Lunch with Optimizely // Exploring how to launch in Australia

mitchellake on November 22, 2016

San Francisco resident Travis Bryant (Global VP Sales) was in Sydney this month to launch Optimizely into the Australian market.

Travis and I caught up over lunch with Tony Ward (SurveyMonkey MD Australia), Warren Billington (MD Signal), Alistair Venn (MD Menulog), Balder Tol (Director of Community WeWork), Daniel Karlsson (MD Impact Radius), Troy Martin (Director, APAC Sales Instructor) and Graham Jackson (CEO Fluent Retail). The aim of the get together was for Travis to chat with and gather insights from experienced local MDs and Country Managers who have been there before: launching an international tech company into the Australian market.

During lunch the following themes were discussed:

Build a local team, with local knowledge
Make sure you understand the key differences and/or similarities between the markets. A sales approach that is proven in one market doesn’t guarantee success in another. For example, in Australia 53% of workers are employed by companies that have less than 20 FTEs, in America it is 18%. Hiring an experienced local MD who has built GTM teams previously is highly recommended. Having pre-sales and post sales support in the local geography is a must.

Import talent
Whilst building a local team is key, shipping in at least one asset from HQ for a period of time, to ensure the company culture is fostered in a new market is a must. This person will also act as a connector internally. Warren Billington had the support of a pre-sales asset from Signal’s HQ in Chicago for the first 12 months, who prior to returning to HQ trained the local hire that Warren made to replace him. This allowed a great transfer of knowledge. Charlie Wood (MD of Dropbox) had the privilege of 10 Dropbox employees relocating from San Francisco to Sydney for their Australian launch. All of which supported Charlie for the first 12 months as he built out the local team.

Leverage the channels
For B2B SaaS platform tech companies focused on winning enterprise clients, working with System Integrators is key. Getting this model right ensures that you have a “one too many voice” in market, which will facilitate scale. Pete Williams at Deloitte was Yammer’s top performing sales person globally (without actually working for the company), when he advocated both internal and external use of Yammer at Deloitte.

Location, location, location
Co-working spaces in Australia are commonplace and if you’re not ready to commit to your own space straight away, these spaces are designed for tech companies are a must. They can also make a difference in the quality of people you hire. My top two picks in Sydney are WeWork (with two locations; 5 Martin Place and Harris Street) and Tank Stream Labs (Bridge Street).

Setting up the local entity
This is easy to do, but shouldn’t be overlooked or left until the last minute. There are some amazing services providers who can help with the local tax laws, employment law, setting the entity up, ESOP (employee share option plans).

Understand the local geography
Asia is not one geo. Australia is a relatively easy market to understand, hire great staff and do business in. However, achieving success in Australia will require people on the ground in at least Sydney and Melbourne (not or). One of the most frequently asked questions by international companies looking to launch in Australia is: Sydney or Melbourne? The answer to this question will require another blog post, it isn’t straight forward. However, you should consider where your customers are and in an ideal world, you would have staff on the ground in both locations. Achieving success in Asia will require an intimate knowledge of how to GTM in each APAC country. It will also require a local approach, be it, direct or channel (depending on the country).

About Optimizely
With just over 350 staff in down town San Francisco, and a small team in London, Optimizely launched in 2010 and has now raised $146 million in funding, with backing from Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Ventures and Citi Ventures.

Travis has been leading the business’ global sales efforts for the last four years and has seen an organic growth in Australia. They have been serving the local market with two full time employees based in San Francisco working around the often-gruelling Australian timezones and periodically flying in for meetings. With a plethora of tier-one customers including CBA, Fairfax and Allianz the time is now right for Optimizely to build an Australian team.

Like many tech companies, Australia is the fourth largest market for Optimizely globally, punching well above its weight given the size of the population.

The company has grown to become the world’s leading experimentation platforms, enabling businesses to deliver continuous experimentation and personalisation across websites, mobile apps and connected devices.

Their strength lies in enabling businesses to experiment deeply into their technology stack and broadly across the entire customer experience. The platform’s ease of use and speed of deployment empowers organisations to create and run bold experiments that help them make data-driven decisions to become more innovative.

We look forward to seeing Optimizely’s continued growth. If you’re looking to build out your dream team in Australia, we’re the right people to chat to. Get in touch now.

Author

Kevin Griffiths leads MitchelLake Executive for the ANZ Practice. Based in Sydney, he is focused on supporting startups, NewCo’s, scale-ups, and established tech companies with C-suite and board requirements, in addition to working with Australian SME’s and enterprises undergoing digital/technology transformations.

Since joining MLE in 2012, Kevin has led over 100 searches. His time has been divided into three key areas – CEO searches for scale-ups or tech companies going through transformation; CTO/CPO searches for tech companies with a global requirement to bring talent to Australia with technology and/or product leadership at scale; and consulting to and leading searches with clients looking to innovate, who are seeking advice from the MLE practice on the question of build, buy, or partner.

Prior to joining MLE, Kevin was a Partner at BMS where he built and led the Midlands commercial practice in the UK, before moving to Australia to help scale the business in Sydney and Melbourne.

KevinGriffiths

kevin@mitchellake.com

Shining a Light on Gold Coast’s Entrepreneurial Scene

mitchellake on November 22, 2016

The other night I attended Gold Coast Demo Day, which highlights the wonderful achievements in entrepreneurship in the South-East Queensland region. Entrepreneurship education has become a national priority and Gold Coast Demo Day is a great showcase of the avenues and resources that are there to support entrepreneurs of tomorrow grow their skills and knowledge through various training and mentor platforms available in the region.

Bond University’s Business School hosted an exceptional event that brought together some of Queensland’s brightest young minds with investors and industry leaders. The evening showcased how entrepreneurship education is being advanced across South East Queensland through a number of accelerator & educator Programs. The following programs were represented on the evening.

Club Kidpreneur  is a not-for-profit social enterprise fostering entrepreneurial skills in primary-aged children through teaching them to build and launch their own micro-enterprises. The foundation’s programs aim to grow children’s confidence, resilience, creativity and business acumen to enable them to pursue an entrepreneurial career and harness the power of business for good.
In the foundation’s core program, the CK Challenge, students use design thinking to build a real-world enterprise and sell products in their local community, paying back their startup costs then donating all profit to a charity of their choice. The program runs through Australian primary schools and is mapped to the national curriculum across multiple subject areas. To date, over 8,000 kidpreneurs from 500 schools have raised more than $350,000 for charity. Club Kidpreneur also runs introductory workshops through local community groups and a network of volunteer entrepreneurs, designed to spark an entrepreneurial spirit in 10-12 year old kids.

Startup Apprentice (SUA) delivers award winning, action based entrepreneurial education programs that teach the ‘Silicon Valley’ lean approach to starting a business to high school students and encourage students to think differently about their approach to working life. Startup Apprentice has designed the program to help bridge the gap between book-smarts and street-smarts, the hands-on, experience-based sessions see students launch new businesses using new and emerging technologies while learning the soft skills that employers are looking for — resilience, adaptability and problem solving. They also provide access to role models and business leaders that students wouldn’t otherwise have access to.
The SUA eight week program has been successfully delivered in Gold Coast schools to 120 young apprentices who have graduated with 30 validated business ideas. With expressions of national and international interest and strong parent and teacher support, the SUA program provides the perfect platform to drive 21st Century learning while sparking interest in developing an entrepreneurial mindset.

Beach City Group supports entrepreneurs and innovators to create and scale great innovative companies through access to networks of capital, talent and expertise. With deep connections into a global network of mentors, venture capitalists, corporates and world class accelerator programs, the Beach City Group supports companies to build traction locally and scale globally

RiverPitch is biannual event that brings pre-screened investors and entrepreneurs together in a social environment where ideas can be pitched. This invite only event brings together investment-ready ideas (and teams) with actual investors in order to help get the ideas funded. RiverPitch is supported by a community of investors formed to help the early stage and startup sector access funding. RiverPitch aims to provide a different approach to capital funding and de-formalise the search for the next investment

The River City Labs Accelerator  is powered by the muru-D program. The muru-D program runs throughout Australia and Singapore, with the aim to take great digital ideas to a global market. As part of a six-month program, companies gain access to a purpose built co-working space; muru-D’s global network of mentors, alumni, investors and partners, international trade trips, and many more perks. In addition, all companies receive the benefits from building lifetime connections with their fellow entrepreneurs, whilst working to create an acceleration path that is tailored to fit their business needs.

The Bond Business Accelerator (BBA) combines leading-edge entrepreneurship education with an intense 12-week commercialisation bootcamp, transforming fledgling ideas into commercial realities. Focused on building the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, the primary desired outcome of BBA is the increased entrepreneurial capabilities of its participants. A diverse pool of industry mentors complement academic staff in providing a rich blend of academic rigour and practical relevance. The program is run by the Bond Business School and can count towards the completion of a Bond University degree. It is open to all students, regardless of discipline, as well as members of the community.

With an office in the Gold Coast, we’re proud and hugely supportive of the growth and talent coming out of South East Queensland. Here’s a piece on the rise and rise of the Startup State. If you want to get in touch to talk about your ideas, startup or growth, contact us now. 

7 Things to know for that next Networking Event

mitchellake on November 18, 2016

I am by no means an expert on approaching social events perfectly. I do, however, have some beliefs based off experiences I’ve had. My main goal for you (the reader) is to remember to be confident, positive and memorable. When you go to a networking event, a party that you know very few people at or even a new job, I would highly recommend going in with these seven things:

1. Read the news for the day
It’s important to know what’s going on in your area as well as everything around you. It’s even better when you have a few topics to bring up when starting conversations; to break the ice at events. Avoid politics! Arriving prepared will give you a lot of confidence when bringing up topics, as your audience will look at you as someone with knowledge.

2. Know your audience
To follow-up on point number one. If you are going to an event that you know will have a majority of an audience specific to something/someone, I would recommend looking into news in that realm. Let’s say you are going to a MeetUp organised by Tech Entrepreneurs. It would be worth your time to skim TechCrunch or any news outlet that covers start-up news and trends in order to have some material to discuss.

As I mentioned earlier, you will impress your audience by being informed. You can also expect a boost to your confidence when people say, “Oh, I didn’t know that!”

3. Actively listen!
“We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say.” – Zeno of Cilium.
There are two key things that will reward you for listening. One, it will help you learn about the person you are meeting for the first time. Two, this will help create different avenues to take the conversation. It might even help you realise your guys’ lives have crossed paths in the past, or you know the same people.

4. #2 and #3 will help with segues!
This one is easy; segues are they key to all success (Shout to DJ Khaled). But really, you read the news and are up-to-date on the things going on in the world; you will have plenty of topics to spark more conversations that will help you become more memorable to these new acquaintances.

5. Don’t be afraid to ask for someone’s name, again
I know I do it a lot. Shortly after I meet someone, I turn to who I’m with and ask, “Hey, what was the person’s name we just met?” I usually feel terrible for forgetting their name and have no confidence in asking again. I’ve realized there are two things to highlight from asking them again: When someone asks you for your name again, you tell them right? No hesitation at all, no judgment.

So, remember that when you do forget someone’s name. The other is that it gives the impression to that person that you have a genuine reason to remember their name.

6. Smile
There is a lot of psychological benefits from smiling. When you smile it affects two audiences: you and the person(s) in front of you. Believe it or not, smiling will help your blood pressure lower, and helps others mirror you, which brings happiness to others. There will be plenty people caught up in the moment, and are not relaxed as they meet people for the first time. Smiling will project confidence and a calmness to you that will be remembered for the future.

7. Welcoming Body Language
Similar to six, a welcoming body language not only attracts more people to want to get to know you, but it also helps “break the ice” as you start meeting more and more people. The psychological benefits of this is similar again to six as it creates a mirror to others.

For this specific topic here is one example: I’ve noticed many people will forget others want to join in on the circle of discussion during one of these networking events. When you are keeping body language in mind, it reminds you to make sure you open that circle of discussion up to someone who looks interested in joining.

Bringing It In
I hope you can take a few of these, if not all, and be able to have a helpful approach to your next event. The three biggest things to remember: How can I be confident, positive, and memorable? The rest will fall in place.

We’d be happy to break the ice with you. Give us a call if you’re looking to startup or scale-up, or on the hunt for your next big challenge. Contact us here.

500 Startups’ Vishal Harnal on leaving law, instincts and what makes a great founder

mitchellake on November 8, 2016

500 Startups is a global early-stage venture fund and seed accelerator founded by Dave McClure and Christine Tsai in 2010.

500 is the most active early-stage venture firm and have invested in a wide variety of technology startups all over the world, currently over 1,600 companies since their inception in 2010 including: Credit Karma, Grab, Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), Udemy, Ipsy, TalkDesk, Intercom, MakerBot (acquired by SSYS), Wildfire (acquired by GOOG), and Viki (acquired by Rakuten). The 500 team of 130 people manage seed investments in 50 countries.

Vishal Harnal leads and scales 500’s investments and operations across South-East Asia. He has put his previous life as a founder (and then as a lawyer) behind him to hunt for the region’s most talented, passionate founders and promising high-growth startups. In just two years, the South-East Asia focused 500 Durians fund has invested in over 119 companies including Grab, Carousell, Bukalapak, Nugit and 99.co.

Given our mutual interest and overlap in the startup ecosystem, I was keen to understand Vishal’s perspective on the local startup scene, what it was like working at 500 Startups and where he felt talent was most in demand….

Luke Partridge: Starting with you – what’s your background and what brought you to 500 Startups?

Vishal Harnal: Immediately before joining 500, almost 2 years ago, I was a lawyer for 5 years in one of the top firms in Asia (in disputes resolution). Although I found the work enjoyable and mentally stimulating, I realised that I was far more interested in what my clients were doing and how they were running their businesses than with legal firefighting. I had a multi-disciplinary mind and felt that law tickled only a small part of it.

I applied to business schools in the US and while waiting for the results, spent several weeks meeting as many different people across a range of industries and asked them questions that gave me insights into what they were doing with their lives: “What motivates them?; What made them happy?; What did they enjoy in their career?” Two of those individuals were Khailee Ng (500 StartUps) and Dave McClure. I knew nothing about VC/Angel Investing at that time. I was struck by their line of questioning and they seemed much more interested in what made me tick, my views on marriage/relationships, my own motivations, drivers and getting a sense of my ethics and values rather than my academic or career track record.

I thanked them and thought nothing more of it. A week later, I received an email with an employment contract saying, ”Stop what you are doing and come and join us!”

I was taken to them instantly, the company, what they were doing in this space and it appealed to me on a much more basic, human level…I quit my job the next day!

LP: So rather than opening the door to discover more about the VC market – you became laser-guided in wanting to join 500?

VH: Absolutely. To be honest I did not think I would have the opportunity to join anyone else. The VC market can be impenetrable at the highest levels, especially in the US and without the right school background, network who can endorse you in, it is very hard to break in.

LP: So 2 years into the journey – what are some of the consistent traits of the investment strategy that 500 applies in this region vs other parts of the globe?

VH: Very good question. In terms of the similarities – the biggest overlap is that we continue to invest on a portfolio theory. We make many small bets rather than fewer, concentrated bets and we do follow that philosophy in all regions. Rather than cutting $10m cheques into 1-2 companies, we will cut that into 100 companies. It’s difficult to foresee growth and predict trajectory – there are just too many variables and luck does play a large role. You can however lower the risk, acknowledging we are not savants gazing into a crystal ball and predicting definitive outcomes. We invest early and the potential returns are more in the (x3-x10 range) but there will be greater consistency.
We are also vertically agnostic – and whilst we will invest less in hardware than software due to the scalability factor the markets/industries are still very diverse. Internet technology has democratised the scaling process and growth marketing, viral, social, Google Adwords etc: can propel your business forward at a fraction of the cost.

LP: The term ‘Spray and Pray’ was been used, perhaps somewhat unfairly’ to describe your investment strategy – how much do you embrace/refute that definition?

VH: That phrase is a misleading simplification of our investment strategy because it suggests that we’re indiscriminate. Like Oprah’s big car giveaway for EVERYONE we just hand out cheques to anyone/everyone! We DO invest in lots of companies but we also DO see more companies than any other VC firm does so as such our selection rate remains extremely low.
For example to date in SEA, we have invested in 119 companies but would invest in about 1 in 10-15 of those companies so still only 10%. Our due diligence still requires as strong a level of thoroughness and analytical rigour in shortlisting…’spray and pray’ belittles that process.

LP: It’s a great headline grab…

VH: That’s right, but it is used with negative connotations. Any VC that says that they can always predict success is lying but for the simple reason that the metrics of the industry don’t bear that out. As the business matures you can predict with a higher likelihood of success due to the increased data points available – at the seed/early stage this is just not possible, but you can try to reduce the risk of making a bad investment.

LP: What excites you about the SEA market in terms of investment potential?

VH: Tackling this from a couple of perspectives – firstly from the people or entrepreneurs side, the quality of the Founders and those starting companies is improving tremendously.

LP: Is this specific to any country? Is there a greater depth of talent comparatively speaking across SEA?

VH: No, we see this across the region. That’s really exciting. It’s ushering in a new era…a renaissance of SEA startups. For such a long time, working as an entrepreneur/Founder was seen as something you would do if you could not get a proper job and was never associated with success or prestige in this part of the world.
This has definitely changed through a generational shift and role models now encompass entrepreneurs and not just those from entertainment or sports. People like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are creating these huge, innovative, world-shifting enterprises in a short time span and it suggests that anything is possible. It becomes cool to be part of the ecosystem and similar people can relate.

To reflect on this further, in the SEA region these aforementioned internet tech pioneers and leaders were initially still an ocean away in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area. But this is changing rapidly…Grab, GoJek, Carousell, 99.co, Garena all have local, regional homegrown champions emerging in SEA which other Founder/startup entrepreneurs can identify with and there is clear evidence that you can be successful HERE – more people want to be a part of this.

We still more and more talented people questioning ‘ what can I do with my life/idea?’…and now having the confidence to try something different and branch out themselves. Classic success breeding success!

LP: Especially given the timelines are much shorter and failing is not just seen as a fatal blow but more a rite of passage and expectation…

VH: Exactly – there is more recognition and admiration for those that try, fail and iterate to improve. Risk-taking and failure is slowly becoming destigmatized. Part of Silicon Valley’s success and growth is that failure IS embraced and part of being in the ecosystem is learning and iterating. ‘Celebrating’ this constant education journey prompts more people to do it.

LP: When it comes to your investment strategy what is the ‘Head vs Heart’ ratio that you apply?

VH: I struggle with this question sometimes. I wonder what ‘heart’ means. Being able to invest in a disciplined way for a broader portfolio approach is critical – if every decision was overly subjective you would end up with a chaotic portfolio. If we can quantify ‘heart’ across all the metrics that we use then it can and arguably should play a role. We all have a natural bias and preconceived notions as humans and based on our individual experience and having a gut feel as pattern recognition helps us see trends. But personally I need to objectify this natural affinity and if I can not put this down in writing then I am unlikely to invest.

At the end of the day, I invest in people. The entrepreneurs I back are people I believe will achieve remarkable things and am always grateful that they let me be a part of their story.

LP: So, much like when you were hired? There needs to be a healthy balance of instinct as well as commercial rigour?

VH: Exactly – emotionally I will know whether I like the Founder and business but why? It needs to be tangible and quantifiable. Charismatic leadership can be a powerful attribute in a Founder but there must also be substance.

LP: So, in terms of talent – where do you see the biggest gaps in SEA?

VH: From our perspective, finding quality technical talent is a major challenge. Not programmers and developers but CTO quality talent. Individuals of that calibre tend to gravitate to large tech companies like Google, Facebook and LinkedIn due to a combination of pay, security, brand prestige etc.

In additional to strong Technical leadership some of our larger portfolio companies have said they find it difficult to hire deputies that they can trust to head business units. Some of the best and most effective hires are poached from management consultancies, banks and more established technology firms. Companies absolutely need quality to fuel growth at a key time to help build and scale so the CTO, GM-type roles become fundamental to the level of success.

LP: What makes a great Founder?

VH: I love founders that are consumed by the problems that they’re trying to solve and have demonstrated through their history an ability to execute. Those founders have a passion and drive that is visibly infectious and tend to think at scale.

Great Founders do not let their ego get in the way of hiring people better than themselves. The better the people in key functions… the more headspace the founder has to focus on the business and…the better the outcomes for that business!

If you are seeking talent, advice or you are interested in startups, scale-ups and digital transformation in the Asian market (or elsewhere) then do not hesitate to reach out – we’re always open to a coffee and discussion as to how we can potentially help in this dynamic part of the world

Gemma’s Remote Year: First stop: Kuala Lumpur

mitchellake on October 25, 2016

I am very fortunate and excited to be on a remote working journey where I live in 12 different cities across Southeast Asia, Europe, Central America and South America over the next year. There are 75 of us “remotes” traveling together from all different parts of the world, with all kinds of employment, on a program called Remote Year. The first stop was Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which was the perfect place to begin my journey. It is a big city with many cool cafes, co-working spaces, and provided an excellent introduction to different Asian cultures and cuisines.

Malaysia is actually where “hipster cafes” came into fashion; offering us many workplaces with fresh vibes, interesting ways to serve coffee, and excellent wifi. During the first week, I tried Feeka, which was en route to our co-working space and served great coffee. After much Googling, we still don’t know what Feeka means, but starting our day at this place helped us all feel pretty comfortable in our new city.

Later that week I was working from a swing at Boxes Cafe; a cafe created out of recycled shipping containers. The following week I worked out of Lepaq Lepaq, which is known for their “rainy day coffee” — black drip coffee with a cloud of candy floss hanging over it, so the steam from the coffee makes the candy floss fall like rain into the coffee to add sweetener as you drink. Another day I worked out of VCR; a cafe that had recently adopted a sweet kitten named Charlie, who helps inspire people as they work. They also have avocado toast; a staple for any California Girl. This staple helped a lot of individuals that were homesick and just wanted something a bit more comforting than the explosion of flavours that you find in Asian cuisine. These coffee shops helped us feel like we were exploring this huge, bustling city while keeping up with the demands of full-time jobs.

It was exciting to hear about the emerging startup scene in Kuala Lumpur.

While there, I was able to attend some fascinating events such as the launch of Girls in Tech, Malaysia, and MaGIC Academy.

Girls in Tech originated in San Francisco with the goal of engaging, educating, and empowering girls and women who are passionate about technology. It was exciting to see how many females attended the launch event in Kuala Lumpur, and are interested in learning that the gender gaps across Asia in STEM studies are not as drastic as in the States. There is a pretty balanced ratio of males and females majoring in these fields across this region, but unfortunately, there are still gaps in the workforce and a lack of women leaders; which is what this organisation is aiming to support here in Malaysia.

This year was the 3rd annual MaGIC Academy in Kuala Lumpur; a conference focused on startups, entrepreneurs, and social enterprise. This event demonstrated how much support is available for entrepreneurs through startup incubators, accelerators, communities, and even government support through tax breaks and the government funded Cradle Fund– a seed fund for tech companies in Malaysia.

Malaysia is predominantly known for manufacturing as a system integrator and hardware reseller, but since the late 1990s there has been rapid growth in Malaysia’s tech scene. In 2010, Malaysia formed a $100 million fund to invest in startups as part of a broader 10-year plan to develop high-tech industries. Due to a lack of interest in emerging technology, the government introduced a tax break for angel investors in 2013, hoping to encourage investments in startups.

Who are the established tech companies in Malaysia?
Grab – Alternative to Uber.
Kaodim – Similar to Taskrabbit, connects you with local contractors.
Maxis – Telecommunication company pioneering WAP/GPRS.
iSentric – Mobile banking.
mobile88 (now iPay88) – Leading regional Payment Gateway Provider in South East Asia.
Lelong – Online shopping.
Catcha Group – Southeast Asia’s leading Internet group; making growth equity and venture capital investments in new media, online classifieds, and e-commerce businesses across the emerging world.
Cari – Popular local Malaysian lifestyle media.
Lowyat – Tech enthusiast resource community.
Jobstreet – Top website for jobs in Asia. Jobstreet was recently sold to. Australia’s SEEK for a whopping $524 million USD.

Co-Working spaces
Nook – Open air space on a hilltop in Bangsar surrounded by greenery.
Whitespace International – Clean, modern office with a range of meeting rooms and includes a receptionist and courier service. There are 3 branches: Mont Kiara, Bangsar and Puchong.
Paper + Toast – Close to the Raja Chulan Station, the office space includes cubicles and meeting tables and there is a separate cafe downstairs.
Fluent Space – Open concept with small meeting rooms. The space is in Kelana Jaya and features concrete floors and a quirky decor.
Make Space – Great space located in Quill City mall for work, workshops, pop-up classes, talks, and various events. I went to a cooking class with Syrian Refugees sharing their skills in this space.
Sebelas 11 – This space has three floors. The ground floor is a shared workspace, and the other floors prove accommodations. It also includes a rooftop deck and pool!

Startup Incubators/Accelerators
MaGIC – Works with early stage and growth stage startups.
Startup Malaysia – Works with first time entrepreneurs.
Cyberview Living Lab – Innovation platform in talent, start-ups, pilots, and enterprises; allowing new technologies to be tested and validated before launching into the real world.
1337 Ventures – Focused on supporting startups in the app development space.

Next month I will be traveling to Kho Phangan, Thailand, working out of the shared co-working space, Beach Hub !

Resources
My Magic
Girls In Tech
World Startup Wiki
Cradle
Poskod
Startup Blink

INTERVIEW: Karen Lawson on innovation, diversity and creating her own role.

mitchellake on October 23, 2016

Seeing a perfect match between business and talent is what drives us at MitchelLake, so we were pleased when we heard Karen Lawson was joining Australia’s largest corporate accelerator, Slingshot.

We’ve known Karen for a number of years, seeing her go from strength to strength as GM of Business Development and Partnerships at Yahoo7! to CEO of CareerOne. Earlier this year Karen was the MC for our Design Thinking event held in conjunction with Commonwealth Bank at the CBA Innovation Lab. In 2014 and 2015 we partnered with Slingshot for their Jumpstart program, providing an accelerator program and funding to get scale-ups and startups off the ground.

When Karen was announced as CEO of Slingshot we knew we had to grab 10 minutes with her before things get too busy.

Madeleine Gasparinatos: You had been working with Slingshot as their Head of Innovation for its corporate scale-up program. How did this come about and what were some of your achievements in that time?

Karen Lawson: I have known Slingshot for many years. In fact, I remember the first time I sat in the audience for an NRMA demo day. I was absolutely blown away by the Startups and thought how amazing it must be to work for a company that enables founders dreams to not only come true but be the creators of commercial outcomes via corporate clients who are looking to innovate.

I was introduced by a colleague who thought we could potentially work together. Trent and Craig reached out a few months later as they were looking for someone with strong partnering and negotiation skills to work on the Scale-up program. So for me this was one of those moments where it was so easy to say YES!

At the time we were running an internal accelerator for ING direct, external accelerators for Simplot and HCF. I worked with a number of founders HUM, Drive Yello, Protein Bread Company, Curo and CardiHab.

MG: What are the misconceptions or mistakes that you see when people are trying to innovate?

KL: All too often they fall in love with the solution they have created, not the problem. Life is too short to build a product that no one wants. You need to not only find the problem but understand if people are motivated to change their behaviour. There are problems everywhere but unless you have proven this point, you will still not have a business. So validation is key.

MG: How are you planning on shifting the focus of board rooms to move away from governance and risk, towards innovation?

KL: We recently held an event which brought together 30 Chairman from some of Australia’s most influential businesses to start discussing the challenge of innovation. David Thodey led the conversation talking about his experiences and how culture is key. Interestingly the element that often catches leaders by surprise is the impact our accelerator programs have on transforming their culture; shifting mindsets, the employer brand, attracting new talent to a company and provides an innovation brand to harness the momentum.

Boards must change their role to focus on innovation, we provide solutions in preparing them for that. At a minimum, viewing innovation through a ‘risk’ lens might be the only way for many they are motivated to take action. The option of not addressing this in the boardroom is that their businesses will not survive. But first we need to help them on this journey.

MG: The announcement of your appointment as CEO came just after the announcement of Georgia Beattie as CEO of Startup Victoria. While we’ve still got a lot of work to do, how do you see the current executive landscape for women in Australia?

KL: It’s amazing. I am not saying the journey isn’t tough but please! Lean in, put your hand up, back yourself. The talent in Australia is phenomenal, both men and women. Businesses must focus on diversity not just women. All the stats show this is what creates the best decision making and creates the most profitable businesses.

MG: In an epic display of leaning in, you called the co-founders of Slingshot to tell them that you wanted to run their company and create a CEO role for yourself. What was the process from there, and what advice can you give others who want to take their career in their own hands like you did?

KL: I can offer a piece of advice which has always helped me in sales; what’s the worst that can happen? They say no? That’s really not going to hurt, aside from a bit of wounded pride but you’ll recover, not only that it will hurt less the next time, though I always encourage humility. The alternative of not driving what you want from life is much worse. It’s your responsibility, not your boss, employer or board. The process was actually a smooth one with conversations with both founders and Gary Flowers our Chairman.

MG: Is Slingshot looking globally to see what’s happening and apply it locally? What cues are you taking from other markets?

KL: I can’t share our new strategy just yet, but it’s big! And it’s exciting and it will change the lives of people all over the world….

MG: What’s the most exciting startup story to come out of Australia in your opinion?

KL: There are so many. The obvious ones like Atlassian, who made headlines with its $8 billion float on the Nasdaq. Canva is really impressive too, Cliff one of the founders recently taught as part of our Star4000 entrepreneurship course at University of Newcastle. Last year they grew from a user base of 1.8 million to 7 million. We are really proud of our cohorts such as Camplify who are currently in Europe building out their business with international automobile associations following the NRMA accelerator.

MG: Which corporate is most exciting your right now in how they’re approaching innovation?

KL: Innovation is happening everywhere. Fintech is very active right now and we are seeing the banks work hard to get closer to startups. Food tech, Health tech there are amazing things happening. The disruption in transportation is fascinating, beyond simply car sharing into driverless vehicles, tracking and new ways of battery development. The winner I believe will be storage…it’s often overlooked when we think about something like Tesla.

The Continued Growth of Mobile

mitchellake on October 21, 2016

Mobile usage is no longer simply a trend. It is a clear, fundamental shift in how we interact with the beast that is the world wide web. Mobile is not simply a device, or a platform. It is now classified as a behaviour.
I attended an excellent event a few weeks ago, hosted by the ever-enthusiastic Michael Correa, who runs the Mobile Marketing meet-up here in Sydney. The topic of discussion was centred around design strategy and marketing for mobile behaviour, with two highly accomplished speakers in Oliver Maruda (Head of Digital Ventures, Vivant) and Venessa Hunt (Head of Mobile, Group M). Mobile is continuing its hockey stick growth, and is being embraced by users, both young and old (my friend’s grandmother recently purchased her first iPhone, and she’s 87!).

Here are a number of takeaways that I took from the event

Creating an app is only one part of the journey
There is no question that apps for both mobile and tablet are huge. In fact, we spend 90% of our time on these devices, on. Whether we’re updating our Facebook status, swiping on Tinder, paying bills through our chosen banking app or calling an Uber – apps are huge! However, businesses need to ensure that when building their apps, that they are prepared to commit to the long haul – building the app, testing to ensure it runs smoothly (no bugs, or as little as possible), starting off small and continuing to test on their target market, and ensuring it is properly optimised for the app store. Apps require plenty of maintenance and continuous care once built – if this is not done then it can lead to disaster for the brand. I remember downloading the US Open Tennis Championships app this year, and while the design was exceptional, the actual functionality of the app was poor – for the most part it was slow, unresponsive and crashed frequently. Start off simple, and continue to build and add new features as you go.

Measure your success, and be ruthless
The two words I hear more and more with each passing day – vanity metrics. These are dangerous to any business, who is promoting a new product, service or app. Typical scenario – you release your product on the App Store, and there are 1,000 downloads and 800 registrations in the first week. Looks great on paper, doesn’t it? However, this is where in-depth reporting and analytics comes into play. Measure your success – downloads v uninstalls, new users v active users, customer engagement (time spent in app). There are so many questions to be asked – pick the questions/scenarios that are most relevant you feel to your product. For example, the Daily Mail and Spotify apps present alternating usage cases – you might use the Daily Mail app 5 times a day for 5 minutes a time, while you might use the Spotify App once a day, but for an hour at a time.

The continued rise of m-commerce
We as consumers are becoming increasingly more comfortable with purchasing goods and services online, and now on our mobile device. We’re not exactly buying cars or booking big international holidays on our devices yet, but the numbers are growing. Retailers such as the Iconic and ASOS are leading the charge, with simple but excellent customer experiences through their mobile apps. Studies have shown in Australia that customers feel comfortable spending up to $250 on their mobile phones, before the numbers drop off sharply. With the impending arrival of Amazon here in Australia, that number should continue to rise.

Mobile is part of everything we do.
Mobile is simply a part of everyday life. We use it for part of everything we do. Based on a study of 1,000 mobile users across Australia commissioned by YouGov Research on behalf of InMobi in January 2016, 85% use their mobile while waiting for something, 65% use it while commuting and 46% use it whilst shopping.
The role of mobile in our lives will only continue to increase and is continuing to disrupt major industries, such as fintech. Some of the biggest trends coming into 2017 will include mobile automation, digital payments and block chain tech.

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Looking to take your product to the next level? Perhaps your are looking to scale, launch overseas or build out your team. We should chat.

New Event: From Startup to Enterprise – How disruptive FinTechs can make themselves enterprise-ready.

mitchellake on October 18, 2016

The Event

2016 has been a massive year for FinTech. We’ve seen millions of dollars investment and a lot of PR to match it. However, much of this has focused on consumer-oriented products and how they are going to “disrupt the banks”. But what about the significant opportunity for software businesses that either will be partnering with – or directly supporting – the banks through innovative new software?

Reserve your spot here.

Many challenges exist for these growing businesses looking to work with banks, including software integration, data sharing and scaling capabilities.

In this event, held in conjunction with Industrie IT, we are excited to be showcasing four fantastic panelists to discuss these issues from both the banking and the startup sides.

Speakers

George Lucas, MD at Acorns Australia, and Jim Drainas, COO at Cloudcase will be representing startups in this discussion.

Acorns are currently going through a public discourse with the big four banks in the availability of customer data for 3rd party businesses. George is also the Managing Director & CEO of the financial product issuer and fund manager Instreet Investment Limited.

Cloudcase, based out of Stone and Chalk, are building some of the most innovative software around, and have already signed up many of Australia and New Zealand’s leading banks.

From the banking side, we are joined by Cathy Kovacs, Head of Business Development at Westpac and on the front line of Westpac’s support of the FinTech ecosystem. Cathy is also a FinTech company director, sitting on the Board of equity crowdfunding startup, Equitise.

We also be welcoming George Lawson, Head of Emerging Payments at Visa to the panel. Working with issuers, merchants and acquirers, George’s main focus is on mobile, and how this supports new technology.

The event will be hosted by Industrie IT’s Gerhard Diedricks, a long-time supporter of the FinTech ecosystem, and leader of Industrie’s Venture team.

Details

This event will be held from 5.30pm on November 9. There will be drinks and nibbles before a prompt 6pm start, with ample time for Q&A and networking. This is guaranteed to be a lively discussion and spaces are limited, so be sure to sign up as quickly as possible. RSVP here.