scheff

There are a few different organisations trying to make things happen now. Check out http://www.pollenizer.com/funding-options-available-for-star...

The only other successful startup I have spoken to in Australia was Zendesk. The founder I spoke with went 2 years without a salary and the startup was self-funded.

A mate did it and said that you need to have a winning business plan that shows evidence that you would become self-sufficient almost immediately. That's not to say that it wouldn't work in the case of tech startup, it's just less likely.

Good work,

I came to the same conclusion after 4 years of trying to get traction with my startup in Australia. The Australian government has futile support for tech innovation, which is a major failing considering our talent and adoption of technology is world-leading in some cases.

We need to be innovating as heavily as we can if we plan to have an economy post-mining boom. Currently our talent disappears overseas where they are respected and appreciated, whereas they could be doing miraculous things in Oz instead. You look at the buzz of energy and productivity in Silicon Valley and realise that just a couple of skilled people can create jobs for hundreds and boost the economy.

My own experience - I wrote to the then Tourism Minister, Fran Bailey, explaining that Australia needed to innovate its tourism marketing or perish, and that I had an innovative solution ready to go. The response was "Sorry, we can't help you." And today, after one failed marketing campaign after another, Tourism Australia has come around to the idea I put forward - get tourists to spread the word themselves (see http://www.nothinglikeaustralia.com.au)

Therein lies the value of innovation - several failed multi-million dollar marketing campaigns VS a lean startup reaching the same conclusion and offering the same solution.

I injected all of my time and money into the venture, but didn't have the necessary support to make it a genuine business operation.

I have lost patience with this government, but I haven't given up with startup ventures, I just won't depend on our govt to achieve success.

I'm going to go against the grain by saying I have created a startup in Java. Why Java? Mostly because it's what I'm competent in, not because it's the best "startup" material.

But what I have done is built a framework for a website which I can easily extend. The framework is robust and easy to adapt, so once I get my first startup up and running, I can punch out more in a much quicker turn-around.

I refrained from using a bunch of existing java frameworks/technology to speed up development because I didn't know what the end product would look like and don't like the way frameworks railroad you into a particular solution and prevent you from "thinking outside the box".

So it's very old school - Servlets and JSP.

I achieve agility by now just focussing on delivering new services, and calling those services from either JSP or AJAX calls. This gives me some flexibility in the UX.

I prototype very rapidly to prove that I can do what I want to do, then round off the edges if I'm happy that it's functionality that I want to include in the pool.

I can turn around new functionality in a matter of hours for the most part.

Pete.