{"id":36207,"date":"2023-10-20T14:42:44","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/want-aussie-innovation-dont-wait-for-the-government-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:42:44","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:42:44","slug":"want-aussie-innovation-dont-wait-for-the-government-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/want-aussie-innovation-dont-wait-for-the-government-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Want Aussie innovation? Don\u2019t wait for the government &#8211; StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"332\" itemprop=\"image\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/stepup-640x332.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"stepup\"\/><\/div>\n<p><strong>By Jon Westenberg<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dear Australian VC firms and startups: We have a problem<\/p>\n<p>Australia lacks successful startups, successful VC firms and healthy innovation.<\/p>\n<p>With the exception of a small few companies and funds, we\u2019re not seeing the levels of successful innovation and development that are coming out of other places around the globe.<\/p>\n<p>VC firms here aren\u2019t finding and funding enough companies, aren\u2019t putting enough funding forward, aren\u2019t receiving investment themselves and aren\u2019t getting enough return from the investments they do make.<\/p>\n<p>Adding to the problem, there are not enough VC firms to begin with.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the companies that are started by Australians tend to quickly vanish overseas. Without feeling the support of their government or community, they are drawn to the money and opportunity overseas.<\/p>\n<p>The standout is Atlassian, whose founders have been incredibly supportive of innovation here, but there aren\u2019t enough Atlassians.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So where does this problem start?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It starts with policy. The fact is Australian politics has not been friendly to innovation. It has not been friendly to technology.<\/p>\n<p>We aren\u2019t producing enough people with the skills, interests or motivations necessary to build companies, fund companies or support innovation in the political sphere.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Overseas companies didn\u2019t even have to pay the GST until last year. That\u2019s a huge disadvantage to any Australian companies looking to compete with the major players from the US.<\/li>\n<li>Our internet is unbearable. The NBN? A huge failure, spurred by a lack of political commitment to a positive outcome over short-term political mileage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These are just two examples\u200a\u2014\u200athere are more. We don\u2019t have an environment that\u2019s friendly towards innovators and tech startups: That\u2019s a fact.<\/p>\n<p>Wyatt Roy, assistant minister for innovation, wants us to have a truly bipartisan approach to startups and tech. He\u2019d like both major political parties to co-operate and make Australia a home for tech development and successful startups.<\/p>\n<p>I like that vision, and I wish it were possible to make it a reality.<\/p>\n<p>The problem is, in the real world, innovation isn\u2019t something that a government can magically summon with awesome speeches and a prime minister who wears an Apple Watch.<\/p>\n<p>Innovation isn\u2019t something any government can achieve in a vacuum. It\u2019s too dependent on wider policy.<\/p>\n<p>It depends on government policies on education, because that\u2019s where Australian kids learn the skills and information they need to change the world.<\/p>\n<p>It depends on the arts, because they foster the creativity that drives people to think outside the box.<\/p>\n<p>It depends on infrastructure, because without the technology to achieve great things, our startups will not be feasible.<\/p>\n<p>It depends on gender equality and Indigenous rights, because we need to stop putting groups of Australians who have so much to give at a major disadvantage.<\/p>\n<p>And none of these are areas where we are going to see bipartisan politics any time soon.<\/p>\n<p>Without the government and the opposition agreeing on these areas, innovation is going to stay slow or get slower. It\u2019s certainly not going to improve at a rate that will make Australia a major player in the global startup space.<\/p>\n<p>So where\u2019s the solution?<\/p>\n<p>Australian VC firms need to be playing a longer game.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than simply looking for startups that are going to provide for a successful exit or become profitable, they also need to be looking for startups who will improve education, improve gender equality, improve infrastructure, support women and support Indigenous people.<\/p>\n<p>By funding those startups, they can contribute to a longer term change in Australia and see to it that innovation becomes a priority for the next generation, for our social institutions and for our community.<\/p>\n<p>Australian startups need to be giving back.<\/p>\n<p>You need to be getting into schools, getting into universities, getting into communities and finding a way to encourage entrepreneurial and innovative thinking and doing. Whether through social responsibility programs or work experience programs or even just offering funding, you need to be stepping up.<\/p>\n<p>It shouldn\u2019t be your responsibility, but the reality is, if we want to have a country that encourages innovation, we can\u2019t wait for the government to get there. Liberal, ALP, it doesn\u2019t matter &#8211; we\u2019ll be waiting a long time.<\/p>\n<p><em>Jon Westenberg is an entrepreneur, startup advisor and writer. You can<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jonwestenberg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> follow him on Twitter<\/a>. This piece was originally published on Medium.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Follow StartupSmart on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StartUpSmart\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/StartupSmartnow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/startupsmart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LinkedIn<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/startupsmart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Soundcloud<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jon Westenberg \u00a0 Dear Australian VC firms and startups: We have a problem Australia lacks successful startups, successful VC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62157,"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\/36207"}],"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=36207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}