Written by Irina Belsky
The Program
Innovative Australian entrepreneurs have a new opportunity to showcase their startups in the international arena, thanks to 50 For The Future.
The Program, which launched in November gives startups the opportunity to have access to eight mentoring sessions with US-based mentors and attend the 50 for the Future Summit in Silicon Valley in May 2012.
The combined initiative from Advance.org (a leading global network of Australians abroad) and the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, focuses on startups that intend to establish an international presence and connects them to an international entrepreneurial network.
The Australian launch events for 50 For The Future took place in Sydney and Melbourne last week and it is from these events that participants for the program will be chosen.
Overview of the launch events
Both the Sydney and Melbourne events were split into a morning session and an afternoon session.
The morning session focused on success stories of established entrepreneurs who had tapped into the international market.
The Sydney Speakers included:
Peter James- Managing Director, Ninefold
Matt Barrie- CEO, Freelancer
Larry Marshall- Managing Director, Southern Cross Venture Partners
Michael Fox- Founder, Shoes of Prey
Simon Poole- Director, New Business Ventures, Finisar
The Melbourne Speakers included:
Michael Fox- Founder, Shoes of Prey
Lance Kalish- Co-Founder, Yes to Carrots
Leni Mayo- Co-Founder, Learnable
Andrew Walsh - Tall Ventures
The afternoon session was more content heavy and interactive in nature. Panel discussions with successful members of the entrepreneurial community, were followed by pitches from startups who had successfully been selected after registering their idea. Each startup then received feedback on their pitch from a panel of guest speakers. The event finished with three workshops with various advice, strategies and tips for entrepreneurs and an address by event organisers.
- You can find the agenda and guest speakers of the Sydney afternoon session here
- The agenda and guest speakers for the Melbourne afternoon session can be found here
Review of the Sydney launch event
The event was rich in information and advice. Guest speakers covered subjects relevant for new startups just starting out as well as more established businesses in their growth stage.
All of the guest speakers offered excellent insight from personal expertise in areas of investment, marketing, strategy, legals, business planning amongst others.
My personal favourites were Adrian Vanzyl (investor), Mike Cannon-Brookes (co-founder of Atlassian) and Kim Chen (strategy consultant for startups).
Adrian gave particularly concise and clear advice to in response to every question, Mike’s opinions were the most cynical and realistic (I’m a big fan of cynics) and I had never come across a strategy consultant for startups which made me particularly interested in what Kim had to say.
The highlight of the session was the pitch session and feedback from the guest speaker panel. While pitches are always interesting to watch, the real learning definitely lay in the pitching advice judges gave to each startup afterwards.
Pitches
Amongst the six businesses that pitched their ideas two stood out for me in terms of creativity.
Stage: growth stage
RecruitLoop is an online recruiting platform that connects businesses with a distributed network of professional recruiters.
You might think that it doesn’t sound that exciting or creative but the pitch certainly was, which again proves the importance of selling your idea. The pitch was very visual and practical- it included a demo of the website functionalities as well as videos to demonstrate the process.
Stage: prototype and testing
Wizzyboard allows children to use tangible toys to play a game on ipad. The special toys have sensors that can be read by the game software and children can interact between the physical and the digital.
This pitch was also visual and made a direct connection with the audience with the video of a mom and her child learning to use the wizzyboard together.
Learnings from pitches
- Have a focus-choose one problem one solution one market- each has to be clear
- Emphasise the value to the customer
- Use simple, easy to understand language. A pitch is a conversation not an essay.
- Visualise- if you have a demo website or product, demonstrate how your solution works by showing a video or making screenshots of the product.
- Make sure you pitch as a team. Each person watching your pitch must understand the dynamics between you and your co-founders as well as what each person brings to the table.
- Sell it - pitch is in many ways a ’sell’. Find an interactive, engaging way to pitch your idea. Don’t let the audience lose interest.
- Make an emotional connection-you’ll help your cause if you can show how the users are engaging with your product or service- tell a story if you can.
- 10 slides are enough-be concise.
- Finally estimate the market size correctly- there is a difference between the TAM (total addressable market) and SAM (served available market)
Signing off
After a day of informational overload, the launch concluded with an address by the Advance representatives including CEO Serafina Maiorano, who spoke about the role of Advance in connecting Australians all over the world and promoting Australian innovation.
If your business idea is aimed for an international market it may help to register with Advance, which hosts live and online events that could connect you with like minded Australian entrepreneurs overseas.
If the 50 For the Future launch is anything to judge by, I’ll definitely be on the look out for upcoming events.
