{"id":43461,"date":"2023-10-20T15:28:45","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/the-pollenizer-effect-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:28:45","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:28:45","slug":"the-pollenizer-effect-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/the-pollenizer-effect-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pollenizer effect – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I\"feature-boxes-90\"n the four-and-a-half years since Pollenizer came onto the scene as a new tech start-up incubator, Australia\u2019s tech sector has morphed beyond almost all recognition.<\/p>\n

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The industry has mushroomed at a rapid rate, with tech start-ups now spoilt for choice when it comes to dedicated seed funds, accelerators and co-working spaces.<\/p>\n

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However, Pollenizer has remained a focal point in Australia\u2019s start-up ecosystem. In March, it was named Best Start-up Investor at the 2012 StartupSmart Awards \u2013 and for good reason.<\/p>\n

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Last year alone, Pollenizer tested 16 ideas, started eight new businesses, raised $7 million for portfolio companies, raised $1.1 million for incubation, and sold group buying website Spreets<\/a> for a cool $40 million.<\/p>\n

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So what is it about Pollenizer that keeps the tech sector buzzing? StartupSmart<\/i> spoke to co-founder Mick Liubinskas about the inner workings of the Sydney-based incubator.<\/p>\n

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Below, Liubinskas reveals the five secrets to how Pollenizer assesses and works with start-ups:<\/p>\n

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1. The priorities<\/h2>\n

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One of the biggest things we add to a business is to bust procrastination, and over-analysis and over-planning, by just action.<\/p>\n

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I think that has a big effect on people. We have people who have been thinking about ideas for months, years even, and we start sometimes within an hour. Definitely within 24 hours.<\/p>\n

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Another part of the language we use is \u201ctop right, bottom left\u201d.<\/p>\n

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A good business should have a big and exciting \u201ctop right\u201d, which is a big market or solving a big problem, but you need a \u201cbottom left\u201d.<\/p>\n

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If the opportunity is so big you can\u2019t find a way to start, that\u2019s no good. You need a place to start and you need somewhere to go.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBottom left\u201d is really important. Because we know you\u2019re going to learn a hundred things running this business, we just want to do them fast and cheap.<\/p>\n

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2. The people<\/h2>\n

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If you have one big idea and you think it\u2019s going to be implemented once to perfection, you\u2019re not going to work well within Pollenizer.<\/p>\n

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Both the idea and the co-founder we work with need to be tailored to our process. Both are critical.<\/p>\n

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We bring a big team to every business \u2013 a trained start-up engineer and a trained lean product manager are added to the enterprise as a full-time team. That\u2019s what we call the pod. They\u2019re the core of every start-up business.<\/p>\n

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Surrounding that, we have a trained start-up designer and start-up operations people. There\u2019s also a network of 250 mentors and investors.<\/p>\n

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Every business also gets a board member who is one of the senior members of the Pollenizer family.<\/p>\n

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However, it still really relies on a very commercial, hands-on entrepreneur getting it done.<\/p>\n

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That leads to another principle of the Pollenizer effect \u2013 the very important balance between freedom and pressure.<\/p>\n

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Entrepreneurs have the freedom to test the idea in any way they want, but after three months are expected to come back with a result.<\/p>\n

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Plus each week you have to sit down and fess up to what you\u2019ve done and what progress you\u2019ve made.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s fine to say, \u201cI failed 10 times this week\u201d but it\u2019s not acceptable to say \u201cWe\u2019re still working on some things\u201d.<\/p>\n

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It scares a lot of people. That\u2019s a really important test for us. In the past, we\u2019ve sometimes convinced people we\u2019re the right way but if they don\u2019t get it and can live with it, at some point they will get very uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

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The funny thing is experienced entrepreneurs really respect it because they\u2019ve learnt the lessons. First-time entrepreneurs question it and say, \u201cI\u2019ve thought through this. I\u2019m pretty sure it\u2019s going to be right\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Story continues on page 2. Please click below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the four-and-a-half years since Pollenizer came onto the scene as a new tech start-up incubator, Australia\u2019s tech sector has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43461"}],"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=43461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}