I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.
31-year-old Wellingtonian Claudia Batten has sold her software company to Microsoft. For up to US$400 million (NZ$643 million).
Massive Inc Sells to Microsoft
I heard a program on National Radio about how our productivity rates are low. They were scratching their heads about what industries could improve our productivity.
Hasn’t the software industry proven it this year already? I just read that the total value of our wine exports in 2005 was 360m. TradeMe and Massive alone have generated over a 1B of inwards cash already in just 2006.
So isn’t the relatively low capital software industry the perfect investment for New Zealand to jump on. 100m invested in our capital starved software companies WOULD turn things around. You could put 1m into 100 bets. Best 100 business plans win. Free cash to seed software entrepreneurs to build a business and they pay it back on a Trade Sale.
And/or, Government Departments get 1m worth of product at list. That spins the procurement issue around. First few Government Departments to buy get their software free. This rewards the Departments that want to take a small risk and support the local industry. The best investment is revenue as that provides a customer reference as well.
I think we’re onto something here!
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