{"id":43460,"date":"2023-10-20T15:28:45","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/project-powerup-sets-sights-on-silicon-valley-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:28:45","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:28:45","slug":"project-powerup-sets-sights-on-silicon-valley-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/project-powerup-sets-sights-on-silicon-valley-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Project PowerUp sets sights on Silicon Valley – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"

The founder of Sydney-based crowdfunding site Project PowerUp<\/span><\/a> says he plans to visit Silicon Valley early next year to drum up interest from investors, with the possibility of relocating there. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Project PowerUp, founded by Ryan Wardell earlier this year, is an online crowdfunding site aimed at helping start-ups raise up to $25,000 for their projects.<\/p>\n

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The site takes 10% of all funds raised for successful projects, plus transaction fees of 2-5% based on transaction value and volume charged by credit card and payment processing companies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now Wardell has announced his plan to venture to Silicon Valley to take his business to the next level, claiming the Australian crowdfunding scene is a little below par.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m planning on going on an exploratory tour in January or early February. The Australian market is still small, so I need to start expanding,\u201d Wardell says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole crowdfunding space is moving a lot quicker than I\u2019d anticipated and I\u2019m worried that I\u2019ll get left behind if I stay in Sydney.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIn America at the moment, they\u2019ve introduced a crowdfunding bill that would allow people to use crowdfunding sites to sell equity as well as products and services.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s like the Holy Grail of crowdfunding \u2013 that\u2019s where the real money is going to be made.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe writing is on the wall\u2026 For me personally, I need to be [in the United States] when that happens so I have my finger on the pulse.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wardell says he\u2019s planning to travel to Silicon Valley for three to four weeks but will set up meetings beforehand. He also plans to take advantage of Australian contacts.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s the Aussie mafia over there and a bunch of people I met through [start-up communities] Fishburners and Silicon Beach, who are in and out [of the US] fairly regularly,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ll be meeting with people not just once but two, three and four times to build up relationships there and hopefully get a few people interested in investing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Despite his ambitions, Wardell also has reservations about heading to Silicon Valley, namely the fact that we won\u2019t have a job when he arrives.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m very conscious of the fact that I\u2019ve got to start making money or get investment, or the whole thing will fall over,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t know anybody and I don\u2019t know where to go. I\u2019m reasonably well connected to the start-up community in Sydney\u2026 Over there, I don\u2019t have that same support network.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve also had a chat to [99dresses founder] Nikki Durkin [who was recently selected to participate in the US-based Y Combinator program].\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cShe said all the developers over there are super expensive because they\u2019re either working on their own start-ups or Facebook has hired everybody, so they\u2019re charging the earth because they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But according to Wardell, the positives outweigh the negatives.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe valuations over there are much higher but most investors don\u2019t want you to be located in a foreign country \u2013 they want to be able to drive to your offices,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The founder of Sydney-based crowdfunding site Project PowerUp says he plans to visit Silicon Valley early next year to drum up<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,21,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43460"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}