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Can anyone share their experiences in building an early stage startup in Melbourne? - Where were you based? Near to the city or a suburb? - How was the intern

by laktek 9y ago

Can anyone share their experiences in building an early stage startup in Melbourne? - Where were you based? Near to the city or a suburb? - How was the internet speed? - From where did you work? Co-working spaces / coffee shops? - Is it easy get connected with VCs? - Is it easy for someone moving from outside to blend in? - Are other founders are helpful to each other and share their experiences?

marsRoverDev 9y ago
I cannot speak from experience having created a startup in Melbourne, but I am Australian and can perhaps give some perspective. - How was the internet speed? If you choose the right suburb you might end up with fibre to the home, which is fast. If you don't, you'll end up with ADSL2, which sucks. Be careful - though the inner city will likely have at least adequate speeds for streaming. - Where did you work? There are lots of coffee shops and co-working spaces in Melbourne. - Is it easy for someone moving from outside to blend in? Yes, I have American friends who have moved to Melbourne and decided to stay forever. It is a very multicultural city which overall is accepting of everyone. You will find bad eggs on the outskirts, but that is the case almost anywhere.
- ulfw 9y ago
  Accepted by the locals? Yes! A wonderful place to live? Oh yes! But is it easy to move here? No. Visas are a pain and things are only getting worse it seems.
  - toyg 9y ago
    Can confirm. My wife was refused state sponsorship for "lack of jobs demand". She has a PhD (and master) in computational chemistry and molecular modelling, and works in her sector. I work with financial software, we both make pretty decent money. If Victoria doesn't want us, I'm not sure whether they want anyone at all.
    - ganeshkrishnan 9y ago
      This has to be a facepalm moment. However you know you can still apply for permanent residency without state sponsorship? Also try other states. My recommendation would be to directly apply for skilled worker permit without any sponsorship
- Jedd 9y ago
  > If you don't, you'll end up with ADSL2, which sucks. Are you talking bandwidth, latency, download cap, or cost?
  - imron 9y ago
    Yes.
jwilliams 9y ago
I'm from one of the companies listed (Culture Amp). I'm now based in SF, but was based in Melbourne with my other co-founders for many years - my cofounders and a large chunk of the company are still based in our Melbourne HQ. - We were based in Richmond, now the CBD (city). The city or any of the surrounding areas are good areas and easily accessible. Public transport is pretty great. Pretty do-able to live there without a car. - Meh. Not that great. You count your home connection as fast if it's over 10Mbs. A few lucky areas have NBN, which is fast, but it's not that widespread yet. It's also expensive. However, the thing that gets me is the latency. Chatty protocols (Like Rubygems) are really terrible. That said, it's more in the irritating category than unworkable. - We were in the Inspire9 co-working space for a (long) long time. I think we were almost 40 employees there when we moved out. Inspire9 was one of the first. There are now a lot to choose from. - It was pretty grim a while back, but there are a raft of very credible VCs based in Australia now. We work with Blackbird, who are fantastic. It's along flight, but jumping on a plane to SF is probably still a good idea. - Melbourne is a very multi-cultural city. I'm biased, but really terrific city. I think most people would have a great time there. - Very much so and it's growing exponentially lately. If you or any other founders out there are in or considering visiting Melbourne and want to connect, feel free to email me (email is in my profile).
- rconti 9y ago
  Damn, I was getting 80up/80down from my hotel in the CBD a few weeks ago. To the US wasn't a whole lot worse.
- cylinder 9y ago
  Hijacking this to share this "job" posting in Melbourne: https://www.seek.com.au/job/30699443?type=standout&userqueryid=a14633c5f72a34e5bf203ad790c05a32-0018427 https://www.seek.com.au/job/30699443?type=standout&userquery... Funded PhD Big Data position in Melbourne I just came across doing my own job hunt. CS people seeking a sea change might want to take a look. If you are fed up with the SF Bay I would recommend Melbourne. A very well-rounded city that has as much to do as any big city but on a more moderate level imo.
jackgolding 9y ago
I moved to Melb nearly a year ago, was pretty active in Perth startup community. - City/Richmond is the place to be - Internet is pretty good in CBD from my experience (coffee shops) but not good enough to do heavy lifting (read: Australian internet sucks, sibling post is correct 10 Mbps is fast in Australia) - Not sure about VCs in Melb but I have heard a lot lately that VCs in Australia have really aggressive and nasty contracts so I personally would want to have a 3rd party look over any funding I was singing up for. - There's some really good meetups here especially Silicon Beach Melbourne, Startup Grind, Startup Victoria and Inspire9 Pitch Nights. Perth seemed a lot more driven from the central co-working space and then grass roots (apart from some "innovation incubators" from some companies which come and go) than what Melbourne is, not sure about compared to Sydney but it feels a lot more commercial here (more businesses selling to startups.) Wish there was a few more less corporatey hackathons or grassroots feeling events here. - Andrew Hyde (founder Startup Weekend) spent some months here and his biggest point of how we can improve was Melb needs to do more to promote its Startup Success stories other than the obvious ones (Seek, Carsales.com.au, REA, Envato)
tonytamps 9y ago
I was the Developer on Doshii (one of the companies listed in the article) for the first 2 years of it's life. > Where were you based? Near to the city or a suburb? In and around the city > How was the internet speed? It's still Australia. It's bad everywhere. > From where did you work? Co-working spaces / coffee shops? I worked mostly in offices because I work better in offices. Most of the time I worked in the bar of another company's office. Wrote on the windows with whiteboard pens. Moved to a co-working space much later on. > Is it easy get connected with VCs? I wasn't involved much in finding them but we had a few interested. When we were ready is wasn't hard to get in front of some. > Is it easy for someone moving from outside to blend in? Outside Australia? Outside Melbourne? Don't bother blending. You do you. > Are other founders are helpful to each other and share their experiences? It's a mixed bad. You meet a lot of great people who are very fun and interesting. As to be expected there are also a lot of jerks who think they're hot shit. Generally more good than bad.

by laktek 9y ago

marsRoverDev 9y ago

I cannot speak from experience having created a startup in Melbourne, but I am Australian and can perhaps give some perspective. - How was the internet speed? If you choose the right suburb you might end up with fibre to the home, which is fast. If you don't, you'll end up with ADSL2, which sucks. Be careful - though the inner city will likely have at least adequate speeds for streaming. - Where did you work? There are lots of coffee shops and co-working spaces in Melbourne. - Is it easy for someone moving from outside to blend in? Yes, I have American friends who have moved to Melbourne and decided to stay forever. It is a very multicultural city which overall is accepting of everyone. You will find bad eggs on the outskirts, but that is the case almost anywhere.

ulfw 9y ago
Accepted by the locals? Yes! A wonderful place to live? Oh yes! But is it easy to move here? No. Visas are a pain and things are only getting worse it seems.
- toyg 9y ago
  Can confirm. My wife was refused state sponsorship for "lack of jobs demand". She has a PhD (and master) in computational chemistry and molecular modelling, and works in her sector. I work with financial software, we both make pretty decent money. If Victoria doesn't want us, I'm not sure whether they want anyone at all.
  - ganeshkrishnan 9y ago
    This has to be a facepalm moment. However you know you can still apply for permanent residency without state sponsorship? Also try other states. My recommendation would be to directly apply for skilled worker permit without any sponsorship
Jedd 9y ago
> If you don't, you'll end up with ADSL2, which sucks. Are you talking bandwidth, latency, download cap, or cost?
- imron 9y ago
  Yes.

jwilliams 9y ago

I'm from one of the companies listed (Culture Amp). I'm now based in SF, but was based in Melbourne with my other co-founders for many years - my cofounders and a large chunk of the company are still based in our Melbourne HQ. - We were based in Richmond, now the CBD (city). The city or any of the surrounding areas are good areas and easily accessible. Public transport is pretty great. Pretty do-able to live there without a car. - Meh. Not that great. You count your home connection as fast if it's over 10Mbs. A few lucky areas have NBN, which is fast, but it's not that widespread yet. It's also expensive. However, the thing that gets me is the latency. Chatty protocols (Like Rubygems) are really terrible. That said, it's more in the irritating category than unworkable. - We were in the Inspire9 co-working space for a (long) long time. I think we were almost 40 employees there when we moved out. Inspire9 was one of the first. There are now a lot to choose from. - It was pretty grim a while back, but there are a raft of very credible VCs based in Australia now. We work with Blackbird, who are fantastic. It's along flight, but jumping on a plane to SF is probably still a good idea. - Melbourne is a very multi-cultural city. I'm biased, but really terrific city. I think most people would have a great time there. - Very much so and it's growing exponentially lately. If you or any other founders out there are in or considering visiting Melbourne and want to connect, feel free to email me (email is in my profile).

rconti 9y ago
Damn, I was getting 80up/80down from my hotel in the CBD a few weeks ago. To the US wasn't a whole lot worse.
cylinder 9y ago
Hijacking this to share this "job" posting in Melbourne: https://www.seek.com.au/job/30699443?type=standout&userqueryid=a14633c5f72a34e5bf203ad790c05a32-0018427 https://www.seek.com.au/job/30699443?type=standout&userquery... Funded PhD Big Data position in Melbourne I just came across doing my own job hunt. CS people seeking a sea change might want to take a look. If you are fed up with the SF Bay I would recommend Melbourne. A very well-rounded city that has as much to do as any big city but on a more moderate level imo.

jackgolding 9y ago

I moved to Melb nearly a year ago, was pretty active in Perth startup community. - City/Richmond is the place to be - Internet is pretty good in CBD from my experience (coffee shops) but not good enough to do heavy lifting (read: Australian internet sucks, sibling post is correct 10 Mbps is fast in Australia) - Not sure about VCs in Melb but I have heard a lot lately that VCs in Australia have really aggressive and nasty contracts so I personally would want to have a 3rd party look over any funding I was singing up for. - There's some really good meetups here especially Silicon Beach Melbourne, Startup Grind, Startup Victoria and Inspire9 Pitch Nights. Perth seemed a lot more driven from the central co-working space and then grass roots (apart from some "innovation incubators" from some companies which come and go) than what Melbourne is, not sure about compared to Sydney but it feels a lot more commercial here (more businesses selling to startups.) Wish there was a few more less corporatey hackathons or grassroots feeling events here. - Andrew Hyde (founder Startup Weekend) spent some months here and his biggest point of how we can improve was Melb needs to do more to promote its Startup Success stories other than the obvious ones (Seek, Carsales.com.au, REA, Envato)

tonytamps 9y ago

I was the Developer on Doshii (one of the companies listed in the article) for the first 2 years of it's life. > Where were you based? Near to the city or a suburb? In and around the city > How was the internet speed? It's still Australia. It's bad everywhere. > From where did you work? Co-working spaces / coffee shops? I worked mostly in offices because I work better in offices. Most of the time I worked in the bar of another company's office. Wrote on the windows with whiteboard pens. Moved to a co-working space much later on. > Is it easy get connected with VCs? I wasn't involved much in finding them but we had a few interested. When we were ready is wasn't hard to get in front of some. > Is it easy for someone moving from outside to blend in? Outside Australia? Outside Melbourne? Don't bother blending. You do you. > Are other founders are helpful to each other and share their experiences? It's a mixed bad. You meet a lot of great people who are very fun and interesting. As to be expected there are also a lot of jerks who think they're hot shit. Generally more good than bad.