Net entrepreneurs wanted

By TOM CLARKE

If you have ever fancied yourself as an internet entrepreneur and you have the idea of ideas to match, Cindy Mitchener wants to hear from you.

Ms Mitchener has just become chief executive of the new internet company eVentures, formed last year by Auckland businessman Craig Heatley and his family, with two partners, Softbank Corporation of Japan and epartners, a company owned by media magnate Rupert Murdoch.

eVentures will bring a wide range of internet-based businesses to New Zealand, ranging from shopping malls to home mortgages and will also invest in new and established internet businesses and concepts here.

Cindy Mitchener believes there will be many investment opportunities for the company in New Zealand.

"New Zealanders are the best in the world at so many things and I'm sure that there are many good ideas out there that can be developed," she says. "I've currently got about 40 proposals on my desk for consideration and there's no reason why we can't take these businesses and ideas back to our international partners.

"We're really keen to hear from anyone who has the right idea - we've got the contacts and the resources and the commitment to really make them work."

As well as seeking out web developers with usable concepts, the company is also looking for investment opportunities with New Zealand-based e-commerce companies.

The opportunities on the net are so broad that she says she can't begin to define them.

eVentures will operate on a business-to-business and business-to-consumer basis and is evaluating more than 300 products available from Softbank and its other affiliates, for possible launch here.

It will definitely be launching the on-line mortgage broking service E-Loan, with the virtual shopping mall, buy.com, likely to follow.

Ms Mitchener doesn't believe the advent of on-line shopping is necessarily all bad news for small retailers.

"I think that's a little bit like asking how worried radio was at the launch of television," she says, reflecting her background with Radio New Zealand and Television New Zealand.

"The point is that it's all changing and the net is just another form of distribution. I don't think it's bad news for anybody, but is good news for everybody. The small retailer, like everyone else, has to look where the opportunities are and go for them."

Cindy Mitchener says her new job reflects the convergence of the technologies she has previously been involved with and follows the trend overseas of media people becoming involved in internet businesses. She began her career as a school teacher and later joined Radio New Zealand, then Television New Zealand in various management roles.

Then came appointments as director of sales and marketing at TV3, and Auckland media director, national media director and deputy managing director of the Auckland office of Saatchi & Saatchi. She became chief executive of Touchdown Productions, but says the opportunity to join eVentures as chief executive was a business opportunity she could not turn down.