Silicon Beach Melbourne, a community for entrepreneurs and startup founders, is hoping to branch into TV.
The ambitious project is the brainchild of organiser Athula Bogoda, who was inspired while browsing TV channels one night and stumbling across infomercial channel 4Me TV.
While Bogoda was less interested in the ads for Roomba, a short section called App Central, produced in Canada caught his eye. It features short segments on the growing culture and business of apps for Smartphones and tablets.
It occurred to Bogoda that he could develop something similar in the Melbourne startup community, and put a call out to the Melbourne Silicon Beach. So far he’s recruited a motion graphics producer and editor, a videographer, assistant organiser, a marketer, a sponsorship deal wrangler and a sound person (who is based in Munich and plans to record interviews via Skype).
While they don’t have a set format as yet, the idea is to produce 2 to 3 minute segments focusing on the Melbourne startup scene to begin with. All videos will initially be placed on YouTube, but Bogoda is hoping they’ll catch the attention of a TV channel.
“If we can run a show from Canada, surely we’d prefer a local effort,” Bogoda says. “We might land up on 4Me TV, we might not, it’s just an experiment and we want to see what the interest is.”
Bogoda says depending on the success there is no reason they won’t take it to other cities, noting that the Melbourne Silicon Beach community is the only one thriving in Australia.
“Adelaide and Sydney barely get anyone along to their events these days,” he says.
It’s hoped the videos will be useful to the founders they feature, building their profile.
“It might be something they can use when they pitch to investors,” Bogoda says.
While still in the planning phase, Bogoda is calling for more volunteers.
“As the project progresses we will be expanding the team,” he says.” If you have skills, new ideas and a few hours a week to spare towards this project (it will be great for your profile), get in touch with us please.”
Most of the work will be done after hours as most of those involved in the project have day jobs.
It’s hoped the project will deliver its first few videos by the end of April.
Bronwen has extensive experience in startups having run her own, worked at Australia’s leading startup incubator and as digital director at a local VC fund. She’s the vice-president of the Public Interest Journalism Foundation with a keen interest in digital media and the future of journalism. She has over 15 years experience as a journalist and is also a popular columnist with The Guardian.
