{"id":37176,"date":"2023-10-20T14:48:32","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/aussie-startups-shine-at-500-startups-demo-day-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:48:32","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:48:32","slug":"aussie-startups-shine-at-500-startups-demo-day-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/aussie-startups-shine-at-500-startups-demo-day-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie startups shine at 500 Startups\u2019 demo day – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

Three Australian startups from the Sydney-based seed funding program Startmate<\/a> stood out at 500 Startups\u2019 demo day for its ninth batch.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Venturebeat selected<\/a> over-50s online dating service Stitch<\/a>, photo organiser and enhancer Lumific<\/a>, and crowdsourced sport predictions service SportHold<\/a> as three of the five startups that caught the publication\u2019s eye at the demo day.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stitch was co-founded by Andrew Dowling, who is one of the Startmate program mentors, while both SportHold and Lumific were both took part in Startmate\u2019s 2014 program.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The mentor-driven program offers $50,000 in investment in exchange for a 7.5% stake and access to countless networks and mentors.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Startmate co-founder Niki Scevak was not surprised they were making an impression.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is all fantastic evidence that Australia is producing great tech founders,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scevak played down Startmate\u2019s influence, crediting the Australian startup ecosystem more broadly, saying Australia and its startups continue to punch above its weight.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

“5 startups that caught our eye from 500 Startups’ Batch 9” – 3\/5 are Aussie & from @startmate<\/a>. Truly great program. http:\/\/t.co\/wGqabRmruR<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Mike Cannon-Brookes (@mcannonbrookes) July 30, 2014<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition to highlighting three Australian startups, Venturebeat went even further<\/a>, suggesting in a separate article that Dropbox should look at acquiring Lumific.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI sure hope file-sharing company Dropbox sent someone down to 500 Startups\u2019 demo day today because they should really talk to a nifty little startup called Lumific,\u201d the article says.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Lumific would actually make for a perfect addition to the way Dropbox\u2019s users interact with the photos they store in their Dropbox accounts, which the company has been increasingly refining,<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Dropbox should really buy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scevak chuckles at the suggestion, noting it\u2019s not Startmate\u2019s preferred outcome.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt probably does make sense but we don\u2019t want them to sell,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe core value of Startmate is to try and create something really big and durable that will last a really long period of time.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSure some exit early in their lives, and people fail lots of the time, but the passion we have at Startmate is for playing the long game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Applications are now open<\/a> for Startmate\u2019s 2015 intake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three Australian startups from the Sydney-based seed funding program Startmate stood out at 500 Startups\u2019 demo day for its ninth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61975,"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\/37176"}],"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=37176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}