Latest / Best of Business / Pam Ford: Auckland Council General Manager of Economic Development on the beginning of Auckland Startup Week

Transcript

Pam Ford: Auckland Council General Manager of Economic Development on the beginning of Auckland Startup Week · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB. Follow this
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio. Big
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: focus this week on start-ups. Last year's start-up week showcased
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: 135 start-ups. Auckland accounts for 55% of the country's $ 24
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: billion tech sector. Innovation Hub generating $ 424 million in annual
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: GDP contributions. So it's big bucks these days. Pam Ford
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: is the Auckland Council's GM of Economic Development and is
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: with us.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Pam, morning.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Morning.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Morning, Mike.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: So when we talk about startups v the tech sector,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: are they separate? Things are all the same thing, or
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: you deal with startups within the tech sector?
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Well, generally, startups are young, tech-focused or high-growth organizations. So
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: they're kind of a subset of the wider tech industry.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Okay. The 424 annual GDP contribution, how do we add
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: that up? Is that real, or is it done from
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: some Massey University study that picks a few numbers and
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: puts them in a big pot and stirs them around?
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: I think you're talking about the impact of the Grid
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: AKL startup community that we've been running for the last
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: 10 years. So that's really about the number of jobs
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: that have been created, the companies that have had spin-outs,
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: all of those sort of things that Brad Olson would put,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: I think he actually did the report, would put into
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: the economic machine and pop out the contribution. There's no
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: doubt that startups are the people that are creating the jobs,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: finding solutions for global problems and our future exporters.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Are they at the cutting edge of the economy? I mean, allegedly,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: we're all miserable at the moment and down in the dumps.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: So do the startup numbers drop along that or do
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: people with ideas just get on with life generally?
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Oh, look, they're a certain breed. If you think about,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: you know, Sir Peter Beck or Craig Piggott from Holter
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: and so many others, they are really driven to create,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: to innovate. And I think they just keep going. And
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: I've seen that we've had kind of 600 million plus
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: exits over the last five years. So we're just trying
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: to build that pipeline of more of those big companies
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: and then they feed the whole kind of system.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: The 55% represented by Auckland, is that just sheer population size?
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: You will always get that sort of number in a
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: big city?
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Well, no, Auckland does punch above its weight. So usually
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: we're about a third of all the statistics. So if
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: you think about start-ups, there's 1,400 of the 2,400 start-ups
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: are based in Auckland. So that's close to 60%. So
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: we really are punching above our weight, which goes to
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: the whole, again, the system that you have here, the universities,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: the venture capitalists, the support from the banks. We've got
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Kiwi Bank and Forsyth Bar sponsoring this week. And there's
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: a real system that enables these start-ups to thrive.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Fantastic. Well, have a good week. Nice to talk to you,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Pam Ford, Auckland Council GM of Economic Development.