startup-ecosystem-mapping-report

Research $3,480
Craft
$160
Issues & Actions
COMMUNITY IDEAS
COMPUTER GAME SALES
As part of the project, workshops
$2B
and interviews
were
$1.5B
held with $1.61B key members of the SEQ ecosystem.
Participants were asked to discuss, identify and
vote on “which issues were critical to the growth of
Queensland’s
2011
startup
2012
ecosystem”,
2013
and the actions
2017
which
would address these challenges. Votes are weighted
proportionately by the relative sizes of each region’s
population. The top ten issues in order of total weighted
votes from all regions were:
TOP COMMUNITY ISSUES:
RANKED TOP COMMUNITY BY WEIGHTED ISSUES: VOTES RANKED BY WEIGHTED VOTES
Raise Awareness
Education
Culture
Funding
Government Policy
Collaboration & Networking
Procurement
Infrastructure
Talent & Skills
Leadership
3. CULTURE
Participants from all regions said a culture of
entrepreneurship and innovation needs to be developed
within Australia if we are to create globally-relevant
technology companies. Specific cultural themes
that inhibited innovative entrepreneurship included:
Australia’s natural modesty; the tall poppy syndrome;
lack of forgiveness of business failure; aversion to
risk taking; male dominance of the technology sector;
little understanding of the impacts of technology on
economies and culture; little understanding of the global
role of technology innovation; default to ‘employeeship’
job rather than entrepreneurship; entrepreneurs thinking
beyond local markets; and entrepreneurs having a
boldness of ambition. While developing the culture of
entrepreneurship and innovation within Australia comes
in third on the ranking, in many ways it underpins the
challenges faced within all the other issues discussed.
4. FUNDING INNOVATION
Across all regions access to early-stage funding ranked
as a critical challenge for startups, the shortage of
funding being particularly pronounced at the angel,
seed and Series A stages - growth funding being more
accessible due to the proven nature of the startups at
this stage. Securing globally-comparable valuations for
startups within SEQ at any stage is difficult and forces
many startups to look for funding in the US or Europe.
TOP 5. GOVERNMENT POLICY
1. RAISE COMMUNITY AWARENESS ACTIONS: RANKED BY WEIGHTED VOTES
For Education the sector Program to grow and play a substantive role in the 1
Australian Form Leadership economy Group there needs to be greater awareness 2
of the startup ecosystem, the economic impact of high
Startup Apprentice
3
growth startups, and the impact of technology on the
nation. Highlight Raising Success awareness Stories is also a critical factor in 4
most Collaboration of the following & Networking issues - especially attracting 5
investment, facilitating regulatory change, attracting
Attract Talent
6
greater participation in entrepreneurship, developing
a Communication national culture Hub of high-growth entrepreneurship, 7
and Govt drawing Incentive more - Investment students to study the core STEM 8
courses
Hub
required for technology innovation. Participants
9
identified celebrating the success of startups as a key
issue NBN for Advocacy the growth Group of both the startup ecosystem and 10
national economy.
2. EDUCATION FOR ALL
$3B
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Across all regions education, in its varied forms
(accelerator, mentoring, courses, etc.), is seen as
critical to creating a vibrant ecosystem. On both sides
35000000 of the table, participants in the ecosystem highlight
both the dearth of suitably educated and experienced
30000000 entrepreneurs, and on the other side, investors with
very little understanding of the business models, global
valuation norms and technology challenges associated
with startups.
Workshop participants across all regions lamented
the low number of Computer Science graduates
and identified this as a critical long-term challenge.
Entrepreneurs also spoke about the challenge in getting
access to mentors with experience building global
technology 2009 2010 companies. 2011 2012 2013 2014
Startup entrepreneurs in both Brisbane and on the Gold
Coast expressed concern at government policy that
failed to facilitate innovation and entrepreneurship.
While the Sunshine Coast was specifically focused on
the government bringing basic broadband infrastructure
to the region, Brisbane and the Gold Coast criticised
policy at odds with global best practice, specifically
employee share schemes; matched funding for
innovation; and investment and R&D tax incentives. The
lack of a clear, consistent and long term government
agenda was seen as a serious impediment to increasing
foreign VC investment in Australian startups, and a
contributing factor in the flight of talent, companies and
funds to foreign soil.
6. COLLABORATIVE NETWORKS
While many people see the startup sector as being
extremely collaborative, participants within the sector
understand the benefits of strong network ties and still
see a great deal of work to be done to achieve a similar
level of collaboration to global hubs such as Tel Aviv,
Boulder and the San Francisco bay area. Increasing
the breadth and depth of collaboration, along with
financial support from government for key nodes
was seen as critical to the continued growth of the
ecosystem. Collaboration with international ecosystems,
international markets, local universities, and big
business was also called out as a key issue. Establishing
both physical and digital centralised hubs was seen as
critical in most regions.
River City Labs, Silicon Lakes, Sunshine Coast
Innovation Centre and Startup Weekend events are
superb examples of hubs that bring the community
together.
No. CO & GROUPS: FOUNDED
3000000
7. PROCURING LOCAL STARTUP TECHNOLOGY
2500000
Participants spoke about the challenges involved in
securing contracts from both corporate buyers and
government. 2000000To manage risk most government agencies
and large corporates require substantial track record
from 1500000 their IT suppliers, making it difficult for new
startups to displace incumbent technology providers.
1000000
8. ACCELERATE NBN ROLL-OUT
For participants
500000
within the Sunshine Coast ecosystem,
access to fast broadband via the National Broadband
Network (NBN) was seen as the most critical issue for
the growth of the local startup community. Fast, easy
access to digital infrastructure is critical to the growth of
startups, and the poor quality of the local network leads
to substantially reduced productivity.
9. TALENT & SKILLS
Building, attracting, and retaining talent was seen as
a critical factor in growing the ecosystem. While the
voting methodology only picked this up within the
Brisbane and Sunshine coast regions, the state and
country’s ‘brain drain’ came up within most interviews
and workshops. The Gold Coast in particular suffers
from a lack of talented designers, developers and
technology entrepreneurs. Retaining a critical mass
of developers, designers, data scientists, electronic
engineers, angel investors, venture capitalists, and other
technologists is critical to the sustained growth of any
startup ecosystem. Participants also spoke about the
need for a cultural shift, so that we come to accept,
Digital Queensland
encourage and support the movement of ‘talent’ to
global innovation hotspots as a good ‘right of passage’
for entrepreneurs, who then Non-Digital bring their Queensland skills, experience
and connections back to the state at a later date.
10. LEADERSHIP
Within the Gold Coast region leadership was seen as a
critical factor in driving engagement Non-Digital and Rest participation.
of Australia
While this wasn’t articulated so clearly within other
regions, communication and physical hubs were
discussed for similar reasons.
FUNDING BY REGION
Digital Rest of Australia
38
TOTAL INVESTED BY INVESTOR TYPE ($M)