Perth’s startup scene

I’ve met a few people this year interested in getting into Perth’s startup scene… so here’s a humble overview as I see it. Go to a few of the events below, meet some of the folks and quite quickly you’ll be at the centre of the action. Why not help out and get involved?

Perth Morning Startup (meet up)
http://www.meetup.com/Morning-Startup-Perth/
– run by Justin Strharsky (@JustinStrharsky) and Stef Pienaar (@sfpienaar)
– set up 4 years ago, a free fortnightly meetup held at Spacecubed, Weds 7.30am-9am, now with over 1000 members. The beating heart of Perth’s startup community. Many sessions have been video’d.

Spacecubed (co-working space)
– founder Brodie McCulloch (@brodiemcculloch) http://spacecubed.com/
– the first, and largest co-working space in Perth, now on two floors at 45 St George’s Terrace in the city
– the place where entrepreneurs and coders meet, hire deskspace; and where most startup events take place. Head down here to get right into Perth’s startup community.

Startup Weekend (event/hackathon)
http://spacecubed.com/2014/08/26/startup-weekend-perth-announcement/
– held 2x a year, leader is Sam Birmingham (@sambirmingham)
– the essence of startupland; 100 attendees, 40 one-minute pitches on a Friday night begets 15 or so teams with products (and even revenue) by Sunday afternoon. Triplify, Simply Wall St and others have been born at one of the 5 weekends held so far.

Founder Institute (course)
http://www.fi.co
– intensive silicon valley startup course in Perth, with Claire McGregor (@clairesayshi) as Director
– in 2013 and 2014 eight companies were formed (from 20 that started each year); not for the faint hearted, it provides 2 years of learning crammed into 13 weeks. Will it run a course in 2015?

Venture Capital (money)
– Yuuwa Capital http://yuuwa.com.au/
– run by Matt McFarlane (@nullarki) and others
– there are other investors around, but at $40m this fund has been the largest and most active with investments in iCetana, Discovr and Agworld among others. Awaiting its first significant exit, the fund is fully committed mixing IT and health/biotech investments.

eGroup (forum) http://www.egroup.org.au
– internet entrepreneurs club (small fee), Evan Cunningham-Dunlop (@EvanCunninghamD), Rob Nathan, Greg Riebe are some of the current organisers
– been going the longest (since 2003, and in 2010 formally became incorporated as a not for profit association), a unique feature is its ‘what’s said in the room stays in the room‘ forum.
– meets at law firm Wrays in West Perth, first Tuesday of the month 6-8pm.

Atomic Sky / Tech Hub (incubator, investor / space)
– Andy Lamb (@andymlamb) http://atomicsky.com.au/
– part co working space, part incubator and investor, and also event space for startup launches. pitch nights (“Snap”) and gatherings, a funky new building (http://www.techhub.io) on the aptly named Money Street in Northbridge.

WA Angels Association (money)
– Greg Riebe http://www.waai.net.au/
– quarterly pitch nights are held at the BDO offices in Subiaco (invitation only) where startups go for money in front of high net worth individuals interested in investing in new businesses. No shark tank this, it’s a wholly supportive environment, and deals usually do happen.

Sync Labs (co-working)
– Leederville version of Spacecubed, mainly for techies http://synclabs.com.au/
– established by Marcus Tan (@drmarcustan) of Health Engine fame, and others

Silicon Beach (meet up)
– free techie meetup, Friday nights at Synch Labs http://www.meetup.com/Silicon-Beach-Perth/ – bring some beers

Sixty27 (co-working)
– Joondalup version of Spacecubed, although much smaller http://www.sixty27.com.au/
– run by Phil Kemp’s Business Foundations, and supported by the City of Joondalup 

//Startupnews.com.au (media)
http://www.startupnews.com.au/
– central blog, news and events site that maps the startup scene, run by Patrick Green and Marcus Holmes (@GentlemanTech),
– itself a startup, was launched just over a year ago and keeps everyone up to date with goings on.

Business News (media) http://www.businessnews.com.au/list/startups
– independent business media (disclaimer: I work here so this is a shameless plug!) that tries to cover tech sector regularly with an ‘app/tech business of the week’, a Startups List and regular startup/tech stories.

Universities
~ UWA : Tim Mazzarol (https://theconversation.com/profiles/tim-mazzarol-1526) professor at UWA Business School, leader in research and teaching in innovation and new ventures
~ Curtin : annual ‘Ignition’ week, intensive course, not to be confused with a 10-week incubator course (‘Incubate’, now called ‘Accelerate’) run by Jeremy Lu (@lu_jeremy)

Schools
~ CoderDoJo : a wonderful innovation, bringing coding to school children, free of charge, supported by the Fogarty Foundation (https://zen.coderdojo.com/dojo/412)
~ Just StartIT :  established in 2014, a dozen schools formed startup teams, have mentors and then pitch to a judging panel after a few months’ hard work in their own time. Run by Curtin’s School of Information Studies Lainey Weiser and others.  (http://juststartit.com.au/)

Award Programs
~ OzApps : Feb every year, $100k up for grabs, includes apps from around Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. Perth has had finalists in each of past 3 years. West Tech Festival. http://ozapp.com.au/ – there are a few other awards programs that feature emerging businesses or IT, such as Incite (WAITTA Awards), Rising Stars, Pinnacle Awards and others.

Tech Accelerators
~ RAC Seedspark : established in late 2014, 3 startups were selected to share in $50k in non equity money, and have access to mentors
~ KPMG Energise : announced Feb 2015, a free tech accelerator focusing on the resources industry, with no equity commitment, but access to mentors
~ Unearthed (RIIT) : announced late in 2014 a resource focused tech accelerator with ambitions to hold events around Australia and deliver over 50 funded startups over the next few years (http://unearthed.solutions)
~ Amcom Upstart : announced Feb 10th 2015, this looks like being Perth’s first pure tech accelerator, with $40k seed money in 8 successful startup applicants in return for a small equity stake, and access to a 3-month mentoring program starting 1st June 2015.
(http://www.amcomupstart.com.au)

An Overview of Perth’s Startup scene (Report)
In late 2013 there was a report done into Perth’s startup scene – some of the info is now out of date, but it is still interesting reading > http://www.boundlss.com/blog/perth-startup-ecosystem-report and full report here> http://48yo.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/5b756-perthstartupecosystem2013-infographic.pdf

There are many other meetups, some more active than others, some more techie than others, and various events. So I’m not trying to claim the above is an exhaustive list – however I can vouch for all the above, having been personally involved or having attended every one of them, and I know the people doing all the work. I don’t believe the community needs more events, but it needs more volunteers to help ‘do the heavy lifting‘. The ecosystem is alive and flourishing, but funding for startups is still hard to come by. Maybe 2015 will be a watershed year for deals?