Walker Wireless

"Around the time that Sky floated, all the talk in the investment community was about the internet. Even though it was years before the advent of social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram, there were already fortunes being made by those who invested in the right companies. Trying to analyse or use instinct or simply guess which the ‘right’ ones were was the key to making money. Walker Wireless was part of the hype. To tap into these opportunities, Heatley, Todd, News Corp and Japan’s Softbank Corporation formed a company that they thought had bright prospects. They called it eVentures New Zealand and Heatley had a 20 per cent stake. Its role was not only to invest in e-commerce and internet-related companies but to create new ones. Its founders were hoping to experience the sort of success with start-up companies that the original shareholders in PayPal and Trade Me later enjoyed. They also wanted to introduce to New Zealand online products that were working overseas."

"While Heatley is ready to credit good luck as a significant factor in his success, he does not have the Midas touch. His biggest corporate success, Sky, became a household name but other investments have failed, some at considerable cost. In about 1999, Goldman Sachs suggested an investment that he says was touted to him as a great opportunity for a few affluent investors. Walker Wireless was a new company started by Rod Inglis that was aiming to provide a new broadband/wireless network in New Zealand. Heatley had always believed in the internet and in mobile technology, although he says his first instinct on Walker Wireless was ‘nah, no’. However, partially swayed by the other investors who were involved, he made an initial investment of $2–3 million. His mistake, he says, was that once he was close to the business and felt that it did not know what it was doing, he invested more. Start-ups, as he personally knew, often needed more capital than the founders had initially thought. But over about five years as the company lurched from crisis to crisis, always losing money, he invested $10 million, and lost it all. He considers it an expensive lesson in knowing when to cut your losses, although that point is often learned only with the benefit of hindsight overlaid with regret."