Hi all -- just sending a quick update on the Melbourne Accelerator Program (MAP). For those of you who don't know what it is, it's a program out of the University of Melbourne where we give $20k in funding (asking no equity in return), office space for a year, and mentoring and other resources to startups. We're in our 5th year and this year have 10 spots available.
Our past startups have had some good wins -- so far the 24 teams have gone on to raise over $10m in funding and many other accomplishments and it's still early days. I'm the entrepreneur in residence for the program, which means I volunteer and assist the program while running my business out of the shared office. The BIG news that went somewhat under the radar because it happened at the last minute: previously, to be eligible to apply to MAP, you had to be a student/staff/alumni of qualifying programs at Melbourne Uni within the past five years. That five year requirement got lifted a couple weeks ago -- we are now open to student, staff or alumni of *any year* from our participating faculties (which is most faculties)! (Details: http://themap.co/map-startup-accelerator/) So if you have any team member/co-founder who attended the University of Melbourne as student or staff, at any time, (from participating faculties) you are eligible to apply. Applications are due *April 17*, so there is still plenty of time. I'm giving an application workshop tonight but unfortunately it's fully sold out -- however, the video will be up on our website soon and I encourage anyone interested in applying to watch it. The word has not fully gotten out about our broadening of eligibility, so I'd ask for your help in spreading the word! This is just one step towards making the program more inclusive but it's a big one and we'd love to see people who were previously ineligible applying this year. I'd also mention that we have a somewhat unusual luxury as a non-commercial accelerator in that we are open to a MUCH broader set of ideas and companies than most commercial accelerators, because we view "return" from our teams as a much broader concept than purely financial returns. This means that if you have different/weird ideas that other accelerators haven't responded well, or if you have a non-traditional business, we'd love to hear from you! Although our 24 teams so far mostly fit the mold of what you think of as traditional tech-style startups, that's an attribute of who has applied so far, not necessarily what we look for. We love seeing unique different ideas, and we absolutely include "social enterprise" and not-for-profit startup ideas in our mission. If you have any questions about the program, feel free to ask -- I make myself fully available for anyone interested in the program and run open office hours out of Lab-14 on campus. Jeremy -- -- 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/d/optout.
