Disqus - Latest Comments for bigyahu

Re: No fossil fuels: First solar electric catamaran with wing sail goes into production

alan jones — Tue, 29 Mar 2022 23:53:19 -0000

There's no sun bathing area for passengers, it's a no from me.

Re: Dutton to Facebook: Stop protecting paedophiles

alan jones — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 01:10:29 -0000

If he’s serious about making a big dent in child trafficking and exploitation, Peter Dutton persuade his colleagues to suspend Westpac’s retail banking licence for a few years #justsayin

Re: London to Australia in two hours? Forget it.

alan jones — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 21:53:49 -0000

I'm still shook that NSW has a Space Ambassador. How do I apply for that gig?

Re: TechCentral plan finally unveiled - InnovationsAus.com

alan jones — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 00:26:38 -0000

Let’s just shortcut the whole process and assume the majority of the precinct will be occupied by Atlassian, a university, a big five bank and a big four accounting firm 😢

Re: CSIRO to shutter ON startup program - InnovationsAus.com

alan jones — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 20:22:05 -0000

Previous government funded it and there’s nothing ScoMo likes doing more than shutting down things Turnbull did.

Re: Mirvac rebirths a technology precinct - InnovationsAus.com

alan jones — Wed, 15 May 2019 18:47:20 -0000

A $2.1M fund? LOL.

Re: Sydney slides on Genome 2019 rank - InnovationsAus.com

alan jones — Thu, 09 May 2019 18:56:38 -0000

Are you certain that’s correct? I didn’t participate in the collection of Australian data this time around but have been part of the project in the past and there hasn’t been a requirement to pay to have a city included. If it’s correct, can you confirm who’s paying for Sydney and Melbourne to be included and how much they were billed?

Re: Thanks a lot, we look like idiots - InnovationsAus.com

alan jones — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 19:01:07 -0000

I got so mad I wrote a thing https://link.medium.com/FRf...

Re: 5 reasons I regret getting a 2018 iPad Pro [Review]

alan jones — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 21:39:07 -0000

About 8 times out of 10, my left hand prevents FaceID from unlocking. Just because the camera is on the left all the time (because I’m using the Smart Keyboard) and I’m right handed, and I mainly use my iPad Pro on some form of transport, which requires that I brace while I work because the iPad Pro is very prone to falling backward under deceleration. It would have been so great to have it on the longer upper face (when in Landscape mode) which would also mean I’d appear to be looking at someone on a video call rather than weirdly off to their right.

Re: What’s to show for the billions invested in start-ups?

alan jones — Wed, 21 Nov 2018 01:16:36 -0000

Actually the billions invested have been invested in tech companies, not in the incubators and accelerators that Bianco says are still finding their feet. The majority of that capital has been invested at growth stage, not in accelerator-stage startups, and in tech startups outside Australian incubators and accelerators, such as Canva, Atlassian, SafetyCulture, Culture Amp, etc. Australian incubators and accelerators are still operating on shoestring budgets with skeleton crews. Our oldest accelerators and incubators are just a decade old so it’s too early to go looking for real cash-on-cash returns but the unrealised portfolio valuations of many of them look strong and accelerator-backed startups are among the strongest Australia has produced if you consider valuation at last round raised a valid metric. Perhaps check in with the performance of Artesian Capital’s FoF portfolio?

Re: Checkout tech startup Tiliter Tech wins coveted Golden Uniroo trophy at That Startup Show Grand Final

alan jones — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 02:43:21 -0000

What does he mean “almost”? 😉

Re: Should your startup get branded t-shirts? Why founders love them or hate them

alan jones — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 04:21:17 -0000

You don’t always need to be in a branded t-shirt if that’s not right for your startup and your audience but you should always be your brand. There are a hundred or more ways to be on-brand in how you dress. I talk about that in this podcast episode https://johnlivesay.com/ala...

Re: NSW govt sets up $150m fund - InnovationsAus.com

alan jones — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 23:22:01 -0000

I don’t get it: how many investments does GO NSW Equity expect to make if it’s managing a $150M fund and looking to invest growth capital in businesses with a pre-money valuation of $20-$50M? It doesn’t seem like it can afford to do too many. Either the taxpayer ends up with a small percentage of the company, leaving it vulnerable to dilution, or the fund only places a few larger investments, or it doesn’t participate in following rounds. And the taxpayer only sees 1/3rd of the carry, minus ROC’s management fee and share of carry. It’s probably just my ignorance but it seems to be that this should be a $1B fund, not a $150M fund, if it’s going to move the needle.

Re: Treasurer Scott Morrison says “intimidating” tech sector image alienates general public: Four ecosystem players weigh in

alan jones — Thu, 05 Oct 2017 07:57:26 -0000

I think the Minister makes no sense. The tech industry isn’t intimidating the Australian general public - our community has one of the highest penetration rates of new technologies in the world - the general public are using more of our products and services every day, of their own accord because we save them time and money and keep them entertained and informed better than the industries we’re disrupting.

Maybe what the minister means is that when the new Turnbull government tried to use “let’s all get behind the innovation industry” as a half-baked and poorly expressed marketing campaign at the last election, the electorate called bullshit. That wasn’t the fault of the industry, it was the fault of the policy makers and the creatives trying to craft an election-winning hype campaign.

Or maybe what the minister means is that our industry is intimidating to governments and ministers? After all, we don’t spend millions on advertising campaigns like the mining and fossil energy industry does to influence government strategy, neither do we take politicians on junkets, donate to parties, employ lobbyists or buy seats at expensive fund raising dinners to get access.

We go straight to customers and sell them something they didn’t realise they needed but quickly learn to love. We offer to build a grid scale power storage plant in 100 days with a money-back guarantee. We get better media coverage than the minister because we’re better at using the new media because we’re *inventing* the new media.

Re: Walkley Media Incubator workshop session 3 #AMA

alan jones — Wed, 17 May 2017 23:32:34 -0000

That's a whole other workshop! But here's a version of the slides I use when I give it: https://www.slideshare.net/...

Cold calling can work but it's less effective than a warm introduction from someone who knows you and knows the investor. Given there's only a small pool of Australian early stage investors I'd advise you to use cold calling/email as a last resort if you really can't approach an investor any other way.

Read the slide deck and let me know if you have any questions.

Re: Walkley Media Incubator workshop session 3 #AMA

alan jones — Wed, 17 May 2017 23:27:41 -0000

Sure you can. You can apply to join the BlueChilli accelerator, Startmate, Slingshot, River City Labs, UQ's creative accelerator program and more. I would recommend reaching out to someone associated with the program first, to find out whether your startup is the kind of thing each accelerator is looking for, as nearly all of them have a particular focus. For instance, BlueChilli is currently running SheStarts (for female founders) and CityConnect (for 'smart cities' focused startups). Who to ask? An alumni (a founder who's been through a particular program) or one of the people listed as a mentor in the program.

It's important to ask because most accelerators don't have the time/resources to let everybody know why their application wasn't successful. To give you an idea, the current SheStarts program had more than 700 applications for 10 places — just giving everyone feedback on their application would take a month we don't have.

Re: Walkley Media Incubator workshop session 3 #AMA

alan jones — Wed, 17 May 2017 23:22:35 -0000

Once you've explained what your business does, you could try that, but they are likely to refer back to the earlier part of your survey where you've just explained what it is. Might even just copy and paste it. It would work much better in a face-to-face interview than a survey.

Re: The essential startup metrics, never before revealed!

alan jones — Fri, 12 May 2017 02:24:12 -0000

Those are both awesome thanks Jason!

From @alandownie I also have:

MPAD (metrics produced to appease directors)

LTCSV (lifetime coffee subscription value)

T4P (total table tennis tournaments played)

DDI (drowsey director index - represents how often one of your directors falls asleep during a board meeting)

Re: Walkley Media Incubator workshop session 2 #AMA

alan jones — Fri, 12 May 2017 01:40:05 -0000

No worries Eliana.

Re: Walkley Media Incubator workshop session 2 #AMA

alan jones — Fri, 12 May 2017 01:39:46 -0000

Thanks Rosie, you too!

Re: Walkley Media Incubator workshop session 2 #AMA

alan jones — Wed, 10 May 2017 05:45:08 -0000

I don't see any NFP there, it's all FP. Your plugin idea is FP with a loss-leader offered as marketing tool. Design ways to test each of these ideas on a small scale, quickly and cheaply. Whatever my opinion may be as to which might be more/less successful, I could very well be wrong. Replicating a platform (more often called "white-labelling") is expensive and time-consuming so don't consider doing it without charging a substantial licence fee, and try to require that you get the majority of that licence fee upfront. Because white label licensees love to try to pretend that you haven't met their expectations and therefore they shouldn't have to pay.

Re: Walkley Media Incubator workshop session 2 #AMA

alan jones — Wed, 10 May 2017 05:40:23 -0000

Make sure the founding team (including yourself) are awarded equity by a three or four year 'founder vesting schedule' so that you don't give people equity without getting output in return. Don't put additional undue pressure on your team by seeing how little you can pay them, because financial pressure in additional to all the usual stress in being an early member of a startup will be a likely cause of failure.

Re: Walkley Media Incubator workshop session 2 #AMA

alan jones — Wed, 10 May 2017 05:36:28 -0000

https://www.bluechilli.com/...

Re: Walkley Media Incubator workshop session 2 #AMA

alan jones — Wed, 10 May 2017 05:36:02 -0000

Here's a blog post I wrote on this topic https://www.bluechilli.com/....

Re: Walkley Media Incubator workshop session 2 #AMA

alan jones — Wed, 10 May 2017 05:32:30 -0000

Thank you for asking it here! It's also a much easier place for me to answer — much more width and space to write.

It's more than twice as hard to run a blend of two business models than it is to run one business model. So don't try to run two business models while your first business model isn't working yet. Choose the first one wisely because changing model can be a common cause of failure as startups often run out of time/capital trying to bridge the gap.

Transaction Value = Margin x Volume of Transactions

You are probably going to start out with a low volume of transactions so I'd recommend looking for transaction types that are more likely to offer higher margins per transaction.