3 ms·

I agree with all the points you've made but not with your conclusion. Australia is shocking for startups, at least in Brisbane. I definitely do not recommend. S

I agree with all the points you've made but not with your conclusion. Australia is shocking for startups, at least in Brisbane. I definitely do not recommend. Sydney/Melbourne might be a different story. The sad thing is we have huge technical talent that is being wasted. 50% of my colleagues who are any good have left Brisbane to go to Silicon Valley or New York. We have these negative points about Brisbane: - Huge tall poppy syndrome. We tear each other down. Then when someone leaves and makes it big in the US we try to reclaim them. - The people who get funded are the "ideas" people. Not those with the talent to make it happen. If you have the technical talent then forget about raising funds. You're just a code monkey. This is really bad for the startup community as a whole as we have a continual spiral of crap products coming from funded companies. - The startup industry is filled with vultures. We have more incubators and companies helping people raise funds than actual startups. Anyway enough of my rant. I should just be done with it and move to the US, or at least Sydney/Melbourne.

djtidau 14y ago
Brisbane/Queensland has suddenly seen a large increase in the local startup community. Groups like Silicon Beach and The Lean Startup have been a big part of it, especially with getting the word out on Microsoft's offering via its newly opened Innovation Centre initiative. Steve Baxter (Founder of PIPE networks) has also come forward as a big player, opening up River City Labs, a co-working space for startups passing their application criteria. He has committed a large sum of money to all this and there is even talk of a Y-Combinator style seed investment strategy coming out of it all. It is still early days but there has been A LOT of movement in this space locally and I personally am excited about what is ahead.
- taligent 14y ago
  There's been the same sort of growth in seed incubators in Melbourne as well. The problem is that they are all following the same playbook: Get an Idea (Startup Weekend) -> Build Prototype (Seed) -> Head Over To Silicon Valley -> Sell/Fail. I fail to see how that is in any way good for anybody other than the investors.
  - coopdog 14y ago
    Do you have any more information on Melbourne incubators? I know of AngelCube, is there a 'best' startup community? I'm still yet to even find a good online forum for startups (nothing like news.ycombinator even) How do they sell/fail? You mean, no one wants to buy Australian startups because they're usually just not very good?
taligent 14y ago
It's not just Brisbane. There is an active startup scene in Sydney/Melbourne which for lack of a better word is one giant circlejerk. They love to regurgitate the latest trends in startup e.g. lean startup, parading around the mini-celebrities they've produced and endlessly talking about who we've sent over to Silicon Valley. It's ridiculous. Why isn't anybody interested in exploiting our unique connections with UK, India, Asia ?

djtidau 14y ago

Brisbane/Queensland has suddenly seen a large increase in the local startup community. Groups like Silicon Beach and The Lean Startup have been a big part of it, especially with getting the word out on Microsoft's offering via its newly opened Innovation Centre initiative. Steve Baxter (Founder of PIPE networks) has also come forward as a big player, opening up River City Labs, a co-working space for startups passing their application criteria. He has committed a large sum of money to all this and there is even talk of a Y-Combinator style seed investment strategy coming out of it all. It is still early days but there has been A LOT of movement in this space locally and I personally am excited about what is ahead.

taligent 14y ago
There's been the same sort of growth in seed incubators in Melbourne as well. The problem is that they are all following the same playbook: Get an Idea (Startup Weekend) -> Build Prototype (Seed) -> Head Over To Silicon Valley -> Sell/Fail. I fail to see how that is in any way good for anybody other than the investors.
- coopdog 14y ago
  Do you have any more information on Melbourne incubators? I know of AngelCube, is there a 'best' startup community? I'm still yet to even find a good online forum for startups (nothing like news.ycombinator even) How do they sell/fail? You mean, no one wants to buy Australian startups because they're usually just not very good?

taligent 14y ago

It's not just Brisbane. There is an active startup scene in Sydney/Melbourne which for lack of a better word is one giant circlejerk. They love to regurgitate the latest trends in startup e.g. lean startup, parading around the mini-celebrities they've produced and endlessly talking about who we've sent over to Silicon Valley. It's ridiculous. Why isn't anybody interested in exploiting our unique connections with UK, India, Asia ?