Yes I loved it too! Thanks again to Peter Cooper of Cooper Sydney for organising the event.
SydStart was a great mix of startups, investors and uni students attending. The people chasing their dreams in startup world rather than a life in a “grey corporate cubicle” as Peter so aptly put it!
With the speeches kicked off by Peter, the audience was then treated to Andrew Stead of ATP Innovations and Sydney Angels talking about the state of the investor space in Australia. With so little startups getting funding, it seems it’s often much better to ditch your need for formal VC / Angel funding and bootstrap your startup yourself. Instead live on noodles, your girlfriend’s love [and money] and raise funds from the easiest source - friends, fools and family. Nice.
Superstar David Kowalski… of Green Lane Digital [and founder/investor in IPitch!] spoke about the beginning of his startup CountryCars.com.au in Orange NSW, its growth, raising capital, and the exit. Now along with Country Cars business partner Alex Sparkes, Dave’s running Green Lane Digital, which has so far invested in 11 startups, and is active in the community mentoring entrepreneurs. They’re on the lookout for more solid businesses ideas and people to invest in. The strong lesson here was to look for a niche, take immediate action to startup, get out to talk and sell to customers, realise you’re onto a good opportunity, then work overtime to build your business.
Bart Jellema was next. [As far as I’m aware] Bart has nothing to do with Nike, but the message was clear - Just do it! The story of Bart’s co-founding of Tjoos.com, its quick rise over 3 years to be sold for an undisclosed, retirement size sum was more than encouraging. If you’ve got an idea get out there and start it. The rich message of SydStart! At age 34 Bart’s now in retirement, and spends his spare time as an active supporter of the startup community in Australia, mentoring and giving back to new entrepreneurs. He runs the silicon beach drinks every Friday night in Sydney - come along.
Mathias Kopp co-founder of Sydney Angels spoke about Angel investment. Where it began, what is it, what type of investments Angels make, and how to get it. Mathias explained the importance of reducing the complexity of the pitch and the need to explain even complex businesses in simple concise terms to investors. If you’re looking for Angel Funding and want to know more, check out Sydney Angels profile here and get in contact with them.
Lastly Mick Liubinskas of Pollenizer fame was clear on why he’s Mr Focus. The guys at Pollenizer are breaking paradigms of what it takes to market test and start new businesses. Focus and Action is what is takes. But to learn what to focus on Manual Testing is the way to go. Mick describes it as ‘taking a business idea and putting it in place without writing a line of code.’ By Manual Testing, you do it quickly, and you learn and get feedback, because you never get it right the first time. Throwing the idea out to a Facebook fan page to see if it gets a following, selling the product/service before you even have a business or anything to deliver, and getting people to pay you real $$ immediately from the start are all examples of Manual Testing. Spreets and 99dresses are both recent successes of the Pollenizer model of manual testing first and the results are clear.
Then began the Pitchfest.
DesignCrowd, Orionvm, FormPoint, Freally, Customer Underground, IPitch, Brokepacker, CashStream, 99Dresses and others all pitched. Some looking for users, others looking for feedback and mentors, others looking for investors.
All got great experience and feedback from a revolving expert panel of David Kowalski, Mick Liubinskas, Mathias Kopp, and Bart Jellema.
I was pitching for IPitch. We’re looking for:
- New Startups and Investors to join IPitch. If you haven’t already, join now – it’s free!
- Feedback on how we can make the community better, and add more value back to our users
- People to assist with creating relevant content. News of events upcoming or attended, startup news, articles and knowledge on relevant startup topics. If you wish to contribute contact us here.
Overall a very worthwhile event. Lots of fun, no doubt lots of connections were made and a lot learnt.
Bring on SydStart 2011!
PS. If anyone else who attended SydStart has event photos, videos or even additional content I’ve missed don’t hesitate to get in contact and send them through or leave a comment.
Hi Gareth, great post mate. Good presentation too (and you as well Mick!)… Thanks for helping lead the way in making Sydney the most connected and effective entrepreneurial cities globally. Cheers, Pete.
Nice post Gareth. Great to see these events regularly happening in Sydney - it has to be one of the fastest growing web entrepreneurial cities in the world.
Sorry I left early. I hope everyone kept showing focus!