{"id":38423,"date":"2023-10-20T14:56:24","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/why-techsydneys-invite-only-collaboration-wont-work-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:56:24","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:56:24","slug":"why-techsydneys-invite-only-collaboration-wont-work-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/why-techsydneys-invite-only-collaboration-wont-work-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Why TechSydney’s invite-only collaboration won’t work – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This article originally appeared on Decoding The New Economy.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The success of Silicon Valley is partly based on the sharing of information. Can a closed group of business leaders replicate that success?<\/p>\n

Currently I\u2019m in the United States interviewing Australian startup founders who\u2019ve moved to the Bay Area on why they\u2019ve chosen to move their businesses in Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

Naturally there\u2019s a whole range of reasons for relocating across the Pacific \u2013 for some most of their market was in the US, for others it was the accessibility of investors while for many the move was always part of their plan to go global.<\/p>\n

A place you fall in love with<\/h3>\n

The almost unanimous comment though from the founders was one of the attractions of the Bay Area are the support networks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a place you fall in love with straight away \u2013 it\u2019s the people and the attitude,\u201d says Holly Cardew. \u201cPeople ask what can I help you with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cardew, the founder of image management service PixC, sums up the consensus on the Bay Area business culture of \u2018paying it forward\u2019. Almost every entrepreneur who\u2019d moved to San Francisco mentioned how the question \u201chow can I help you?\u201d was key to building a network and finding customers, staff and investors.<\/p>\n

That openness to helping the ecosystem was greatly appreciated by Carl Hartmann, co-founder of logistics startup Temando.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here today because people were kind enough to pay it forward,\u201d he states.<\/p>\n

Since then Harmann has become one of the \u2018go-to guys\u2019 for Australian entrepreneurs arriving in San Francisco and almost everyone we spoke to mentioned Carl as being a great help for them in obtaining initial introductions.<\/p>\n

Building a community<\/h3>\n

Those introductions and helpful acts are essential in a community where the most valuable asset is the people, not just investors but the entire complex ecosystem of coders, lawyers, publicists, designers and various other disciplines essential for an industrial hub to thrive.<\/p>\n

Which raises the question about yesterday\u2019s announcement of the TechSydney initiative, a project claiming \u201cto address the Sydney innovation ecosystem\u2019s greatest challenge: collaboration”.<\/p>\n

This is a good idea, and one this writer was involved in seven years ago with the failed Digital Sydney program in 2010 which aimed to bring together the disparate groups that make up Australia\u2019s disparate tech and digital media sectors.<\/p>\n

Government failures<\/h3>\n

Digital Sydney failed because the state government is poor executing at such initiatives so the fact TechSydney is being led by experienced startup founders, investors and advisors should give hope this attempt would be more successful.<\/p>\n

However, TechSydney\u2019s press release quickly dispels that hope with the opening line.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s most successful startups and global tech giants, including Atlassian, Airbnb and Airtree Ventures are backing a new not-for-profit aimed at turning Sydney into Australia\u2019s Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

The \u201cAustralian Silicon Valley\u201d line shows a focus on the current Bay Area tech startup model funded by venture capital and seed investors who are happy to forgoe profits in the hope of big capital gain when the business is acquired or goes public \u2013 the Silicon Valley Greater Fool model.<\/p>\n

Silicon Valley itself is pivoting away from this model with businesses across the Bay Area now frantic to at least have the illusion of being profitable or on the path to making money. In narrowly promoting the tech startup model TechSydney seems to be trying to catch a wave that has already broken.<\/p>\n

Slamming the door<\/h3>\n

The main worry from the TechSydney announcement though is that it seems to go against the open door policy that makes Silicon Valley so successful. Rather than encouraging questions and new entrants, TechSydney is slamming the door shut with only the successful and well connected invited.<\/p>\n

The group will launch at an exclusive invitation-only dinner on May 30 at the Powerhouse. Sydney\u2019s top 200 technology companies will be in attendance. The first 100 have already been invited, and the group is now taking applications for the next 100 attendees at TechSydney.com.au, and is urging companies to register their interest today.<\/p>\n

In some respects this is to be expected of the Sydney business community \u2013 the city\u2019s industry is based upon the Rum Corps model of the colony\u2019s early days where success is based upon connections and influence rather than being open and collaborative. This attitude underpins the \u2018mates culture\u2019 that is critical to acquiring power and wealth in New South Wales and across Australia.<\/p>\n

With an attitude of having an \u2018invite only\u2019 group leading the push the hopes of creating an \u2018Australian Silicon Valley\u2019 are doomed. By locking out new entrants or dissenting thinkers, it\u2019s impossible to create a vibrant hub.<\/p>\n

Creating an open mindset<\/h3>\n

For Sydney, or any other Australian city, to succeed as a global hub in any industry that legacy of the Rum Corps, the mates network, needs to be suppressed and a more open, collaborative mindset put in place.<\/p>\n

TechSydney can do that if its leaders choose to do so. Hopefully at their invite only meeting at the end of the month the wise men of Sydney\u2019s tech elite will decide that an open initiative that welcomes newcomers and tolerates new ideas is the best opportunity to make the city a global leader.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Decoding The New Economy.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,<\/em>LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<\/em>SoundCloud<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on Decoding The New Economy. The success of Silicon Valley is partly based on the sharing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61675,"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\/38423"}],"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=38423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}