Manawatū's tech industry is thriving, thanks largely to the close-knit community of experts who choose to live in the region for the work-life balance it offers their families. We spoke to local tech expert Guy Phillips, who is raising his young family here while making a difference in the tech world from our little neck of the woods.

Originally from the UK, Guy Phillips and his family are proud to call Manawatū home, and are even working on getting Guy’s best friend and Bolster business partner Steffen to make the move here with his family. Bolster provides seamless container shipment tracking across carriers, ports and more. 

“We moved to Manawatū about two years ago now from Wellington. My wife studied in Palmerston North and we had spent time here visiting family for a while. Post pandemic it became clear we could both work remotely and it offered us a chance to be closer to family. With a now 14 month old, that became important to us.”

The lifestyle Manawatū offered Guy and his family was another big decider for making the move. 

“I come from a rural background so when we moved we found space with a lifestyle block and now get to keep a small flock of sheep. My family back home - grandfather, cousins - are all farming so it is nice to get to share it with my son now too. He’s obsessed with anything with wheels.” 

While the move brought Guy and his wife closer to family, in doing so they left friends and networks behind, but he credits their antenatal class for meeting others in similar stages of life.

“It's great, we go on bush walks and go to play centres with them. The parks around the region are great!” 

Work-wise, connecting with locals in the tech industry has been crucial for Guy as his small team at Bolster all work remotely around the Wellington region. While the team touch base each morning online, Guy has found it important to make the most of in person catch ups when they present themselves and he has networking group ManawaTech to thank for most of those opportunities to stay connected.

Bolster was established by Guy and Steffen with the intention of providing access to better, more helpful data to import-export companies. With backgrounds in defence and national security, the pair were well equipped to design technical solutions but needed to confirm their assumptions about the supply chain issues businesses were facing by connecting with experts in this field. 

“I was invited to speak on a ManawaTech panel at an import conference and met professors and others in the supply chain industry. It was a really useful way to get in touch with experts and experienced personnel who could help confirm the problems we thought we were solving.

Since these initial meetings, Guy has been able to connect with local organisations with all sorts of skill sets, many have even offered him desk space should he need a change from his home based workspace. In fact, the only thing Guy would change about his experience connecting with local industry professionals was that he didn’t do it sooner.

“The mistake I made in my first year in Manawatū was being too insular. We put our heads down and didn’t get out that much being uber focused on what we were doing. My advice to others starting out in business is to put networking in your strategy. It is important and needs time dedicated to it. For those in the tech industry, ManawaTech should be first on your Google search.”

Find out more about ManawaTech and get connected here.