It depends on your goals. If your goal is to have your company bought by some overseas conglomerate so you can spend the rest of your days on a yacht in the mediterranean, then it's almost tautological that you should structure your company that way.
If instead your goal was to have a successful Australian-based company and contribute more directly to helping Australia be a great place to live and work then structuring for an international buyout is self-defeating. Instead you might look to the (admittedly ageing) examples of great companies that still live here and in turn buy other companies, bolstering that weak local upstream. Atlassian structured for buyout is a very different beast to the Atlassian we know, and Australia would be poorer the trade. But that comes back to the OP. Atlassian bootstrapped, then much later took overseas $ but stayed here. There have been few successes of the same scale since. Maybe the easy money and Valley fever *is part of the problem*, not the solution. Australia is different: certainly disadvantaged compared to the US if your goal was to replicate Silicon Valley. But maybe there are goals that better recognise reality. On 15 December 2013 01:29, Dean Collins <d...@cognation.net> wrote: > Totally agree with you Phil, If you aren’t structuring yourself for an > international buyout then your strategy is just flawed to begin with. The > reason why startups here in New York or in SF are getting funding is lots > of upstream players who are interested in buying out startups > (yahoos/hearst/facebooks or hardware cisco’s/nortels of the world), > Australia will never have the density of upstream buyout players. > > > > Regarding housing and venture capital, sorry but I disagree there, though > both have risks and they both have appropriate taxes and deductions etc, > the more important tax change needs to be around stock options for > employees. There is a real aversion for Australians to work on equity……here > in NY….not so much. > > > > > > Regards, > > > > Dean Collins > Cognation Inc > d...@cognation.net > +1-212-203-4357 New York > +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). > +44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial). > > > > > > *From:* silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com [mailto: > silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com] *On Behalf Of *Phil Sim > *Sent:* Saturday, December 14, 2013 2:50 AM > *To:* silicon-beach-australia silicon-beach-australia > *Subject:* Re: [SiliconBeach] Brilliant (and concerning) post about VC > funding in Australia > > > > I agree with most everything said in the article. We don't need a VC > market in Australia, there is more than enough capital and opportunities > internationally... once you've gotten out of Australia. > > > > What we need is a) more Angels and b) let's call them "International > accelerators". > > > > a) Make capital gains on minority angel investments tax-free or > significantly below the standard tax-rate, as we do with small business > sales, so that instead of sticking money into property, Australians with a > bit of wealth and success behind them, think about recycling their > expertise and wealth into our entrepreneurial community. I reckon that > would go and fair way to solve the small-end of town to fund companies to > the point where they are ready to take on international markets. > > > > b) The biggest need for any Australian business is to get out of > Australian (and by that I mean from a revenue perspective). A company with > local revenues of a million would be a $10m company with equivalent US > market share and most certainly VC-ready. We need firms who have > significant expertise in helping Australian organisations who have suitable > products to go global/US and try and match their Australian success in > bigger markets. > > > > Let's face it, if your product isn't suitable for the international > market, you've got next to no chance of being VC-ready. So let's focus on > getting Australian companies past that hurdle and then once they're on the > international stage, then they should be able to mix it with everyone else > for US and European VC money anyway. > > > > Phil > > > > > > On Sat, Dec 14, 2013 at 3:32 AM, Geoff McQueen | AffinityLive < > geoff.mcqu...@affinitylive.com> wrote: > > This post is one of the most thoughtful things I've ever seen about the > Aussie tech scene and its related early stage funding market: > http://startup88.com/vcadvisors/2013/11/18/australian-venture-capital-can-we-escape-from-past-failures-ian-maxwell/1441 > > Would love to hear what the community here thinks. > > -- > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach > Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more > > Forum rules > 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. > 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs > > > 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 > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Silicon Beach Australia" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > > > > -- > Phil Sim > Chief Executive Officer, > MediaConnect Australia Pty Ltd > www.mediaconnect.com.au > phi...@mediaconnect.com.au > Ph: +61 2 9894 6277 > Fax: +61 2 8246 6383 > Mobile: 0413889940 > > -- > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach > Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more > > Forum rules > 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. > 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs > > > 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 > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Silicon Beach Australia" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach > Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more > > Forum rules > 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. > 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs > > > 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 > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Silicon Beach Australia" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more Forum rules 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs 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 --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Silicon Beach Australia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
