Startmate and its peers are (economically speaking) tournaments. Read Freakanomics for some amusing comparison with crack dealers. Many industries have an 800 pound gorilla that looks great, generate copious press (Apple, Facebook etc), generate shitload of cash, and power/influence (see OReillys Web 2.0 points of control), but the route to get there is very difficult. Most people will not get anywhere near there, so in technology you often end up with a winner takes all (or oliopoly). The actual stats are illuminating, in the US approx 10,000 angel financed startups, professional VCs might fund ~1,500, and of that only 10 or so are of any real market value (measured as north of hundreds of millions market cap). Often once a category killer gets established, it takes a very bold angel to back another punt (though search seems to be hotting up again as semantic/ sentiment analysis is becoming in vogue ... last time I checked nearly 100 startups in this space).
In an earlier discussion of Silicon Beach web site, I proposed a form of soapbox (think web widget) which can either be a movie or cloud embedded app where startups could give a thumbnail overview of their concept. I know that certain OpenInnovation intermediatories are offering crowd-sourced voting (see CSICO iPrize) so it may well be that if the number of applicants keep on increasing, a form of peer ranking (think audience choice) may well be a mechanism to avoid overloading the StartMate judges. My only concern is whether this will go same way as BioTech firms where Australian pass stage 1&2 trials only to be bought out before going global. Lawrence http://nz.linkedin.com/in/drllau On Jan 4, 8:17 am, Andrew J <ajes...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Geoff, > > Andrew here (co-founder of Noosbox, one of the Startmate applicants) > > Couple of points: > > * It's worth remembering that most of the companies in the Startmate program > are very early-stage, and while we're building and running trials with > reference customers, many of us are saving the big announcements until we > have something really concrete to show and sell in a couple of months, at > which point we will doubtless more than make up for the current radio > silence :) > > While I can't speak for the other founders I don't consider this > 'stealth-mode' exactly (buy me a beer and I'll happily fill you in on what > we're doing, and I won't ask for an NDA :-), but simply a case of being > cautious on the message we're putting out to large public forums. > > * In the meantime, f you're curious on what sorts of companies Startmate is > looking for, Niki has put up an excellent set of criteria > at:http://www.startmate.com.au/teams- this is probably a better guide on > whether or not you should apply than the profiles of the 5 companies that > happened to be selected this time. > > * For what it's worth, I would encourage *anyone* thinking of applying to > Startmate and who in some way qualifies to do so for the next program. > Irrespective of whether you are actually funded, the process of pitching to > investors and getting honest feedback does huge amounts to focus your vision > and product and this is something technical founders are generally quite bad > at doing otherwise. It will deliver a worthwhile return for your time. > > * If you're interested in Noosbox, for the moment I'll say we're a "CRM for > companies too lazy to use a CRM", which when you really look at it turns out > to be most of them. We have a few smart tricks up our sleeve to overcome the > significant user friction inherent in working with existing products, and > we're working with a few reference customers right now. If you'd like to > know more, feel free to hit me up at ajes...@noosbox.com or buy me a Coopers > at the next SB drinks :) > > Cheers, AJ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Guidelines on discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/msg/351e183e1303508d?hl=en%3Fhl%3Den No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. To post to this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en
