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Auckland, NZ ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auckland,_NZ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auckland,_NZ )

chrismsnz 16y ago
Do you have any more information about the startup scene in Auckland? I live here and I was under the impression that most tech businesses and startups crop up in Wellington, or "Silicon Welly" :)
julianz 16y ago
I would have gone for Wellington rather than Auckland. There's been several large success stories out of Wellington and there's a fair bit of VC cash, they're trying hard to get a good startup culture going. Tons of tech companies there. Excellent (really, truly wonderful) coffee. The downsides are occasionally (OK, often) hideous weather and potential earthquake risks. Auckland is a nice place but has horrible traffic, near-useless public transport for some areas and is about to go through a total shemozzle of a local government reshuffle, which may drag things back a bit.
lzw 16y ago
I've spent time in New Zealand and quite like the country. Just looked at the immigration policies again and they seem pretty reasonable. How have the politics of New Zealand at the national level changed over the last decade? More or less business friendly? At the time of my visit it seemed taxes were high but government was less corrupt than in most countries.
- chrismsnz 16y ago
  We have a "conservative" government since 2008. Before that we were lead by a left-wing, worker friendly (with a little neoliberalisim thrown in) Labour government for 9 years. Despite that, we fairly consistently came out tops as a great place for small businesses (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/2007/06/01/100049637/index.htm http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/2007/06/01/10...). And also, our tax rates may seem high but overall taxation is quite low, especially compared to other countries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Income_Taxes_By_Country.svg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Income_Taxes_By_Country.sv...). Note that our corperate tax rate has dropped quite a bit since 2005.

Do you have any more information about the startup scene in Auckland? I live here and I was under the impression that most tech businesses and startups crop up in Wellington, or "Silicon Welly" :)

julianz 16y ago

I would have gone for Wellington rather than Auckland. There's been several large success stories out of Wellington and there's a fair bit of VC cash, they're trying hard to get a good startup culture going. Tons of tech companies there. Excellent (really, truly wonderful) coffee. The downsides are occasionally (OK, often) hideous weather and potential earthquake risks. Auckland is a nice place but has horrible traffic, near-useless public transport for some areas and is about to go through a total shemozzle of a local government reshuffle, which may drag things back a bit.

lzw 16y ago

I've spent time in New Zealand and quite like the country. Just looked at the immigration policies again and they seem pretty reasonable. How have the politics of New Zealand at the national level changed over the last decade? More or less business friendly? At the time of my visit it seemed taxes were high but government was less corrupt than in most countries.

chrismsnz 16y ago
We have a "conservative" government since 2008. Before that we were lead by a left-wing, worker friendly (with a little neoliberalisim thrown in) Labour government for 9 years. Despite that, we fairly consistently came out tops as a great place for small businesses (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/2007/06/01/100049637/index.htm http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/2007/06/01/10...). And also, our tax rates may seem high but overall taxation is quite low, especially compared to other countries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Income_Taxes_By_Country.svg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Income_Taxes_By_Country.sv...). Note that our corperate tax rate has dropped quite a bit since 2005.