Chris O'Reilly said the company's success has been driven by the pull factors of the Hawkes Bay lifestyle, which have helped attract the right talent. Photo / Supplied
Chris O'Reilly said the company's success has been driven by the pull factors of the Hawkes Bay lifestyle, which have helped attract the right talent. Photo / Supplied
The Central North Island's fastest-growing tech company says Hawke's Bay is set to benefit from a major "brain gain" as more highly skilled workers move to the region for its climate and lifestyle.
Havelock North-based AskYourTeam, which makes a technology platform that involves employees in the management of a company,took out the regional award at the 2019 Deloitte Fast 50 Awards after recording 288% growth in the past three years.
CEO Chris O'Reilly said the company's success has been driven by the pull factors of the Hawke's Bay lifestyle, which have helped attract the right talent.
"Finding talent is everything when you're growing a tech business. You need smart people with the right technical skills, and they're in hot demand around New Zealand.
"Hawke's Bay can offer shorter commuting times, more affordable housing, and better work-life balance. Increasingly, it's these lifestyle dividends that attract top talent," O'Reilly said.
AskYourTeam now employs over 25 people from 8 countries, and for O'Reilly he hopes to increase this significantly in the next 12 months.
The company has seen widespread uptake of its services among the local government sector, public service and private sector businesses.
O'Reilly says AskYourTeam is not slowing its growth trajectory and says Hawke's Bay has the potential to become a tech hotspot of national importance.
"Hawke's Bay has a natural entrepreneurial culture born out of agribusiness. Now we're seeing that entrepreneurialism expressing itself in the tech sector," he said.
"Attracting talent in critical skills areas like software engineering will see the tech sector as a major contributor to regional growth in the immediate future."
Business Hawke's Bay CEO Carolyn Neville said the region is thriving on the influx of businesses coming to Hawke's Bay.
AskYourTeam now employs over 25 people from 8 countries. Photo / Supplied
"Hawke's Bay has a thriving and growing tech community, which has developed over the past few years and with the expansion of the fibre network, it's no longer necessary for tech companies to be based in the main centres, particularly if they're serving global customers," Neville said.
"This means that technology companies can leverage Hawke's Bay's regional competitive advantage in things like house prices, lifestyle, commute times and work life balance in order to attract top talent."
In recent years the region has seen the likes of Xero establish a regional hub, Fingermark move its headquarters from Auckland to Hawke's Bay and Re-Leased establish a successful global business.
Neville said that they feel the tech and innovation community will continue to grow and definitely has the potential to become a national tech hub.
"There is huge potential for Hawke's Bay to continue to attract investors, businesses and talent to the region, which remains one of the country's top performing regional economies," Neville said.
"Hawke's Bay offers vibrant business support and growth services and has business, iwi, central and local government all working together to deliver on the objectives of Matariki, Hawke's Bay's regional development strategy for economic and inclusive growth."
