Startup Victoria’s Annual General Meeting is coming up quickly. In line with Startup Victoria’s constitution one third of the board will resign and put his- or herself up for reappointment. This year that means two of the current board directors are putting themselves up for re-election. The details of the Annual General Meeting are as follows: When: Tuesday the 29th of November, 5.30pm Where: Inspire9 (Family Room on Level 3/41–43 Stewart Street) If you are unable to attend, please make sure your voice is heard by submitting the Proxy Form two days prior to the Annual General Meetin ..read more

There was something of a different flavour at Startup Victoria‘s pitch night for September — including the new beverage sponsors! — which may have been helped by the large crowd, and the more polished presentations (judging by the feedback). I will comment on each pitch in order of appearance: Studio Ninja Studio Ninja is described as Client Management software for professional photographers. Aimed at the wedding industry, it also holds some appeal for other event planners, DJs, musicians, make-up artists, hairdressers, caterers and florists. But the primary focus is on weddings, and the speci ..read more

On the 26th of May, I put together an event (Unpitch) that matched 23 investors with 69 startups. Most conversations between startup founders and investors tend to be formal discussions, where startups are given limited time to pitch to investors or trying to catch investors at a hallway during an event, with the power dynamic being skewed towards the investor. Unpitch is the antithesis of this relationship. The aim of the event is to connect investors and startups in an informal setting, with a focus on providing feedback and building relationships between the founders and investors. Below i ..read more

At Startup Victoria we have been organising pitch events and training sessions for almost two years. At the start of 2016 we even re-branded our popular meetup group from Lean Startup Melbourne to Startup Victoria’s Pitch Nights, and shifted the focus from a combination of talks, panels, and pitches to just pitches. Over this period we have seen good pitches, bad pitches, and more amazingly how a little bit of guidance and feedback can turn a bad pitch into a great pitch. Pitching is a form of communication, and communicating, like any skill, is something that can be learned and improved ..read more

Scott Handsaker (Attendly, Startup Victoria & above all human), Troy Westley and Joel Westley (Caremonkey) This presentation was put together by Startup Victoria board member Michelle Bourke. It outlines what Startup Victoria is, and useful resources in the local community in Victoria, Australia. https://medium.com/media/205c262c0a6326931f75f74da9e6f2ce/href Leveraging the Local Growth Startup Ecosystem was originally published in Startup Victoria on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story ..read more

Over the past few years Startup Victoria has firmly established itself as one of the preeminent organisations dedicated to educating, networking and inspiring founders in Australia. They have worked tirelessly to build a community with a strong drive to discover and create more startup founders and better startup founders. Their growth and journey takes an exciting step forward as they have announced a search for a new CEO. Startup Victoria is one of the largest entrepreneurship groups in Australia and organises some of the biggest and most anticipated startup events in Melbourne includi ..read more

Startup Victoria’s Annual General Meeting is coming up quickly. In line with Startup Victoria’s constitution one third of the board will resign and put his- or herself up for reappointment. Startup Victoria’s board has also decided to increase the number of directors from 4 to 5. The details of the Annual General Meeting are as follows: When: Wednesday the 11th of November, 6pm Where: Inspire9 (Level 1/41–43 Stewart Street) If you are unable to attend, please make sure your voice is heard by submitting the Proxy Form two days prior to the Annual General Meeting. Full instruction ..read more

It’s been six months since Startup Victoria was launched to the fanfare of a $100,000 government grant, matching corporate sponsorships and generous individual donations. I decided to take a step back from my tech startup to focus on building the startup ecosystem in Victoria and I haven’t regretted it for a second. Melbourne is full of exciting startups, great startup success stories and as importantly, immensely talented individuals who are happy to share their stories and experiences with each other. It is inspiring to be part of and I truly hope we can spread the word that a healthy t ..read more

There’s probably nothing more cliché than a female member of the Startup Victoria board writing a blog about women in tech. In fact, when I was asked to investigate putting together some sort of women’s committee for Startup Vic, I’m rather ashamed to say I groaned at the thought. I didn’t like the idea of segregation and special treatment that I feel seems to be implicit in the creation of female-only events. I thought to myself…”I’m fairly comfortable in a male dominated environment, I can ignore it and get on with things. It doesn’t matter to me so why should it matter at all”. Well, was I ..read more

A couple of years ago I had cocktails in Docklands with a highly successful Australian digital entrepreneur, who told me something that profoundly changed the way I viewed start-ups. He told he that he had set-up a small fund that made thirty five $50,000 investments into start-ups. And despite the fact that he was a fairly cluey guy, he did his dough on all but one, which looked like it might actually just give him his money back . He felt he learned a lesson that cost him around $2M. Since then he has made a series of very profitable investments and had a number of new ventures he ..read more