

Australia gets its own Y Combinator-type fund - joshsharp
http://delimiter.com.au/2010/08/19/australia-gets-its-own-y-combinator-type-fund/

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Smerity
I'm incredibly excited about this as a uni student in Sydney. I'm hopeful that
by the time I graduate that the concept of the Silicon Beach will take off.

The University of Sydney have recently introduced a course focusing on Tech
Venture Creation[1] and most of the people on that page are involved somehow
(including Ryan from Omnisio, Bart from Tjoos and our lecturer Bill Bartee),
so this isn't the only new action on the Sydney startup front.

[1] - Tech Venture Creation course -
<http://techventurecreation.wordpress.com/>

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meric
Hmm I am in Sydney university too but I haven't heard about that course... It
should be promoted more! But then again, looking it up it only has 40 free
spaces. :(

As students I don't think there is much benefit in "getting funded",
especially for those still living at home, and probably not even for a year
after graduation. (I'm guessing I could live that long in my parent's house
before they start charging rent.)

You could even get a deferred student loan of $500 to $20,000 from NAB, with
no repayments for up to 5 years * . (with a steep 15% interest)

If you aren't unlucky you'd also be receiving student payments from centre
link also.

IMHO, university students don't need much funding from investors. The banks
are willing to lend you money as long as they think you're will be able to get
a 9 to 5 job when you graduate. Your parents can also provide you with free
accommodation and dinners. I think it's a good idea to take advantage of this
while we're still students. The only reason you'd apply for seed funding is
the mentoring that you will get.

* certain conditions apply.

~~~
bensand
the interest is lower than that, but you have to pay back a loan.

you don't need to pay back funding.

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JacobAldridge
Direct link to the Startmate website - <http://www.startmate.com.au/>

I love this (and have heard it before, around HN a lot actually): "The biggest
risk in a startup is not whether someone will steal your idea or if you can
build a product but rather that no one will care."

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dmharrison
One thing that would be really good to see come out of this IMHO is a better
profile for tech startups in Aus. The more open this can be around tech scene,
gotchas and contacts focussed on Australia the better. Most information and
discussion I've seen tends to be US based not surprisingly; This doesn't
always translate well, particularly around company structure, equity, tax etc.
You know, all the small stuff that can kill you.

Looking forward to see what develops.

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nikiscevak
We fully intend to be very open about the way we do business and bring a local
angle on the type of great stuff folks like venturehacks have done in the US.

Also, for Aussie startups if there are issues around company formation and
things like migrating an Australian company to a Delaware C-Corp etc we can
share, we will.

~~~
dmharrison
That sounds great. As a tech founder that's the thing I'm working through.
There's a few good sources but very little that says, for tech with std tech
structures you probably want to do it this way.

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iliketosleep
"The biggest risk in a startup is not whether someone will steal your idea or
if you can build a product but rather that no one will care"

a lot of people will obsess over NDA's and the like, thinking that people will
care SO much as to steal their idea. when in reality what's quoted above is so
true, the greatest risk being that people won't actually care enough about the
product.

~~~
thedjpetersen
Derek Sivers writes a good essay on the value of ideas is the execution you
put into them <http://sivers.org/multiply>

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swombat
The critical success factor for YCombinator is, without a doubt, Paul Graham.

Do they have a Paul Graham?

~~~
tomhoward
This has been the basis of my skepticism over such a concept.

But I think they're going about it the right way. They know they can't build
it around a single figurehead, so they've pulled together a diverse team of
mentors, with some big names among them, particularly the Atlassians for
current-era track record.

The idea seems to be to build a pathway into Silicon Valley for young founders
who don't know what steps to take to get there.

I could certainly have used this a few years ago.

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nl
This is great to see. There are some pretty good people involved with the
program too, which gives me hope that companies going though this will
actually get something useful from it.

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andrerobot
Kudos to the aussies for having something similar to YC. The mentorship from
TWENTY (woah!) successful founders, the $25.000 (aus?) sound amazing.

What I find it really sad that even in this decade the best way for a web
startup to get attention is to go to the Valley. If the web is global
shouldn't the support networks be global too?

In the case of my country (Chile) it is very difficult to make your own web
startup. Seed investment is centralized in a goverment organization that only
cares about patents and how many millions of dollars you are going to make in
the first years. Another problem with seed investment around here is that you
must spend the money in very specific things like getting incorporated (which
is expensive) and build a business plan $$, not getting the work done. It you
aren't sure how you are going to monetize your app in a way that is going to
give you massive profits, don't bother trying to get an investor (unless you
have rich relatives).

Is Australia similar to my country in that innovating on the web is very
difficult from a support ecosystem perspective?

~~~
nikiscevak
To be clear, we wanted to setup the program with a complete handle on reality
and to be supportive of many different options on financing - bootstrap or
institutional - and where they are based - Sydney or the Valley or in the many
cases currently a grey area of being in both.

The two weeks in the Valley at the end of the program is to connect with the
Aussie community that is just starting to establish itself, to introduce the
startups we are working with to the most useful people we can and then to hold
a demo day for early stage investors as well. Plus it's hard not to get drunk
on the inspiration of meeting other great startups.

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jambo
Demo day in SF will be helpful, and as for experience, the Atlassian founders
are involved. I've seen other attempts to do this, usually by cities/states,
that capture only the superficial form of YC.

I'm going to be in Sydney on 6 & 7 Sept.--any startup folks in Sydney
available & willing to meet up and tell me about starting a company in
Australia?

~~~
mickliubinskas
You can work from our office. Email me

mick pollenizer com

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hartror
I went to a Startup Camp run by Bart Jellema a couple of years ago and was
quite impressed by his skills especially on the networking/organisational side
of things. This is promising as much of what makes ycombinator great is the
exposure and contacts being involved creates.

Looking forward to seeing the first batch come through!

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michaelneale
There is also [http://www.pollenizer.com/pollenizer-investing-in-web-
startu...](http://www.pollenizer.com/pollenizer-investing-in-web-startups/)
(Sydney based, AFAIK) - they are nice folk too.

Great to see !

~~~
JacobAldridge
It looks like Mick Liubinskas (Co-Founder of Pollenizer) is one of the
Startmate 'mentors', whatever contribution that means.

~~~
mickliubinskas
Thanks guys, yes, Pollenizer is one of the teams behind this.

Looking forward to the first crop coming through.

~~~
mickliubinskas
Brief statement by Pollenizer on this;

<http://bit.ly/d2HeQB>

~~~
Devilboy
[http://www.pollenizer.com/startmate-seed-tech-startup-
invest...](http://www.pollenizer.com/startmate-seed-tech-startup-investment-
program/)

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liedra
Wow, Ryan Junee used to tutor me in first year computer science back at Sydney
University... he's come quite a way since then it seems! :)

I hope it works out well for them, Australia needs something like that -- I
have more a few friends who have left Australia to pursue cutting edge jobs in
tech.

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ryan
no it was all downhill after teaching first year cs really :)

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mcannonbrookes2
you did a CS degree mate? who knew? :)

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DistortedRhymes
Great initiative and a fantastic list of mentors. Well done for putting this
together.

Also like the idea of the Tech Venture Creation course at Syd Uni. I'd like to
see every uni in Australia have something similar running, then we'd be sure
to get some real hits emerging.

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Fenn
This is wonderful stuff, great work guys.

Whether it works perfectly from the get-go is immaterial, StartMate, like
their fundees, can launch and then iterate.

Excited to see the first round come through.

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jkahn
Wow, this is awesome. Anyone know any startup mentors based in Brisbane? I run
(very) small consulting company and I'd like to move into software.

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zelliot
This is fantastic! I can't wait to apply with my Sydney-based startup.

~~~
Trindaz
Me too! Very excited about this one! \--Trindaz on Fedang

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rogiealigit
This is awesome, look forward to seeing the first batch.

