1,547 attendees pack Sydney’s State Theatre to see pitches at record Startmate Demo Day

Sydney’s iconic State Theatre was packed to the gills last night for the latest iteration of startup accelerator Startmate’s Demo Day, with more than 1,500 people seated – and sometimes on their feet dancing – in the stalls and dress circle as eleven founding teams from the latest cohort pitched live (details of the pitching startups here).

An event series that started back in 2010 with 50 startup enthusiasts gathered in a grungy room with a projector at Cicada Innovation has evolved into an event that organisers describe as a startup festival, but others might describe as a rave.

Startmate feels vaguely cult-like, in the fun, fun, fun “growth is good” kind of way that my former employer BuzzFeed felt vaguely cult-like (I was the founding editor of BuzzFeed Australia at a time when the company went from 300 mostly US employees to more than 1000 in ten countries, propelled by hundreds of millions of Silicon Valley investment dollars).

Since 2010, Startmate has invested in more than 250 startups, with a collective portfolio value of over $3.5 billion. ‍‍Accelerator program participants receive $120,000 for a share of the business at either $1.5 million post-money valuation, or – if founders have previously raised – at the terms and valuation of the previous round.

Participation provides what Startmate describe as “a bulletproof path to raising”.

Demo Day is a lot of fun, and extremely high energy, but there are few dissenting voices – virtually everyone has drunk the Kool-Aid. Which is cool, it tastes pretty good. And the rocket ship still has a long way to travel.

Startmate just getting started?!

“The exciting thing is that the Startmate ecosystem is growing,” a tired but still extremely enthusiastic Michael Batko, Startmate CEO, told SmartCompany in an interview at their Sydney Fishburners office this morning.

“We have 1000 people on our programs this year, on eight different programs, each running twice a year. We have Accelerators, Fellowships, Ladymates, investor programs, and we’re about to launch an engineering fellowship.”

“We have so many people in the community, and everyone is just excited to celebrate founders.”

Does Batko have a big hairy audacious goal? “A technology city that attracts ambition, ignites innovation, boosts quality of life and fosters human connection.”

Startmate City, Byron Shire, NSW?! Watch this space.

The celebration was real at the State Theatre last night, where Startmate’s head of investment and resident DJ Bradley Flockart whipped attendees into a frenzy before the pitches began.

Why the lasers,  strobes, dry ice, and DJ?

“Startups are not really a career path for people yet,” explains Batko. “We want to bring the excitement. We want to inspire people to build a career, we want that vibe and energy. We want to inspire people, we want people to know that the energy in startups is good.”

The winter 2024 cohort’s Demo Day was Startmate’s biggest yet with a high-energy extravaganza at the State – well known for hosting Sydney Film Festival premieres and high-profile talks with international guests such as Sir David Attenborough – before free drinks and food at an afterparty sponsored by “intuitive equity platform” Cake Equity and “auth for modern apps” provider Kinde.

The Demo Day offered pitches from 11 ambitious companies, followed by a well-lubricated mixer featuring leading VC investors, founders of some of Australia’s biggest startups and hundreds of bright-eyed founders (your author, just 50, was almost certainly the oldest person in the room). There was sadly no sign of Startmate alumni Heaps Normal at the afterparty.

Startmate’s rise, fall and rise again

After years of solid growth in the noughties, peaking in 500-person capacity events at the Abbotsford Theatre in Melbourne and Giant Dwarf Theatre, Batko explains how “COVID brought the in-person experience crashing down”.

“We pivoted to live-streamed Demo Days on Zoom, with over 3000 people tuning in from all over Australia and New Zealand, and more than a thousand joining the virtual afterparty on Get Around, where people spent literally hanging out.”

“Actually, everyone pitching from home worked really well, particularly for investors and community members, who could check out the companies in real time during the live show.”

“Fortunately, the in-person experience eventually came back in late 2022, when 350 people attended Demo Day at the State Library of Victoria. But we had a big waiting list for that one, and there was clearly so much demand, so we did it last year at the inaugural SXSW Sydney, and then again earlier this year as part of Blackbird’s awesome Sunrise Festival with 1,100+ people in the audience.”

(Blackbird and Startmate were both founded by Niki Scevak, but – fun fact – Startmate actually started in 2010, years before Blackbird in 2013, and not afterwards as many assume).

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