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Is Australia the next upcoming tech startup hotspot to watch?

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Re: Is Australia the next upcoming tech startup hotspot to watch?

#11

Post by bartonfink »

kqr2 wrote: post #8
bartonfink wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keyle - As someone who's just on the cusp of 30 and is actively planning a move down under, do you mind expounding a little further on what happened? I'd love to avoid the same pitfall if possible.

It looks like Australia uses a point system to determine visa eligibility. http://www.visabureau.com/australia/immigration-points-test.... For example, you get points for age. Applicants who are 25-32 years old get 30 points. As you get older, you get fewer points. Applicants who are older than 45 get 0 points. Since you need at least 65 points for a visa, it seems difficult once you are over the age of 45.

That's right, and unless someone uses a ridiculously strict determination for some of the criteria (e.g. how fluent am I in English?), I should have plenty of points. I'm more worried about some additional gotcha.

Re: Is Australia the next upcoming tech startup hotspot to watch?

#13

Post by jwilliams »

If you're interested in the startup scene in Australia there are some great groups. e.g. Silicon Beach. The Jelly events are great too. You tend to find the same people at the occasional hack-a-thon and unconference-style events.

I'd also recommend getting over to some co-working spaces. Events are great, but I've found them a better way to connect to a broader audience. In Melbourne I'd recommend Inspire9, but there are others (The Hub, OpenHub). There are similar counterparts in Sydney.

Re: Is Australia the next upcoming tech startup hotspot to watch?

#15

Post by tfm »

pedalpete wrote: post #2

"if there are two startups, one in Australia and one in the USA, both targeting the USA market, which do you think is going to win?” 99Designs vs. Crowdspring, http://www.google.com/trends/?q=crowdspring,+99designs&c... , leads me to believe that 99Designs is more popular, even though it was also later to market.

I don't entirely trust these particular Google Trends figures as they show a minuscule amount of USA-based traffic.

Regardless, though, of the particular instance, or indeed the reality -- the problem for any would-be head-to-head of this type is not generally which startup would "win in a fair fight", but rather which startup any potential investors believe would win. The problem for such Australian startups may be just that the question of "which is going to win?" is being asked at all.

Re: Is Australia the next upcoming tech startup hotspot to watch?

#16

Post by joahua »

batgaijin wrote: post #14

What's the current price of bandwidth there compare to america/eu? How laggy is ssh/emacs to something close, like linode's japan instances?

Relatively high. Also from east coast AU latency is better to west coast US than much of Asia in my experience. We just got AWS cloudfront in Aus which might serve as a decent barometer for the relative cost of bandwidth: http://aws.amazon.com/pricing/cloudfront/

Re: Is Australia the next upcoming tech startup hotspot to watch?

#17

Post by tfm »

damian2000 wrote: post #9

There's been a long history of Australian inventors leaving Australia to get backing in Europe or the US. Hopefully things are changing for the better: E.g. Atlassian - http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/entrepreneur/100m-so... 99designs - http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/managing/blogs/enter...

99designs did well from early investment from Atlassian, but their big recent VC dollaridoos came from ... Silicon Valley.

Continuing the Australia/99 theme, we might observe that 99dresses was almost thumped into oblivion (due partially to lack of investment) before it enjoyed the expertise of YC and the attentions of the YC coterie.

Given geographic inevitabilities and the lack of local investment it is hard to be optimistic about the Aussie startup scene, even given Fairfax media's recent (and beguiling) attempts to toot the local talent's horn.

Re: Is Australia the next upcoming tech startup hotspot to watch?

#18

Post by djt »

"[No] Australians are much more risk adverse" I think they mean averse in this phrase

its not that Australians are more risk averse, its that we have a culture of "tall poppy syndrome", which means that people that tend to become outliers, especially highly successful, tend to get "taken down a peg". It's ironic because we have quite a high work ethic.

I lived in Northern California for a few months and saw a massive difference in the way that people believe that anything is possible and look up to innovators (as a society).

Re: Is Australia the next upcoming tech startup hotspot to watch?

#20

Post by inopinatus »

The left-learning government is not supportive of startup business. And the economic indicators are not good.

Notable issues include

High income earners cannot offset business losses, thus deterring entrepreneurs. IR protections intrude on flexible working. Border protections make labour import difficult, despite the lack of a critical mass for skills. Government spending is high (although less than in the US), at 34% of GDP, leaving less on the table for investors to slosh around. This is set to grow as the population age pyramid inverts. Productivity is low. The only thing keeping growth competitive is the resources sector. This is probably an economic time bomb. Banks are massively risk averse and unwilling to lend, although the problem is not as severe as in the UK. Business failure is perceived by many as personal failure rather than a learning experience.

The current government is essentially the political branch of the unions. They'd much rather prop up the dying manufacturing sector. Unfortunately there is no credible alternative party.

If Australia is really unlucky then the ticking productivity bomb will explode along with the demographic inversion, causing a welfare crisis, a debt catastrophe, and probably a major recession.

None of this prevents anyone from having a crack.

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