{"id":54151,"date":"2023-10-20T16:26:35","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T16:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/innovation-bay-finally-makes-it-to-melbourne-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T16:26:35","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T16:26:35","slug":"innovation-bay-finally-makes-it-to-melbourne-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/innovation-bay-finally-makes-it-to-melbourne-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovation Bay finally makes it to Melbourne &#8211; StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"445\" height=\"352\" itemprop=\"image\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/l_conferenceblurred_445.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"l_conferenceblurred_445\"\/><\/div>\n<p>Innovation Bay is finally launching in Melbourne.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The series of networking events, which helps introduce startups to investors, has been operating in Sydney for the past eight years. In the past 12 months it has expanded to San Francisco and Perth. Its events have helped Australian entrepreneurs raise over $10 million in seed funding.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Innovation Bay\u2019s Melbourne chapter will be run by Jodie Imam, the founder of Occasional Butler, a jobs outsourcing startup <a href=\"growth\/buy-a-business\/airtasker-acquires-occasional-butler-explores-overseas-expansion\/2014071012720.html\">that was acquired by Airtasker in 2014<\/a>. Innovation Bay will launch in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.innovationbay.com\/baywatch\/2015\/7\/21\/innovation-bay-is-coming-to-melbourne-special-guest-rod-drury-founder-ceo-of-xero\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Melbourne&nbsp; in August<\/a> with Xero founder Rod Drury, and while it will continue to have special \u2018fireside chat\u2019 style events, its focus will be on its investment dinners and breakfasts. They usually feature around 40 handpicked investors that will hear pitches from four startup founders.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Imam says curated investor matchmaking events are invaluable for startups that are trying to raise capital.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not like you\u2019re banging on the door trying to talk to people that aren\u2019t interested,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s so much better. A lot of the work has already been done for you before you\u2019ve even met up for the dinner. Investors benefit from getting an idea that suits their skills. And it\u2019s not always about funding, it can be a great place for founders to find mentors or advisors.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m excited about it. I\u2019m passionate about helping startups grow and there\u2019s a lot of work being done behind the scenes to make these events successful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Many of Innovation Bay\u2019s Sydney events had been attended by Melbourne-based investors and Imam says there\u2019s been demand for expansion for a while. Innovation Bay co-founder Ian Gardiner says now is the perfect time for a Melbourne launch.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMelbourne is such a hot and vibrant market right now, but we believe the entrepreneurial community is still being underserved and we hope to address that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe look forward to working closely with the local startup sector and couldn\u2019t be more excited about our launch with Rod Drury \u2013 the first of many great Innovation Bay Melbourne events.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><i>Raising your <\/i><a href=\"startupschool\/events\/hacking-your-first-investment-round\/\"><i>first round of capital<\/i><\/a><i>? Starting a <\/i><a href=\"startupschool\/events\/secrets-of-successful-crowdfunding\/\"><i>crowdfunding campaign<\/i><\/a><i>? Want to grow your business <\/i><a href=\"startupschool\/events\/how-to-use-instagram-to-grow-your-business\/\"><i>with Instagram?<\/i><\/a><i> StartupSmart School can help.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Innovation Bay is finally launching in Melbourne. \u00a0 The series of networking events, which helps introduce startups to investors, has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,8,9,22,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54151"}],"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=54151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}