After great feedback from our first Sydney BizSpark Networking Meetup, great response to nest Monday's Melbourne BizSpark Networking Meetup with Domenic Carosa, I am now excited to confirm the details for Brisbane’s first BizSpark Networking Meetup:

On June 20^th 2012 we are kicking off our first Brisbane BizSpark Lunch. Our BizSpark Lunches will form part of the Queensland Microsoft Innovation Centre, and will be held monthly with guest speakers from the start-up community here in Queensland. These will provide an opportunity not only to hear from our guest speaker but to provide a platform for discussion and networking.

We are pleased to announce our first guest speaker for the year is Colin Kinner. Colin is Managing Director of specialist tech industry consultancy firm Spike Innovation, and also a mentor and Innovation Evangelist at River City Labs, a startup co-working space in Fortitude Valley.

Colin has a wealth of commercial expertise is the startup space, having run a successful startup incubator and coached and mentored many founders of technology-based businesses over the last fifteen years in Australia and the UK. He is widely regarded as a leader in the Brisbane startup community, and is a regular speaker and contributor to the local startup scene.

Colin is extremely well placed to understand the challenges faced by aspiring entrepreneurs, and at this lunch will give a snapshot of the support available to startups in Queensland. He will also provide some insights on the importance of a good mentor - and how and where to find one.

We hope you can join us for our first Brisbane BizSpark Lunch and even if you are not yet part of our BizSpark Program, as a start-up in Queensland we encourage you to join us.

Register Here

Time:
12:00-1:30pm

Date:
20^th June 2012

Location:
North Stradbroke Island Room, Microsoft, Level 28, 400 George St, Brisbane,
4000

Cost:
Free and Lunch is provided!

For more information contact: qmic@microsoft.com

Looking for a cofounder?

Cofounder Speed Date will run two events this month – one in Sydney and one in Melbourne.

The event is designed to connect Technical Founders (coders) with Business Founders (sales/marketing skills).

And it works too – there have been confirmed matches at every event so far!

Event Details

Tickets: cofounderspeeddate.com.au

Want $10 off tickets? Use promo code “MST512” (Tech Founders) or “MSB512” (Business Founders)

Sydney: Sunday, 20th May 11am-2:45pm

Fishburners, level 1 608 Harris Street Ultimo (This event has already passed! Sorry – this is my delay on posting this offer)

Melbourne: Sunday, 27th May 11am - 2:45pm

York Butter Factory, 62-66 King Street Melbourne

On June 15^th- 17^th 2012 we are holding a Kinect Bizspark Start-up Camp as our kick-off activity following the successful launch of our Queensland Microsoft Innovation Centre.  We are looking for aspiring entrepreneurs and developers to come and be a part this exciting opportunity. We are after either established teams with an innovative idea for a kinect application to work on over the weekend, or individuals we can match with ideas and teams for the weekend.

The Bizspark Kinect Start-Up Camp will allow you to learn about Kinect and the foundation concepts through comprehensive presentations, hands-on labs, and supported development time. The first day will cover training in depth thanks to John Obrien and Bronwen Zande from Soul Solutions and the second two days will be an opportunity for you to work in teams to build your own projects with the support of business & technical experts. The event culminates in a pitch to a panel of judges & investors who will decide on the overall winner.

Watch this space as our agenda and prizes for the weekend to be announced shortly!

Date: 15th -17th June 2012

Location: Microsoft Level 28, 400 George St, Brisbane 4000

Things to bring

Here are some personal items you might want to bring to the Bizspark Kinect Start-Up Weekend:

- Notebook Computer

- Notepad

- Identification

Registration and Event Questions

This is a unique opportunity and places are limited. To register your team for the weekend event please provide us with the following:   

- Name/s  

- Role/s

- Organisation

- A 250 word description of what your team plans to work on over the weekend. If you intend to come freelance, tell us a bit about yourself and we can pair you up.

You can register here. If you have an additional questions please contact us at qmic@microsoft.com.

Kinect for Windows devices will be made available for use over the weekend. The event is specifically targeted to BizSpark companies, however developers that are not part of the BizSpark program are more than welcome to attend to gain access to this valuable training event.

I am always happy when I find a company that can offer additional help & support to the companies we have in our BizSpark program here in Australia – and that’s exactly what happened when I met with Joe Seisdedos of Wrays.

"IT startups have great ideas and technologies but they commonly find it hard to gain access to the resources and talented professionals necessary to turn those ideas into sustainable, dynamic businesses. I'm excited to be part of a program that seeks to provide guidance and mentoring to the future leaders of our IT sector" says Joe.

I would like to welcome Wrays and in particular Joe to our group of Network partners. If you have questions around IP or looking for commercial advice, contact Joe Seisdedos: http://www.wrays.com.au/news/wrays-proud-to-support-microsoft-bizspark-program.html

As Domenic gets ready to launch his new Incubator in Richmond, Melbourne we have decided to work together to have one of our First Melbourne BizSpark Meetup Events at the new space.

Domenic Carosa is Executive Chairman of Internet investment firm Future Capital. In his session you will learn how to raise money for your internet business and also find out how Future Capital can invest into your company. Domenic has personally raised over $50 million over the last 10 years and has been involved in over 60 acquisitions and divestments This webinar is being run in conjunction with Microsoft BizSpark Meetups so is an excellent opportunity to come together and meet with other Startups, entrepreneurs and like minded people.

Date: Monday 4th of June.

Time: 11am -12:30pm

Where: Level 3/534 Church Street, Richmond

Space is limited so please Register Now

The team here at Microsoft *really* want to help you build the best app you can for the upcoming Windows 8 Launch.

We have locked our best engineers in a room and given them the very important job of reviewing and providing advice to developers for their Windows 8 application and called it the Windows 8 App Excellence Labs.

In Nick Hodge’s beautifully succinct words:

1. Developer writes Windows 8 App
2. Dev registers at http://win8.msregistration.com/
3. I allocate them one of 64 2-hour slots we have for Review (http://www.lalaninja.com.au/2012/05/08/windows-8-the-app-excellence-labs-experience/)
4. The developer, if successful gets a free Token to the Windows Store

This is open to *any* Windows 8 Developer in Australia, free of charge.

I love this feedback from Garry Holden from Handiware, on submitting & having his first App reviewed:

I think it went great. They had already played with my App before the initial call, so there was a lot of discussion about what was good, and what could be better. They gave me a lot of feedback and pointed out a few bugs which I am now in the process of fixing. They even did it all with a sense of humor which made the experience that much better.

This is a fantastic opportunity to get feedback on your application – but also to get some additional visibility of your application not only within the teams at Microsoft – but in the Windows Store!

We only have 64 2-hour slots available so get it quick!!!

Announcing the Australian BizSpark Networking Meetups!

These meetups are a way for BizSpark companies to come together to network, share stories and get to come together to hear advice from experts and specialists.

We are going to be hosting these initially in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne – but if you are not in that city and interested in organising a meetup in your area – let me know.

The first of these events is happening in connection with Shoe String Launch and Eagle Waves Radio at Vivo Cafe next Thursday the 10th of May from 3pm onwards.

I have chosen that location for our initial launch because not only is it a lovely cafe that is very central, but it is also the location of the live recoding of Eagle Waves Radio Startup show that happens there now every Thursday afternoon from 5-6. The radio show is very much focused on Startups and they always bring in some great guests that can also share advice with the people attending our pre recording meetup.

We will be popping some money on the tab for food & drinks so come along and meet with fellow BizSpark members, mentors, and the hosts of the Eagle Wave Radio Startup show, Angela & Mat!

Register Now

A few weekends ago (it feel like longer because of the Easter Break) I was invited to head to Adelaide to be a judge on the Adelaide Startup Weekend event. I missed my flight but fortunately made it onto the next one, lierally landing, rushing to the judging sessions and then flying back out. But boy am I glad I could get on the next flight! The 15 teams that pitched were amazing – and as much as I could write a great long post about how wonderful it was – I am going to defer to the great summary that David Truong put together that sums it all up nicely. I look forward to working with many of the teams in future and also want to thank the South Australian Microsoft State Manager Dean Swan for allowing the Startup Weekend teams to take over the entire office from Friday till Sunday nights

The Sell Out:

30/3/2012 -1/4/2012

54 hours

$23,500+ prizes

70 attendees

42 non-technical attendees

21 developer attendees

7 design attendees

17 sponsors and supporters

24 mentors

4 speakers

5 judges

2 organizers

5 volunteers

46 innovative ideas pitched

19 teams selected

15 teams formed

5 winning teams and

A LOT of talent!

The Coverage:

The Supporters:

The Accolades:

"BDO was proud to participate in Adelaide Startup Weekend and delighted to see the buzz and ideas flowing.   The event was very well run, providing an opportunity for BDO to leverage our sponsorship through your event promotions, media and web communications. During the event, we also had the opportunity to meet both the participants, mentors and other sponsors.  As a professional services firm, being involved in the event ‘community’ is an important way we can develop relationships beyond brand association. Congratulations to you and the event team.   I look forward to it next year!" KishenVijayadass, Sponsor, Partner for Private Clients – BDO.

“I would like to congratulate the entire Startup Weekend Adelaide team on such a successful event! The 15 pitches we judged were of a very high calibre and I can see the ongoing business viability of many of them. I am sure directly related to the quality of the companies was the fantastic mentors that donated their time to help each of the companies across the weekend. All in all the bringing together of smart mentors with eager startups looking to learn is a fantastic opportunity I recommend anyone with a business idea, or anyone wanting to experience this kind of energy and passion should absolutely get involved in the next event you run.” Catherine Eibner, Judge & Sponsor, Developer Evangelist - Microsoft Bizspark Australia.

"I attended the final pitch session at the Adelaide Startup Weekend and was amazed at what the teams managed to achieve in such a short amount of time. Most had even tested concepts on their target markets and built an application or prototype. All pitches were great and some were outstanding. Well done to Orren and David for pulling everything together to make Adelaide’s Startup Weekend such a success." PetaPash, Sponsor, Senior Policy Officer - Digital Economy & Technology Directorate, MEGA Project Manager, DFEEST.

“I was very, very impressed.  In fact, I was impressed with so many aspects of it that I don’t know where to start!  But perhaps the key thing to say is that it clearly is a fantastic event for promoting and encouraging entrepreneurial spirit and entrepreneurial activity.  The enthusiasm and at times sheer brilliance and skill   of the participants, especially the very large number of younger participants, was “awesome” to observe.  In light of the weekend I have no hesitation in recommending to the “powers that be” at Flinders that the University become an avid supporter of this event in future years.” Kevin Kirchner, Observer, Discipline Leader, Entrepreneurship, Flinders Business School - Flinders University.

“Congratulations to the inaugural Startup Weekend Adelaide team for organising an outstanding event.  Lead by David Truong and Orren Prunckun, they created an edgy, dynamic and high energy environment that attracted some high calibre individuals from around Australia, hungry to create and make an impact.  The event produced some truly innovative businesses and confirmed once again that Adelaide is emerging as one of best places in the world to build a company.” Ken Saman, Mentor, VP Operations - YourAmigo Ltd.

"It was very valuable to jump into a mix of energised individuals from very different backgrounds, behaviours and thinking styles. Ideas morph due the synergy of inputs from team mates. " Rob Gordon, Participant - 3^rdPlace Winner.

“One of the best things you will do. We had questions answered that we had been asking for almost a year.” Vinh Giang, Participant - Winning Team.

“It's awesome, come along. It will change your life.” Michael Kubler, Participant.

“It is definitely something that is very worthwhile if not to progress your career, but for a learning experiences. The amount of learning that you do in a place like this, and the people that you meet are invaluable.” William Revill, Participant.

The Organisers:

OrrenPrunckun (0423-807-525) – David Truong (0443-550-002)

@orren@prunckun.com – david@feedmybrain.info– adelaide@startupweekend.org

 http://adelaide.startupweekend.org

Today in Australia is Anzac Day. Lest We Forget. ANZAC day is where we all take time out of our day to day lives of work, school and all the things that we are lucky enough to have the freedom to enjoy because of those who fought for our freedom in years gone past. We take time to to thank all those who served and died in military operations for our Country as well as think of the bravery, support and camaraderie that the Australian & New Zealand forces were renown for.

Keeping in mind that Australians are known for this kind of support, it seemed somewhat relevant to have this guest post today, a request for help from a fellow Aussie.

Today Nicola puts a call out for a “comrade” to help her with her new startup, FitIntegrate. She has been successful in applying for Melbourne based Incubator Angel Cube and now needs a technical co founder to help her create the technology to bring her company vision to life. If the below sounds like you – feel free to reach out to her via the details below.

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Seeking ROR Technical Cofounder Based in Melbourne for SAAS, Catering to the Fitness Industry

Hi. I’m Nicola. I am the founder of FitIntegrate. FitIntegrate is essentially an automated temp agency for the fitness industry. More specifically, FitIntegrate matches relevant instructors to gym classes.

Where FitIntegrate is at:

-Launched Private Beta in Feb 2012

-Currently120 users signed up (a mix of instructors and gyms)

-It’s built in Ruby (to date the development has been outsourced)

-FitIntegrate secured a spot in the AngelCube 2012 accelerator program

-Has first “big” deal/customer in the pipeline

Going forward...

I am looking to bring on a ROR technical cofounder to take FitIntegrate to the next level. The next iteration involves text message integration, payment gateway integration and a new UX/UI implementation. The design component is being outsourced at present. Backend development will be where this cofounders talents lie.

Ideally, I am looking for someone who:

-Enjoys the gym/fitness space

-Has startup experience and/or is SUPER passionate about getting involved

-Loves Ruby

-Is available full time to participate in the AngelCube program (some flexibility here)

-Gets sh*t done (no flexibility here)

So, what’s on the table?

Equity… And a little cash (if necessary).

A bit about me…

The idea came about as a frustrated instructor myself. I’ve had over 6 years experience in the fitness industry in a variety of roles, ranging from instructing to gym management. This means I know customers well, and have also built up a strong network. FitIntegrate is my first start up; however, I have had experience working with startups through my internship at Adventure Capital. Currently, I am one subject off achieving a Masters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Business + fitness is pretty much me in a nutshell.

Over to you…

If you are interested, check out the site http://www.fitintegrate.com/users/sign_up

Drop me an email at nicola@fitintegrate.com with some feedback on the site - anything - and a bit about who you are and what you have done. Links to recent work would be awesome.

Thanks.

Cheers,

Nicola

What is Convict Interactive?

Convict Interactive is an Independent Game Development Studio based in Wollongong, Australia. Each full-time member is either a current student or ex-student of the University of Wollongong (UoW). We are all very passionate about creating video games that concentrate on high quality gameplay.

We are currently working on a title for PC called Triangle Man. Triangle Man is an exciting 2D punishment platformer that challenges the problem solving and multitasking skills of players. The aim is to get the main character (a triangle) to the end of each level without dying. This is made difficult by enemies and obstacles along the way. The twist is that most levels involve you controlling more than one Triangle Man at once!

How did we get started?

In 2009, the University of Wollongong sponsored 6 of its students to go to a 48-Hour Game Making Challenge in Brisbane. The 48-Hour Game Making Challenge (making-games.net/48/) is a competition where teams are ‘locked’ in a room for 48 hours and challenged to make a game based on 3 key words. For 2009, those words were: Storm, Giant, and Love.

Using these 3 words we came up with a game that we named High Hopes. The story revolves around two girls racing and competing to save their (cheating) boyfriend who was taken high up into the lair of a giant. Each player must navigate their way up clouds and avoid the giant’s falling cooking utensils in order to save the boy they love. The players are also able to fight by slapping and throwing shoes at each other in order to slow the other players progress.

When the 48 hours were up we were very happy with the game that we had produced. Apparently the judges were impressed too as they decided to give us the Grand Prize for the event!
When we got back to Wollongong we were approached by several individuals who told us that we should start our own business developing video games. And so Convict Interactive was born.

Why did we choose to start up in Wollongong?

We all love the area - it is a beautiful place to live and work and (importantly) expenses are much lower than in Sydney. The University of Wollongong is located quite close by and produces talented graduates who we can recruit if we need to expand.

Wollongong is called “The City of Innovation” which is perfect for a startup tech company.
We are only an hour and a half from Sydney so we can travel there easily for events and other engagements.

Some of our experiences so far

Planetarians

In 2009, after forming the company, we began to develop a title called Planetarians for the Xbox Live Indie Games channel. Planetarians is a fast-paced 2D side-shooter played in a 3D environment where players can shoot down other aliens around a series of planets. The game is both single-player and multiplayer (local only). The game world incorporates a real-time physics system, allowing the player to orbit rockets around a planet or even put themselves into orbit around a moon.

Planetarians was ultimately shelved as we decided that the projected revenue for the game would not come close to covering the development costs. This was mainly due to the platform we targeted and the large scope of the game. Perhaps one day when the time is right we can pick the project up again.

Convict Minigames

At the end of 2011, we released a title for the Xbox Live Indie Games channel called Convict Minigames. This title was a collection of 5 small games which were designed to give the player an enjoyable casual experience. We thought the idea was solid and playtesting with our friends yielded positive results.

Unfortunately, Convict Minigames was not very well received for several reasons, the most important of which was that it was priced too high. Based on feedback from our playtesters, we decided to price the title at $3. Upon release of the game, all reviewers indicated that they would only be inclined to buy the game if it cost $1. Once the price is set for an XBLIG game then it cannot be changed for 90, so we were forced to allow the price to remain at $3 until it was far too late to be able to capitalize on the title being ‘new’. This meant that the game sold poorly and was not able to recover once the price was lowered.

But was the title a failure? In terms of sales it was a failure. In terms of experience the title was a major success. From this title we learnt a lot about self publishing, marketing, how to better structure our playtesting, what our strengths & weaknesses are, and how to better prepare ourselves for our next project.

Conferences/Events that we’ve been to

eClub

The Entrepreneurs Club is a part of the University of Wollongong and was part of an initiative to help startups based in the Wollongong area. Through the eClub we have been accepted into a local incubator aimed at tech startups.

GCAP

Game Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP) 2011 was an amazing experience. It is a conference that is run annually and is primarily aimed towards Australian Game Developers. During the 2011 conference it focused heavily on Independent Games Developers within Australia - particularly startups like ourselves.

The conference was an amazing experience that helped us out in a lot of ways. The sessions we attended were informative and covered a wide range of game development and publishing topics; we made a large number of contacts within the industry and we introduced our brand quite successfully.

GDC

The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is a yearly event targeted to game developers throughout the world. It is a bigger, international version of GCAP. This was a great opportunity to make ourselves known outside Australia - as well as to learn from the best in the industry.

Tips for other developers

Networking is really important. You won’t get anywhere if no one knows about you or your product. Through our networking endeavours we have made valuable contacts with most of the Australian games industry due to our heavy involvement with the IGDA (International Game Developers Association).

We’ve also discovered that help is everywhere, all you need to do is ask for it. There are people out there who want to help out startups such as yourself - however they need to know that you exist! You need to put yourself out there and let them know who you are.
Tell them the areas that you are good at and the areas you need help with. You may find that they offer to help you out before you even ask.

There are incubator programs all over the world which are designed to help entrepreneurs, many of them providing a number of services either for free or at a discounted rate. For example, we’re part of an incubator program called StartPad which is based in Wollongong, NSW Australia. They’ve helped us out with office space, getting into contact with law firms, accountants, etc. They even set up discounts with some of these services, and it all only costs $30 per desk. It’s an unbelievable deal that has already helped us out immensely in the two months that we’ve been a part of the program.

But of course, that isn’t enough. You have to be incredibly motivated and passionate about what you want to start up. Whether you want to make video games, develop a new type of solar panel, etc. you must be willing to put in at least 110% of your time to accomplish your goal. In our experience so far, there is nothing harder than trying to start up your own company, but there also isn’t anything as exciting and rewarding.

You also need to develop a 5 year plan. Determine where you want to take the company in those five years and what stages you want the company to be at the end of each year. This is a very important step to take as it not only gives you focus, but it makes it clearer to others where you plan on taking the company. This is especially important if you plan on trying to find investors.

If you have a project that you believe is going to fail, then find a new project. Quite often, it’s better to find a new project than to try and continue on with a project that is unlikely to live up to your initial expectations. We learnt this the hard way when we were working on Planetarians. Planetarians is a good game, however the idea is far too large for our current resources and as such we spent too much time developing it which delayed our advancement as a company.

Am running a bit late on letting you know about this – but hopefully you all know about the Innovys Start program that is kicking off in Adelaide shortly.

Innovyz START is a 3 month ‘accelerator’ program designed to help start ups, existing businesses and entrepreneurs with innovative ideas to get started and grow.

Patterned on the world's number one accelerator program Techstars, the ANZ Innovyz START program leverages the expertise of a number of highly experienced experienced mentors from a diverse range of fields.

As Tech Stars is a global BizSpark Plus partner this means that successful applicants can apply for the BizSpark Plus offer of up to 60K of azure of 2 years plus many more benefits.

At the end of the 3 month accelerator program businesses are given the opportunity to pitch to investors and venture capitalists with the chance of receiving financial backing to continue to growing.

More info can be had at www.innovyzstart.com – you will see they have an incredible group of industry, investment and entrepreneurial leaders!

Surely with the upcoming Easter Long Weekend you are looking for a nice project to do & what better than one that contributes to the helping scientists unravel some of the underlying causes of today’s greatest diseases. That in itself makes it something I am going to do. What’s even better is that you can do this at no cost to yourself if you use the Windows Azure 90 day free trials as suggested below – or if you are a BizSpark member, just use your existing Azure account allocation that you get as part of MSDN!

So check out the “@home on Windows Azure” project. Via a four-part video series on Channel 9, you can learn how to build applications for the cloud on Windows Azure, and deploy a solution that will contribute to Stanford University’s Folding @home distributed computing project to study protein folding.

By simply running a piece of software, you can help scientists learn more about diseases such as Alzheimer’s, ALS, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s disease and many cancers by banding together to make one of the largest supercomputers in the world.  Every participant takes the project closer to understanding how protein folding is linked to certain diseases.

There are even 4 easy to watch videos to get you started:

@home with Windows Azure – Part 1 of 4: Getting your Windows Azure 90-day Free Trial Account Click To Play

@home with Windows Azure – Part 2 of 4: Setting up the @home App Click To Play

@home with Windows Azure – Part 3 of 4: Configuring Windows Azure Storage Click To Play

@home with Windows Azure – Part 4 of 4: Deploying to Windows Azure Click To Play

In addition to contributing directly to this project, Microsoft will also donate $10 per participant (up to $5,000 maximum) to Stanford University to help the cause. You can learn more about the Folding @home project here.

All video’s & Links reposted from Here:

Microsoft IT-Girls 2012 (formerly known as DigiGirlz) was held to a packed theatre on Monday 2^nd April 2012 at the Microsoft offices. Over 150 girls from 16 schools participated in a full (and pretty exhausting) day of workshops, presentations and careers panels, to learn more about the career opportunities for women in ICT. The audience featured a balanced mix of private and public school students across Sydney, with some school groups travelling for over an hour to attend!

Workshops included “The Future of Innovation”, “The Future of Entertainment” and “Experience Windows 8”. It was amazing to hear the laughter and “oohs and aahs” during the workshops, and very encouraging to see a group of girls ambush our Windows 8 workshop presenter after his slot to see more of this new operating system! The girls asked lots of questions during our careers panels and it was great to be able to showcase that there a multiple paths that lead to a career in technology. 

So many schools had responded to our invitations that we actually had to turn a few away as we couldn’t overcrowd our venue. Having said that – the theatre was pretty packed, with several students sitting on the floor – learning for next time: book a bigger venue! We are looking forward to turning this into a nationwide event and have already started discussions with other Microsoft state offices so that girls outside of Sydney can participate in this amazing experience.

One of my Favorite responses was:

 

“Today was a very enjoyable day. I learnt a lot about the technology we have today and the upcoming technology that Microsoft is aiming to make public. The experience has shown me that I can have a career in technology and be successful at it. “

Well done to everyone involved!

I know how excited everyone is about Windows 8. There has been a massive increase in applications for BizSpark lately with great ideas that are targeting the Win 8 platform – so with that in mind I am very happy that I will be joining the team to visit 8 cities and bring the goodness that is Windows 8! I am going to be popping in to check out the ideas and see how I can help Windows 8 developers get their ideas to market through programs like BizSpark.

Melbourne
Saturday, 31 March 2012

Sydney
Saturday, 14 April 2012

Brisbane
Saturday, 28 April 2012

Hobart
Saturday, 12 May 2012

Canberra
Saturday, 19 May 2012

Darwin
Saturday, 26 May 2012

Adelaide
Saturday, 2 June 2012

Perth
Saturday, 16 June 2012

Pop over the LaLa Ninja for the post, links etc.

http://www.lalaninja.com.au/2012/03/19/windows-8-developer-camps-australia/

See you there!

Focus: How to make it as a Start-up in Queensland

In the lead up to the launch of our Microsoft Innovation Centre in Queensland we are hosting an industry forum with some of the most influential members and leaders of the Start-Up community in Queensland. Come and spend a lunchtime session on March 28^th 2012 with our panel, focused on how to make it as a Start-Up in Queensland.

We are excited to announce our panel for this session which includes:

· Steve Baxter; Founder of River City Labs and Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder of PIPE Networks.

· Kyle McGinty; Executive of Digital and Technology Recruitment at Mitchell Lake and Organiser of Silicon Beach Brisbane.

· Christopher Tia; Principal at Lean Market Research, Organiser of Brisbane’s Lean Start-Up Group and former Business Incubation Manager at ilab incubator.

· Mark Bathie; Founder of Freegler.com and former Chief Technology Officer and Founder of Codesian.

The session will run as a Q&A forum with the opportunity for attendees to ask questions and generate discussion around what it takes to be a successful Start-Up company in Queensland. Registration is essential as there are limited places for this session.

Time and Date: 12pm-1:30pm on March 28^th 2012.

Venue: The Queensland Microsoft Innovation Centre, Microsoft, Level 28, 400 George St, Brisbane 4000.

Registration closes on March 26^th 2012 please contact Emily Easterby if you require more information.

REGISTER HERE

For the 3rd year running, we are excited to be once again be hosting our annual event for Female Students considering a career in IT.

Microsoft is committed to ensuring that every student has the opportunity to reach their potential. Technology not only enables people, but can also be a fantastic career opportunity; especially for young women. However, while female workforce participation rates are equalising across a number of industries, the IT and Computing industry in particular is one that remains quite male-dominated.

On Monday 2nd April, students will be attending Microsoft IT-Girls, held at the Microsoft office in North Ryde, which is the headquarters of Microsoft Australia. Microsoft IT-Girls is designed to help young women gain a better understanding of a rewarding career in IT and Computing.

The agenda will be packed with workshops where girls will get hands on with the latest technology, learn about technology courses offered at universities, and listen to first hand experiences from a range of Microsoft women, from interns to senior managers, and Microsoft Australia’s Managing Director, Pip Marlow – one of the most influential women in the Australian IT industry today.

If you haven’t taken part in these events before, then you’ll be in a for a big surprise, as it shatters the image of IT as being a geeky, male-only preserve. As it’s thee weeks away, we’ve still got some spare spaces (we have set a maximum number of 15 attendees per school due to high demand). Oh, and it’s free BTW – you just need to sort your transport (North Ryde train station is right around the corner)

Contact Katrina Wong if you’d like to book seats for your school, or you want to find out any more.

Geoff McQueen is an Aussie Entrepreneur who recently made the shift to San Francisco to base his Startup AffinityLive, a startup that solves the problem of managing work for service-based companies. Affinity Live just got featured in TechCrunch: http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/29/affinitylive-debuts-to-help-businesses-manage-operations-in-the-cloud/ Geoff is also an investor and Mentor for Startmate.

I asked Geoff to contribute to our Picknic Startup Series of posts and he has given me permission to repost his recent post from his blog here on “Why Freemium Fails For Business Sales”. Some very important lessons in this post on what to consider when you decide on your business models.

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Why Freemium Fails for Business Sales

I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon with the 2012 class of StartMate companies in our Sydney incubator. As someone who’s spent their career working in business to business technology, I was excited to see 3 of the 8 companies focusing very strongly on solving real pain points for businesses. Smart teams, real problems, solid technology – full of win.

While their target markets – property, film and IT management – were all very different, the common challenge faced by all enterprised focused startups who want to get big was the same - distribution. I know this only too well, as this is the thing we spend more time thinking about withAffinityLive right now than anything else.

One of the tempting ways to try and ramp up distribution is freemium. The theory goes, if I make my product free, I’ll remove a big barrier to adoption, word of mouth will have a stronger effect in driving user volume, and we’ll be able to show VCs a nice hockey stick graph that goes up and to the right.

My concern is that for almost all of the SaaS companies that target businesses, those who try freemium realize it was a mistake, hopefully before they kill their business. Freemium is almost always a very very bad strategy for selling to businesses.

In planning our AffinityLive sales and marketing model, I spent a lot of time talking to people who’ve been there and done that. Most of the conversations were very off the record, but one source I always point entrepreneurs to is the experience of the guys from Chargify. They originally had a freemium model, and the reasons they abandoned it – and the backlash they sustained in the process – were blogged about extensively and very honestly by founder David Hauser. It should be compulsory reading for any entrepreneur targeting the business market.

There’s a lot that has been written by people with a lot more experience in the matter, but just telling you not to do something as trendy as freemium isn’t going to cut it. We all want to see our products used, and most engineers start solving a problem for ulturistic reasons, which explains why freemium has so much appeal.

So, rather than just saying don’t do it, I’ve listed the four attributes that can make freemium a successful strategy for your business focused online service. You don’t need all 4, but you’ll want to have most of them baked into your product and business model to have any hope of making freemium work.

As I see it, here are the criteria to required to make freemium work for business (ie, non-consumer) facing product:

1. You need to have a land and expand distribution model. This means you use freemium as the thin end of the wedge and use the early adopter as your sales team, evangelising it to colleagues to eventually get the business to buy in financially for features like security, administrative control. Box does this very well, as does Yammer. Note though that these two business put a lot of money into their enterprise sales teams doing traditional enterprise sales things – small and medium guys are crumbs comparatively from what I understand.
2. You need the ability to deliver benefit independently of core business processes. If you can solve a problem that doesn’t require any connection to the rest of the business – ie, no need to access any customer, accounting, HR, production or other data – then this can work a treat. This is why tools like Balsamiq or Prezzi for individuals that are used primarily in a workplace context work as a freemium product if you have the other attributes. However, being an occassionally used tool that isn’t tied into the core business processes comes with its own risks around poor revenue and high churn. Higher revenues generally require a stronger connection in the core business processes (otherwise you risk becoming a feature and see high churn), which is difficult to get if you’re delivering benefits to the individual without touching the business.
3. Natural increased use model that pushes users inextricably to paid. Freemium is a marketing strategy, so you want to make sure whatever your product does, you have a conversion lever that “just happens” as users use the product normally. Dropbox have this nailed – you use it, you keep using it, and one day they say “you need to pay now” – it is a cumulative use lever. Remember the Milk have a different lever focused around urgency, which itself is tied to the utility you get from the product – their mobile apps only sync once a day unless you pay, at which point it will sync in real time – which means when you care about the app, you’ll pay for it. Find your driver, but make sure that users who actually use the app will be compelled to pay.
4. Volume is more important than revenue. This only works for some business focused companies (see Wave Accounting and Spiceworksfor two examples of firms betting everyting on this model), and means you’re making money in an indirect way, either through advertising or transactional revenue. Assistly implemented it too, but only to drive their acquisition price to SalesForce higher when they already knew they would either get acquired or raise a big round (their decision wasn’t based on revenue). While venture backed companies have the luxury of not needing revenue to survive today, they need to be able to show how they’re going to see big revenue later to justify the investment risk, and pursuing this strategy to make yourself appealing to investors is pretty damn risky. The key is to make sure you’re sureof your revenue model; the number of ideas I’ve seen where folks say “and we’ll have all this data and that has to be valuable to someone” is about as much of a strategy as the Underpants Gnomes.

There’s a lot of attention and excitement around freemium today, even as the pioneers of freemium have actively moved away from it. Don’t be another engineer or entrepreneur who just wants to be popular – if you’re selling to businesses, avoid freemium unless you’re that small percentage of products where it actually works.

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend the inaugural DEMO Asia. DEMO is the launchpad for emerging technology and trends. This is a premier platform for the best and brightest companies throughout the continent seeking to launch their products in front of a global audience. It is also an excellent launchpad for companies throughout the world hoping to launch in the Asian marketplace.

At DEMO Asia, a hand-selected group of 72 companies from 14 countries made their public debut to global press, savvy investors, corporate acquirers, strategic partners and buyers. Adobe, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Motorola, Symantec and Yahoo! have all acquired promising DEMO companies that have become household names today.

Trends across the Event

One of the recurring trends throughout the event was these three pieces of advice from many of the sages:

Think Bigger

“We have enough Daily Deal sites” said one Sage – requesting teams to think differently and start to solve some of the bigger problems.

Solver Harder Problems

If your a programmer, technologist of engineer the call to action for all attendees was to look at the problems you want to solve and then step it up a notch to solve something harder.

Be Disruptive

This theme was also recurring, and perhaps because there was more than a couple of solutions all looking to solve the same problems.  With so many pitches over the 2 days, and even outside demo Asia, the way to really shake up the market is to be disruptive!

Gamify, Gamify, (social) Gamify!

It seemed that there was some aspect of gamification, badges, awards and social competitiveness in almost all of the apps demoed across the 2 days. the features included virtual dollars and rewards, achievements and competing for badges, rewarding people for providing data on sales, or even helping someone to find a local Sushi shop. Alot of the focus was still on events, food, and social interaction. As the guys from GameMaki declared – Life is a game!

Some examples are Burpple, iKnow, George Mobile, Eyeland, Gamemaki, WildFire, Heyawanna.com, DropIcon, Sage.By, Squiryl. Teamie which applied the gamification for Students, urbancook.me had it for geo location based recipe searching and Tradespark used it to customise search results fro suppliers using your social network and recomendations www.tradesparq.com.

Rapid Application Development platforms

Another trend was the for development tools to allow developers to rapidly create and deploy applications and games for multiple platforms. Its seems that developers worldwide are struggling with the learning curves and challengers of multiple platforms to deploy applications. Two of my Favorites were http://www.gocta.io/ (who are looking for beta testers) and http://monaca.mobi/. Both use Cloud based IDE’s to produce runtimes to target multiple platforms.

Further to this there were several simple drag & drop style interfaces to help create mobile applications like http://www.cloudyrec.com/, but none that I saw were quite as advanced as the 2 above. The mobdis.com. team mentioned their goal was to make app development as easy as creating a powerpoint deck – this scares me a little! (I have seen too many really bad powerpoint presentations). 

I think that leaving the focus on the developers and designers to fine tune their Javascript/HTML5 skills to produce a quick, smart application with great UI and end user experience is very important, then leaving the tools to make sure their application can be deployed on all target systems.

Show me the Money

Adeo Ressi of Founders Institute pointed out that is doesn’t matter where you are located if your business idea is good the money will come to you. This was also apparent by the number of investors from outside the region attending the event, I met with VC’s from Vietnam, the UK, France & Germany as well as many from the US. Trends are showing that the Asia Pacific Region has strong growth and investors are ready to invest in good businesses in the area.

I was also interested to see the transition of both investors, mentors and entrepreneurs to the region with examples like Silicon Valley based VC firm Plug and Play setting up in Singapore as well as Vinnie Lauria of Golden Gate Ventures who has successfully exited several startups and is now teaming up with Singapore Chapter of Founders Institute Director Jeff Paine to establish a new fund based in Singapore.

Government Support

Glaringly obvious in Singapore is how much the government is driving the success of the Entrepreneur community. The 2 major sponsors of the event were Government, the incubators and test beds that supported the event we also government funded. The government further supports the startups directly by covering 90% of insurance policies for companies that fund small businesses and also help to keep the interest rates low for those who do borrow. This is similar to the way the US government initially helped the Silicon Valley ecosystem get up & running – find some very interesting discussions here on the value of the government supporting a growing Startup ecosystem: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6318.html. I am seeing small scale hints at activities like this in both Queensland with the MIC and in the Illawarra region with StartPad and iAccelerate programs kicking off there. I hope we start to see more of this type of investment in the growing Australian ecosystem soon!

Catherine’s Faves

Well of course the Australian BizSpark Startups Style Rocks and Tap It (see Below) were my favorites! But after them, my next best would have to include (in no particular order):

Splaype – an add in for Skype that allows you to engage with young children. I am not sure if its just because I would use the application or because I was meant to be Skyping my son at the very time the pitch was on or because of the many times I have seen him just walk away from whomever he is talking to on Skype because he gets bored? Anyway, all good reasons to have a tool like this to make the conversation more engaging on both sides! I downloaded it duringt he presentation and am looking forward to using it. I will be interested to see how it gets monetised.

SageBy – takes the idea that your time is valuable so if you are spending it waiting, why not use it to….Pay by waiting… aka. complete surveys! The survey market is already quite large with micro payments for your time – by gamifying this process and giving rewards, these guys have made the process that little more interesting. I signed up during their pitch – a sure sign that I liked it!

Sofshell – Think ShamWow for Shock absorbent materials! I just loved the pitch! It was absolutely the most entertaining of all of the pitches across the 2 days. There was smashed Watermelons, bowling balls dropped on iphones and the presenter even hammered his hand! Wow! Now I just need to think of a reason why I would need Shock Absorbent materials?

Chatworthy – I love the idea of generations from now, my Son, his children or his children’s children could use a tool like this to put together a snapshot of my trip to Singapore in 2012 and any related events. I look at a travel journal my mum kept for her trip to London 40 years ago and its incredibly hard to get a true picture of what it was like, the language used, the clothing worn, the technology available. I foresee more apps that use the masses of online data we are all tracking and turning them into something of value for future generations… I do wonder where they are storing all that data though and privacy issues about doing so…

CairnSmith although only a 90 second pitch I wanted to see more – a way to visualise & interact with 3d designs? Using Augmented reality, this is what the team at Sheer Industries has built! Imagine stepping into an empty room, but seeing it fully furnished with the use of Cairnsmith! Check them out at http://demo.asia/2012/demonstrators/sheer-industries-group/

Transcribe.me Last but not least – the First presentation at Demo Asia from our friends in New Zealand, which I am lucky enough to have a “sample” copy of the app installed on my phone! The app takes dictations and then utilising real humans they deliver a fast transcribed version of your audio to your inbox. These guys were smart, not only did they pitch their great idea well, but they “ate the dogfood” while at Demo Asia for everyone to see. They recorded each session at DemoAsia2012 to showcase the power of their applciation. This will get them ongoing brand awareness and as people look to replay their sessions and hear ones they missed, they will further build awareness. Clever work guys!

UNKNOWN: Note that there was one more that I really liked, but their demo’d application doesn't match the company names listed in the DemoAsia Presentators list, and it reminds me of a comment by one of the sages that its really important to present a consistent brand – even more so when there are 73 other companies competing to get their messaging across. I am not 100% sure I agree that the app name should match the company name etc as its important to build a business as well as a brand, but there needs to be a better solution – perhaps the DEMOAsia team needed to list both the company & app names?\

Overall, my other highlight was the chance to meet other Microsofties from the region, in particular the BizSpark Champs from New Zealand (Thiago Almeida), Singapore (Eugene Fabian) and Malaysia (Peter Lam). All of whom I have chatted to and emailed many times, but nothing is like meeting face to face! It was awesome to meet such energetic team mates who are all doing great things in their local startup communities! I look forward to meeting up with them again soon and if they are ever in your region be sure to day hi!

Microsoft BizSpark Scholarship Winners

		Demo Asia BizSpark Scholarship Winners VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Microsoft BizSpark together with Founders Institute and Startup Weekend selected 10 companies from BizSpark across the Asia Pacific region to pitch in the incredibly short 90 second Alpha pitches – and all of them did amazingly well:

Agate Studio

Agate Studio is a game developer company creating wide range of games in various platform, such as PC, Web Games, Social Games, Console, Feature Phone, and Smart Phone. Established in 2009, the company is growing quickly and became one of the biggest game developers in Indonesia with 60 crews. Now Agate is expanding the business, not only on game development, but also game academy and game publishing. With their spirit, Live the Fun Way, they are having fun in game business to make the world become much more happier world through games.

Appota

Appota.com (aka AppStore.vn), is a mobile-application-based and web-based mobile content store, to help Internet mobile users can download mobile content easily with OTA solution, cross-mobile-OS supported, easy to purchase and variety type of content (not only application). Try and enjoy from your mobile:http://appota.com/

Coworkify

Coworkify is a Facebook application that provides job marketplace and management tool for coworking spaces. To users, Coworkify is a tool to sell and buy small tasks from each other while discovering new people with different skill sets. To space owners, Coworkify is a platform that encourages people to explore new work style while accepting new members and helping the owners manage existing members. Coworkify is a Startup Weekend Kyoto 2011 grand prize winner and a DEMO Asia 2012 Alpha Pitch startup. http://coworkify.com

DocuBuzz Pte. Ltd.

DocuBuzz leverages emerging mobile and cloud-computing technologies to build content-centered-collaboration tools that are dynamic and agile, yet simple enough to be adopted and fully-deployed by non technical end users. Taccto (www.taccto.com), our flagship application, allows users to interact in real time around their digital documents using modern tablet devices. The application also automatically records, indexes and archives all such interactions for easy future reference.

HobbyMash

HobbyMash is a web app that helps hobbyists connect with both each other as well as relevant groups and events.

MobiPoint

MobiPoint provides an online channel with a database of buyers (which shows who purchased which product) to retailers to increase customer loyalty. When a store joins MobiPoint, their customers get receipts with QR codes to scan using the MobiPoint application to get loyalty points. This eliminates the need to carry membership cards.

Rofarez Solutions

Rofarez Solutions is a web development company based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Their mission is to provide custom ‘cloud based’ business solutions to SMEs and leverage the power of cloud computing to help them achieve their business goals via a ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) model. Their product DappleWorks, is currently under a BETA release and is scheduled to go into production in 2nd Quarter 2012. Product website: http://www.dappleworks.com

StyleRocks

StyleRocks is a revolutionary, world-first website where you design your own jewellery, exactly as you want it, for between AUD100-AUD400. By changing the traditional way people design and purchase jewellery, it's bringing jewellery customisation to the masses. Partnership with Australia’s largest wholesale jewellery manufacturer means quality is assured, while enabling savings to be passed on to the customer. Purchase from StyleRocks is motivated by either commercial occasions or the personal ones, such as anniversaries or birthdays.

Tapit

Tapit was founded in March 2011 and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia. Our vision is to revolutionize the way people use their mobile phones by simplifying the delivery of content using NFC as the enabler. Tapit works with innovative agencies, brands, handset manufacturers and carriers to bring this vision to life.

TranscribeMe

TranscribeMe converts voice to text, to allow our customers to easily share and search through valuable voice recordings. The voice-to-text conversion of complex audio is done perfectly by our team of crowd-sourced expert transcribers, delivering vastly higher quality results than automated speech recognition, at a fraction of the cost of traditional transcription services. The TranscribeMe smartphone app makes it easy, fast and affordable for our customers to record and transcribe meetings, interviews and dictation.

ibCom have a framework that allows developers to quickly create apps, without having a deep understanding of backend stuff, like SQL or Azure. iBcom allows the designer to focus on the human rather than the technology. They are running an event in Melbourne on 1 March so if you are in the area – be sure to check it out!!

While we are on the topic of awards & recognition – don’t forget to nominate yourself for the Telstra Australian Business Awards! There is a fair bit of work involved in completing the business evaluation as part of the submission, but I think it would also be of great value for you to do and get an idea of where you sit along side your Australian counterparts!

Telstra Australian Business Awards

Prestigious and coveted, the Awards program celebrates the country’s entrepreneurs and innovators. It offers a unique chance for small to medium businesses to be recognised for their hard work, commitment and of course, success.

The Awards operate in every state and territory and are open to all Australian small and medium businesses to enter, offering five Award categories.

Businesses that enter the Telstra Australian Business Awards receive a 70-page report evaluating their business performance against independent benchmarking of core business indicators. These include business planning and performance, customer and financial management, HR, sales, marketing and product development. The Business Health Check helps entrants to grow their business knowledge – growing their business tomorrow by knowing where it is today.

Finalists and winners are catapulted into the spotlight and can win a share of $500,000 worth of prizes. New business opportunities flow as your public profile increases and you network with other leading SMBs.

All finalists and winners join the Telstra Australian Business Awards Network, allowing continued networking in a private and exclusive online environment.

So with great national exposure, a competitive advantage and an opportunity to grow your business world, there’s a lot to celebrate.

2012 Nominations are open. Entries open Monday 6 February 2012 and close midnight Monday 2 April 2012.

Are you running a fast growing or innovative start-up? If so, you need to enter the StartupSmart Awards – the premier awards ceremony for start-ups in Australia.

The submission deadline for the awards is 1 March, 2012 so don’t delay!

At StartupSmart we are passionate about discovering and shining a light on new ventures that are destined to be tomorrow's leading businesses.

The StartupSmart Awards for 2012 will be judged by some of Australia's leading entrepreneurs including Philip Weinman, Fred Schebesta and Amanda Gome.

As well as gaining the recognition of customers, suppliers and even potential investors, the fastest-growing start-up will win a $10,000 Private Media advertising package, to be presented at an awards ceremony in Melbourne in late March.

The awards include a list of 50 of Australia's fastest growing start-ups. The number one ranked business will walk away with the top prize.

Separate awards categories include Best Online Strategy, Best Product, Best Service, Best Green Start-up, Best Young Entrepreneur, Start-up Hero, and, for the first time, Best Start-up Investor.

There’s even an award for those of you still in the planning stages of setting up a business. The Best Start-up Idea winner will have their business plan analysed by industry experts.

Each of the top 50 and category winners will be profiled extensively on StartupSmart. Our sister publication, SmartCompany, will also cover the awards.

Our awards are easy to enter and will take just 10 minutes to fill out. Just by entering, your business will be mentioned in the popular StartupSmart Daily Newsletter in the lead-up to the awards, with a link back to your website.

Entries close 1 March, 2012. What are you waiting for?

Today I am pleased to officially announce BizSpark Plus, an extension of the Microsoft BizSpark Program in Australia. This program allows accelerators to offer each of their startups, up to $60,000 worth of Microsoft Windows Azure compute and storage over a 24-month period, at no cost.

In Australia a number of accelerators, have joined the BizSpark Plus program, including:

· Angel Cube

· Blue Chilli

· Founder Institute

· Fishburners

· PushStart

· Startmate

· StartPad

· York Butter Factory

These BizSpark Plus partners were chosen for their exceptional ability to impact the Australian market through their influence in the entrepreneurial community and their proven success with early-stage startups.

The goal of the BizSpark Plus program is to help startups grow their business by offsetting cloud computing costs and enabling startups to spend time and money elsewhere so they can focus on solving their business challenges, learning from their users, hiring more developers, investing in marketing and promoting their business or gaining new customers.

Since its inception, the BizSpark Program has expanded its community to reach over 45,000 startups worldwide to help accelerate their success. BizSpark members gain access to a growing global network of over 2,000 partners that assist startups through financial and legal assistance, mentoring, networking and business advice.

Over time, we will be extending additional offers through our BizSpark Plus Partners. For more information about the program, visit http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/plus.