From South Auckland to a 20-year career in senior leadership roles at global companies including Starbucks, Microsoft, Skype and Amazon, Lovina McMurchy has had an impressive tech career. 

Now tasked with business growth planning functions as COO (Chief Operating Officer) of Kry10, Lovina applies her wealth of knowledge in product management, sales, and marketing to business strategy. A seasoned venture capitalist, in recent years, Lovina has been working as a General Partner in Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest venture capital fund, Movac. 

Kry10 is one of New Zealand’s most promising young SaaS companies, bringing a new, more secure Operating System to internet-connected devices like cars and satellites. From her experience on the global stage, many are eager to learn about what’s happening in the SaaS funding cycle, and how NZ-based companies can best exploit their “unfair advantage” to get a foot in the door.  

Fresh from her keynote speech at Southern SaaS 2024, Lovina continued the conversation with WEDOB2B. Here are the main takeaways.  

Tune into the full conversation here. 

On the global stage, New Zealand is small but mighty 

When we asked about how New Zealand is perceived in Silicon Valley, Lovina’s new home, she said, “New Zealand is seen as one of the centres of excellence. Photonics, lasers and wireless charging were all invented in New Zealand.” Lovina continued that New Zealand also has a reputation as a hardworking and resourceful nation. 

Consolidation and simplification are the biggest opportunities

Subscription saturation might be a barrier to B2B software adoption. 

At first companies were excited about SaaS. But customers are now realising that they have many monthly charges and are looking to consolidate. As a SaaS vendor, a good question to be asking is how can I consolidate?

Find ways of cutting through the noise – something that can usually only be achieved by learning what has worked for others. 

To find opportunities, lean on the SaaS community 

Any company looking to expand into new offshore markets can gain credibility by leveraging state relationships, for example with NZTE. Businesses can benefit a lot from being part of the community, especially because with the pace of SaaS, you can’t afford to make too many mistakes. Arm yourself with knowledge and learn from other people’s experiences.

Even with limitless resources, products can still fail if you don’t listen to the customer 

In a rare glimpse into Amazon's inner workings, during the development phase of Alexa Shopping, the Amazon team fell into the trap of ignoring customer needs, resulting in low market adoption. If they had essentially limitless resources and an already established loyal customer base, what went wrong with Alexa Shopping? 

In hindsight, it’s because they didn’t follow their own leadership value of customer obsession. They overlooked a pivotal customer insight; people don’t want to shop with their voice. They can shop with their computer; they can shop with their phone. They already have a myriad of ways they can shop easily.  
 
One of the risks of being somebody in technology that loves the idea of technology is you can fall in love with these ideas that you haven’t actually validated with customers. This can put precious resources and time at risk of being used to no avail. 

The foundation of a good product launch is customer-centricity

Here is the key advice for New Zealand's SaaS community wanting to take their company global: leverage New Zealand’s reputation for innovation, focus on consolidating value in the saturated SaaS market, and learn from others to avoid costly mistakes. Most importantly, always research customers deeply. Even with vast resources, products can fail without customer validation.