The current turmoil in financial and business markets does have a potential upside for early stage NZ ventures – the prospect of experienced Kiwis returning and others migrating to New Zealand.
Several local recruiters are already reporting that they’re experiencing a surge in enquiries from those seeking to return or migrate from the UK and US sooner than they had planned. Many have gained specific knowledge, capital, and most importantly, contacts, from their time working overseas.
For those of you who are building (or potentially building) NZ-based businesses, such people can be critically-important resources, either as employees, advisors or investors.
On the flip side, for many of those who have worked in specialist roles overseas, there are simply no corresponding roles in NZ, hence the need to re-invent themselves to a certain extent. Others will see their migration as the chance to stop working in a traditional corporate environment. So for many, either starting a new venture or getting involved with early stage ventures will be their most likely form of business actitivity.
A logical way to try and find these returning Kiwis and new migrants are though networking events run by incubators, business groups, and professional service providers, as they themselves will be using such events to connect with what’s going on locally as well.
Just something to bear in mind for those of you seeking potential routes to specific market knowledge, investment capital and well-stocked Rolodexes.
