From the Resort #18 - Rod Drury (Xero Founder)

'From The Resort & From the Valley' Podcast Series

Recorded at Mercure Resort Fernhill at Queenstown Chamber of Commerce Breakfast Event. 0 - My Intro of Rod Drury. 1:35 - Speech starts, When he first came to Queenstown when Xero started - Did you buy shares? 2:46 - Retired 3 years ago, what does life look like? 3:14 - Covid - More than 2 weeks in one place. 3:35 - Where's the best place to live? 4:30 - Biking Skyline the first time (like snowboarding) 5.25 - Queenstown feels like home. Meeting locals (last 18 months to 2 years) 6:30 - True Crossroads - Place to do meetings. Business meeting on a bike. Great base 8:00 - Location not as important (jump on zoom) 9:00 - Queenstown can be a globally connected place. 10:00 - Diversify away from tourism (Tech industry) 10:50 - Bring forward Fibre, Cell phone coverage, Rollout 5G 12:00 - Innovation Centre, High Speed Electric Car Charges throughout NZ (Every hour and a half) 13:33 - If all Campervans were electric. (Know where the tourists are) 14:30 - Digital Film Studio Project + Gaming Industry. $12 million for screens, Courses (Amazon, Disney, NZTE) 18:45 - 50 Visas - pick specialty areas, tech cluster. Machine learning AI, Gaming, Filming (Google Microsoft - people kicked out of US could come). Affordable housing. 22:30 - Transport pod discussion- Tech to solve transport issue. Pods go down cycle ways. Its been installed in Munich. How it could work in Queenstown. Airport into town. Use for individuals and stock 26:30 - Mountain bike community. Bike towns Derby in Tasmania and other places. Ski strong actors, Biking is Grass roots. Make Queenstown Whistler of Southern Hemisphere. 28:30 - World class trails -build it, maintenance, planting trees, funding 31:15 - Friends of Lake Hayes - Cleaning the Lake. 1.6 million funding there to assist the cleanup. 34:20 - Air Ambulance at Queenstown Airport. 35:30 - Get you and your staff out on the Trails. Business Sponsor a trail, maintenance. 37:00 - Question time - 37.05 - How do you decide what to dedicate your time to? . Many big chunks of projects is preferred. 5-10 year period of working out systems. 39:30 - Leadership should be urgent. recapping 44:20 - My question - Retirement - Important things that Queenstown needs to change. Infrastructure. Affordable housing. Pick zones. The Covid Effect. 46:25 - Will be speaking at Wakatipu House School. 49:45 - Streaming Services - Series been shot here. 50:55 - International School in Queenstown no-brainer. 52:15 - Government biased against Queenstown. Need to keep landing projects in Queenstown. Traffic, school dropoffs, Cycleways. Top tech people in the world are all here. 54.15 - 3 takeways - Everybody is faking it. Clear Vision, Knew Xero would be successful, Capital to execute strategy (raise enough), working on the business so hire to have people working in the business. Hire great people, build the machine. 57.15 - Diversify the economy, need to collaborate. Networking, paying it forward X 10. Add value 59:00 - Which tech company to invest in now (Story about investing in Elon Musk's stock, not a great investor) Get upset to think about it. 1:00.00 - Join the Mountain Bike Club.