{"id":43974,"date":"2023-10-20T15:32:30","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/spark-bureau-welcomes-five-new-startups-as-it-continues-to-grow-the-sunshine-coast-ecosystem-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:32:30","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:32:30","slug":"spark-bureau-welcomes-five-new-startups-as-it-continues-to-grow-the-sunshine-coast-ecosystem-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/spark-bureau-welcomes-five-new-startups-as-it-continues-to-grow-the-sunshine-coast-ecosystem-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Spark Bureau welcomes five new startups as it continues to grow the Sunshine Coast ecosystem – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Spark<\/div>\n

A new Sunshine Coast incubator sparking life into startups has welcomed five new ventures into its revamped program.<\/p>\n

After launching earlier this year<\/a>, non-profit hub Spark Bureau has switched its focus from building a co-working community to running an incubator for startups with an aim to help grow the local region.<\/p>\n

The five startups selected include on-demand laundry service Lifestyle Laundry and all-in-one digital marketing tool Epicuest.<\/p>\n

Spark Bureau co-founder and CEO Zack Johnson says the five startups selected came from 25 applicants of \u201creasonably high quality\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe focused on quality of experience,\u201d Johnson tells StartupSmart.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked at where they fit in the industry and their stage of business growth. We wanted to create a much more refined and aligned cohort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spark Bureau plays host to between 15 and 20 people building startups and its new intake brings in a new level of aptitude to the table, Johnson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe average age of this intake is ten years higher than our first cohort, several of our founders have had previous business experience and success,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Of the five tech companies selected, 40% have a female co-founder.<\/p>\n

The Spark Bureau incubator program involves a month of full-time workshop, mentoring and product development, with rest of the day focused on support and connections.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to be dedicated 100% all day, everyday,” Johnson says.<\/p>\n

The decision to switch to a one-month intensive program followed by year-long support was motivated by the need to better connect Spark Bureau\u2019s incubator participants, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re already seeing collaboration and cross-pollination,\u201d Johnson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that\u2019s really interesting about these guys is on the surface they have very different businesses, products and technology they\u2019re using.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you go into it a little more, there\u2019s actually opportunity for every single one of those businesses to benefit from each other through partnerships, collaboration or learning from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the month, the cohort will have ongoing access to monthly catch-ups, workshops and support in business development, mentoring and partnership opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will be working on their timelines versus our timelines,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

He says that Spark Bureau will assist with figuring out milestones and deliverables while also providing support with resources.<\/p>\n

The nine participants in their first incubator coming along well, Johnson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cFour are aggressively moving forward,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of them are closing in on significant national partnerships, have completed product launch and are reaching revenue growth already.\u201d<\/p>\n

With its Sunshine Coast location and strong relationships with local councils and institutions like the Chamber of Commerce, Johnson says Spark Bureau is a great place for startups wanting to experiment in a live-in lab environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe City of Maroochydore is building a smart city from the ground up and we\u2019re an innovation partner,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an opportunity to make deep and meaningful connections between entrepreneurs and startups to test new technologies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always looking for expressions of interest for the next intake, we can look at applications as they come in and based on demand we can launch our next full-time intensive [incubator].\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to its incubator, Spark Bureau regularly runs events like startup weekends and hackathons.<\/p>\n

“It’s really providing an opportunity for a lot of stuff that was kind of already happening to coalesce and centralise,” Johnson says.<\/p>\n

The five startups selected for the Spark Bureau incubator<\/h3>\n
    \n
  • Xandra Labs:<\/strong> One of the world’s first companies developing “personalities and dialogue” for brands to engage users via Facebook Messenger<\/li>\n
  • ChilliDocs:<\/strong> Cloud service that automatically generates documents from templates, which can then be distributed via email, DropBox, GoogleDrive and one-touch post<\/li>\n
  • Safe Smart Pickup:<\/strong> Tech platform improving traffic flow at school pick-up points<\/li>\n
  • Epicuest:<\/strong> Omnichannel marketing platform for bricks and mortar businesses<\/li>\n
  • Lifestyle Laundry:<\/strong> Platform to get home laundry picked-up, washed, folded and returned within 24 hours<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

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

    A new Sunshine Coast incubator sparking life into startups has welcomed five new ventures into its revamped program. After launching<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,27,6,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43974"}],"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=43974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}