This week Bronwen Clune and Elias Bizannes talk to the fabulous Mick Liubinskas. There are not many people in Australia who have the sort of web industry experience that Mick Liubinskas and his business partner Phil Morle have, both having been involved in Kazaa and a number of Australian start-ups. Earlier this year, Mick and Phil launched Pollenizer - an advisory firm to help start-ups grow.
We talk to Mick about some of the basics involved in setting up and running a start-up and look at some of the issues that can plague those of us involved in this business, such as launching versus testing. Mick has done a post on this on the Pollenizer blog - which you should definitely add to your RSS. Mick’s advise is always practical and punchy so I hope you persevere through some of the jumpy sound and listen to the full interview. (We may have a Skype solution to hold on to your hats!)
This week Bronwen Clune and Elias Bizannes talk to the man behind the Inquistr, Duncan Riley, who is pretty well-known in Australia and overseas as having been the man behind the Blogging Herald, a co-founder of B5 media, a writer for TechCrunch and now finally doing his own thing again with the Inquistr.
We speak to Duncan this week about advertising as a revenue model - we’ve heard some of our guests come down hard on the idea, but Duncan has some positive ideas on the issue. We also explore the evolving media landscape, and especially how investigative journalism is changing dynamics.
We apologise for the lower quality in the recording - our quest to create a quality sounding podcast via VOIP has the risk of internet connection cut-outs which occurred several times on this podcast, ruining the perceived flow on our debate. However we assure you for the most part, you will find the longer-than-usual podcast engaging and very interesting.
In this week’s show Bronwen Clune and Elias Bizannes talk to Rob Antulov from 3eep - a social networking solution for sports clubs.
We speak to Rob about how he and his business partner Nick Gonios came up with the idea for 3eep two years ago and all they have learnt since that time. One of the interesting challenges they’ve faced is getting the word out to sports clubs that aren’t always tech-savvy or aware of the benefits of social networking (or even what that is).
Apologies for the recording quality at times, but this was actually take-two after our first recording was barely audible.
Keep listening - we have some other great guests lined up in th coming weeks and let us know if there is anything you would like us to cover or anyone you think we should speak to.
Go forth and innovate. Oh and leave comments people - it makes Elias feel loved and we know every Greek god needs his adoration that and it would be great to get some more feedback.
In this week’s show we worship at the the altar of Mark Pesce … and have a chat about the Government’s proposed mandatory ISP filtering. We talk about the technical and social aspects of implementing a law like this, what effect it could have on Australian tech innovation as well as the way that Twitter has been used to organise and unite people in a campaign against the Government. We trust you’ll find the discussion as interesting as we did - this show rocks!
Links mentioned in the show:
Deadlog - an expat Australian living in China talks about the practicalities of living under and implementing internet censorship.
We talk about the TOR Project, which can be used to browse the internet anonymously and how it could be easily used to get around any filter. You can read about it here and download here.
Also, we raise a couple of points from Mark’s earlier interview on the ABC.
We have a couple of really interesting guests lined up for the next few weeks, so stay RSSed.
Martin Hosking has to be one of Australia’s best success stories in creating a vibrant and growing web community with Red Bubble.
RedBubble.com founders Martin Hosking, Peter Styles and Paul Vanzella Photo: Australian Anthill magazine.
Martin is also one of those rare (in the Australian scene atleast) web veterans, having been previously involved in LookSmart, he is also chairman of Aconex, a successful document management service for construction, along with being a co-founder and now chief executive chairman of Red Bubble.
Martin is a great thinker and has some excellent advice for anyone involved in a start-up or community managment. We talk to him about how Red Bubble was formed, the importance of being passionate about the service you create, how to survive the current economic situation as a start-up and whether people are becoming more willing to pay for web services among other things.
We hope you enjoy the show, as this certainly is a valuable listen that you will learn from. Meanwhile go forth and innovate.
Rentoid was founded 12 months ago as an online marketplace to connect people who want to rent items. The business is cashflow positive and in led by Steve who has a background in marketing.
In the episode we discuss:
- his background
- Rentoid: its background and current state
- Monetising a web service and its implications
- his views on customer service and marketing
- how he transitioned from corporate worker to startup founder
- his views on Rentoids future
- His views on getting the word out for your startup
- the global financial crisis and consumer patterns
…and a lot more!
So lie down, press play, and take it in. When done, go forth and innovate Australia!
In this week’s show we chat to Matthew Macfarlane one of the partners in a new investment fund - Yuuwa
Capital - which will concentrate on IT and Life Science oriented start-ups.
Yuuwa - made up of Matt and two other partners - were recently successful in their application for $20 million of matching Federal Government investment under the Innovation Investment fund (IIF) program and have already secured $20 million in private funding. That makes $40 million available for investment.
Matt has personal experience in founding and running a start-up himself, having been one of the co-founders of Vibe Capital behind sites Minti and Gurooze, and he will be looking at all IT focussed funding applications.
In the show we chat to Matt about the process of raising the money, what he hopes to offer anyone who receives funding, how to make a good pitch to him :), how the current economic climate will effect venture funding and what he is looking for in a start-up.
The fund will start looking at investments in February, so there’s time to have a good listen and prepare your pitch for Yuuwa if you feel so inclined.
Steve Sammartino, who escaped his cubicle to start Rentoid.com wrote a great piece in Australian Anthill magazine on The truth about ideas. From Steve:
The truth is this: there is no such thing as a big idea.
All ideas are essentially created equal. All ideas are the same size. Ideas only exist in a mental or virtual world. So how can we tell how big it is? Keep reading, and this will start to make sense.
An idea that really works becomes a big idea only after we prove it.
How big an idea was Google? (Just another search engine.)
How big an idea was ING? (An online bank without fees.)
How big an idea was Cirque de Soleil (A circus without animals.)
We’ll have to get Steve on the show soon He also has some other things to say on start-ups on his Start-up blog that are worth checking out. Great stuff Steve.
Welcome to the first episode of the Silicon Beach Australia podcast, hosted by Bronwen Clune and Elias Bizannes.
We’re joined in the show today by Mike Cannon-Brookes, one of the founders of the hugely successful enterprise software company Atlassian.
Things that we discuss include:
- Mike shares his lessons from his first startup: a social bookmarking site in 1999.
- The history of Atlassian: they started the business with no idea what they would sell but rather with an idea of ‘how’ they’d sell it.
- How they’ve grown the business, with no external funding, to a US$35 million a year business with 200 employees.
- Ideas or execution: which matters more in a startup.
- Starting a company in Australia or overseas: the difference, the benefits and the costs.
- What is means to be successful.
- Revenue models in for web-based technology.
…and a lot more! Thank you Mike for sharing your insight with us, you have some valuable advice to share.
If you have any ideas for what you’d like to see discussed and who you’d like us to interview let us know. We have a general idea of what we want to achieve with the show, but we’d really like to hear from you about what you want out of it.
that and it would be great to get some more feedback.
He also has some other things to say on start-ups on his 
