

Startup America, Startup Britain - why no Startup Australia? - Finntastic
http://www.startupsmart.com.au/growth/2011-04-01/10-reasons-why-we-need-a-startup-australia.html

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hugh3
I would have upvoted this story, if it hadn't been for the annoying "darken
screen and ask for your email address" trick.

Perhaps part of the answer to the question posed by the title is "because the
Australian startup community is too dominated by scammy-looking weirdoes
trying to sell you "101 tips on somethingorother""

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onan_barbarian
> because the Australian startup community is too dominated by scammy-looking
> weirdoes trying to sell you "101 tips on somethingorother"

Correct!

Including this "Finntastic" guy, who sits around submitting links to these
inane stories.

One of our engineers was just bitching about the ridiculous number of people
in Australia who are 'trying to help' the startup community from the outside.

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andrewstuart
Because massively successful Australian startups can be counted on one hand.

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Finntastic
Thanks for the positivity guys! Just a few points - we report on and work
closely with the start-up community in Australia. To us, there is no
'outside', only collaboration and support.

Secondly, nothing is being sold on our site. All the information is free and
doesn't require any sign-up. If you don't want to read it, fine, but many
people find the info we publish very helpful. I'm sorry you don't, but I'm not
going to force you to read or buy anything.

Thirdly, Andrewstuart, constructive point, but if you've ever been on
Freelancer.com, watched TV or a movie on Fox or read a newspaper any time
recently, there's a good chance you would've seen the work of 'massively
successful' Australian entrepreneurs.

Fourthly, how about discussing the point and the issue in hand, rather than
pointless backbiting, eh?

I know a lot of Australians look at this site and I'm sure they'd love to get
the perspective of a country with a more switched-on start-up culture.

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neckbeard
Freelancer? You mean the Swedish site (GetAFreelancer) that was bought by some
Australians?

Sure, it has been cleaned up a bunch, but doesn't seem like a massive
entrepreneurial success (other than as a vehicle for self-promotion).

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Finntastic
Suppose that depends on your definition of entrepreneurialism.

Raising $40m in funding, adding 2 million customers in a year and dominating a
niche is pretty entrepreneurial behaviour to me.

But then you could define that strictly by who founded the company, came up
with the original idea etc.

It's an interesting debate. Going by the second, stricter, definition of
entrepreneur, how would you class Trump Organization heir Donald Trump? Or, if
you believe a couple of Olympic rowers, Mark Zuckerberg for that matter?

They are still both entrepreneurs to me. So is Matt Barrie. Good on 'em all, I
say.

