Embrace a US failure tolerance, NZ startups told

Social + Capital Partnership founder and speaker Chamath Palihapitiya.

Other cultures should learn from America's tolerance for failure - local entrepreneurs have been told at a local business conference.

Hong Kong based investment firm Horizons Ventures was in New Zealand last week giving six technology startups the chance to pitch ideas for capital in a "Dragons Den"-style panel at the Auckland gathering.

Guest speaker Chamath Palihapitiya, founder of The Social + Capital Partnership, a firm that invests in breakthrough companies in healthcare, education, financial services, mobile and enterprise software, said failure should be celebrated as freely as success.

"Credibility in the technical world is given to those who are unafraid of trying new things", he said.

Originally from Canada, Palihapitiya said culturally America understood the importance of trying new things and failure was treated like a "badge of honour".

The opportunity is for everybody else to figure out how to embrace it, and not to look down on those who try something audacious and fail, he said.

"The greatest business opportunity of the 21st century is to rebuild all existing services for humanity."

Aimed at Kiwi start-up companies, the conference touched on the global landscape of online markets with global internet users growing 8 per cent per year.

Also speaking was Nick D'Aloisio who founded Summly, an app that condenses news articles to be viewed on smartphones.

He said entrepreneurs were getting younger and he had learned how to write computer code from the internet.

"Learning these skills has transcended both age and geographical constraints", he said.

D'Aloisio sold Summly, formerly called Trimit, for a reported US$30m to Yahoo in March this year.

Horizons Invests would not comment on which of the companies pitching were successful, or how much the investment was worth.

"Horizons Ventures will continue dialogue with those start-ups that have potential", they said.