{"id":45934,"date":"2023-10-20T15:47:21","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/will-gofar-turnbull-put-money-where-mouth-is-with-kickstarter-purchase-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:47:21","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:47:21","slug":"will-gofar-turnbull-put-money-where-mouth-is-with-kickstarter-purchase-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/will-gofar-turnbull-put-money-where-mouth-is-with-kickstarter-purchase-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Will GoFar: Turnbull put money where mouth is with Kickstarter purchase – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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New Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is willing to walk-the-walk in terms of startups, according to GoFar co-founder Ian Davidson.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Davidson has firsthand experience of this, after the future-PM contributed to the startup\u2019s Kickstarter campaign<\/a> in May.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While much of the Australian startup community is regarding Turnbull\u2019s rise to the top job as a positive move, we\u2019re still waiting to see whether he\u2019ll actually back the sector beyond using words like \u201cagile\u201d and \u201cdisruption\u201d in his first speech.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But Davidson says he\u2019s seen that Turnbull is able to put his money where his mouth is, after he paid a visit to Sydney co-working space Fishburners.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cHe happened to come in when we were doing our Kickstarter campaign,\u201d Davidson says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe explained the device, and then we asked him if he wanted to buy one and he said \u2018yes I do\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cHe cracked open his wallet and got it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What Turnbull purchased is an in-car display and smartphone app that aims to help ensure drivers make safe and smart decision behind the wheel, although he probably won\u2019t be driving himself very much for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Kickstarter campaign eventually raised more than $200,000<\/a>, four times what it was asking for.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Davidson says it\u2019s encouraging to now have a PM that \u201cgets startups\u201d and is willing to invest in them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cMalcolm didn\u2019t take much persuasion to put his hand in his pocket to buy a unit,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to see a politician go that extra step and really put the support down.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cHe seems to get it, it\u2019s his world. It\u2019s his comfort zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fishburners co-founder Murray Hurps agrees, saying Turnbull\u2019s contribution to GoFar was the highlight of his visit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had the pleasure of giving tours of Fishburners to some very impressive business people, but Malcolm honestly asked some of the best questions I\u2019ve heard being asked, and seemed to genuinely understand what our 151 startups are challenged with,\u201d Hurps says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The near-revolving door of prime ministers makes working in a startup seem more reliable, Davidson says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think the startup world is unstable, compared to being PM it looks like a job for life,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cMalcolm put his money where his mouth is and bought a GoFar device and now just a few months later he\u2019s prime minister.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if everyone who buys GoFar will become PM but statistically it is trending in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Want to grow your business with Instagram?<\/em> <\/i>StartupSmart School can help<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is willing to walk-the-walk in terms of startups, according to GoFar co-founder Ian Davidson.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45934"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}