Is Australia the next upcoming tech startup hotspot to watch?
e27.sg
e27.sg
For example, we tried to hire a remote friend to move inland and work with us - and he is over qualified - yet because he's over 30, his chances of making it after 2 years of struggle with immigration are next to none.
So as long as this happen, startups will be dead in the water. Australia has a lot of smart people, but that's not enough. The US west coast attracts all the smarts and doesn't block them in.
As someone who's just on the cusp of 30 and is actively planning a move down under, do you mind expounding a little further on what happened? I'd love to avoid the same pitfall if possible.
http://www.visabureau.com/australia/immigration-points-test....
For example, you get points for age. Applicants who are 25-32 years old get 30 points. As you get older, you get fewer points. Applicants who are older than 45 get 0 points.
Since you need at least 65 points for a visa, it seems difficult once you are over the age of 45.
I have a MSc in Software Engineering (on the critical skill list), experience on 4 continents and it was nothing short of a nightmare.
The immigration process over here is in a state of change at the moment for residency, hopefully this means it will be a much better process than what I experienced.
Not only did the original application fee need to be paid but the entire lot of paperwork had to be re-submitted.
All because the business number had changed due to an acquisition, right bang in the middle of my residency application.
I hear there is reform coming around July 2012 to expedite certain skills shortage list candidates, so hopefully that helps.
The crazier thing is the amount of paperwork my wife needed to do to prove that she was competent to practice medicine in the country. In the US, she went to a great med school, had MCATS off the charts, went to one of the best residency programs in the country and worked for the best hospital in the world for 5 years. In that regard, it was frustrating.
My wife trained as a doctor in China, the effort to get the qualifications recognised over here is nothing short of crazy.
Don't get me started on the Australian Computer Society. It took them 6 months to recognise my own qualifications.
Trouble immigrating or getting work visas when over 30 is rife across Europe, and as for migrating to the US, we're all pretty well aware of just how difficult it is, skills or otherwise. It's really not all that different here to other western nations, though you do have a point about the 'critical mass' of Silicon Valley.
its not that Australians are more risk averse, its that we have a culture of "tall poppy syndrome", which means that people that tend to become outliers, especially highly successful, tend to get "taken down a peg". It's ironic because we have quite a high work ethic.
I lived in Northern California for a few months and saw a massive difference in the way that people believe that anything is possible and look up to innovators (as a society).
Hopefully things are changing for the better: E.g. Atlassian - http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/entrepreneur/100m-so...
99designs - http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/managing/blogs/enter...
Continuing the Australia/99 theme, we might observe that 99dresses was almost thumped into oblivion (due partially to lack of investment) before it enjoyed the expertise of YC and the attentions of the YC coterie.
Given geographic inevitabilities and the lack of local investment it is hard to be optimistic about the Aussie startup scene, even given Fairfax media's recent (and beguiling) attempts to toot the local talent's horn.
I'd also recommend getting over to some co-working spaces. Events are great, but I've found them a better way to connect to a broader audience. In Melbourne I'd recommend Inspire9, but there are others (The Hub, OpenHub). There are similar counterparts in Sydney.
99Designs vs. Crowdspring, http://www.google.com/trends/?q=crowdspring,+99designs&c..., leads me to believe that 99Designs is more popular, even though it was also later to market.
Regardless, though, of the particular instance, or indeed the reality -- the problem for any would-be head-to-head of this type is not generally which startup would "win in a fair fight", but rather which startup any potential investors believe would win. The problem for such Australian startups may be just that the question of "which is going to win?" is being asked at all.
I think he is vastly overestimating the number of Australians over here.
I'm one of those Australians who moved to the US to work at Google, and then left to join a startup, Puppet Labs.
There are a lot of Australians in tech in the Bay Area, particularly working in operations, and a regular topic of conversation is "what would I do if I moved back to Australia?"
I'd still probably try to start a new tech company in the US, but I feel much less strongly about that than I did a couple of years ago, and hopefully that trend continues.
Notable issues include
High income earners cannot offset business losses, thus deterring entrepreneurs. IR protections intrude on flexible working. Border protections make labour import difficult, despite the lack of a critical mass for skills. Government spending is high (although less than in the US), at 34% of GDP, leaving less on the table for investors to slosh around. This is set to grow as the population age pyramid inverts. Productivity is low. The only thing keeping growth competitive is the resources sector. This is probably an economic time bomb. Banks are massively risk averse and unwilling to lend, although the problem is not as severe as in the UK. Business failure is perceived by many as personal failure rather than a learning experience.
The current government is essentially the political branch of the unions. They'd much rather prop up the dying manufacturing sector. Unfortunately there is no credible alternative party.
If Australia is really unlucky then the ticking productivity bomb will explode along with the demographic inversion, causing a welfare crisis, a debt catastrophe, and probably a major recession.
None of this prevents anyone from having a crack.
I'd content that Australians' bias isn't against failure, but against making other people wear the cost of your failure.
The reason some failed businesses are held against owners, is because the owners didn't make sure there was enough in company to pay the workers their entitlements (salary, leave and superannuation) when the doors shut. While the typically still wealthy owners hide behind the limited liability of their company, the workers pay a cost they can ill afford. A failed company that meets its obligations to its employees will be admired for "giving it a go".
b) Australia is on track to deliver a budget surplus which many countries would be envious of. It has one of the lowest GDP to debt ratios out of all major economies and there is no way Australia is at risk of defaulting.
c) Australia has by far the most stable, capitalised and sensibly regulated banking systems in the world. The banks are probably doing TOO well.
d) Australia has been planning for population ageing for decades and we could easily ramp up immigration. The problem is community attitudes and state infrastructure.
e) The problem with startups in Australia isn't the government or banks. It is the VCs and incubators who have this ridiculous notion that the "team is 100x more important than the idea". So we have lots of startups with great teams working on truly pointless products.