Startup resources in any given city can be fragmented and difficult to access, which is detrimental for entrepeneurs and growing startups. Understanding the resources available to you as a founder is one of the most productive activities possible, as a missed connection could be the difference between rapid growth and failure. Our Startup Ecosystem Canvas project seeks to provide local entrepreneurs with a clear list of resources for every stage of their startup journey, and outline a basic framework for communities to map their ecosystem.
With applications for the Melbourne Founder Institute coming to a close, we are excited to release the updated Melbourne Startup Resource Guide, which is currently in v3 below! It was developed by the Melbourne Founder Institute and local leaders Cameron Rambert (CEO & Co-Founder, Frankston Foundry), James Bertschik (Co-founder, Frankston Foundry), and Marshall Hughes (Founder, Passel).
More input is needed, so please leave your comments on this collaborative Google document, and it will be considered for the next update.
Are you looking to build a startup in Melbourne? Then apply to the Melbourne Founder Institute today!
A text version of the guide is included below for searchability.
Startup Stages
There is no one right way to build a technology company, but for the sake of simplicity we have outlined a basic, common, sequential framework.
1. Idea Stage
This is where new entrepreneurs get inspired, learn best practices, develop skills, validate ideas, and begin to build their team and product.
Inspire
-
Melbourne Startup Media: Centralized local information, listings, and news. (i.e. startup blogs/ publications/ lists/ FB groups/ newsletters)
-
Melbourne Inspirational Startup Events: Open, inclusive, beginner tech events that often focus on ideation. (i.e. Startup Weekend, idea fairs, and inspirational meetups)
- Above All Human
- Code Like A Girl - Melbourne
- Entrepreneurial Startup Club
- FuckUp Nights Melbourne
- Melbourne Knowledge Week 2019
- Pause Fest
- Silicon Beach Melbourne
- Social Enterprise Collective
- Social Innovation Summit 2019
- Startup Grind APAC Conference
- Startup Melbourne Meetup
- Startup Week
- Startup Weekend Women Melbourne
- StartupAus
- Yeah Nah 2019
Educate
-
Best Practices Startup Events: Beginner knowledge-sharing events. (i.e. beginner events that serve to educate more than inspire, like 1 Million Cups, Startup Grind, Startup Founder 101, etc).
- Blockchain Centre
- Disruptive Startups Melbourne
- Elabor8
- Entrepreneurship and Innovation Hub
- Melbourne Agile and Scrum User Group
- Melbourne FinTech Startups Meetup
- Melbourne Xamarin Meetup
- Muses Code JS
- Startup Founder 101 Melbourne
- Startup Grind Melbourne
- StartUp HealthTech Australia
- Startup Victoria Meetup
- Silicon Beach Melbourne
- Women Who Code Melbourne
-
Training & Feedback: Skill & Idea development events and bootcamps for entrepreneurs. (Ex. bootcamps and comprehensive training programs, like Founder Institute, General Assembly, Lean Startup Machine, code camps, etc)
- Coder Academy
- Collective Campus
- Founder Institute
- General Assembly
- Le Wagon
- Lean Startup Machine Melbourne
- Melbourne Lean Coffee
- Melbourne Sports Analytics Meetup
- Monash University Coding Boot Camp
- Product Women
- ProductTank Melbourne
- She Mentors
- SSW FireBootCamp
- Startup Leadership
- StartupU
- The Talent Institute Australia
- Wade Institute
Validate
-
Team Formation: Events and Resources for finding co-founders and early teams in Melbourne. (i.e. events or other resources that facilitate early-stage recruitment and cofounder matching)
- #Love: Melbourne
- Entrepreneur Social Club
- Entrepreneurs in Melbourne
- Entrepreneurs' Organization Melbourne
- Girl Geek Dinners Melbourne
- Melbourne Entrepreneur Network
- Melbourne Entrepreneurs
- Melbourne Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
- Melbourne Startup Society
- Rebel Meetups - Young Entrepreneur Networking
- Speed Networking Melbourne
- Startup Victoria
- StartupBlink Melbourne
- The Entrepreneur Club
- The Melbourne Entrepreneurs Networking Group
- Travel, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Friendship & FUN!-MELB
- Women’s Network Australia
-
Melbourne Product Workshops: Hackathons & resources to help build your first product. (i.e. hackathons and other builder-focused events and resources)
- 3D Printing Hackathon
- Catalyst 2019 - Future of Wellness
- Codebrew 2019
- Connected Community Hackerspace
- CoreNet Global Australia BGIS Hackathon
- Energy Hack 2019
- FAB9
- GovHack
- HackerNest Melbourne Tech Socials
- HackUp
- Make-Create
- MedHack
- Melbourne CocoaHeads
- Melbourne Geek Night
- Melbourne Mobile
- Random Hacks of Kindness Melbourne
- RMIT ITS Hack-4-Good
- Shearwater Application Security Hackathon 2019
- The GREAT Hack
- UNIHACK
- Web3 Melbourne
2. Launch Stage
In this stage, entrepreneurs establish and formalize the company, develop the product, get feedback from customers, and prepare for the next step.
Start
-
Establish: Startup law firms & banks that specialize in helping new companies
- Allens
- Allied Legal
- AMK Law
- ANZ
- Aperion Law
- Arro Lawyers
- Bank of Melbourne
- Bendigo Bank
- Clearpoint Legal
- CommBank
- DLAPiper
- General Standards
- Gilbert + Tobin Lawyers
- Hall & Wilcox
- Holding Redlich
- HSBC Australia
- Judo Bank
- KHQ Lawyers
- Law Squared
- Legalite
- LegalVision
- Leonidas Lawyers
- Lincolns
- LUNA
- Mahons
- Modern Risk Solutions
- National Australia Bank
- Riordan & Riordan Lawyers
- Studio Legal
- Suncorp Bank
- Tisher Liner FC Law
-
Workspace: Co-working and flexible workspaces (note: “official” office space goes in 3.1.a. Infrastructure)
- @WORKSPACES
- ACMI X
- Altitude Cowork
- Blix Spaces Co-Working
- Blockchain Centre
- CoWork Me
- CreativeCubes
- depo8
- Dimension⁵
- Electron Workshop
- Framework Melbourne
- Hive Studio
- Hub Australia
- Independent Studios
- Inspire9
- Jam Jar
- One Roof Women
- Our Community House
- Roy Space
- Space & Co.
- Spaces
- The Circle
- The Cluster
- The Commons
- The Windsor Workshop
- Thrive Network
- United Co.
- Waterman
- WeWork
- Work Club Global
- Worksmith
- YBF Melbourne
Develop
-
Formalize: Accounting, CPAs, development, and HR resources for early-stage startups.
- Agency Iceberg
- Appetiser
- Avenue Solutions
- Cogent.co
- Creative Nature
- CSP Apple
- Deloitte Private Connect
- DreamWalk
- Firebrand Talent
- Hitori
- Hudson Recruiting
- Interactive Accounting
- Leading Edge Web
- Lookahead Search
- Mintec Software Solutions
- Mitchell Wilson
- Orbital8 Software Development
- Reach Recruitment
- Think Talent
- Wave Digital
- We Make Apps
-
Prepare for Seed: Startup incubators and advanced mentorship. (i.e. advanced knowledge sharing, later stage events and resources for startup teams)
Launch
-
Melbourne Seed Accelerators: Seed funding mentor programs (Techstars-style programs that provide funding)
- BlueChilli
- CoM X
- CyRise
- LaunchHUB
- Melbourne Health Accelerator
- muru-D
- One10
- Rocket Seeder
- Runway HQ
- SheStarts
- Slingshot
- SPARK Deakin Accelerator
- Startmate
- Startupbootcamp EnergyAustralia
- Startupbootcamp FinTech Melbourne
- STC Australia
- Swinburne Innovation Precinct's Accelerator Program
- The Actuator
- The Generator
- The Melbourne Accelerator Program
-
Pitch & Demo Days: Showcases for Melbourne startups to present to investors (i.e. demo days for companies seeking seed investment)
- Early Ethical Enterprise Pitch Competition
- Founder Hotseat: Pitch Your Startup to Melbourne Startup Experts
- In The Gold Fish Bowl Pitch Competition
- Le Wagon Coding Bootcamp Demo Day
- Melbourne Silicon Beach Pitch Night
- Perfect Pitch Competition
- Pitch Night: Impact
- Pitchblak
- SPARK Deakin Accelerator Demo Day
- Startmate Demo Day, Melbourne
- Startup Pitch Night with Melbourne Silicon Beach: Get Expert Feedback
- Startup&Angels Melbourne #6
- Startupbootcamp EnergyAustralia Demo Day 2019
- That Startup Show
- Venture Cup 2019 - Pitch Night
3. Growth Stage
Here, a startup proves their utility, receives recognition, and scales up. This usually requires funding, angels, VCs, and ways to connect them to startups.
Recognition
-
Melbourne Investor Networking: Events and groups that connect professional investors (venture capitalists and angel investors) with founders.
-
Major Tech Media: Mainstream business press and tech media. (i.e. major local or regional publications that frequently champion local businesses)
Funding
-
Melbourne Angel Investors and Micro-VCs: A list of early and seed-stage investors
-
Melbourne Venture Capitalists: Series A and beyond
Growth
-
Infrastructure: Office space, HR, local business insurance. (i.e. office space/ HR/ insurance providers for capital-rich companies to grow and scale)
-
Melbourne Startup Scaling: Growth accelerators and tech consultants. (i.e. programs and business consultants for capital-rich companies to grow and scale)
- Accenture
- Aon
- A.T. Kearney
- Bain & Company
- Boston Consulting Group
- Capgemini
- Cognizant
- Deloitte
- Ernst & Young
- FTI Consulting
- Gartner
- Grant Thornton
- Headbench
- Kantar Millward Brown
- Kirk Slater Consultancy
- KPMG
- LEK Consulting
- LX&R Alliance
- McKinsey & Company
- Mercer
- North Highland
- Protiviti
- Publicis Sapient
- PwC
- Right Lane
- Tata Consultancy Services
- Weybridge
- Willis Towers Watson
4. Success Stories
Successful homegrown companies that have raised significant institutional funding, employ a large workforce, or have achieved liquidity.
- 99designs
- Aconex
- ActivePipe
- Airwallex
- CliniCloud
- CoinJar
- Culture Amp
- Envato
- Equiem
- Flippa
- Goodfilms
- GreenSync
- Judo Bank
- LIFX
- Moula
- nuraphone
- Parkhound
- Redbubble
- Rome2rio
- Speedlancer
- Tablo
- Telstra Global
- TRIBE
- Whispir
- Xplor
Supporters
To facilitate the steps, every ecosystem needs strong supporters.
1. Tech Evangelists
A list of potential advisors. Successful local founders who lead the ecosystem & frequently mentor newbies. (i.e. Local leaders who have taken a leadership position, speak at a lot of startup events, mentor all the programs, etc.)
- Alex Jeffery
- Alexe Bojovschi
- Andrea Mayorga
- Atlanta Daniel
- Cameron Rambert
- Cath Connell
- Christopher Kommatas
- Colin McLeod
- Daizy Maan
- David Schloeffel
- Garry Williams
- Geoff Gourley
- Grant Downie
- James Bertschik
- James Tuckerman
- Jey Srikantha
- Jose Alonso
- Judy Anderson
- Jules Blundell
- Jules Brooke
- Lou Harty
- Louie Qu
- Marcus Powe
- Marshall Hughes
- Matt Allen
- Paul Docherty
- Remco Marcelis
- Richenda Vermeulen
- Ronen Heine
- Sally Gatenby
- Sarah Moran
- Sebastian von Conrad
- Trav Bell
2. Startup Government Resources
Public startup programs, grants, and other services that facilitate local economic development.
- Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
- Australian Securities & Investments Commission
- Business Victoria
- Commercialisation Australia / Entrepreneur Investment
- Digital Innovation Festival
- Entrepreneurs' Programme
- Global Victoria
- Innovation Network
- Invest Victoria
- LaunchVic
- Melbourne Chamber of Commerce
- Startup Melbourne (City of Melbourne)
- Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
3. Talent
Major local business or tech universities and employers that attract and retain local talent.
-
Local Melbourne Universities (universities with prominent technical or business programs)
-
Local Melbourne Employers (Major technical employers, like Microsoft or Google or large local companies, with large local offices)
Learn more about the Startup Ecosystem Canvas here, and leave us your thoughts on the Melbourne Canvas on this collaborative Google document, or on Twitter using the hashtag #ecosystemcanvas.
Are you looking to build a startup in Melbourne? Then apply to the Melbourne Founder Institute today
