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Six lessons from 2013’s Hot 30 under 30
6:58AM | Wednesday, 19 JuneRead through the list of this year’s entrants in SmartCompany’s Hot 30 under 30 and it’s hard not to be impressed by what they’ve achieved at such a young age.
Brisbane’s booming mobile tech start-up scene to gather on Monday night
6:56AM | Friday, 14 JuneBrisbane start-ups are preparing to launch a new wave of mobile technology, with a sold-out showcase event set to take place on June 17. The event is part of the global Mobile Monday movement. First launched as a casual gathering of developers focused on mobile technology in Finland in 2000, the event now includes 160 cities, including Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. Ten start-ups will be presenting their ideas. They will each get four minutes and four slides. Co-founder Chris Kettle told StartupSmart the event was focused on networking and there would be venture capital investors and start-up experts in the audience. “There are so many companies doing cool things. The Mobile Monday start-up night is about showcasing the latest and greatest idea so people can get some validation. Companies can be in ideas phase looking for developers, or doing really well and about to launch major campaigns,” says Kettle. The sold-out event is another sign of the rapid development of the Brisbane start-up scene. “The start-up scene in Brisbane is totally erupting right now. We’ve gone from six people at Mobile Monday Brisbane and we’ve filled the last few with 60 places,” says Kettle. Kettle attributes this growth to better resources and a cultural shift. “There have always been lots of creatives in Brisbane and now the ecosystem is really taking off. Ideas and developers are everywhere and there is angel money coming in,” Kettle says. “Places like the River City Labs (where the event takes place) are really useful at bringing people together. “It’s now so easy and apps are very exciting. There have never been better distribution platforms and since We Are Hunted came out of Brisbane and got bought by Twitter, everyone is really focused.” Kettle launched the Mobile Monday Brisbane evening in 2008, after meeting co-founder Mark White at a Mobile Monday London event. “We’d been working the same industry in the same city for years, and never met. So we decided when we got back, we were going to make this happen in Brisbane,” Kettle says. “It wouldn’t surprise me if we had another global win in Brisbane in the next 12 months.”
Government announces review of employee share scheme and crowd-sourced equity regulations
6:49AM | Wednesday, 12 JuneThe government has today announced a review of the regulations around employee share schemes and crowd-sourced equity funding regulations. According to the National Digital Economy Strategy (NDES) update announced in Brisbane today, this decision was made in order to “boost support for Australian tech start-ups” and would be focused on helping address the barriers faced by start-up companies in attracting and retaining staff. In a release, Senator Stephen Conroy, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, said: “As the rollout of the NBN continues, the capacity for start-up companies, particularly in the tech and digital sectors, to create game-changing businesses and applications is unprecedented.” The decision to review and simplify the employee share scheme options will be welcomed by the start-up and venture capital industries, who have been calling for such an update. Phil Morle, founder and CEO of leading start-up incubator Pollenizer, told StartupSmart the announcement was good news for Australian start-ups. “We welcome the review of share option regulations and look forward to new recommendations playing a major role in stimulating the start-up economy,” says Morle. “To foster its swelling community of start-ups, Australia needs simple, fair and cost-effective ways for entrepreneurs to compensate each other with equity over cash. This recognises the risk taken when building new ventures which are strapped for cash and statistically likely to fail.” The move has also been welcomed by the Australian Industry Group. In a release, Innes Willox, the chief executive of the Australian Industry Group said: "We also welcome the Government’s commitment to review the tax treatment of employee share schemes and to develop a best practice framework for Crowd Sourced Equity Funding, which Ai Group advocated in our recent report Ready or Not? Technology Investment and Productivity in Australian Businesses. We need to improve the conditions for innovation and commercialisation in Australia as a priority, including better access to financing." Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury said in a release the feedback from the 2012 Digital Economy Forum pointed out the government could better support the development of start-ups, and it was therefore timely to re-examine the framework around the employee share schemes. “The government can’t create the next Twitter, Instagram or 99 Designs, but we can provide the infrastructure and regulatory environment to help Australians who will,” said Conroy. A consultation paper to guide the discussions will be released shortly. The employee share schemes review will be due by December 2013 and the crowd-sourced equity funding by April 2014. The NDES update also announced an expansion of the Digital Enterprise and Local Government programs to support small businesses to better engage with the digital economy and make use of emerging online opportunities.
Silicon Lakes directors head to US to build relationships with start-up community
6:14AM | Tuesday, 11 JuneThe directors of Gold Coast incubator Silicon Lakes are flying to the United States tomorrow (Wednesday) to build relationships with the start-up community there and provide a future pathway for Queensland start-ups. Greg Burnett told StartupSmart the 12-day trip was aimed at “planting seeds” and to “acclimatize” themselves with the start-up sector in the U.S. “It’s a `soft landing’ into starting to build some relationships with a couple of accelerators with the goal to building a pathway as we graduate start-ups out of the Gold Coast,” he says. Burnett says one of the main stumbling blocks for start-ups on the Gold Coast has been access to early seed funding. He says while Silicon Lakes does not provide seed funding, it is building relationships with angel investors on the Gold Coast and hopes to learn more about seed funding opportunities while in the US. Burnett, who is being joined on the trip by fellow directors Bill Bass and Aaron Birkby, says they’ve had little trouble finding people willing to meet them following Twitter’s acquisition of the Brisbane-based We Are Hunted music app earlier this year. He says they plan to visit the Microsoft Innovation Center and seed funders TechStars in Seattle, and hope to spend time with funder Y Combinator and accelerator KickLabs. They also plan to meet the people behind the Startup Weekend event in preparation for a Startup Weekend on the Gold Coast as well as Australian start-ups that have moved to the U.S. Silicon Lakes officially launched in February and is a not-for-profit incubator working closely with the Gold Coast City Council. Burnett says they are working with 12 start-ups at the moment, with half of those in the app space.
A franchisee’s biggest business regret
6:36PM | Sunday, 2 JuneAs Taskmaster readers will know, earlier this week your humble correspondent went for a sales meeting at a busy suburban shopping centre. After visiting one customer, Old Taskmaster trundled through the now narrow corridors to a second store. Slowly. The once wide corridors have been narrowed down by a series of mobile phone store kiosks, meaning a single elderly gentleman with a walking stick and five-year-old granddaughter in tow can now single-handedly slow a whole row of shoppers to a crawl. Seriously, centre management, it might boost revenue per square metre, but it’s a practice that really annoys your shoppers! Anyway, the second sales call was a franchisee of a national chain. During a discussion about the newest widget models from Taskmaster Enterprises, they revealed their biggest business regret. Apparently, part of their franchise agreement states that they have an exclusive ‘territory’ in terms of the location of physical stores. Unfortunately for them, any revenues from sales through the chain’s website or its mobile app go to the franchisor, even if the customer is within the same suburb as an existing store. So if a customer visits their local store on Sunday, looks at an item, and then goes home before ordering it online a couple of days later, the value of that sale goes entirely to the franchisor. As you might imagine, this creates all manner of perverse incentives. For example, the franchisee views the website as a competitor with the same merchandise rather than an asset for their business. Why encourage your loyal customers to purchase their goods from a competitor? As a result, since the company’s Twitter and Facebook accounts are geared to get people to buy online rather than in store, what incentive is there for the sales staff to promote them? As a result, Old Taskmaster was amused to note the sales staff consistently “forget” to ask the customers to follow the chain on Twitter and Facebook – even when the owner or manager is within earshot. The franchisee’s big regret with all of this is to fail to ask the question of how online sales revenues (or profits) are distributed. After all, who wants a franchisor who feels like a rival rather than a partner? Well, Old Taskmaster says this: If you’re looking to become a franchisee, make sure you ask about how online revenues are distributed. It’s always better to ask ahead of time than to find yourself in a business dispute. As for franchisors, be aware that the way you treat your online sales and web presence can create perverse incentives for your franchisees. If a sale can be traced to near a physical franchisee’s store, consider some sort of profit sharing agreement with your franchisees. Get it done – today.
Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest? Which social media platform is right for my business?
6:55AM | Monday, 3 JuneOne of the biggest challenges small businesses face with social media is finding the time to actually using it. Most businesses never get around to developing a full social media strategy, opting to use just one platform (usually Facebook) or none at all. Last week’s release of the annual Sensis Social Media Report revealed that just 30% of small businesses have a social media presence. Of this group, 88% are using Facebook. (For a detailed review into how SMEs are using social media based on this research, read this article published on StartupSmart last week.) With 95% of Australian social media users on Facebook, it’s a no-brainer that your business should have a presence here. It’s not even a nice-to-have anymore; it’s a huge opportunity missed if you don’t have a Facebook Page, especially if your business does B2C selling. But there’s so much more to the social media landscape than just Facebook. The following table taken from the report shows the breakdown of social media sites used in Australia by gender and age. Quite often, Twitter is seen as the next priority channel after Facebook. But with 20% of all social media users on LinkedIn, this channel is clearly overlooked. All businesses – small and large – should be set-up on LinkedIn with a Company Page. A Company Page allows you to post updates on behalf of the business, raise awareness of your brand, develop a follower community and showcase your products and services. For an added cost, you can also set up a Careers Tab on your Company Page for recruitment purposes. OK, so I’ve said that pretty much all businesses should have a Facebook Page and a LinkedIn Company Page. Now, what else? This really depends on your target market. Instagram: This photo-sharing platform is hugely popular with 16% of all social media users uploading and adding filters to their photos of food, sunrises and selfies. The site is most popular with the under 30s, with a whopping 41% of 14-19 year olds using it. If this is your target market and your business has a visual element (think fashion, food and travel), then Instagram should definitely be considered a part of your social media marketing mix. Twitter: 15% of social media users are on Twitter, with more males (19%) than females (12%). The site is popular across a broad demographic between 20 and 64 year olds. However, the most popular age group is 40-49. Twitter is definitely worth considering for a wider range of target markets, especially males in their forties. Given the short life of a tweet, it’s only worth pursuing if you have lots of regular content to share. Google+: With 15% of all social media users claiming to be on Google+ it’s certainly not a social media network to sneeze at. However, with it’s largest demographic being the over 65 group (32%), I have to wonder whether our seniors had confused Google+ with the Google search engine. According to the report, this channel is not worth pursing if your target market is under 30 years old, though it has a respectable 18% of social media users in its community between the ages of 30-49. Pinterest: Last year’s social media superstar Pinterest has the lowest numbers with an average of 7% of social media users pinning. However, these numbers have been rapidly growing since the site first launched in 2010 and is largely dominated by the fairer sex (11% of females to just 1% males). If your business has anything to do with weddings (think flowers, bonbonniere, decorations, etc), fashion or home décor, then Pinterest is a must for you. What’s great about this insight is if you know your target market well, you are able to start building a strategy based on their social media habits and behaviour. What social media channels do you use for your business?
Kogan wins Supreme Court case against ispONE
5:55AM | Thursday, 2 MayTech retailer Kogan has won its case against ispONE, following several weeks of tense argument in the Victorian Supreme Court. Kogan’s counsel Norman O'Bryan told SmartCompany this morning the case was, “won comprehensively on every issue”. The Victorian Supreme Court has said ispONE breached its obligations under the Master Wholesale Agreement to refusing to permit customers to to recharge their services, and must now pay all of Kogan's costs. The Court order mandates ispONE must be damages in respect of any losses, with that amount to be determined by the two parties. ispONE must also pay Kogan's costs, including those relating to its abandoned counter-claim. ispONE – which is a former entrant on the SmartCompany Smart50 - was contacted by SmartCompany this morning, but no response was available prior to publication. In a statement, Kogan Mobile said the victory means customers can “rest assured that their services will not be unlawfully interfered with by the wholesaler”. “Today is a win for Australians fed up with paying too much for their mobile phone access,” Kogan said in a statement. “The migration to Kogan Mobile has been one of the largest in Australian telecommunications history, and with today's result we can only see this migration gathering further momentum." The case began last month when Kogan took ispONE to court, alleging the company had breached the wholesale agreement because it was refusing to recharge the services of some customers. ispONE argued these customers were using too much data. Although Kogan had advertised the prepaid mobile plans as providing 6GB of data, some users were judged by ispONE to be using too much in a short space of time, in breach of the company’s acceptable use policy. ispONE responded to the case by alleging Kogan had engaged in “misleading and deceptive conduct”. The case heated up two weeks ago when Justice James Judd said he was troubled by the case due to the “distraction it causes to business management’s time and effort”. Ruslan Kogan, founder of the eponymous business, said on Twitter that although the company has won, the case could harm the business’ reputation. This story first appeared on SmartCompany.
How to grow your Twitter followers
5:25PM | Wednesday, 1 MayWhen it comes to social media accounts, setting them up is the easy part. It’s building the numbers and growing them into thriving communities that is the real challenge. Increasing your followers on Twitter is one of the great mysteries of social media for most people. It’s probably the number one question I am asked as a social media consultant. In reality it need not be a mystery, as there are a number of simple strategies you can implement to maximise your Twitter success. 1. Tweet regularly Don’t set and forget! If growing a large following is what you’re aiming for, then a tweet every few days or so will just not cut it. That said, tweeting every five minutes will just disengage followers so it’s important to find a balance. Aim for three to five tweets per day to begin with, though this can certainly increase as your Twitter star rises. It’s also important to not give up and get disheartened as your numbers don’t sky-rocket immediately. Growing your Twitter followers is a long game and you have to be patient and work at it. We can’t all be Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga! 2. Tweet interesting and relevant content This should be fairly obvious, but if your tweets are not interesting, then others are less likely to want to follow you. If your Twitter account is for your IT start-up, then it would make sense to tweet about updates in your business, your opinions on new technology, and news in the IT sector. Probably not as relevant is what your had for breakfast. Can’t think of anything to tweet? Re-tweet someone else’s interesting content, or use an RSS reader such as Feedly to curate content for you that you can tweet out. Still stuck? Better to not tweet at all than tweet something that will disengage others. 3. Follow others Often the biggest problem with obtaining followers is letting them know you exist. You can boost awareness of your Twitter account by following others you’d like to follow you in return, as users receive an alert when they receive a new follower. There is of course no guarantee that they will follow you in return, but experience shows that around 10-20% will. There are a couple of ways you can find relevant Twitter accounts to follow. First take a look at Twitter lists. If you’re included on a list called ‘Australian IT’, take a look at the other accounts on that list. You’re bound to discover other accounts to follow. Want to get more PR exposure? Take a look at lists such as “Australian Journalists” and follow those accounts. Another way to discover people to follow is to use Twitter directory websites such as Follower Wonk and Tweepz. These sites allow you to search for users based on keywords, location and names. Looking for Developers in Melbourne? Enter those details and a matching list will display. 4. Use hashtags Research which hashtags are popular within the communities of interest you’re targeting, and use include them in your tweets. If you’re a fashion designer, then it would make sense to use a hashtag such as #LMFF during the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival. It is, however, important to make sure that your tweet relates back to that hashtag. It is extremely bad practice to write a tweet about your business and try to piggyback off a trending hashtag, and this will get you nowhere. Your aim should be to add value to the conversation. 5. Run a competition Once your Twitter account is somewhat established and already has a small following, a great way to bolster your numbers is to run a competition. , where Twitter users had to tweet that they were entering #CrustFreePizzaFriday and also be a follower of @crust_pizza. Each Friday a winner was random selected to win five pizzas. This competition resulted in a huge lift in followers for Crust Pizza, and for many Fridays my Twitter feed was dominated by #CrustFreePizzaFriday tweets. 6. Link from everywhere! Finally, you should remember to display your Twitter URL everywhere you can! Make sure you link from your website, email signature, business cards, promotional materials, brochures, menus, in-store posters… The people who will see this are most likely to already be your customers (or potential customers!) so make sure it’s easy for them to discover your Twitter account.
Start-ups urged to be vigilant after Twitter hack wipes $136 billion off US stock market
4:29AM | Wednesday, 24 AprilAnother high-profile Twitter hacking attempt has caused havoc in the United States, with the Dow Jones shedding 143 points after the hacked Associated Press Twitter account incorrectly reported President Barack Obama had been injured in an explosion. The hack is the most serious of the attempts which have occurred over the past several months, with other hacks targeting the accounts of automotive group Ford and Burger King. Businesses have been issued yet another warning by social media experts to keep their accounts locked up tight, and start developing better security around their social media practices. While previous Twitter hacks have resulted in controversy, this is the first time such a hack broadcast a story which could have been seen as believable. Anthony Mason, manager of digital research and analysis at online reputation management group SR7, told SmartCompany this latest incident is a "mixture of both security and social media strategy". "More importantly, this an issue around governance of media, an aspect commonly neglected throughout the broader business maturation of the medium," he says. Mason points to the recent HMV case in Britain where staff were able to post on the official account while they were being fired, giving an account of the firing process. He also points out some security issues – Twitter doesn't have two-factor authentication, and is thus more susceptible to attack. Mason says small businesses need to take note of who has access to social media accounts and then put in place monitoring protocols so that any access breaches are identified at an early stage. "Small businesses should be across any third-party suppliers that may have access to official social media assets. These may include web designers, social media strategists and community managers." A debate often posited among social media advisors is whether or not small businesses should be using third-party companies to monitor their social media accounts. While this often means less total control, it does mean employee breaches are less likely. It also means these companies are more likely to pick up on a breach. Mason says businesses need to start taking social media more seriously, especially as he notes business models are beginning to value social media insight and "the immediacy of information". "Ownership and transition of social media account access should be included in employment contracts to make expectations clear and to provide companies with a legal basis on which to take action." This story first appeared on SmartCompany.
Notify your customers of your Anzac Day trading hours
4:47AM | Tuesday, 23 AprilOn Thursday, Australians will commemorate the brave men and women of the armed forces who fought valiantly in defence of the country they loved. In an ideal world, this solemn national day of contemplation and commemoration should not be a day of work. Indeed, many businesses will be closed for this very reason. However, modern commercial realities being what they are, some businesses will trade on this important national holiday. Making matters more confusing, different states and territories have different rules and regulations around when Anzac Day must be commemorated. In some cases, it even varies depending on how big your business is or where in a state your business is based. Now, if this business of opening hours on a public holiday is a confusing subject for you as a business owner, imagine what it’s like for your customers. That’s why it’s a wise decision to decide now whether or not you intend to trade on Anzac Day, if you haven’t already done so. Whether you choose to open or not, Old Taskmaster says it’s essential you let your customers know what your decision is as soon as possible. If you have a shop window, put a sign in it letting your customers know whether or not they can expect to find your business open on Anzac Day, and if so, what your trading hours will be. Do the same on your business blog, on the front page of your website, on your Facebook and your Twitter accounts. Even if you run a tech start-up and you will continue to take orders via your website on Anzac Day, but won’t be in the office to take customer service calls, it’s important to let your customers know. After all, there’s little point in coming to work on Thursday if no one knows when you’re open. And it’s equally important to not disappoint your customers by having them turn up to your store only to find your business is closed for the day. Get it done – today!
What service can I use to replace Google Reader after its demise?
4:57AM | Monday, 22 AprilMany Google Reader devotees have been left scratching their heads looking for a replacement for the sadly departed service. While Google may have retired Google Reader, what you need to realise is that it’s simply what it says, it is – a reader. Working on a very old technology called RSS (Really Simple Syndication), there are many applications that can replace Google Reader. So let’s begin with direct replacements. This probably sounds a little easier than it actually is because many products out there actually used Google Reader to implement their feeds. One such example is Digg. The good news is that Digg is building an engine it hopes to release before the official closure of Google Reader on July 1, which will look to include an easy ‘import’ feature for your existing Google Reader account. If you’re keen to know more, you can sign up for updates from Digg. Another popular alternative is Feedly. They claim to have switched over 500,000 Google Reader users and provide direct plugins for Firefox, and iOS and Google Play versions as well as a web interface. Feedly has already integrated with Google Reader and by simply logging in via your Google credentials, you’ll find it pulls all your categories and subscriptions into Feedly. For the time being it will sync across both services, but come July 1 all your data will be migrated to the Feedly system. These are certainly strong and solid alternatives to what you have been using, but you may also need to consider what works best for you in gaining the information you want. As was suggested in the question, social media is definitely another mechanism, with Twitter possibly being the most ideal. Finding sites and information that provide Twitter feeds is common and Twitter is a widely used platform for all forms of feeds. Depending on what you’re seeking information about, Google Alerts may be another alternative to explore. Simply type in a search query, choose what type of content you’re looking for and how often you wish to receive it, along with how many results you wish to receive, and it will deliver this directly to your inbox. This can be used for a multitude of purposes and allows for a broader scope of information rather than a feed from one site. As for the question, ‘Why would Google shut down Reader?’ Well, that’s simple. It’s a business decision. Like any good business, reviewing your product offerings periodically is vital to building a successful business. Focusing on products and services that derive you the highest income is nothing short of standard business practice and while the demise of any product will upset some customers, as any business needs to do, Google has done what is right for them. Freeing up the resources tied up in Google Reader will allow Google to focus on other useful products which you may find offer you something new and different in the future. We all know that technology is a fickle industry, but today it’s almost a given that there will always be someone willing to pick up where someone else leaves off. Digg and Feedly are not the only alternatives, and don’t be surprised if a number of others pop up in the next few months either.
Tyler Crowley returns to Oz as Brisbane’s first Visiting Entrepreneur
4:27AM | Thursday, 18 AprilAbove: Tyler Crowley Silicon Valley start-up expert Tyler Crowley (pictured above) has made his second trip to Australia this year, visiting Brisbane as part of Brisbane Marketing’s new Visiting Entrepreneurs Program. Crowley, who spoke to StartupSmart during his Australian visit in February, works with start-ups to improve their pitches. He has been involved in TechCrunch40 and the LAUNCH Conference, and is a co-host of This Week in Startups. He has also advised the London, Santiago and Stockholm local governments on how to create successful start-up ecosystems. As part of Brisbane Marketing’s newly launched Visiting Entrepreneurs Program, Crowley spent several days in Brisbane, where he met more than 150 start-ups and entrepreneurs. His visit included a stint at Brisbane co-working space River City Labs, where he oversaw two pitching workshops. Brisbane Marketing is a subsidiary of Brisbane City Council, which last month launched the Digital Brisbane strategy, of which start-ups are a major focus. According to Crowley, stimulating an entrepreneurial culture is particularly important among young people who “have the ability to tackle high-risk but high-return opportunities before they find themselves on a career path with a mortgage and a family”. “Any successful start-up ecosystem also needs access to early stage investment and a strong support network for entrepreneurs,” he said in a statement. Crowley has now left Australia, but Brisbane Marketing innovation strategist Colin Kinner told StartupSmart his visit was a major coup for Brisbane. In addition to a limited appetite for high-growth entrepreneurship, Kinner says Brisbane – and Australia – is held back by a lack of experienced entrepreneurs who can advise new start-ups. “There aren’t very many entrepreneurs who have grown globally. What we realised [was non-Australian industry experts] would speed up the growth of the ecosystem,” Kinner says. “Tyler was the first cab off the rank. We have a list of people we’re bringing out over a number of years.” While Kinner won’t reveal who is on the list, he says start-ups won’t be disappointed “We certainly have some big names on here. The attributes of the people we bring out – they’re entrepreneurs, investors or people who are involved in building start-up communities,” he says. “There’s one person who we’ve secured who is an experienced angel investor as well as an experienced entrepreneur. “We [also] have a number of very well-respected authors and speakers on the topic of start-ups.” Kinner says some of the visiting entrepreneurs hail from the west and east coasts of the United States, while Israel is another “very important part of the world for us”. The aim is to bring out a visiting entrepreneur once a quarter. Brisbane mayor Graham Quirk said in a statement the Visiting Entrepreneurs Program is part of a promise to support budding tech entrepreneurs through a range of start-up programs. “We’ve already seen a number of great Brisbane successes like games developer Halfbrick – the maker of Fruit Ninja – and music discovery service We Are Hunted, which has been acquired by Twitter,” Quirk said. “Our aim is to see more of these companies flourish. “There is no reason Brisbane shouldn’t have its own companies like Instagram… Tyler Crowley’s visit is the first step in that direction.”
Five tips to get your LinkedIn account buzzing
4:35AM | Wednesday, 17 AprilSo you have your website, a Facebook Page, a Twitter account… but do you have a LinkedIn account? And if you do, are you keeping it up to date? Recently, I've noticed a lot more engagement taking place within the platform, such as sharing of content, commenting and activity within discussion groups. LinkedIn has really shifted over the past year from being a tool for job-seekers to a tool for networking and content discovery. Creating new, relevant connections is a great benefit from using LinkedIn, and for start-up businesses the ability to connect with potential partners, investors, suppliers and customers is second to none. Here are my top five tips for using LinkedIn: 1. Upload a profile picture This one should be obvious, but the number of profiles I see without a photo is astounding. When using a platform where building relationships is key, you should humanise your profile with a picture, just as you would Facebook or Twitter. Ensure that the photo you choose fits the professional nature of LinkedIn and clearly shows your face (head and shoulders is ideal). 2. Don't use your job title as your headline Sell yourself and your capabilities by expanding here. For example, 'Eco-friendly Product Specialist, Homewares Designer and Owner at eHome Design’ is better than just ‘Owner at eHome Design’. Sometimes your headline and name will be the only thing a person sees while they’re browsing LinkedIn – make sure you capitalise on the space you get here. 3. Join groups Networking is one of the greatest strengths of using LinkedIn and this is a great place to start. Groups also stimulate great debate and conversations, a fantastic way of staying in the loop within your industry or area of interest. There are also plenty of small business groups which will connect you with other entrepreneurs. The ability to learn from their knowledge and experience is invaluable. And you don’t even have to leave your desk to go to a networking event! 4. Share useful and relevant content Position yourself as a subject matter expert by sharing content on your LinkedIn profile that is interesting and relevant. For example, the Owner of eHome Design would share an article about the importance of not having chemicals in the home. If you create your own original content (e.g. you have a blog) you can be posting this as well as sharing third-party content. 5. Keep your profile current and login regularly! A LinkedIn profile is not a resume any more, as it might once have seemed. It should be a living, breathing representation of your professional life that is constantly being updated and tended to. One of my biggest tips is that the first thing you should do after a business meeting is connect with those who were present on LinkedIn. Aim to share content or participate in group discussions 2-3 times a week. You will be amazed with the value of the connections you make and information you acquire. Have you made any valuable connections for your business through LinkedIn?
eCommerce venture BuyReply raises $1 million a year after launching
4:13AM | Tuesday, 16 AprilAbove: Brad Lindenberg eCommerce start-up BuyReply has raised $1 million from investors including Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures – despite missing its own very speedy funding target. Sydney-based BuyReply, founded by entrepreneur Brad Lindenberg (pictured above), is a new kind of eCommerce platform that allows offline mediums to become transactional. The platform, which only launched last year, enables consumers to purchase from an offline medium – such as television, catalogues, newspapers and magazines – with a single click and without the help of apps. Merchants can print or broadcast BuyReply-enabled call-to-actions in their marketing material, enabling consumers to purchase in real time via text, email or Twitter. In August last year, StartupSmart reported BuyReply was about to close a multimillion capital raising, with Lindenberg saying investors were keen to close a deal “within 60 days”. Almost 10 months later, BuyReply has finally closed a $1 million funding round from investors including Valar Ventures, Square Peg Ventures and private equity guru Adrian MacKenzie, formerly of CVC Capital Partners. Valar Ventures counts PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel as its lead investor. BuyReply is Valar Ventures’ second investment in an Australian company in less than 12 months. Square Peg Ventures, meanwhile, was launched by Seek co-founder Paul Bassat and Justin Liberman. It is focused on helping early stage tech start-ups become global companies. While Lindenberg admits the fundraising process took longer than expected, he is happy with the outcome and the company’s achievements to date. “The company was founded just over 12 months ago so it’s been an exciting and rapid journey so far,” Lindenberg says. “We now have an all-star investor team and board, which includes Bonnie Boezeman.” Boezeman, like Thiel, comes from the PayPal family, having spent the last six years as the chairman of PayPal Australia. BuyReply has appointed Boezeman as a director. “In the modern world of fast-paced internet purchasing, BuyReply is one of the most exciting innovations for the avid mobile consumer,” Boezeman said in a statement. “You see, you immediately buy, and avoid the hassle of app downloads, QR codes and internet searches.” Lindenberg says BuyReply will use the new funds to build out its team in Australia and establish a presence in the United States, with either San Francisco or New York serving as its US base. “We will be keeping our engineering base in Australia but cannot afford to ignore the opportunities that exist in the US market,” he says. “Enabling eCommerce directly from an offline medium without apps is a groundbreaking opportunity, and represents the future of eCommerce and mobile monetisation. “Mobile is not going to monetise from advertising like the web did. “It will monetise from transactions and payments which occur away from the computer and browser, in the real world, and this is exactly what BuyReply enables.”
Why slower is better when stocking your start-up
4:47AM | Friday, 12 AprilRunning out of stock is one of the worst things that can happen to an entrepreneur. But, as mumpreneur Sharon Fong found out, having too much stock can be just as bad. Fong is the founder of Melbourne-based business Anything Baby, a baby equipment hire service founded in 2009, which offers equipment from leading manufacturers and retailers in Australia. Fong came up with the idea after becoming frustrated at having to pack and unpack the required cots, prams and car seats when travelling with her newborn son. In her first year of trade, Fong did $52,000 in sales. She franchised the business in early 2012, recruiting her first franchisee in Melbourne’s inner north-east, followed by a second franchisee covering the northern suburbs of Perth. Anything Baby is on the hunt for additional franchisees to fuel the brand. But as Fong explains, the business has overcome a number of hurdles to get to where it is today. “We used business consultants basically from fairly on, so in terms of the management side of things we did okay with that,” Fong told StartupSmart. “What I did muck up on was the overcapitalisation in terms of stock. I made a terrible mistake with that. “We had way too much stock in the beginning for what the business required, and even today some of my start-up stock still hasn’t been sold, so that was a huge mistake… I probably spent $50,000 more on stock than I needed to.” Fong realised her mistake about six months into the business. “We started in a business period where we just had so many calls coming in and then it was winter and the calls just stopped, and I think that’s when the penny dropped,” she says. “What I’ve learnt from that, as the business is now franchised, is we now stock our franchisees to [handle] a quiet period, and then when the busy period comes they can stock for that period. “We’ve learnt to keep people at minimum levels and add to their stock as the business grows.” Based on her experience, Fong’s advice to other entrepreneurs is to “start slowly”. “That’s what we now do with our franchisees. We give them very basic stock… to certainly meet the demands of our quiet period and then a little bit more,” she says. “You’re better off spending your money doing marketing and getting your brand known than you are stocking for the business you don’t yet have. “Had I put that money into marketing at the start, the business could have taken off a lot faster.” However, Fong admits her knowledge of marketing was limited when she first started out. “For my generation, I never grew up with social media. I never grew up with Facebook… I didn’t put enough emphasis on the fact that people follow blogs and Twitter,” she says. “I still don’t get Twitter – I employ people to do that. “It’s a whole new world for mums starting from scratch out there. Unless you have somebody who can guide you, you’re going to struggle through in those early months and hope for the best. “We have a web designer who’s on board with us, we have a graphic designer and we have a business consultant that helps with the franchising of the business, so we really have three key people that the business employs.”
Sessions limbers up for global growth after funding from US investors
4:09AM | Thursday, 11 AprilAbove: Nick Crocker and Ben Hartney An entrepreneurial Australian duo are rolling out a new online health and fitness venture called Sessions in their homeland before global expansion, after getting financial backing from a group of US-based investors. Sessions, created by Nick Crocker and Ben Hartney (pictured above), aims to help people lead a better lifestyle by providing a 12-week program of exercise, healthy diet and motivation. Crocker previously co-founded Brisbane-based venture We Are Hunted, which has reportedly been purchased by Twitter. The Sessions program is delivered online on a weekly basis, with each customer assigned a coach who will encourage them and help them deal with unexpected disruptions. The service is priced between $69 and $399, depending on the level of interaction and support with the coaches. Crocker and Hartney, who first met at university, pitched an original exercise-based idea last year to Rock Health, a San Francisco-based start-up incubator that focuses on the healthcare sector. This concept was accepted, providing the duo with $20,000 in funding, but it was then refined to become Sessions. The past year has been spent building, testing and refining the product before it’s market-ready. While building the venture, Crocker and Hartney also managed to secure funding from a New York investor called Collaborative Fund. Crocker refuses to reveal the amount of funding, but it’s understood to be under $1 million. Following a pilot program in the US and Australia, Sessions is now open to the public. “We applied to Rock Health with a different idea, a location-based sports app that would link you to other people who like to exercise,” Crocker tells StartupSmart. “We built a prototype but in doing that we stumbled on a more important problem – most people not exercising enough in the first place. In the US, it’s something like 3% of the population that gets 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week.” “Everything we heard from talking to customers was about the difficulty of getting active. Once you’re active, there’s infinite choice. The difficulty is finding the time in the day, which we learned from talking to people.” Crocker says that Sessions will provide empathetic coaching to people who don’t already exercise, providing it a point of difference to other businesses that primarily focus on people who are already active. The business already has a team of around a dozen life coaches, personal trainers and dieticians, with each coach taking on up to 500 clients. “We’re really careful about bringing on coaches,” Crocker says. “Just because someone has a personal training qualification, that doesn’t mean they have the ability to work with a woman who is 54 and is so overweight she is struggling to walk at lunchtime. It takes a certain empathy to work with that person.” He adds: “I’m not doing this business to make a quick buck. I want to do something meaningful.” “If could build a business that could involve a million people, everything else will take care of itself. That’s a big impact we could have in the world.” Crocker says he has a long-held interest in how people’s behaviour is influenced. He gave a TED talk on the topic in Darwin in 2011. {qtube vid:= kgI0Xyepzik}
Top three guerrilla marketing techniques for start-ups
4:01AM | Thursday, 4 AprilBigcommerce was created after the two founders met in an online chat room. Four years on, the Aussie eCommerce start-up has secured $35 million in venture capital funding, built offices in Sydney and Texas and attracted 30,000 customers. In the latest in a series of insider tips provided to StartupSmart, co-founder Mitchell Harper explains how to best reach your target market. Last time in this series, we talked about creating a typical customer profile and positioning your products. This time, we’ll look at ways to spread the word to people who fit your typical customer profile. This is where we get into guerrilla marketing. There are two goals here: Affordably attract as many people as possible who match your customer profile Ask them to recommend you to their friends who share similar interests (and therefore buying habits) Because we're on a shoestring budget, we need to get a good return for every dollar we spend. Our aim is to take our profits from guerrilla marketing and put them into search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM), which we will automate (more on that in future columns). Let's look at some proven guerrilla marketing techniques. 1. Like-like partnerships In this case, you find a handful of online stores which sell products that are complementary to yours and link to them on your website or in invoice emails to your customers (so they don't leave your website before buying from you). In our example from last time, we sell custom sports jerseys, so we'd find partners who sell sports memorabilia, hats, poker chips – maybe even alcoholic beverages. (Note: Call these potential partners on the phone – do not send them emails. You want to build a relationship, and the good old phone is still the best way to do that.) Get these partners to do the same for you, instantly sending you targeted traffic for free. If you're just starting out, then set up an affiliate program and share revenue with partners to earn their trust. To get more visitors, simply bring in more partners. As a bonus, these partners can become your "mastermind" group to share ideas that can help you all grow your business at the same time. 2. Twitter find and answer This involves a couple hours a day of effort, but the payoff is huge. Go to http://search.twitter.com and search for keywords around what you sell (in our example, the name of NFL teams such as “Washington Redskins”). You want to find and answer questions people have about what you sell – without being self-promotional. After answering their questions, encourage them to follow you on Twitter with a friendly follow-up tweet. You can then use your Twitter account to share coupon codes and useful bits of information that they can easily retweet to their network. You want to get them and their social network to your website and onto your mailing list. 3. Facebook “Get to know us” If you live under a rock, and you haven’t set up a Facebook fan page for your business, get to it! Use your company logo as the photo of the page to build brand awareness. Be casual in what you post on your wall – the idea is to give people a real insight into you and what you do. Importantly, be real. Don't post "corporate speak”, and don't fix typos or grammatical errors. You want to come across as genuine, not smarmy. Post photos of your office or warehouse, whatever you can to show the "inner workings" of your business, even if you work from home. Every few days, share a coupon on your Facebook page (and on Twitter) and encourage people to share it with their friends. On Facebook, free shipping promotions work really well, but use them no more than once a week. You don't want people getting used to them. Next time, we’ll share a few more guerrilla-marketing tips – and where to go from there.
Five steps to humanise your business
3:07AM | Friday, 22 MarchThe web represents huge opportunities for start-up entrepreneurs to humanise their organisations. This makes us much more likable and trustworthy than the bigger corporates we may face as competitors. International speaker Jay Baer was the social media keynote at the recent National Growth Summit and he introduced a brilliant concept called the ‘humanisation highway’. It is simply a five-step journey that we go on where we gradually humanise our businesses: 1. Ignoring This what most companies are doing right now. Nearly everyone has heard of social media but most simply don’t use it yet. It may be fear, anxiety, lack of time, lack of resources or simply lack of interest. Or perhaps you have set yourself up with social media accounts but they are lying dormant and neglected. 2. Listening All this involves is setting up Google Alerts and logging into your accounts on a regular basis to see what is going on. If you’re at this stage of the journey you are likely to be following a handful of people you like of Twitter, Facebook and you may follow certain blogs. If you simply listen, you’re putting yourself ahead of most of your competition because at least you know what is going on. This stage can be very exciting because you can see the power of the community and you’re possibly thinking about taking the next step. 3. Responding This is where you stop lurking and you get involved. It’s often the scariest step mentally because you’re no longer anonymous and you’re putting yourself out there for all the world to see. It’s also the shortest stop because you realise there was nothing to worry about. It’s actually quite fun and the business benefits are enormous. Tools like Google Alerts and Twitter Search make it really easy to keep track of what people are talking about, so you are in the position to respond to conversations, which normally means replying to tweets or leaving comments on a blog. 4. Participating If you have a blog and you use all the usual social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn on a regular basis, then you’re a rock solid participant. The key difference with this phase is that you are ‘contributing content’. The rule of thumb online is that 90% lurk, 9% respond and 1% contribute. Congrats on being in the top 1%. 5. Story Telling The final and ultimate stop on the ‘humanisation highway’, and it is where you are actively contributing and sharing compelling stories. Stories that take the shape of blog posts, YouTube videos, e-books, podcasts, emails, infographics and webinars that people simply ‘have to’ share with their friends and colleagues. This is how you earn your true fans, and the reward is that they start spreading the word for you via tweets, Facebook likes, email forwards and blogging. When you become a master storyteller, then you’ve well and truly humanised your organisation! For more information to guide you on this humanisation journey, you may like my free e-book Web Strategy Secrets.
How do I find the key influencers in my industry, and get them following me on Twitter?
3:53AM | Thursday, 21 MarchThis article first appeared on March 23, 2012. How do I work out who are the key influencers in my industry that I need to follow on Twitter? And how do I get them to follow me? All over Twitter, every minute of every day, meaningful exchanges are taking place that connect people and allow them to interact with content and with each other.
Meet the Startmate class of 2013 – part one
3:32AM | Tuesday, 19 MarchAbove: Chris Raethke, Damien Brzoska and Saxon Fletcher from Supportie (Image: Zach Kitschke). Startmate may have evolved from a trailblazer in the start-up accelerator scene to one of several incubators offering broadly similar things, but it is still regarded as the gold standard by many aspiring tech entrepreneurs. The Sydney-based program, now in its third year, hothouses web and mobile ventures by throwing an army of top-notch mentors and $50,000 at them, as well as providing them with a handy trip to Silicon Valley. The participants for the 2013 iteration of Startmate were picked back in December, with Niki Scevak, co-founder of the scheme, declaring “we have been looking for those unique ‘two shit’ teams – those which get shit done, and also give a shit about the customer and their problems”. So which of the class of 2013 are set for riches in Australia and beyond? We spoke to this year’s participants to get their insights and will be profiling them in two parts on StartupSmart: Supportie (formerly GetStall) What? Technical help for your small business. There are experts online waiting to help. · Founders? Chris Raethke, Damien Brzoska, Saxon Fletcher Website: http://www.supportie.com/ Why did you apply to Startmate? We remember seeing BugHerd being accepted into the first intake and saying, “Wow, that’s a really cool product. This Startmate thing sounds exciting.” Before applying we were running our own web company, building out MVPs for other people’s start-ups, and we really wanted to pursue an idea of our own. So late last year we had saved up some money and felt we had a good product (GetStall) to apply with. So we did. What was the application process like? As a tech team this was the hardest part for us. The application had a lot of tough questions around sales, marketing, finances, etc. Getting answers for these meant a lot of whiteboard sessions, reading and learning for us. It really helped us to grow as a team, and thankfully we have a really strong tech team so we were able to get through (even though our business skills were a bit light on). How are you finding the program so far? The program is great – there are a lot of really smart people here and some really interesting problems that people are solving. It is definitely an emotional roller-coaster, as any start-up could relate with. Some days are up, some days are down. The big thing we have learnt is that this doesn’t end mid-April when we go to the States. This is something which will continue on for at least the next four to five years. Why did you pivot? We were four weeks into pushing GetStall out to the masses and, while we were getting quite a few shops signing up, we weren’t getting many sales. We spent a few days going over what we had achieved and learnt so far, and the numbers didn’t show us anything which we could get too excited about so we chose to move onto something new. In hindsight, we put too much pressure on ourselves to be performing quickly. Things take time and unfortunately we learnt that the hard way. A day off, and a chance to breath and get some sleep, would have been a good idea. How do you make money? Like many marketplace-type businesses, the plan has always been to clip the ticket. We are actually only three weeks into this business, so the actual pricing will need to be refined once we have more data. What is your vision for Supportie? Supportie is still very much in the early stages and we are still doing a lot of discovery. We have been focusing on a small segment of the market at the moment, so we can’t say too much more just yet. How do you plan to achieve your vision? We’ve already spent two weeks assessing two markets within the Supportie space. The current plan is to spend a bit more time looking at possibilities in this space and then decide where we want to specifically focus. So the current plan is to learn more and then make a plan. Kinderloop What? A simple and secure way for child carers to communicate with parents. Founders? Dan Day and Daniel Walker Website: http://www.kinderloop.com/ What was the inspiration for Kinderloop? Dan Day: After having my two children in daycare for three years, I was frustrated by the lack of communication. Collecting them at the end of the day, it was impossible to find out what they learnt, ate or did. The carers were always so time-poor as well. Why is this needed? Kinderloop solves this problem by allowing carers to record events as they happen during the day. This saves them valuable time reporting, saves money in consumables and keeps them fully engaged with parents. What is your revenue model? Each carer pays a monthly fee and the parents pay for premium add-ons. Story continues on page 2. Please click below. Why apply for Startmate? We liked the idea of an accelerated program, the mentor list was attractive and it fitted nicely with where we were at in Kinderloop’s lifecycle. What was the application process like? We found it relatively straightforward. The one-minute video pitch was great practice and the demo interviews were fun – it really made us refine our spiel. How are you finding the program so far? We are enjoying it – you work as hard as you desire (which is hard, let me tell you!) It’s great sharing the highs and lows with the other teams, and there is so much learning each day. Are you hoping to raise additional funds for Kinderloop, either here or overseas? Yes we are. We will raise a round of $850k from both here and overseas to help build the team. Where do you see yourselves in a year from now? We aim to be the go-to communication tool for anyone who cares for children, from preschool to sports clubs, worldwide. Bugcrowd What? Crowdsourced security testing. We run managed bug bounty programs for business. Founders? Casey Ellis and Sergei Belokamen Website: http://bugcrowd.com/ What was the inspiration for Bugcrowd? Ellis: Bugcrowd was the result of a series of conversations with customers of my previous business, a security testing consultancy, where the bug bounties run by Google, Mozilla, Facebook and others kept coming up in conversation. I started asking the question, if you think these are such are good idea, why aren’t you running one? Off the back of that, I had the idea to create a business that handles those objections and runs bug bounties as a fully outsourced service. You’ve described yourself as “Kaggle for security vulnerabilities”. How so? One of the mentors at Startmate called us that. We are similar to Kaggle or 99designs in that we crowdsourced, meaning our customers pay for the results they want, not the effort that went into the results. The way Bugcrowd works: The client sets a reward pool, a duration for the bounty, and tells us what they’d like the crowd to test. The crowd is notified and starts testing. The first person to find each security flaw wins a reward, and there are higher rewards for the most creative or severe flaws. At the end we take the findings and validate them, then produce a developer-friendly report of things to fix. We then manage the payouts to the crowd. What’s your revenue model? We take a percentage of the reward pool offered in each bounty. We also have premium paid features, such as our Crowdcontrol system (which controls testing traffic) and private bounties (where only the top-ranked researchers are invited). Why apply for Startmate? Bugcrowd is a great idea but, despite our experience in running businesses, we knew we’d need help taking it from being a great idea to being a great business. The Startmate mentor network is built for this purpose. What was the application process like? Hectic! I left applying a little bit late (like the day before) so I had a lot to do to get something sensible submitted in time. How are you finding the program so far? Excellent. The focus it brings is fantastic. The mentor network is invaluable and the money we got from them is letting us work full-time on making Bugcrowd awesome. Niki (the founder of Startmate) is a very focused guy who knows what it takes, and you can tell that he’s gone to great lengths to impart his experience into the program. You’ll be heading to San Francisco a bit later. What are you hoping to achieve there? The main purpose of the trip will be to pitch for seed capital to take the business to its next stage. Apart from that, I'll be doing a bunch of business development and meeting up with a bunch of industry friends who I’ve only known through Twitter for years, which I am really looking forward to. What’s your overall goal? Our overall goal is to connect the global white-hat security research community with companies of all shapes and sizes through the Bugcrowd platform. Our aim is to become synonymous with the concept of crowdsourcing your security testing. Another goal is to continue and expand our charity bounty program, where we do bounties for charities for free, and make that the first port of call for charities wishing to have their security tested.
