It’s always nice to see people who have had a successful exit from their business do good things for the community. I covered the story recently of the sale of Kiwi LMS provider Litmos to Callidus. I’ve always been really impressed by Litmos founders Nicole Fougere and Rich Chetwynd – both for the fact that they’ve bootstrapped a very successful business, and done so without over-hyping it – but more so for the simple fact that they’re both great people who have always been open and happy to share.
That seems to have continued post-exit, for today the pair are announcing Booster Seat 2011, a program whereby a Kiwi startup can spend a month in San Francisco, gratis. The package that Nicole and Rich are giving away includes;
- Return flights for 2 people to San Francisco
- Accommodation in San Francisco for 30 days
- Up to 2 desks at the new kiwi working space “The Landing Pad” to work from
There’s no strings attached, companies need only contact the pair and explain why the trip would be useful to them. Nicole and Rich (with some help from IceHouse CEO Andy Hamilton) will judge who they deem to be most worthy and that’s it – the winner will be on the way to the Bay Area.
Spending as much time as I do in the US I get a real awareness of just how much difference US exposure can make to a business. On behalf of the Kiwi tech community I’d like to tip my hat in the direction of Nicole and Rich for setting up this initiative. You guys rock!
Hi Ben,
Thanks for publicising the Booster Seat story. I reckon getting up to the valley is a great way of boosting NZ innovation.
I wrote about Demo and some other competitions as innovation pathway over the weekend at
http://www.dialogcrm.com/blog/2011/07/10/is-r-d-spend-a-useful-measure-of-innovation/
Thanks Ben,
Nicole and I are pumped about the opportunity to help a kiwi startup/biz get started in the US.
Cheers,
Rich
Thanks Ben for such kind words. We’re so happy we can give something back to the NZ community, and are super excited to begin reading the competition entries as they come in!
Cheers,
Nicole