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Telecom is behaving itself (as well as any monopoly provider can), the credit card heist of last week is over, there are no major security scares of note, and the world seems to be ticking over just fine.

Perhaps one item in the news worthy of comment is the announcement of a VC fund worth $80m which, according to the headline, will try to find the next Navman -- well the next two or three Navmans to be correct.

There was a time when, with my little notebook of "million dollar ideas" in hand, I'd have queued up to have my concepts and creations scrutinised by the managers of such a fund -- in the hope that I could then afford to progress a few of those ideas to the stage of commercial success.

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These days I'm a little more jaded in respect to the value of such funds.

My recent period of enforced frugality has proven just how much can be achieved without the investment of a fist-full of cash into some hi-risk venture.

It's amazing how much one or two people can do if they simply apply themselves to the task of designing, refining and developing a product to the point where it becomes a commercially viable reality.

What's more, the beauty of doing things this way is that, once you've reached the point where you're actually making a profit, you still have ownership and control.

Of course there will always be some areas of innovation where a good wad of cash is essential -- but in others (and software is a good example) it's not. The vast majority of the cost involved in developing, testing and debugging a software project can be covered by way of the sweat of the developers.

History shows that some of the most popular and successful bits of software ever to have hit the market were the result of kitchen-table developers.

In fact, the rise of the OSS model is perhaps the perfect example of how world-beating software can be developed at low/no cost, simply through the investment of time and effort by those responsible.

Another thing I've noticed is that those who are working from their kitchen table, without the benefit of millions in VC, are often far more focused than their well-funded peers. This focus can hike productivity and improve the quality of the product because those un(der)-funded developers know that they won't be having a happy Christmas until they've completed their tasks and shipped the product.

I'm actually wondering whether the dearth of true venture capital in New Zealand has actually been an advantage to us. While over-funded developers have been driving around in their Porsches instead of burning the midnight code-cutting oil, many Kiwis have been innovating and working hard in anticipation of such wealth.

Could this explain why so many great products have come out of New Zealand in the past decade or so?

Could this be why Kiwi programmers seem to have a great reputation and appear to have no problems landing jobs overseas when they want?

What's your experience?

Have you done any successful kitchen-table development and if so, what was the driving force behind that success?

Have you worked for a well-funded company and found things to be just a little too cushy (too many toys in the office perhaps)?

Do companies such as Navman germinate from well-funded VC investments, or from dedicated Kiwis investing their own time and money into a good idea?

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