{"id":44454,"date":"2023-10-20T15:36:04","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/rival-countries-are-lining-up-to-poach-disrupt\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:36:04","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:36:04","slug":"rival-countries-are-lining-up-to-poach-disrupt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/rival-countries-are-lining-up-to-poach-disrupt\/","title":{"rendered":"Rival countries are lining up to poach Disrupt"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Disrupt<\/div>\n

Three rival countries have already offered to house million-dollar Australian startup Disrupt, whose co-founder was deported earlier this month for not picking fruit for three months.<\/p>\n

Disrupt COO Chris Bailey was deported by the Border Force for lying about having completed the three months of regional work needed to extend his working holiday visa<\/a>, with the startup\u2019s co-founder Gary Elphick saying his company wasn\u2019t eligible to sponsor Bailey\u2019s visa.<\/p>\n

Elphick says offers have already been flowing in from other ecosystems, with representatives from the US, UK and China all trying to get the startup to relocate its operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve jumped in and offered to help, and some have been quite aggressive about it,\u201d Elphick tells StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve all said something along the lines of, \u2018we can\u2019t believe this happened, this is crazy\u2019. Let\u2019s talk and we\u2019ll sort out visas for all the team\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The elephant in the room<\/h3>\n

Elphick says he is yet to make a decision about whether to relocate his startup but says he may be forced to now his co-founder is working out of a bedroom in Wales.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still firmly grounded in Australia and want to stay here, but if things don\u2019t work out we\u2019re keeping all our options open,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no way we can operate with three hours of communication between our head of operations and the rest of the team. It\u2019s an elephant in the room at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says it\u2019s heartening to have the support from other startup ecosystems around the world, and if Australia doesn\u2019t improve in this area it will continue to lose potentially lucrative startups overseas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to know that people are out there looking,\u201d Elphick says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really competitive on a country-by-country basis to get the best access to talent and everyone wants the tax dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia isn\u2019t even supporting their own startups with immigration and these countries are out there actively recruiting startups to come into their countries. They\u2019re protecting their own as well as actively pursuing startups in other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elphick says he has also enjoyed support from the local ecosystem, with several other founders telling him that they also have employees that are risking deportation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least 10 other founders have reached out and said they\u2019ve also got someone hiding in their business as well,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey won\u2019t be going overseas now either. That\u2019s crazy to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking the best of a bad situation\u201d<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n

While the team weighs up its various options, UNSW – where Bailey and Elphick volunteered as mentors – has helped to erect a large TV in the Disrupt office, where Bailey video conferences with his employees for a few hours each day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve dressed that up and put a little jacket on it,\u201d Elphick says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s just putting plaster over something. We can continue to operate for now without customers being any the wiser but it\u2019s not a long-term viable solution.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was definitely in the wrong and there\u2019s nothing we can do about that but we\u2019re making the best of a bad situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The long-term impact<\/h3>\n

He says he wants the discussion to centre on the long-term ramifications of Australia\u2019s immigration policies rather than the actions of Bailey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was angry and frustrated when it happened, now I\u2019m just a bit more disappointed,\u201d Elphick says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were not in the right. From the get-go we said he was in the wrong. But when you\u2019re backed into a corner and have no other options as a startup you do what you need to in order to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about moaning about what happened – yes he should pay for the consequences of it. It\u2019s more about what we can do for future startups, for new companies starting out.”<\/p>\n

He says he hopes the government takes a close look at its immigration policies and the potential entrepreneurial visa.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to facilitate the greatness we\u2019ve already got in the country with recent graduates, students and highly-skilled people in corporations,” Elphick says.<\/p>\n

“We need to facilitate these people getting into high-growth startups and then look to attract other companies and talent from overseas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to sort out our own stuff first. The government is spending millions of dollars on an ideas boom media campaign but it needs to look at how it can actually put some substance behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

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