{"id":35402,"date":"2023-10-20T14:38:21","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/new-tech-incubator-angelcube-looks-to-take-flight-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:38:21","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:38:21","slug":"new-tech-incubator-angelcube-looks-to-take-flight-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/new-tech-incubator-angelcube-looks-to-take-flight-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"New tech incubator AngelCube looks to take flight – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Serial entrepreneur Andrew Birt is looking for Melbourne-based start-ups to become the first group of participants for his latest venture AngelCube, an early stage incubator for web-based businesses. <\/span> <\/p>\n

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Birt, who founded marketing agency StartUP Marketing in 2009, is also the founder of start-up job board Snowballer and co-founder of small cap investment firm Catvielle Capital.<\/p>\n

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He\u2019s now focused on the early stage investment market, as the lead investor and chief executive of AngelCube.<\/p>\n

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In addition to Birt, the AngelCube team consists of co-founder Adrian Stone and Nathan Sampimon, founder of web development firm Inspire9.<\/p>\n

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Initially, AngelCube will have about $200,000 to invest in four to five online ventures. It\u2019s believed the group\u2019s first project is Cub.io, which lets users win prizes among their friends.<\/p>\n

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Successful applicants will be given an average of $25,000 and free office space in StartUP Marketing\u2019s Melbourne office. They will also undertake a three-month mentorship program.<\/p>\n

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Mentors include Scott Handsaker, co-founder of online event registration system Eventarc, and Crowdmass co-founder David Wei. AngelCube also hopes to take participants to the United States to meet investors based in Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

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AngelCube\u2019s program is based on local and international incubators such as Startmate, Y Combinator, TechStars, Seedcamp and 500 Startups.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re looking to back a handful of exceptional, Melbourne-based web entrepreneurs and help them get to the next level with funding, mentorship, marketing and pathways,\u201d Birt says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur focus will be on getting customers onto the start-up from day one and building product around those customers, then learning to pitch to investors.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Birt says many entrepreneurs are convinced their product or service has a wide appeal, but the key is to identify a niche market and develop a loyal band of passionate customers as a base for growth.<\/p>\n

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\u201cProbably the biggest thing I have learned is that people need to scale the idea down,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNearly every time I have seen people fail is when they get ahead of themselves and the idea is too big and they spend too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you\u2019re going to fail, fail fast. Make any mistake a small one and learn from it quickly. I have seen customers go too heavy too early, which doesn\u2019t give them a chance to refine their product.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou need to build something lean and mean. It doesn\u2019t matter what industry it is in; just build it lean and create the demand and get some initial customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cOnce you are at the next phase, then you can dip into the pocket and start spending but don\u2019t go too heavy too early.\u201d<\/p>\n

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According to Birt, the other fatal mistake made by many start-ups is overspending on the launch.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou\u2019re in it for the long haul, so it is not about one big bang; it is about slowly and patiently building credibility and the brand and building that passionate user base,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Serial entrepreneur Andrew Birt is looking for Melbourne-based start-ups to become the first group of participants for his latest venture<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35402"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}