{"id":42029,"date":"2023-10-20T15:18:13","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/the-five-things-the-startup-community-recommended-to-malcolm-turnbull-three-years-ago-and-whether-theyve-been-achieved-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:18:13","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:18:13","slug":"the-five-things-the-startup-community-recommended-to-malcolm-turnbull-three-years-ago-and-whether-theyve-been-achieved-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/the-five-things-the-startup-community-recommended-to-malcolm-turnbull-three-years-ago-and-whether-theyve-been-achieved-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"The five things the startup community recommended to Malcolm Turnbull three years ago and whether they’ve been achieved – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
About three years ago a group of people from the startup ecosystem met with then shadow minister Malcolm Turnbull.<\/p>\n
After the meeting, I blogged about the five things government could do to help Australian startups which were presented and discussed in the 90-minute meeting.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s see how we\u2019ve gone.<\/p>\n
In 2012, ESOP (Employee Share Option Plan) reform was on everyone\u2019s agenda and this was certainly a hot topic for this meeting.<\/p>\n
We suggested providing a concession for startups with less than $5 million turnover. The good news is they listened to the fact we needed change and introduced reforms into parliament in May 2015. The even better news is that they ignored our $5 million turnover cap and instead increased it to $50 million.<\/p>\n
Whilst the ESOP reforms don\u2019t go far enough and there are still significant barriers, I\u2019m calling this one a success.<\/p>\n
There is a lot of talk about government as a customer of startup services and it has formed one part of the \u201cideas boom\u201d that was announced at the end of 2015.<\/p>\n
In 2012, we spoke about how early-stage startups can\u2019t compete for government services as their risk profiles are far too high.<\/p>\n
There is still a lot to be done here.<\/p>\n
Back in 2012, we presented a model where the government could allocate a portion of funds on major projects to go towards a competition where startups would compete for a prize which would fund their development, and then if successful, enter into a customer agreement.<\/p>\n