{"id":45665,"date":"2023-10-20T15:45:26","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/techsydney-to-launch-500000-crowdfunding-campaign-how-the-tech-supergroup-has-been-evolving-since-day-one-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:45:26","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:45:26","slug":"techsydney-to-launch-500000-crowdfunding-campaign-how-the-tech-supergroup-has-been-evolving-since-day-one-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/techsydney-to-launch-500000-crowdfunding-campaign-how-the-tech-supergroup-has-been-evolving-since-day-one-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"TechSydney to launch $500,000 crowdfunding campaign: How the tech supergroup has been evolving since day one – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sydney startup supergroup TechSydney is set to launch a $500,000 crowdfunding campaign as it aims to make the city one of the best 10 tech ecosystems in the world.<\/p>\n

After initially announcing plans to raise $2 million, TechSydney co-founder Dean McEvoy says the revised goal will help the independent industry group demonstrate its value to members before embarking on a larger capital raise.<\/p>\n

The crowdfunding campaign will be officially launched next Tuesday, but McEvoy says some money has already been raised from initial members.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still think $2 million is what we need but we\u2019ve broken that down to demonstrate what we can do with $500,000,\u201d McEvoy tells StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can raise that and deliver in 90 days then people will see value in us and we\u2019ll continue to fundraise throughout the year to deliver on the initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the funding is raised, the first 90 days of TechSydney\u2019s operations will focus on fixing two key problems faced by startups, McEvoy says.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalent was the number one issue, so we\u2019ve been building some specific initiatives around that to get more people into the industry and make those people able to be hired,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other one was peer learning. As a founder of a high-growth tech company, how do you get better?<\/p>\n

\u201cThose will be the two areas of focus in the first 90 days and they seem to resonate pretty well with people.\u201d<\/p>\n

TechSydney was launched in May this year<\/a>, bringing together some of the biggest names in the Australian tech community, including Atlassian, Airtree Ventures and Canva.<\/p>\n

Aiming to bring together the fragmented Sydney startup ecosystem<\/a>, the not-for-profit is aiming to act as a link between the community, government and tech companies.<\/p>\n

The organisation was heavily criticised for an initial lack of gender diversity<\/a>, with only seven of its first 100 members being female.<\/p>\n

McEvoy says TechSydney itself is a startup, and has been constantly evolving and learning from mistakes since its launch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really a startup, and we\u2019ve been working out how to be a startup for other startups,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to let your customers lead you. The whole process we\u2019ve had from day one is really about putting it out there and refining it, throwing away what\u2019s bad and doing what\u2019s good.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the process I\u2019ve done in all my startups. The thing about technology and the internet is you have to put stuff out there and see what people say, then make it better. That\u2019s ingrained in my DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n

While originally planning to launch the crowdfunding campaign soon after the extravagant launch party in May, McEvoy says plans have been delayed in order to adapt to feedback and due to delays in setting up the not-for-profit company.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe extra time has been good to refine the offering and get the actual corporate-y structure of it right,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

He says the group decided to undertake a crowdfunding campaign rather than seek private funding because of its do-or-die nature of it and the community that can be built around it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t hit $500,000 then this won\u2019t happen,\u201d McEvoy says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the ecosystem here thinks this is important then they have to get behind it. We can\u2019t have apathy in this environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will force all of us to say \u2018this is important and I care about this enough to pull out my credit card\u2019. You can\u2019t be a bystander, you have to get up, make a difference and be involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe consequence of us not doing it, if people don\u2019t get behind it, is that we won\u2019t do it. I like that about things – you get a result quickly and you get feedback from the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of those things are what drives me as an entrepreneur.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Sydney startup supergroup TechSydney is set to launch a $500,000 crowdfunding campaign as it aims to make the city one of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8,6,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45665"}],"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=45665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}