NEWS // Silicon Beach Brisbane – The Cornerstone of Brisbane’s Startup Scene!

mitchellake on December 8, 2014

Most people in our industry are aware that Silicon Valley is a leading hub for high-tech innovation and development, accounting for one-third of all of the venture capital investment in the United States.

All over the world cities are having a crack at replicating an ecosystem that can impart some of the similar cultural aspects that lead to its success and the rise of all the venture capitalists in the 1970s that are embedded in Silicon Valley today.

In 2011, I relocated from MitchelLake’s headquarters in Sydney to embark on a new challenge and establish a presence in a new region, South-East Queensland. At the time with virtually no network, I needed to figure out building a profile for MitchelLake, whilst also connecting an immature start-up scene in the region. The Silicon Beach brand that was embedded in the startup scene in Sydney & Melbourne created an opportunity for the developing scene in Queensland.

I connected with some guys in the startup scene locally and decided to set up a chapter of Silicon Beach on the Gold Coast initially, which proved a great success for a smaller city and therefore decided in mid-December 2011 to also kick off a chapter in Brisbane. We launched a Networking Xmas Party on Meetup.com, gave people only 3 days notice and an amazing thing occurred; we had 52 people turn up for Christmas drinks at a local pub in Fortitude Valley and I knew there was something special about to occur.
At those drinks I meet Steve Baxter, who has become Queensland’s biggest Angel Investor in startup tech arena and a few months later Steve set up River City Labs, a co-working facility and centrepiece for startup education and events in Brisbane. Between RivercityLabs & Silicon Beach Brisbane we have created and connected Brisbane’s startup community. Four years on, Silicon Beach Brisbane is considered the cornerstone of Brisbane’s biggest social networking opportunity for the community. Ideas are shared, business connections are made, future co-founders are found and friendships are established while a community is connected through the common bond of driving innovation.

We have attracted some amazing supporting sponsors including River City Labs, iLab, Vincents Chartered Accountants, Mammoth Media, Dundas Lawyers, Elance-Odesk, Zippy, UBER & MitchelLake Consulting.
You can find us here.

We regularly have over 200 at our events in Brisbane and at last week’s Xmas Party we were oversubscribed with 412 attending Brisbane’s biggest start-up event in history. Check out the

(http://vimeo.com/113648317)!

 

NEWS // MLG San Francisco Welcomes New Partner

mitchellake on December 4, 2014

This November we were pleased to welcome Jason Heck as an Executive Search Partner to join our growing San Francisco team. With extensive experience across executive search Jason has a background in campaign politics. He joins us from Parker Remick, a Seattle-based executive search firm who work closely with a number of VC firms.

Jason says of the move “I’m most excited to get MLE (MitchelLake Executive) established as a US brand that can successfully deliver on Silicon Valley assignments with respected technology companies and in addition help MLG be seen and heard as a thought-leader in the industry”.

“I think our part needs to continue to be less transactional and more advisory when it comes to talent. We see and talk to a lot more leaders and companies than most of our clients and we can be a key advisor when it comes to how these companies tackle how best to grow quickly and smartly”.

Neil Smith, our Global Head of Talent offers on the placement, “Jason’s search pedigree is fantastic. We’re very lucky to have him on the MitchelLake team in San Francisco and are looking forward to a prosperous 2015 with him on-board.”

Jason will lead our customer acquisition, strategy and engagement. Having relocated from Seattle to San Francisco for this role Jason is excited by being in Silicon Valley. He moved with his fiance Jess, dog Clementine and cat BeastMode.

On the future of the industry, Jason comments “The talent industry in general is continuing to grow as is the technology industry which should mean good times ahead. I think it’s too early to call it a bubble but startup valuations are rising higher and higher fueled by more investment dollars competing for the best startups. I think that there will be a shake-up sooner or later where some of the weaker companies will tank a bit.”

Welcome Jason!

EVENT REVIEW // Beta & Beyond: The Internet of Things

mitchellake on December 3, 2014

MitchelLake has been pleased to co-host the Beta & Beyond Innovation Series in partnership with Accenture since August 2013 and we just clocked up our 8th event in the program…

This November saw our final Beta & Beyond for 2014 across Melbourne and Sydney and we finished the year on a high thanks to a great lineup of speakers and an engaging and animated discussion with guests.

The ethos behind Beta & Beyond is ‘Ideas That Move Markets’. Each event is themed, with the speakers curated to present the most exciting, innovative and thought provoking angles on the topic.
On this occasion the theme was The Internet of Things: Moving towards intelligent ecosystems: How evolving device networks and applications are influencing commerce, consumers and communities.

The evening plays out as an intimate event showcasing innovations from three early-stage business ventures presenting new possibilities for companies tackling the opportunities and challenges of the Internet of Things. While guests enjoy a three-course dinner they hear three pitches before the discussion is opened up to the floor for guest Q&A. The aim is to allow leading organisations to discover innovation that is occurring at the grassroots level of relevant industries, both locally and globally.

A huge thank you to Simon Chamberlain, Entrepreneur & Investor and Stuart Fox, Managing Partner at Artesian Venture Partners who hosted the events in Melbourne and Sydney respectively. They provided a relevant introduction to IoT and were great contributors to thoughtful discussion and insights across the evening.

SPEAKERS:

Mark Collis & Nicolas Tessier – PlaceAR
Mark Collis and Nicolas Tessier inspired the audience with one of the first presentations of their not-yet-launched startup PlaceAR, an augmented reality app that allows people to leave messages in the ether to either a closed group or publicly. Their presentation expanded the mind as discussion led to its hugely practical applications not only for private use, but for tourism, discovery, and content industries while potentially allowing cross-generational messages to be sent and received.

Daniel Friedman – Ninja Blocks
Daniel is the CEO and founder of Ninja Blocks – a startup aiming to redefine the connected home experience by simplifying human interactions with devices to create a truly magical user experience. Daniel’s presentation allowed the audience to imagine the wider advantages of Ninja Blocks as it could provide solutions across insurance, elder care and pet surveillance. Daniel proudly passed around their sleek hardware, Ninja Sphere, which allowed the audience to take a first hand look at their newest technology: a smart device that continually monitors and learns about its user and its environment. We can’t wait for it to be released.

Doug Buckle – Buzz Products (Melbourne only)
Doug is the Product Design Director at Buzz Products, a global creative agency that solves marketing and business challenges through product design solutions. With 15 years of innovative product design, Buzz Products have recently changed the way in which Canadians watch ice hockey in an exciting project with Budweiser. They helped to deliver the real-time experience of the in-arena experience to ice hockey fans across the country. Through a piece of hardware and a smartphone App, Doug was able to present Buzz Product’s take on IoT in relation to sport and customer engagement.

Jason Pellegrino – Google (Sydney only)
Google may not scream ‘startup’ but Google X is – the company’s lab for secret, weird and wonderful projects. Jason brought a great angle to the event, not only showing off Google Glass, a brainchild of Google X – but was able to contextualise the IoT through inspiring the audience with a polished presentation that allowed us to understand the capacity that IoT has but where it’s heading and how individuals and companies can find relevant applications in their own industries.

We are currently in planning phase for Beta & Beyond in 2015 and we look forward to welcoming a range of hosts, speakers and guests to the event. For more information on Beta & Beyond please email us at sydneu@mitchellake.com

NEWS // MitchelLake Singapore Announces First Hire

mitchellake on December 3, 2014

In May we announced our APAC expansion with Luke Partridge at the helm, and to round out a great year we’re excited to introduce SooJung Bhang, our first internal hire for the region.

Soo lives and breathes the market having lived in Singapore for 18 years, via the United States, Indonesia and originally Korea.

She has worked in TMT industry in an APAC Business Development role and worked closely across digital projects for telcos, ICTs and media / broadcasting companies. Thanks to her strong industry background in senior sales roles Soo will be instrumental across search assignments and BD growth.

Soo joins MitchelLake after working in the corporate world for almost 20 years and looking for something else to sustain her passion. Upon meeting with Jon Tanner and Luke, she saw a match with MitchelLake’s philosophy, conviction and belief, and we can’t wait for a great 2015 with her.

Luke offers “We are delighted that SooJung has joined our business as we continue our growth plan in the region. She comes from a strong commercial sales background acquired across SEA and coupled with her recruitment experience has proven an invaluable team member over a short period of time. 2015 looks like a very encouraging year in terms of building our brand presence, team size and leveraging MItchelLake’s strength of international office collaboration. In doing so we can continue to provide both clients and candidates with a deep and localised perspective on this high growth and exciting part of the world.”

Soo is currently learning Mandarin and hopes to reach HSK level 3 next year. Outside of work she’s an avid traveler & hiker who enjoys reading, knitting and calligraphy.

Welcome Soo!

EVENT REVIEW // Innovation Bay Focus Dinner

mitchellake on November 17, 2014

Last week I was pleased to attend Innovation Bay’s latest Focus Dinner. These events are an opportunity to sit down with an intimate group of entrepreneurs to share stories and ask questions of a featured speaker. We were spoilt for talent on this occasion with Julian Green – Founder of Jetpac (acquired by Google) and Houzz – leading the evening in conversation with Sam Shank – current CEO / Co-Founder of HotelTonight.

The evening discussed entrepreneurship, leadership, travel and travails across HotelTonight, TravelPost and DealBase, all of which Sam was involved in founding.

We covered lots of territory but one key insight I pulled out was that businesses have to truly seize their moment to maximise their growth before established players, or other startups catch on and make future growth more competitive. Sometimes that requires taking on more risk pumping more money into growth-related functions of the business earlier.

For current or aspiring entrepreneurs, investors or just those with an interest in the area, I suggest keeping an eye out for future Innovation Bay events. For those who don’t know about Innovation Bay they are an Australian / San Francisco-based non-profit networking group that helps bring people together who are passionate about innovation, technology and entrepreneurship.

This event was sponsored by Sequoia Benefits, Silicon Valley Bank and MitchelLake.

New Incubator Hits Byron Bay and You’re Invited

mitchellake on November 3, 2014

A new wave of innovation has just hit Byron Bay. StartInno is both an incubator and co-working space, helmed by industry experts, located by the beach.
Sounds dreamy doesn’t it?

Founded by Dan Swan, StartInno uses lean startup methodologies and high performance business coaching and mentoring to enable ideas for the real world.

With a motto and mentality of ‘just start’, StartInno completely understands full project lifecycle and has a team with extensive experience in achieving success across a wide range of industry areas and projects.

StartInno is holding their launch event this week and you’re invited. Startup Academy is a half-day seminar and networking event at the SAE Institute Byron Bay. With the aim of getting creatives to Start Innovating. this event will be an opportunity for idea sharing, demystifying the startup process and hearing stories and practical advice from coaches, creators, founders and investors. The expert panel is made up of those who have been through it all and are open with their experiences.

Make the most of this great event and use it as an opportunity to ask the questions you’ve always wanted to, as well as to learn more about this exciting new initiative on the NSW North Coast.
Reserve your spot now. Click here.

Startup Academy
Friday 7 November, 2pm-5pm
SAE Institute Byron Bay, 373-391 Ewingsdale Road, BYRON BAY

For more information about StartInno click here.

Get them to the Greek – Lakers take over Ronald McDonald House

mitchellake on October 31, 2014

This week ten Lakers received an early mark to make a small difference to the lives of families at Ronald McDonald House (RMH) in Randwick.

Ronald McDonald House (RMH) has been operating in Australia since 1981, with as many as 299 families staying at a RMH on any given night seeking a home-away-from-home for seriously ill children and their families.It is an essential resource for families who live away from adequate services and who require a home-away-from-home during difficult times.

After April’s Indian curry smorgasbord the menu this time around was a Greek Feast, with Jamie Finnegan from our office drawing inspiration from Jamie Oliver’s ‘Gorgeous Greek Chicken, Herby Vegetable Couscous & Tzatziki’. Healthy, quick and tasty.

The boys dutifully shopped for ingredients while the girls supplied the team with caffeine and we set about preparing the feast for a 6.30pm dinner. Simon Robinson made short work of several bags of onion to add to the salad that Johanna Peirce was creating. Ant was on team chicken, working wonders with herbs. Haylee Brittliffe headed up the barbecue department outside while families mingled in the courtyard. Jamie let out his stress of coordinating the entire evening on the food processor to create the herby vegetable mix, while Zoe Murray and Madeleine Gasparinatos made enough couscous to feed an army. Emma Jones put her hand up early as fruit-salad Queen and certainly delivered. Meanwhile Kevin Griffiths nominated himself as chief food-taster and Gareth Linnard rounded out the team effort providing a marvellous assistance as Head of Logistics and dishwashing.

With plenty of lemon and mint leftover we served up lemonade au natural as the children and their families descended upon the tables right on 6.30pm. For starters there were stuffed vine leaves, hummous and pita bread, with Greek salad, Jamie’s gorgeous couscous chicken creation and homemade tzatziki as main.

For dessert there was a tropical fruit salad with thick Greek yoghurt, honey and walnuts. We may have over catered slightly on the couscous with three commercial sized trays being placed in the fridge for midnight snacks and dinner throughout the week.

Families piled their plates high and spread out across the indoor and outdoor area, making the most of the warm Spring evening. Mealtimes at RMH are a great opportunity for everyone to band together, enjoy a communal dinner and chat about anything and everything.

The whiteboard calendar that lists other organisations and companies volunteering to cook up a meal looks healthy, but there are plenty more spaces that can be filled. If you or your company are able to assist with the evening meal program, or in any other charitable action for Ronald McDonald House Charity, then don’t hesitate to get in touch with them directly. Visit RMHC here.

Being able to lend a hand just for one evening makes a huge difference, and it’s something that MitchelLake look forward to continuing.

JJ Back At University + Software Engingeering Students Seeking Internships

mitchellake on October 7, 2014

Last week as part of MitchelLake’s continued efforts to connect and educate the startup ecosystem in Australia, I was pleased to be invited to be a guest speaker for the 2nd year RMIT Software Engineering students.

This was my first ever lecture and it was a pleasure to be able to talk about a subject that I love and am passionate about.

As the class prepares for life in the real world – kicking off with 40 weeks interning – it was both a nerve racking and rewarding experience as I was able to impart knowledge to the students (that was the aim at least!).

During the lecture I aimed to try and educate the talented and enthusiastic class on the importance of striving for the most challenging, interesting and culturally beneficial options for them from a career standpoint.

It was great to see how proactive the students were, with some having already begun to secure internships with some of Melbourne’s awesome startups such as Outware Mobile. More encouraging was the desire of the class to learn more.

After just 1 hour back at university I learnt a lot about myself and the importance of giving back knowledge and educating the next generation. There are many wonderful opportunities in the Melbourne startup community and I look forward to the RMIT class being able to feed off them.

MitchelLake are keen to continue helping the class at RMIT and as such, it it would be great to hear from startups and fast-growth tech business seeking talented tech students eager to take on a challenge or two for 40 weeks as part of the internship requirements. The class is ready to work from November 2014.

If you think you can help out at your company, please get in touch with us at sydney@mitchellake.com