{"id":39030,"date":"2023-10-20T15:00:23","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/startup-rejected-by-queensland-government-calls-for-more-transparency-and-better-communication-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:00:23","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:00:23","slug":"startup-rejected-by-queensland-government-calls-for-more-transparency-and-better-communication-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/startup-rejected-by-queensland-government-calls-for-more-transparency-and-better-communication-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Startup rejected by Queensland government calls for more transparency and better communication – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Girl Geek Academy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

A Melbourne startup that moved\u00a0to Queensland and was later rejected by the state government for a local\u00a0grant has called for more transparency and better communication in this\u00a0process.<\/p>\n

Girl Geek Academy, founded by Sarah Moran and four other entrepreneurs, aims to teach a million young girls how to code and create startups, was lured to the Sunshine State with the hopes of receiving an Advance Queensland grant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to make the most of some of the incentives the Queensland government announced to jumpstart the startup ecosystem,\u201d Moran tells StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree of our co-founders are QUT alumni and our career interest in tech startups and game development was ignited in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

Calls for better communication<\/h3>\n

The Queensland government has made a big push recently<\/a> to be viewed as the \u201cstartup state\u201d with several initiatives aimed at enticing interstate and international startups to base their operations in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

This includes the $300,000 Startup Queensland fund<\/a> which offers tech companies that \u201cbuild the capability of the local startup community\u201d up to $25,000 in funding.<\/p>\n

To be eligible, startups had to be not-for-profit, have a “broad impact” on the Queensland startup community and deliver “practical information, advice and networking opportunities”.<\/p>\n

Moran had high hopes that her company fit the bill perfectly.<\/p>\n

The startup, which launched Australia\u2019s first all-women hackathon She Hacks, planned to run its Girl Geek Getaways gathering in Queensland, allowing women to share their knowledge, develop skills, and connect and collaborate.<\/p>\n

But Moran says Girl Geeks was quickly rejected by the government, and received only a brief, stock letter with little information regarding the reasons behind the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you reject someone you can do it in a way that inspires them to do more,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"Girl<\/p>\n

Moran decided to contact the state government to receive more information about the decision and to find out if a startup aiming to do something similar had received funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy said, \u2018I can\u2019t tell you\u2019,\u201d Moran says.<\/p>\n

Now the entrepreneur is calling on more transparency in the government grant process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government doesn\u2019t have to be the ecosystem builder,\u201d Moran says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we need is their support and being able to communicate with each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s going to be lots of layers of red tape then we may as well be located anywhere there\u2019s red tape.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s response<\/h3>\n

A spokesperson for the Queensland department of innovation says the competition for this funding is tough and pledged to more the rejection process more open.<\/p>\n

\u201cFunding for Startup Queensland is highly competitive,\u201d the spokesperson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe department notes the applicant\u2019s feedback on the letter and will take this into account for future correspondence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe department is happy to work with unsuccessful funding applicants to provide feedback on their application and to assist with any future applications in order to ensure they meet the criteria.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesperson says 77 applications were made for this funding round since July last year, of which 20 have been approved. The next funding round will open next month.<\/p>\n

Despite failing to receive the funding, Moran says she doesn\u2019t regret moving her startup to Queensland, saying she has had \u201cpositive experiences\u201d with the likes of River City Labs and Creative Enterprise Australia.<\/p>\n

Girl Geek Academy will be launching events in Melbourne soon and are planning a She Hacks event for July.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur events sell out within 24 hours of launching,\u201d Moran says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur aim is to increase the number of women building the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Girl Geek Academy A Melbourne startup that moved\u00a0to Queensland and was later rejected by the state government for a local\u00a0grant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61449,"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\/39030"}],"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=39030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}