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While the US will always be dominant, there are some advantages for Australian Tech companies to take advantage of: Cheaper tech teams with less competition. A

While the US will always be dominant, there are some advantages for Australian Tech companies to take advantage of: Cheaper tech teams with less competition. Australia has a lot of talent in the software space, but without the eye watering wage bills. Even in the most expensive cities of Sydney and Melbourne, software developers generally cost a lot less than in the Bay Area. You can get even better value if you can build your team outside of Sydney/Melbourne. You can build more slowly, there is alot less pressure to build grow fast and fail type startups. While venture capital heavy startups are the most celebrated in the press, there are plenty of great smaller scale self/revenue funded startups that can build up over time. Most of our celebrated tech successes built their business models over a long time and focused on building a good business first. There are also great incentives to keep the development team in Australia. As a pre revenue startup you can get over 43.5% of your development cost back through the R&D Tax Incentive. While its a tax incentive, the way that they designed it was to provide tax refunds to loss making companies. Plus there are other great grants/incentives you can also take advantage of. (disclaimer: I'm a consultant for software startups/companies in this area) The best course of action is to take a global approach, don't limit yourself to selling or developing in only one location.

adventured 9y ago
> Cheaper tech teams with less competition. Australia has a lot of talent in the software space, but without the eye watering wage bills. Since you're referring to all of Australia - those advantages are all neutralized by choosing any of two dozen other US cities to start in. You get the advantages of the vast US market, other cities have far lower real estate costs than you see in most of Australia, you can choose states like Texas and Florida which have no income tax and large local talent pools, you can choose various cities based on their unique value propositions such as eg Pittsburgh due to Carnegie Mellon, or perhaps Denver Colorado due to lifestyle. You can also still choose Seattle, Los Angeles, NYC, Boston if you want to just step down one notch in cost on engineering salaries, while still being at a world-class level of talent (with each of those having their own distinct value propositions). The US has 280 million people living outside of California and an economy 16 times the size of Australia that is now growing far faster than Australia.
- danieltillett 9y ago
  You do gain something keeping the tech team in Australia which is Australians are much more “team” orientated than Americans. “Mateship” really is a thing here that means something. A tight team with focus will beat a group of talented individuals every time.
  - jacques_chester 9y ago
    I think the real strength of Australians is our cheerful cynicism and laconic humour; these allow for honest appraisal. We are optimistic ("she'll be right"), but it is a different species from American optimism ("I'm going to build the impossible"). I work in NYC and my office has, at any time, between 5 and 10 Australians working there, out of ~100. It is a tremendous comfort to have that common sense of humour at hand. If I had my way we'd have a few more.
    - danieltillett 9y ago
      Australians tend to lack confidence on their own in the greater world, but when put together as a team they think they can beat everyone (and often do). One thing we don't make is good managers of Americans - cynicism and laconic humour does not come across well with American employees.
      - peatmoss 9y ago
        I’d work for an Aussie, but my auxiliary national affiliation in New Zealand would mandate I give them some good natured grief :-) I’d say it takes all kinds. I work with one Aussie who is a great manager, and she enjoys good rapport with everyone above and below as far as I can tell. Kiwis and Aussies that I’ve known have had a tendency to project a feeling place inferiority which I think is rubbish. Everyone has imposter syndrome, but being from Aussie or NZ is no reason to feel inferior. Stand tall!
        danieltillett 9y ago
ianhowson 9y ago
This is a great post. I'd like to add: > You can get even better value if you can build your team outside of Sydney/Melbourne. So much this, but talent outside the big cities is rare. I lived in Queensland for a while and would have taken a massive pay cut for any tech work... but there just isn't any. I knew more people working in Sydney (fly-in-fly-out) than working in local companies. You can pick up uni students cheaply. They're grateful for relevant work. I knew a few founders living cheap but pretty much all knew that moving to the US was an inevitability. > focused on building a good business first This is a massive plus of starting in Australia. The business has to make sense. Local funding sources aren't as willing to build perceived value and flip the company -- it's important to have a genuine sustainable business with customers and cashflow. > 43.5% of your development cost back through the R&D Tax Incentive Probably half of my lifetime earnings have been paid for with the R&D Tax Incentive and other grants. It's such a good deal that every incorporated company with a tech component should be trying to claim it. I'm not grumpy or anything, but in Queensland, claiming government grants for tech companies is probably more lucrative than working in a tech company. There's an abundance of funding and a shortage of people able to use it. > don't limit yourself to selling or developing in only one location I forget who gave the talk, but it was from Muru-D at Co Spaces in the Gold Coast, and guy said (paraphrasing): "New Zealanders have an advantage over Australians because they know from day one that they will have to sell overseas to make their company a success. Australia is big enough that you can fool yourself for a while, but it won't take long before you reach saturation and need to move anyway. Better to get it done sooner."
- stephen_g 9y ago
  Where in Queensland? There is plenty of tech going on in Brisbane if you look for it... I suppose it depends on your specialisation though.
  - ianhowson 9y ago
    I lived in the Gold Coast for 18 months. I did weekly flights to Sydney and drove to Brisbane twice a week. I didn't have good results looking for work in Brisbane. I could get a job, but not a job I wanted to do, and not for much money. I would've had to move to make the commute feasible, especially with the state of Brisbane parking prices. I found it more convenient cheaper to travel to Sydney. Gold Coast airport is remarkably efficient and cheap. I met a lot of people doing the same thing; 5:15pm at Sydney Domestic is packed with workers commuting by air. I live near Munich now and it's amazing to see so many big companies and so much opportunity in such a small place. There are literally hundreds of tech jobs available within 1km of my rural apartment. There are jobs ads on the buses and trains.

adventured 9y ago

> Cheaper tech teams with less competition. Australia has a lot of talent in the software space, but without the eye watering wage bills. Since you're referring to all of Australia - those advantages are all neutralized by choosing any of two dozen other US cities to start in. You get the advantages of the vast US market, other cities have far lower real estate costs than you see in most of Australia, you can choose states like Texas and Florida which have no income tax and large local talent pools, you can choose various cities based on their unique value propositions such as eg Pittsburgh due to Carnegie Mellon, or perhaps Denver Colorado due to lifestyle. You can also still choose Seattle, Los Angeles, NYC, Boston if you want to just step down one notch in cost on engineering salaries, while still being at a world-class level of talent (with each of those having their own distinct value propositions). The US has 280 million people living outside of California and an economy 16 times the size of Australia that is now growing far faster than Australia.

danieltillett 9y ago
You do gain something keeping the tech team in Australia which is Australians are much more “team” orientated than Americans. “Mateship” really is a thing here that means something. A tight team with focus will beat a group of talented individuals every time.
- jacques_chester 9y ago
  I think the real strength of Australians is our cheerful cynicism and laconic humour; these allow for honest appraisal. We are optimistic ("she'll be right"), but it is a different species from American optimism ("I'm going to build the impossible"). I work in NYC and my office has, at any time, between 5 and 10 Australians working there, out of ~100. It is a tremendous comfort to have that common sense of humour at hand. If I had my way we'd have a few more.
  - danieltillett 9y ago
    Australians tend to lack confidence on their own in the greater world, but when put together as a team they think they can beat everyone (and often do). One thing we don't make is good managers of Americans - cynicism and laconic humour does not come across well with American employees.
    - peatmoss 9y ago
      I’d work for an Aussie, but my auxiliary national affiliation in New Zealand would mandate I give them some good natured grief :-) I’d say it takes all kinds. I work with one Aussie who is a great manager, and she enjoys good rapport with everyone above and below as far as I can tell. Kiwis and Aussies that I’ve known have had a tendency to project a feeling place inferiority which I think is rubbish. Everyone has imposter syndrome, but being from Aussie or NZ is no reason to feel inferior. Stand tall!
      - danieltillett 9y ago

ianhowson 9y ago

This is a great post. I'd like to add: > You can get even better value if you can build your team outside of Sydney/Melbourne. So much this, but talent outside the big cities is rare. I lived in Queensland for a while and would have taken a massive pay cut for any tech work... but there just isn't any. I knew more people working in Sydney (fly-in-fly-out) than working in local companies. You can pick up uni students cheaply. They're grateful for relevant work. I knew a few founders living cheap but pretty much all knew that moving to the US was an inevitability. > focused on building a good business first This is a massive plus of starting in Australia. The business has to make sense. Local funding sources aren't as willing to build perceived value and flip the company -- it's important to have a genuine sustainable business with customers and cashflow. > 43.5% of your development cost back through the R&D Tax Incentive Probably half of my lifetime earnings have been paid for with the R&D Tax Incentive and other grants. It's such a good deal that every incorporated company with a tech component should be trying to claim it. I'm not grumpy or anything, but in Queensland, claiming government grants for tech companies is probably more lucrative than working in a tech company. There's an abundance of funding and a shortage of people able to use it. > don't limit yourself to selling or developing in only one location I forget who gave the talk, but it was from Muru-D at Co Spaces in the Gold Coast, and guy said (paraphrasing): "New Zealanders have an advantage over Australians because they know from day one that they will have to sell overseas to make their company a success. Australia is big enough that you can fool yourself for a while, but it won't take long before you reach saturation and need to move anyway. Better to get it done sooner."

stephen_g 9y ago
Where in Queensland? There is plenty of tech going on in Brisbane if you look for it... I suppose it depends on your specialisation though.
- ianhowson 9y ago
  I lived in the Gold Coast for 18 months. I did weekly flights to Sydney and drove to Brisbane twice a week. I didn't have good results looking for work in Brisbane. I could get a job, but not a job I wanted to do, and not for much money. I would've had to move to make the commute feasible, especially with the state of Brisbane parking prices. I found it more convenient cheaper to travel to Sydney. Gold Coast airport is remarkably efficient and cheap. I met a lot of people doing the same thing; 5:15pm at Sydney Domestic is packed with workers commuting by air. I live near Munich now and it's amazing to see so many big companies and so much opportunity in such a small place. There are literally hundreds of tech jobs available within 1km of my rural apartment. There are jobs ads on the buses and trains.