More quotable quotes from this year’s Morgo

Mike Hutchinson – ICE Interactive (Quoting a Tongan cleaner):

Everyone needs:

• Something to do
• Someone to love
• Something to look forward to

Leigh Jasper and Rob Phillpot – Aconex

• Get the right people, and move the wrong ones on quickly
• Defend the culture
• Be born global
• Know your industry
• You can’t skimp on service
• Maintain your independence and level the playing field
• Strategise the network
• Align participants’ incentives through the business model

Mark Stuart (WaikatoLink) and Brad Duft (CoDa Theraputics)

• Fundraising reality: No IP, no money
• Deal-making reality: No IP, no deal
• Innovation = invention + commercialisation;

Andy Lark (Dell)

• A CEO dedicates on average 9 minutes to each decision
• The quality of your [social] network is a predictor of your success. You are your network.
• It’s not how many awards you get, it’s how many recommenders you have.
• Authenticity matters

Ten tips:

• Communicate abnormally to be noticed
• Timing is everything
• Turn up – there’s no substitute for being there in person
• Plan the pass on – if you’re asking for a reference, write that reference
• Avoid communication constipation
• Cold calling rarely works
• Nurture your network; don’t be needy
• Respect rejection
• Work your story

Morgo is Jenny Morel’s summit for people involved in NZ’s high-growth businesses.  You’d be hard pressed to find a conference room in New Zealand with more entrepreneurial energy and smarts.  Nearly all of the speakers are inspirational, and the quality and level of conversation is extremely high.

Unfortunately, Chatham House Rules apply, but here are some of the best generic quotes of the day:

Ross Stevens – Victoria Design School:

The future is remarkable but the present is stranger than we believe

A lot of futures projects have a very large bullshit factor

Mark Billinghurst – Hitlab NZ

(Quoting Bill Buxton) It takes 20 years for new technologies to go from the lab to the living room

The future is with us.  The trick is to spot it – commercialisation is more about prospecting than alchemy.

Selwyn Pellett – Endace / Imarda

Knowing where you’re going saves everything: time, energy, money, reputation, marriages

I don’t care about where our products are manufactured, or even designed. What I do care about is where we pay tax – we need to ensure our tax base stays healthy in New Zealand, otherwise it will place a disproportionate load on the rest of us.

Recurring revenue is very addictive!

Bill Reichert – Garage Technology Ventures

New companies need to be global on day one.

The biggest value adds in startups come from stealing other people’s technologies and integrating them in a novel way that is hard to replicate.

This year’s MORGO conference wrapped up today with more good sessions, interesting speakers, and great networking.

Choice quotes:

Mary Quinn, author of “Kidnapped in Yemen“:

It’s all good until it’s bad

Mark Ahn, Victoria University Management School:

There are two features which differentiate successful from mediocre investment funds.  The good funds accelerate fast failure, and they also accelerate companies that are meeting and exceeding their targets.

On average, the announcement of an alliance has an 18% uplift in the market value of a small cap company.

Glenn Martin, Martin Jetpack

If your competitors start abusing you personally and your family, you know you’re onto something.

Amateur is not a dirty word – we’re all amateurs in some sense, and enthusiasm carries us through.

Spreadsheets do lie – you can’t include everything in the plan.

David Cunliffe, Minister of Communicataions and Information Technology

You guys [entrepreneurs] are the real inspirers – let’s take our beautiful little place to the next level by working together.

Jenny Morel’s MORGO conference for 2008 is underway, and it’s some of the best professional development and networking time I’ve spent in a great while. The talks have hit the sweet spot between academic theory on the one hand, and moving personal stories on the other, with lessons from the coal face of applied sweat and sagacity bang in the middle. Most people you meet here have either hatched an audacious idea, or have funded one; in many cases both.

Here are some quotable quotes:

Bill Day, Seaworks [on going after a small slice of a large market, or focussing on the local market]:

What would you like for dinner, just some of the leg of a cow, or an entire ant?

Didier Elzinga, Rising Sun Pictures:

Growth doesn’t hurt when you’re growing, it hurts when you stop.

Andy Lark, Dell:

It actually isn’t about scale – it’s about commitment and execution. Little things done well yield big results.

Individualism (ie failure to operate as a team) is the biggest threat to success in a startup.

Location matters. We need to get our companies offshore, closer to pools of leadership, talent and resources.

Never get cute when asking for money.

Ben Anderson, CT Partners:

Hire great people – “good enough” won’t cut it. A players hire A players; B players hire C players.

Paul Dyson, Ultramotor

Almost every relationship you establish at the start [of your company] is critical to the future of the company. Make sure they are well considered.