{"id":43689,"date":"2023-10-20T15:30:26","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/pushstart-launches-seed-fund-for-start-ups-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:30:26","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:30:26","slug":"pushstart-launches-seed-fund-for-start-ups-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/pushstart-launches-seed-fund-for-start-ups-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"PushStart launches seed fund for start-ups – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Start-up mentorship network PushStart has launched its first accelerator seed fund, which will hand pick budding entrepreneurs to receive $20,000 in funding and access to a heavy-hitting group of mentors. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The scheme, which will be modelled on the successful TechStars and YCombinator in the US, will accept up to 10 early-stage tech businesses, which will each give up 8% equity in return for the investment and mentoring.<\/p>\n

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Mentors who have signed up to aid the chosen start-ups include Matt Barrie, founder of Freelancer.com, Rebekah Campbell, founder of Posse and Nikki Durkin, the 99Dresses creator who was recently accepted into the YCombinator scheme.<\/p>\n

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PushStart, which launched in March this year, has evolved its offering from a network of mentors linked to start-ups to include initiatives such as mentor \u201cspeed dating\u201d, where entrepreneurs can meet a series of industry experts over the course of an evening<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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The new accelerator, however, is potentially the most significant development yet by PushStart, emulating the seed funds run by the likes of Startmate and AngelCube.<\/p>\n

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Selected start-ups will spend three months in a Sydney location and provided with free office space, business services and access to around 40 mentors.<\/p>\n

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Kim Heras, managing director of PushStart, says that the seed fund, due to start in March, was designed to not clash with the looming Startmate program, which is set to kick off its second incarnation in January.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe don\u2019t see them as competitors \u2013 we think it\u2019s great that there\u2019s another option for start-ups,\u201d says Heras.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think there\u2019s even more room in the market. If you look at the start-ups taken in by Startmate and AngelCube, there\u2019s about 16 of them. We\u2019ve seen hundreds of start-ups through PushStart and I\u2019d definitely find more than 16 that I would invest in.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Heras says that the accelerator will look for tech start-ups across a range of areas, including community, networks and data.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe most important thing is the founding team,\u201d he says. \u201cThey have to be well rounded and coachable. We\u2019ll look to take on up to 10, but it may be less than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe teams need to show that they are action-driven, that they can take advice and they have a passion for solving problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe reality is that the majority of tech start-ups fail. So, if they do, we want them to fail big \u2013 we don\u2019t want them to play it safe. They\u2019ve got three months \u2013 they need to go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Applications for the accelerator are open until January 27, with start-ups selected from mid-February. For more information, click here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Start-up mentorship network PushStart has launched its first accelerator seed fund, which will hand pick budding entrepreneurs to receive $20,000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43689"}],"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=43689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}