Australian Tech Start ups expanding with US Venture Capital Increasing

Just read an interesting article in the Australian Age http://www.theage.com.au regarding investment in Australia by US Venture Capital. The only VC I’m aware that has offices in Silicon Valley and Australia is Southern Cross run by John Scull, Larry Marshall & Tristen Langley.

One of the tenants of the article is that Start-ups don’t need to move to the US to succeed. My feeling on that one is that is true initially but in order to grow they will need to have office(s) in the US in order to access the market just like they always have. The other interesting note was the authors idea that many US start ups were over valued and therefore Australian start ups were more attractive. I don’t know if that is actually the case but in my experience the big hitters Sequia, DFJ, Kleiner Perkins etc., have always been willing to look at Australian companies as long as they have a disruptive idea and they are properly prepared and introduced. http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/aussie-tech-gold-rush-nothing-off-limits-20111103-1mwyn.html

Australian Innovation Showcase

I attended last night’s ANZA Technology Network kickoff to the “Gateway to US Executive Summit” at Silicon Valley Bank last night and I think Viki Forrest may have put forth one of her best programs to date.

The companies that attended this year were:  8 Shot International, Australian Survey Research, Aviator, Evanscorp, iAsset, inference Communications, Jasondb, Red Lizard Software and X-Ped.  Mick Johnson Whereoscope and Bardia Housman Business Catalyst (both of whom we interviewed previously) were also there as guest speakers.  Whereoscope looks pretty interesting as it is focused on using an iPhone App to find out where your kids are.  Putting the obvious big brother implications aside and being a parent myself I’m confident there is a market for it, if it is properly positioned and marketed.

The speech by Andrew Lacy (Tapulous / now owned by Walt Disney) was especially entertaining as he provided the entrepreneurial audience with some sage advice (at least from my perspective).  He didn’t come out and say this but the theme was don’t let your business plan get in the way of success.  Tapulous’s business plan was not focused on “Tap Tap” but Andrew saw an opportunity when an Engineer / inventor he was looking at hiring came in and although he knew he wouldn’t be a good fit as an employee, he bought the App and 40 million downloads later he “guessed” right.  The other item he brought up which I also though was prescient was the element of luck.

Many times you have the right idea but the timing is wrong, the team is wrong or something just doesn’t click the way it should.  In his case the App was a bit of luck and Disney coming in was also lucky as they were looking to raise capital rather than “exit”.  Having created a site for selling photography back in the late 90’s I completely get the timing thing as I had the right “idea” but it was too soon, (internet speed for most consumers, was not ready for buying photo’s on line).  Today there are many successful photography sites; RedBubble, Art.com etc.,.

The other take away I had was savvy.  For many CEO’s it is much easier to stay the course than to jump on something in midstream, especially when you’re playing with Venture Capitalist money.  The VC’s bought into Andrew’s idea (meaning the CEO “sold it” ) and the rest is a bit of Aussie history.

My take away from last night was “don’t let a business plan get in the way of success”!

Social Networking & Business Marketing

There was an interesting article last month in that staid publication “The Economist” about online social  networks changing the way people communicate  http://economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15351002.  Maybe working in Silicon Valley has me in the proverbial “bubble” but it took them this long to figure it out / write about it?  Any company that doesn’t “get” social networking from a business as well as societal perspective is missing out on one of the most inexpensive as well as important marketing mediums there is.  

By combining website marketing, SEO, product focused blogs, corporate tweets (Twitter), face book followers (see Jet Blue   http://facebook.com/JetBlue),  LinkedIn, delicious etc., companies are communicating with their clients in a way that wasn’t conceivable a decade ago.  They can push out content as well as receive feedback faster than ever before. 

Savvy marketers are pulling out all the stops to ensure that their corporate brand is properly marketed in all the different social mediums and ensuring they are maximizing their online presence as well as gaining very useful market research.  They’re also aware that bad press in this new world is a challenge and some of the more switehed on companies actually search for bad press to jump on customer problems before they go viral.  For example, if a Comcast cable subscriber “tweets” or “yelps” that “Comcast Sucks” with an addressable issue their searching for it and have a customer service representative contacting them with the hope that their next tweet / yelp talks about them solving the problem / how responsive great they are.

The bottom line is that marketing is evolving at hyper speed and the companies that are switched on and embrace social networking will benefit to their bottom lines.  I’m going to go out on a limb and bet they will be writing about this time period in the business schools and history books in the not too distant future as a transformational era that completely changed traditional marketing as we knew it, just five short years ago.

Interview 5th Finger CEO Patrick Collins by David Brown CEO IMES

5th Finger CEO Patrick Collins joins us for an intriguing look at an Australian success turned into a North American startup! 5th Finger is a very successful Australian Mobile Marketing company that has successfully completed over 5,000 mobile marketing campaigns. Back in 2007 they were looking for a new challenge and picked the US. They successfully raised $7 million from Starfish Venture Capital in Melbourne, Australia and moved 25 Aussies to the states.

Patrick provides us with a great perspective on how some of the worlds largest soda manufacturers and Lingerie companies utilize 5th Finger’s mobile marketing platform to reach new customers in an extremely challenging market environment. He also talks a bit about the future of mobile marketing campaigns and how his company has repositioned itself from a tech company to a mobile marketing / advertising powerhouse.   Go to www.imes-davidbrown.blogspot.com for the video.

International Innovation Competition

INNOVIC is running a global competition to showcase new inventions and innovations that have the potential to be “The Next Big Thing”. Previously it had been an Australian only award competition but apparently there was such international demand that they have opened it up for any innovative international company to apply. If you have a company that fits the criteria take a look at http://www.nextbigthingaward.com and give it a go!