When Geoffrey Moore wrote his seminal book, ‘Crossing the Chasm’, he argued that there is a chasm between the early adopters of a product (the technology enthusiasts and visionaries) and the early majority (the pragmatists). Moore believed that visionaries and pragmatists have very different expectations, and he attempted to explore those differences and suggest techniques to successfully ‘cross the chasm’, including choosing a target market, understanding the whole product concept, positioning the product, building a marketing strategy, choosing the most appropriate distribution channel and pricing.

In New Zealand, we face additional challenges to those outlined by Moore. Our domestic market is small; we are quite distant from many of the world’s major markets and access to startup and early stage risk capital at home is limited.

Chris Williams: The NZ Story Asset Library

This is the real challenge facing Kiwi entrepreneurs and it is this challenge that generated the concept that fostered Wharf42. If we have to do battle on foreign soil and battle we must, working with a well-connected team of experienced investors and business development partners based in the local market provides immediate market opportunity and leverage. They know the rules and they can open up networks Kiwi entrepreneurs new to that market can only dream of.

Wharf42 has a particular geographic and domain focus. The team behind Wharf42 have collectively lived and worked in Silicon Valley and the greater San Francisco Bay area for many years. We understand both the opportunities and challenges this most innovative of technology-driven regions has to offer. We have collectively experienced our fair share of spoils and war wounds on the way. As entrepreneurs, we have learnt a lot we can now share.

This website provides an insight into some of the services that Wharf42 can offer startup or early stage businesses if you are looking at either learning from or expanding into the San Francisco Bay and Silicon Valley region.

It is our mission and our ambition to help fellow Kiwi entrepreneurs cross the chasm so graphically described in Geoffrey Moore’s book. We hope that the information provided on this website and the services Wharf42 can offer will help you accelerate your business and its global potential.

Peter Wren-Hilton
Wharf42 Founder