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Mahesh Muralidhar: Phase One CEO says New Zealand businesses should save money to expand overseas · The SME Stream

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hither duplicy elen the key we investor reckons more businesses
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: in New Zealand should be putting money aside to expand internationally.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Apparently this would get our GDP up. It's one way
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: of doing it. Phase one Venture CEO Mahesha Muralad.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Is with me.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Now, maheshif is totally stuffed up your name, I'm sorry.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: That's all right, Heather. You're not the first one, so
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: that's all right.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I would imagine that's the case. Hey, listen, thank you
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: very much for joining us. I'm kind of surprised that
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: that businesses aren't already thinking about trying to get international customers.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Well, I think it's a story that we have right
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: where we're an entrepreneurial country to islands in the corner
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: of the world, but we don't see scale, so it
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  Speaker 3: doesn't happen naturally to us. The same entrepreneur, the same
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: university student in the US or in India has the
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  Speaker 3: same level of skills as.
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  Speaker 2: Anyone in New Zealand, but they see scale and we don't.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: So we have to actually have to like go out
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  Speaker 3: of our way to start thinking globally from day one.
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  Speaker 1: Is it hard to is it is a difficult thing
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  Speaker 1: to try to get a customer overseas.
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  Speaker 2: No, it's not. I mean, look, it's it's not complex.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: It's hard, right you you're probably working one point one
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  Speaker 3: one point two times what you'd have to do initially,
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  Speaker 3: and it's a little bit more expensive. But you can imagine,
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: I'm sure you can imagine, Heather, that the dividends on
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  Speaker 3: that is significantly more.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 3: So if you if you just go out of your
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  Speaker 3: way to win one more customer or one customer in
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  Speaker 3: the US or in India or in South Stasia and
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  Speaker 3: the Middle East, it pays so much down the road.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: So why don't we have this idea of scale.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: It's it's it's because we it's because we just don't
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  Speaker 2: see that. Right, Like we're in the corner of the world.
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  Speaker 3: We were richer once, nearly if a couple of decades ago,
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  Speaker 3: we were fine.
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  Speaker 2: We probably got a little bit complacent.
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  Speaker 3: We haven't connected with our Kiwi diaspro overseas as much.
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  Speaker 2: I think this is a small country.
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  Speaker 3: Thing, right like you, the kings and queens in any
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  Speaker 3: situation end up blaming that glass ceiling and.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: You don't look outside and look overseas.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: It's we talk about cutting the pie up more often
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  Speaker 3: than growing the pie.
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  Speaker 1: So if you were to to go for certain customers,
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  Speaker 1: which which countries would you be targeting?
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Well, you look, you look at where demand is.
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  Speaker 3: US is still going nuts, at least is going nuts,
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  Speaker 3: Southeast Asia is going nuts, and India is going nuts. Right,
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  Speaker 3: so you have four and of that culturally you're more
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  Speaker 3: we're more connected to the US and the Commonwealth countries,
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  Speaker 3: which are Southeast Asia and India, right, And so those
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  Speaker 3: would be the natural places. US obviously the easiest because
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: law and order signals all of that work. But you'd
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: take a bet on any one of this whichever is
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  Speaker 3: more in line with the business that you have.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: I've got to take you from ben it says. Our
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: freight system here is third world. It's crap, and that's
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  Speaker 1: part of the strobum. What do you think?
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Sure?
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  Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, I mean you don't have to send stuff
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: from New Zealand and to start a business from New Zealand, right, Like,
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: for example, you could start a textile and manufacturing organization
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  Speaker 3: that thing in India or China and then make sure
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: that you marketed better Exeter and then sell it to
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  Speaker 3: the US.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: A La Zuru correct a la Zuo.
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  Speaker 3: You can do it by Amazon, you can do it
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  Speaker 3: by Facebook, marketplaces.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: The thing is to try to find ways to not
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  Speaker 2: make excuses.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, the government's gone a good way in regards
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  Speaker 3: to reaching out and saying, hey, we've got to be global,
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  Speaker 3: but our entrepreneurs and our businesses have to go, hey,
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  Speaker 3: we've got to do this.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: We have to start earning global coin.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: I find it fascinating when you said about the diaspora,
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  Speaker 1: because you're not the first person I've heard say this.
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  Speaker 1: That there are other like the Irish, for example, are
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: really fantastic at kind of harnessing the potential of the
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  Speaker 1: diaspora and making it work for them. If we were to,
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  Speaker 1: and we don't, and if we were to, how would
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  Speaker 1: we do it.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I was in the US about two weeks ago.
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  Speaker 2: There are so many kiwis doing so well.
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  Speaker 3: I think we have to start talking about global from
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: day one, so reaching out to more of these, more
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  Speaker 3: of our our kiwis who are doing so well overseas, right,
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  Speaker 3: like so more of our news media, more of our
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  Speaker 3: leaders looking for best practice globally and saying this is
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  Speaker 3: not good enough, like the all Blacks mean so much
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  Speaker 3: to us, I think because they're one of the best
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  Speaker 3: examples of US hitting like great levels from a global perspective,
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  Speaker 3: What do we want.
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  Speaker 1: To diespera to do. I mean, it's one thing to
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  Speaker 1: look at somebody doing really well overseas reading the news
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  Speaker 1: or something, But then what value is it to us?
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  Speaker 3: A couple of things, role modeling that we can achieve
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  Speaker 3: great things, that we can achieve global things to bringing
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  Speaker 3: back best practice?
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  Speaker 2: Right, how do we think about this? How do we
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  Speaker 2: think about scale? For example?
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  Speaker 3: One of the things you think about when you think
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  Speaker 3: about skills. Don't think about scale straight away. Just understand
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  Speaker 3: the market. Just make one dollar first, and then the
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  Speaker 3: systems and so forth. Global capital it's actually the US
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  Speaker 3: market's US capitals.
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  Speaker 2: Once you go there, it's quite easy.
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  Speaker 3: But you we need role models other kiwis who've done that,
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  Speaker 3: and then we need to look at them.
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  Speaker 2: And go, oh, I can do that too.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Interesting, Hey, that's a very interesting thought that you've
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: given us. Thank you so much for that. Mahesh. It's
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Mahesh Marala. I'm going to give up Mahesh M from
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: here on in on this show, Maheshim Phase one Ventures CEO.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: It's all me it's not him that's the problem.