Sydney Could Emerge As An Equal to San Francisco's Tech Scene If Only . . . Shared by Mike Cannon Brooks

Australia’s startup scene may finally be starting to get bubbly, years after China and India already their own tech bubbles and are on to a new generation of more innovative startups with global appeal.

What Australia needs to boost its venture capital and entrepreneurial adrenalin is more heroes from the startup world. China has Jack Ma, Robin Li and Pony Ma, India has Narayan Murthy of Infosys, Azim Premji of Wipro, Deep Kalra of MakeMyTrip and inMobi’s Naveen Tewari. All of these entrepreneurial heroes date back more than a decade.

Australia is only on the cusp of a mini-entrepreneurial revolution fueled by its first generation of startup heroes. 

Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder and co-CEO of Atlassian, comes to mind.

 Melanie Perkins, founder and CEO of Canva, is another who’s on the rise. 

Douglas Chrystal - the quiet achiever who sold his business 10 years ago to quest for 60m after raising venture capital in Boston 

Martin Hosking - founder of Red Bubble and Looksmart

These  entrepreneurs had to turn outside Australia to raise venture capital with high impact. 

Australia’s venture capital and angel investor market is so malnourished that Aussie startups typically look to go abroad to raise finance. And the most successful also sell their products or services beyond Australia shores – the U.S. and increasingly China are two popular destinations.