New Zealand has the main attributes to become a version of Silicon Valley and is on the right path, according to two US experts.
Sam Altman and Scott Nolan have worked in California's famous start-up hub, Silicon Valley for years. Altman is president of start-up accelerator Y Combinator which has funded more than 700 start-ups in the past 10 years, with Nolan a partner of Founders Fund, a leading venture capital firm in Silicon Valley.
The pair have visited New Zealand several times, and said based on their view of the country as well as some of the innovative entrepreneurial companies emerging, they believed New Zealand could grow into a global start-up hub similar to Silicon Valley.
"New Zealand is a younger system and has more growing to do, but it seems like it's on a trajectory from what we can tell to be [the next Silicon Valley]," Altman said.
"We think New Zealand has a lot of the pieces you need to make an ecosystem work - very good technical talent, a community that's interested in start-ups, expertise in specific areas that we think are likely to create disruption, a relatively low cost of living, and if you look at the sort of things that a country needs to create a great start-up environment we think that New Zealand has a lot of those criteria."