Introducing Rabble: a directory of Kiwi technology companies

SouthgateLabs cofounder Rowan Simpson is no stranger to startups. 

His own Flathunt.co.nz was bought by Trade Me, where he went on to work for seven years.

These days he's a director and investor in several early-stage companies, including SMX, Vend and Fishpond.

Below he introduces SouthgateLabs' latest project -  Rabble, a directory of Kiwi technology companies.

There are some sizeable names on the list.

"There's no objective definition of a startup so we haven't restricted ourselves just to early-stage. Some more mature companies listed," Mr Simpson tells NBR. 

"I'm in San Francisco at the moment. By comparison to what is considered a startup here, every company listed on Rabble.co.nz is tiny." - CK

rab•ble n Those most likely to create the future

Today we're pleased to launch Rabble, a directory of Kiwi technology companies.

We’ve created this in response to a few problems that we’ve seen startup companies struggle with first hand.

We hope to help people who want to work on startups find a great place to work.

The biggest constraint for just about all of the good startups we know is finding good people to join the team – and meanwhile, smart people continue to work for big, boring companies. We want to liberate a few from corporate slavery.

We hope to help investors to find better places to put their money to work. We despair to see people joining clubs in the pursuit of deal flow, unaware that the best opportunities are never going to come to them there. We know you have to work to be an investor of choice, but we also know that great companies are out there desperate to find the capital they need to get to the next stage. We want to make the connection.

Last but by no means least, we hope to help startups find the right advice and the things they need to get them moving faster – whether that is a clueful lawyer to assist with a shareholders’ agreement or a printer to help create the perfect t-shirt. We know that startups can be demanding but very rewarding clients, so if we can help those who want to help startups then that would be great.

But, to start with we just want to make a list. We’re putting the M back in MVP. We realise that a list by itself doesn’t really do any of the above very effectively, but we hope it’s a foundation to build on.

Check it out here: rabble.co.nz

We’ve focussed initially on four categories of companies:

1. Those who sell desktop or mobile application software
2. Those who sell hosted software on subscription (SaaS)
3. Those who sell things online (eCommerce)
4. Those who provide a software platform or marketplace

We’ll hopefully add more categories soon – we’re interested to hear what others you think we should add next.

We’ve added about 100 companies that we know of from our own networks and who have been mentioned in the media recently.

Of course, this is by no means an exhaustive list. If you would like us to include your company, or one that you know we’ve missed, please send the details to rabble@southgatelabs.com.

And, even if we already have your company listed we’d like to hear from you too, so we can make sure we have the right people associated with each listing. If you’d like us to update any details we may have incorrect, or even just add a better logo, get in touch and we can sort it out.

But, at this stage, we mostly need your help in spreading the word, on Twitter or Facebook or wherever. Please tell anybody you know who might be interested – perhaps they are potential employees looking for a job, perhaps they are investors wondering where to start, or perhaps they are suppliers who would like to work with startups. Either way, we hope that Rabble can help them.

Please let us know what you think. At this early stage any feedback is useful and appreciated.

Rowan Simpson posts at RowanSimpson.com