Apr
Tech Startups to contribute billions of dollars to Australian economy by 2033
A report from Google says that Tech startups will be worth AUS$ 109 billion, will create half a million jobs by 2033.
PrincewatergourseCoopers (PwC) also that there is “no better time to be an entrepreneur in Australia”, as support for the start-up industry is rapidly expanding.
Tapping the sector’s potential would require hard work, including boosting the success rates for start-ups and increasing computer science education, said Google Australia, which commissioned the study,
Some 1,100 of today’s 1,500 start-ups are projected to fail by the end of 2013 and figures of domestic computer science graduates have dropped two-thirds in the previous decade.
Alan Noble, engineering director at Google Australia said “In the short-term it’s estimated we’ll need to have 2,000 more tech entrepreneurs drawn from the existing workforce each year”. [Startup Smart]
Apr
![Australian broadcast journalist Rakhal Ebeli realized that he woudn’t look for his own stories, he just want to collect them, and help those who found the stories earn.
“I was increasingly becoming a third-party broker, if you will, between people who had captured newsworthy content at scenes of stories and my colleagues back at work, who would effectively offer them money to buy that content,” Ebeli said. “I realized that this was the way things were going and that there needed to be a centralized location for newsworthy content online.”
He then created Newsmodo, a “one-stop shop” for journalists and media organizations to sell pitch their freelance assignments. As more publications need freelance content, they need the Newsmodo platform. [WAN-IFRA]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/80b78d3f0c789f496bd90d7f4e411bd6/tumblr_mkpx9vXuHg1rro5p3o1_400.png)
Australian broadcast journalist Rakhal Ebeli realized that he woudn’t look for his own stories, he just want to collect them, and help those who found the stories earn.
“I was increasingly becoming a third-party broker, if you will, between people who had captured newsworthy content at scenes of stories and my colleagues back at work, who would effectively offer them money to buy that content,” Ebeli said. “I realized that this was the way things were going and that there needed to be a centralized location for newsworthy content online.”
He then created Newsmodo, a “one-stop shop” for journalists and media organizations to sell pitch their freelance assignments. As more publications need freelance content, they need the Newsmodo platform. [WAN-IFRA]
Mar
![17-year-old millionaire tech entrepreneur Nick D’Aloisio
“If you start learning computer science and programming at a young age, you can create real tangible businesses and have successes”, said Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin, the founder of Sydney technology incubator BlueChilli.
A good example of that is the 17-year old entrepreneur Nick D’Aloisio, a highschool graduate in London who made and sold an iPhone app that summarises Yahoo! Articles. It is reported that app was bought for $29 million. He lived in Australia from ages one to seven, and started his million dollar project at the age of 15.
Niki Sceva, the founder of tech incubator StartMate said that tech entrepreneurs don’t need to relocate to Silicon Valley to attain global success. Sceva is also a managing partner f fund of Blackbird Ventures.
This success story proves two things, age doesn’t matter, and that tech success for entrepreneurs doesn’t really need Silicon Valley to reach global success. [Financial Review]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/3e6d716e8a8036b99c5024846af862ee/tumblr_mkapjnKV0I1rro5p3o1_1280.jpg)
17-year-old millionaire tech entrepreneur Nick D’Aloisio
“If you start learning computer science and programming at a young age, you can create real tangible businesses and have successes”, said Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin, the founder of Sydney technology incubator BlueChilli.
A good example of that is the 17-year old entrepreneur Nick D’Aloisio, a highschool graduate in London who made and sold an iPhone app that summarises Yahoo! Articles. It is reported that app was bought for $29 million. He lived in Australia from ages one to seven, and started his million dollar project at the age of 15.
Niki Sceva, the founder of tech incubator StartMate said that tech entrepreneurs don’t need to relocate to Silicon Valley to attain global success. Sceva is also a managing partner f fund of Blackbird Ventures.
This success story proves two things, age doesn’t matter, and that tech success for entrepreneurs doesn’t really need Silicon Valley to reach global success. [Financial Review]
Mar
Are Australian Government grants difficult to avail?
Commercialisation Australia is an ingenuity of the Australian Government. It is a competitive, merit-based support program offering funding and resources to fast-track the business building process for Australian companies, researchers, entrepreneurs, and inventors looking to commercialise innovative intellectual property.
Like most government initiatives though, that aimed at funding and helping out entrepreneurs with taxes and other ways to support businesses, they have been criticized for not doing enough.
“The present funds that are available for companies are hard to get and are not very much. If you put the same effort into other areas of business, you’ll probably do better, and I think that’s the problem with the current Commercialisation Australia,” David Skellern said in an event in Sydney, which is the SlatteryIT’s Tech Connect 2013. Skellern is the founder of Radiata, and a former CEO of NICTA.
Chris Beare, former Radiata CEO also said, “The amount of time and effort it takes a small company to cope with government requests, including applying for government grants, is horrendous,”
Doron Ben-Meir, CEO of Commercialisation Australia also spoke during that day as a panel member and said “We don’t say, ‘You haven’t got enough ducks in a row. Haha, go away!’ — we help people. The whole point of the case manager role is to give people useful, constructive advice — take it or leave it — but useful, constructive advice, and people make of it what they will.”
Ben-Meir further suggests that if proposal were turned down, it’s not the end. What he suggests is to listen to constructive advice and apply it. Maybe someday, the proposition will be a lot better. [ZDNet]
Mar
![Know when to give up on your business, and when to hold on
Every business has its ups and downs. If it feels like you’re really having a hard time keeping it up, and if you think it should be that hard, maybe it’s time to let go.
Jemma Gawned of Naked Treaties learned the lesson in a hard way. Naked Treaties is a distributor of raw, vegan food treats which started as a hobby for Gawned. Back in the days, she was only making raw treats for friends and family, and everyone loved what she’s creating.
Gawned started to receive orders, and the business just grew. What started as a hobby ended up to be a business with two employees, then it grew to 15 in a matter of 12 months.
It seems like it’s all success for Gawned, but it’s not. Jemma Cosmetics, which Gawned started while she was on Big Brother, started tumbling down. Since she hasn’t set margins on when to let go or still push through, she sold her home to keep the business alive. Then, an investor pulled out and she has no money left to keep her small business running.
“Looking back I realise I had such a strong emotional attachment to this story that I had created around this brand. Had I been able to stand back and recognise that back then, I probably could have come out of it with a lot less stress and maybe much better off. Having said that, it was a good apprenticeship that is serving me now.” [Sidney Morning Herald]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/83b3f8c755cd17c3294e01459ff4d6ea/tumblr_mjzjtviIBU1rro5p3o1_400.jpg)
Know when to give up on your business, and when to hold on
Every business has its ups and downs. If it feels like you’re really having a hard time keeping it up, and if you think it should be that hard, maybe it’s time to let go.
Jemma Gawned of Naked Treaties learned the lesson in a hard way. Naked Treaties is a distributor of raw, vegan food treats which started as a hobby for Gawned. Back in the days, she was only making raw treats for friends and family, and everyone loved what she’s creating.
Gawned started to receive orders, and the business just grew. What started as a hobby ended up to be a business with two employees, then it grew to 15 in a matter of 12 months.
It seems like it’s all success for Gawned, but it’s not. Jemma Cosmetics, which Gawned started while she was on Big Brother, started tumbling down. Since she hasn’t set margins on when to let go or still push through, she sold her home to keep the business alive. Then, an investor pulled out and she has no money left to keep her small business running.
“Looking back I realise I had such a strong emotional attachment to this story that I had created around this brand. Had I been able to stand back and recognise that back then, I probably could have come out of it with a lot less stress and maybe much better off. Having said that, it was a good apprenticeship that is serving me now.” [Sidney Morning Herald]
Mar
Google is looking for the ‘Holy Grail’ of Tech Startups in Australia
Google launched a project to keep track of Australia’s startup and business community to further analyse what prevents Australia from being the next Silicon Valley.
Alan Noble, the Engineering Director of Google Australia said that it is all about increasing awareness.
Greater awareness could lead to more accommodating policies, greater enthusiasm of investors to put in more money into new companies and a greater recognition by society that it was a valid career path to become an entrepreneur.
We all know it isn’t that easy to be an entrepreneur given all the things the entrepreneur has to go through to jumpstart and grow his business.
By encouring more people to study tech related courses, such as computer science, coupled with great support from the community, it might not be that long before the holy grail of tech startups be discovered.
Read the rest of the article here.
Mar
Seed Funding and Startups
When it comes to startup funding there are a lot of ways that a project or an idea gets funded and developed. There are seed funds or seed money, venture capital financing, acquisitions mergers, and strategic alliances.
When you have an idea you have to act on it to get started. You need funding. You need money to start with your project and prove that it works not just in paper, but in the real world.
If you’re going to ask “Do we really need money to start with?” Maybe not initially, but how far can you go without funding? How long can you and your team work for free? Can you really do it given the equipment and/or infrastructure you have is limited? I guess you already have an answer to those questions.
The initial funding that is used to start a project this cause a seed fund. These generally come from friends and families of the entrepreneur and nonprofit organizations. The company at this stage is focused on developing and testing the product and see if customers are interested in what they offer. At this stage, it is important to keep track of the response from customers on what you offer because soon enough, the data gathered will be needed in analysis of the future of your startup, to show evidence that it is sellable.
If the initial product tests seem to be on a positive side, and seem to have potentially high commercial value in the future, the company can be further improved with the help of a bigger funding. Venture capital funding or angel investors. At this stage, the company’s focus will be producing a commercial offering with supporting data from its initial customer response.
In exchange of funds, the investor will be buying a percentage of the company in the form of stocks or shares, or in earlier stages, a convertible debt.
Mar
The story of DesignCrowd, how it all began
For every startup success, there are countless stories to tell.Failures, conflicts, struggle, drama.. DesignCrowd is not exempted. Alec Lynch, founder of DesignCrowd, has experienced all of them.
DesignCrowd, is an online marketplace for those who are looking for designers. You can look for someone who can design your company logo, shirt, and even ebooks.
With over 100,000 designers strong, you will be able to find the right designer for the right designing job.
Read the whole story here.
Mar
Australian startup Ollo Mobile entered talks with SingTel and Optus for a global release
Ollo Mobile is a Brisbane startup that creates a wearbale 3G device that is useful for senior citizens and children.
The device functions as a panic line for emergencies. When the wearer will be caught in an accident of some sort, he can hit the button on the device and it will automatically call the family. It ca be set to make a conference call to family members or just call a set of number in a sequence and only talk to the first person who will answer the call.
It can also send an SMS link to a web page that will show a map with the location of the wearer.
Read the rest of the article here.
Mar
Be Big in Australia…and America.
Mike Loftus, an angel investor and also a mentor says that Australian entrepreneurs are selling themselves short if they don’t target America.
Loftus added, “Australia is one of the greatest test markets. It’s a way to prove that what you’re doing has value, customers will buy it, businesses will buy it. Bring that as part of your story to the next step. The next step is to come to America.”
Loftus is a mentor of a business accelerator that works with New Zealand, Australian, Asian, and even American entrepreneurs to comercialise their startups globally.
Read the rest of the article here.
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