{"id":44325,"date":"2023-10-20T15:35:10","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/stone-chalk-celebrates-its-first-birthday-how-its-300-residents-raised-over-100-million-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:35:10","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:35:10","slug":"stone-chalk-celebrates-its-first-birthday-how-its-300-residents-raised-over-100-million-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/stone-chalk-celebrates-its-first-birthday-how-its-300-residents-raised-over-100-million-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Stone & Chalk celebrates its first birthday: How its 300 residents raised over $100 million – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
Sydney fintech startup hub Stone & Chalk has celebrated its first birthday with its 300 residents who have collectively raised over $100 million and created 150 new jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just pumped for all our startups,\u201d Stone & Chalk CEO Alex Scandurra tells StartupSmart.<\/em><\/p>\n The biggest funding round for a Stone & Chalk startup so far has been Data Republic, which closed a massive $10.5 million Series A round, while Brighte recently closed the biggest seed round seen in the fintech co-working space.<\/p>\n Fifteen of its residents have expanded overseas in the last year, while 400 university students have completely internships in the space.<\/p>\n Scandurra says a big part of Stone & Chalk’s initial success is its dedicate effort to foster a collaborative culture, along with carefully curating its residents.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing selective can create a sense of arrogance and elitism and we didn\u2019t want that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to create a spree to call with a real fight for a philosophy where startups are really trying to excel, focus and succeed balanced by a whole collaborative environment where we celebrate together everybody\u2019s success \u2013 and we share and back each other when things are down and tough.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to this, Scandurra says its investor-mentor program has strengthened its startups with support in customer acquisition, funding, access to talent and expertise.<\/p>\n \u201cThat has been a key part of our philosophy,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Scandurra says Stone & Chalk’s purpose is to help young companies become sustainable businesses in the long term.<\/p>\n \u201cWe focus on really, really early stage startups scaling up,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to be a gazelle factory. Gazelles are the mid-level startups really starting to sprint.\u201d<\/p>\nThe best memories from year one<\/h3>\n