{"id":39325,"date":"2023-10-20T15:01:58","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/the-secret-recipe-for-making-australia-a-global-startup-destination-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:01:58","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:01:58","slug":"the-secret-recipe-for-making-australia-a-global-startup-destination-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/the-secret-recipe-for-making-australia-a-global-startup-destination-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"The secret recipe for making Australia a global startup destination – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

There are a number of secret ingredients needed to be combined in order to transform Australia into a global startup destination, industry leaders revealed at the Salesforce World Tour.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Melbourne on Tuesday, Salesforce vice-president for strategic research Peter Coffee joined Melbourne Accelerator Program director Rohan Workman, Skedulo co-founder Matt Fairhurst and Salesforce global head of startup relations Ludo Ulrich to discuss what goes into making a great ecosystem.<\/p>\n

They all agree that an ecosystem needs self-sustainability, collaboration with the big players, hard work and local culture.<\/p>\n

Speak each other\u2019s language<\/h3>\n

To leverage the innovative ideas offered by startups, larger corporates and institutions need to have a sound understanding of the way startups work, their culture and community, Workman says.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all universities tend to speak their own language, startups speak their own language, corporations speak their own language,\u201d he\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

It works both ways though –\u00a0startups and founders need to understand the professionalism, culture and frameworks of the corporate world if they want to conduct business with big companies in a meaningful way.<\/p>\n

When approaching big companies with a solution, Workman encourages startups to adhere to certain standards of business etiquette<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Emailing a large corporate asking to meet for coffee without explaining the value or outcome in doing so will get you ignored, he says.<\/p>\n

At Salesforce, Coffee says he often receives emails like these from founders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no idea why you\u2019re writing to me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

When emailing a big company, Coffee\u00a0says founders should highlight what they\u2019d like to do with the organisation they’re reaching out to, why they think they can do it well and why they should meet.<\/p>\n

At the other end,\u00a0Fairhurst encourages big companies to appoint someone on their board or with executive decision-making power who understands the \u201cspeed of light\u201d that startups work at\u00a0to facilitate\u00a0these relationships.<\/p>\n

And while corporates should be open to innovative ideas and startups they should never mislead founders that reach out, Workman says.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor all the corporates in this room, the worst thing you can do is give a startup false hope,\u201d \u00a0Workman says.<\/p>\n

He says an upfront \u2018no\u2019 is actually more helpful so startups can move on and refocus their efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat actually could make or break the startup,\u201d Workman\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be Silicon Valley, be\u00a0Australia<\/h3>\n

Australia boasts a quietly proud portfolio of startups like Envato and Canva that have achieved global domination through hard work, patience and bootstrapping, Workman says, and it should never be about trying to replicate Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

He\u00a0says Australia should use its own unique personality, talent and brand to build its own great\u00a0startup ecosystem.<\/p>\n

And with Asia and Europe on our\u00a0doorstep, Workman says\u00a0Australia is well placed to\u00a0deliver\u00a0globally successful businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch like an entrepreneurial mindset you need a global mindset,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Focus on customers not money<\/h3>\n

Too often founders get caught up on raising massive amounts of capital or what their business could potentially offer in future rather than dedicating their efforts to\u00a0learning what customers want and creating a sustainable business model, Coffee says.<\/p>\n

The unicorn is becoming the \u201cunicorpse\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

Fairhurst says\u00a0Skedulo<\/a>\u00a0was built with a dedicated focus on what their customers want and need.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur day job was working in the trenches with customers and helping them iterate very quickly from a consulting point of view,\u201d Fairhurst says.<\/p>\n

Startup founders should be co-creating with their early adopters, Coffee says.<\/p>\n

And in doing so, Fairhurst encourages founders to focus their efforts on what they\u2019re truly passionate about.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can get very distracted very quickly by talking to organisations,\u201d Fairhurst says.<\/p>\n

But narrowing focus down to delivering value to the first handful of customers before figuring out how to apply this value to the next 50 is critical to ensure you create a product that works, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a product company, focus is critical,\u201d Fairhurst says.<\/p>\n

Don’t believe the ‘Social Network myth’<\/h3>\n

Coffee believes The Social Network<\/em> movie has created a myth that startup founders can build\u00a0world-changing companies haphazardly like it\u2019s some frat-boy party.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not about can you code while drunk,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a professional way to be a startup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Workman says some of MAP’s\u00a0best startups have been the ones that worked hard early on, followed good business conduct and communicated appropriately\u00a0in the corporate world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best startups are professional,\u201d Workman says.<\/p>\n

At MAP<\/a>, part of the\u00a0training is dedicated to soft skills workshops to ensure startups behave appropriately when approaching companies or investors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cover what you should be doing, what you shouldn\u2019t be doing, how to follow up \u2013 always follow up \u2013 how to email,\u201d Workman\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

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

There are a number of secret ingredients needed to be combined in order to transform Australia into a global startup<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61395,"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\/39325"}],"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=39325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}