From the outside it looks like Sydney’s tech community is thriving. There are more startups than ever before. More funding, more successful tech businesses and more government support. Yet it’s still not enough. By all independent measures we’re going backwards compared to other cities around the world. What does backwards mean? It means we’re becoming less relevant in the global tech economy, which is fast becoming the leading source of economic growth across the world. We need to change this and it’s going to take one hell of a communal effort to put the brakes on the slide and create enough momentum the other way to accelerate past other cities.
How do you grow an ecosystem? You grow the companies in it. If you look at startup success like a funnel, there’s currently a choke point not long after the first round of funding. We’re also seeing that Sydney startups are moving through growth stages slower than they could be. Everything we’ll do will be about helping more startups move faster through this funnel.
In order to realise this vision we need to hire great people. These are what the next 90 days will look like for TechSydney:
We will set up a Trello board so you can check out our initiative roadmap. You can submit feedback to your elected board member who will bring it along to the next board meeting.
Here are some other things we will execute on:
Buy now | Buy now | Buy now | Buy now |
Buy now | Buy now | Buy now | Buy now |
Invoicing?
Want to be part of TechSydney, but don’t have an AMEX Centurion card just yet? Reach out tohello@techsydney.com.au and we can organise payment offline.
Foundation membership
Foundation memberships are for those who believe in our vision and want to support TechSydney at it’s earliest stage. Foundation members are members for life even if they leave and start new companies. Foundation members pay for the first two years of their membership in advance.
Investor and Venture Capital
Investors are encouraged to join TechSydney. We cater for not only VC’s, but Angels too. Depending on fund size VC’s can select between two options; Investor OR Venture Capital. Angels are encouraged to choose the Investor membership. We will also encourage you to attend regular dinners with founders.
Corporate sponsorhsips
Corporates sponsorships are about giving back to the startups as well as building an authentic connection with the industry. Corporates have the option of doing this by taking a forum out for dinner every month or taking advantage of us connecting you with specific startups for specific needs. The amount of access you will receive depends on how many startups you sponsor. Sponsorship starts at $2.5k for each startup with a minimum of 10 startups.
Affiliate
Affiliate memberships are for entities who support the industry. These include (but are not limited to) startup incubators and co-working spaces for technology companies.
It has been a huge community effort to get TechSydney even this far and it’s not even started yet. We wrote a blog post describing the people involved in the beginning. A special thanks to those who have put in the extra hours to make this happen:
After the crowdfunding campaign each tier of membership; individual, startup, growth, scale and unicorn will elect a board member to represent them. Dean McEvoy has also agreed to come on as the Managing Director and we will have an independent chairperson.
Anything we have missed? Email hello@techsydney.com.au and we will answer them.
We’re also running a Thunderclap to help promote the campaign. Please sign up here!
TechSydney has early support from:
If we hit the goal, the not for profit entity will be setup. People who contribute to the campaign can have input into the constitution. Just email hello@techsydney.com.au for a copy of the draft. For ease of running this crowdfunding campaign TechSydney as a business name has been registered by Dean McEvoy’s entity Stanley St Pty Ltd. All funds received will go into the not for profit entity when it is setup. The initial funds raised will be used to hire an amazing team and to begin the first iteration of founder forums and begin building the online talent communities. We already have had great people reach out for us who want to work for TechSydney. If you are interested and have skills at building communities and building technology companies reach out to hello@techsydney.com.au. We will look for people who have started companies themselves or worked in technology companies and who are inspired by what we’re setting out to do.
Like any startup there will be many challenges, but as startup founders, we thrive in the chaos. Our initial focus will be what we’ve mentioned above as well as finding a great team to join the ride. We are taking advice from those who have done it before, but we are also making a lot of this up on the fly. Be patient and give feedback. We will make this a great thing that not only adds value to you, but to the whole ecosystem. The biggest risk is that don’t do anything at all.