Innovation in Australia: Welcome to 2030 - I own nothing, have no privacy a...

Innovation in Australia: Welcome to 2030 - I own nothing, have no privacy a...: "Now I can hardly believe that we accepted congestion and traffic jams." Image: REUTERS/Nicky Loh Written by Ida ...

Atlassian to open office in Sydney CBD!

Atlassian co-founders Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes. Source: supplied

Atlassian plans to open a new 400-person office in Sydney’s CBD – just a few metres down from its existing headquarters.

The company has a second smaller office currently in Clarence Street which will close in the new year, and selected staff from there and the main building will move to the new 5000-square-metre site at 363 George Street when it opens in February or March.

The 30-storey building is part of a precinct that also includes 345 George Street and 24 York Street that is about to undergo a major redevelopment, which will now be known as George Place.

The office will be state-of-the-art, with every meeting room fully decked out with video communications, ample quiet space and will defy the current trend towards hot-desking.

“We’re trying to hand control of space back to the end user, which is the opposite to what facility managers do [currently],” Atlassian’s global head of real estate, Brent Harman, told Business Insider. 

“The workspace is like a workshop where tradesmen and tradeswomen ply their trade and it should be their space to configure how they see fit.”

Atlassian now has almost 2,000 employees globally in San Francisco, Austin, Manila, Amsterdam and Sydney, where around half of them are based. The headcount has grown considerably in twelve months — it was at 1,200 employees last December at the time of its IPO.

Harman said that most professions — other than technology — have a precinct in Sydney and tech’s lack of such a physical presence is a problem for an industry facing skills shortages.

2016 Aussie Businessmen of the Year

 

Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar named by the fin review as business people of the year. 

There tech startup  , Atlassian has grown from strength to strength and now listed at many $billions!

They have built an incredible business and are great supporters of the innovation ecosystem. 

Congrats Mike and Scott - and thanks for being awesome! 

GO1 raises $4m from Australian VC

GO1 co-founders Chris Eigeland, Andrew Barnes and Vu Tran.- Tertius Pickard

GO1 , Queensland Tech Startup raises $4m from Australian VCS at a $15m valuation 

GO1 is designed to make it easier for businesses to find and book appropriate training courses in a diverse range of fields, varying from first aid to anti-money laundering and management.

It has pulled together over 100,000 courses from training providers ranging from St John Ambulance to Richard Branson.

Investors include Queensland government's Business Development Fund ,  Black Sheep Capital, Full Circle Venture Capital, Amasia and Wotif chief financial officer Sam Friend, 

Tbe moneys raised will help build offices in the US and Europe by taking on an additional 30 sales people.

The business was founded three years ago and accepted into Y Combinator, which has also backed businesses like Dropbox and Airbnb, in 2015.

It was one of about 100 companies accepted into the program, representing the top 1-2 per cent of applicants.

Other Australian start-ups to have gone through the accelerator include AirPair and failed business 99dresses.

GO1 joins a growing list of marketplace businesses to receive venture capital funding in Australia. In October carer's marketplace Better Caring raised $3 million from Ellerston Ventures, and earlier this year job outsourcing marketplace Airtasker banked $22 million from Seven West Media and online car parts marketplace SparesBox raised $3.5 million.

"GO1 is poised to grow rapidly all over the world into a leading provider of learning and management platforms,"

8 Steps to. Crowdfunding

Great tips from a Bob Pritchard 

The first step is to pick your platform…
Decide on either a rewards-based campaign where in exchange for donations you provide gifts, or equity-based where people become shareholders in your business.
Rewards Crowdfunding
Kickstarter and Indiegogo come first to mind, but specialty platforms on specific types of projects may be preferable.  All platforms are structured differently. Kickstarter is an “all-or-none” fundraiser so if you don’t raise 100% of your funding goal, you get zip. With Indiegogo, if you choose to pay up to 9% of funds raised, you keep all funds pledged.
Equity Crowdfunding
Crowdfunder or Circle Up is where people become shareholders in your company.
Circle Up takes 7 – 10 percent of funds raised.  Crowdfunder has a relatively low monthly fee.
 

The second step is to capture attention…

Remember you are competing against tons of other opportunities.  Your initial pitch and message must be powerful enough to grab the potential investors attention.   You need to explain what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.  Ideally you should tell a terrific story about yourself and the project, or better still, relate it to your customer.

 

If you’re raising investment, tell a great story in a succinct pitch deck.   If you’re creating a rewards crowdfunding pitch, videos can double success rates .

 

The third step is what’s in it for them…

When you focus on what in it for investors, you create truly unique and compelling rewards that tie into your story and raise more dollars.  Don’t just offer “stuff”.  Ask whether you would actually buy this reward yourself?  Look at offers by previous successful campaigns.  In equity crowdfunding, focus on the terms you’re offering your investors. Check out the free Term Sheet resource in Forbes for guidelines.

 

The fourth step is fostering supporter engagement…

The most common mistake crowdfunders make in both rewards or equity crowdfunding is to not fully engage their network of friends, family, and supporters.  For rewards crowdfunding, you must have people ready to start funding on day one. Campaigns that accelerate rapidly early and attain 25 – 30% of their funding goal quickly, attract much more attention.

 

The fifth step is the power of notable investors…

The certain way to get peoples attention is to get people or organizations involved with your project who will bring credibility and trust to you and your business. For equity crowdfunding, having notable stakeholders, a quality team, advisors, board members, partners, and existing investors provides assurance to potential investors and get up to six times the response on their fundraising.

 

The most powerful step you can take is to find a lead investor before you launch the fundraising efforts. This avoids the “stigma” of $0 invested, as well as determining what terms an investor would actually invest at.   The lead investor is a critical part of launching a successful equity crowdfunding marketing plan.

 

The sixth step is planned marketing and outreach…

The results you get from crowdfunding are proportional to the effort and attention you put in and integrating it into your own online and offline fundraising efforts. Successful rewards campaigns put hundreds of hours into creative and marketing planning before launch. They then plan several “pushes” in their marketing to launch, fund, and drive funding.

 

In equity crowdfunding, the effort goes into structuring the actual investment offering, the terms and completing all the legal agreements. Investments of $10,000 to $200,000 aren’t often reached through broad marketing and PR across the web as happens in rewards crowdfunding.  Donation amounts average closer to $25.

 

The seventh step is  timing …

In the US, the best months for crowdfunding are January and February.

 

The eighth step is  timing the data perspective…

The overall crowdfunding industry is growing exponentially, from $1.2 billion in 2011 to $8 billion for rewards and 4.3 billion for equity in 2015.  In rewards crowdfunding, if you’re looking to raise $50,000, the most common contribution is $25 and with a conversion rate of 3% you need to get 66,000 qualified people to view your campaign.  That’s a lot of traffic in 45 days, and a lot of backers. Do you have the network, reach, press contacts, and marketing plan to meet these goals?

 

In equity crowdfunding, the average investment from accredited investors is approximately $25,000. It is usually easier to find many investors at $10,000 than it is to find one or two investors at $100,000 plus. The risk is just that much greater when considering investing that much money.  What entrepreneurs are finding in equity crowdfunding is that by lowering the minimum investment amount down to say $1,000, you lower the risk exposure for any single investor, and entrepreneurs often find it much easier to get the investment and support of many investors online at these amounts.

 

Crowdfunding is changing the rules of the game for fundraising and investing and it is still accelerating.

 

Life opportunities contract or expand according to ones stage