as operating out of somewhere like Auckland, but there's something about working outside of that that gives you a more grounded view," said Hinch.

"You have to be leaner and work harder, but there are huge benefits in terms of cost of living for our team, the environment and our ability to attract outstanding developers."

Another winner on Tuesday, Start- Up Entepreneur of the Year Carmine Masiello of eBUS, left Auckland's Icehouse 10 days ago with huge praise for the incubator's founding CEO Andy Hamilton.

"I'm trying to stay as close as possible to the Icehouse because the work we've done with Andy has been incredible," said Masiello.

The Italian, who arrived in New Zealand on a round-the-world yacht trip in 2003, has built eBUS into the New Zealand market leader in its chosen niche - an online network service that helps TV broadcasters and production companies share advertising content without physically moving videos from place to place.

The company's target now is to dominate the nascent market in Asia - a proposition that requires simultaneous efforts across several countries. To that end Masiello sought external funding and got it from legendary venture capitalist firm Movac - the original backers of TradeMe - and TradeMe founder Sam Morgan.

The Movac due diligence process took five months, with a break for Christmas, but it was a rewarding exercise for Masiello.

"A couple of weeks ago I had an interesting meeting with 20 CEOs of [incubator] companies at the Icehouse. I was the only one who put the experience of fundraising in the exceptional side of the matrix - everyone else had found it frustrating."

Masiello now has some experienced executives on board, all of whom have bought into the company, and is recruiting staff here and overseas to push the expansion plan. If he succeeds, projections suggest eBUS could be worth $100 million within 10 years.

- © Fairfax NZ News