The Queensland state government is holding a Startup Summit next week to determine priority areas for policy and support to encourage entrepreneurialism and set a “collective ambitious goal” for the local community in 2014.
Co-ordinated by Innovation Minister Ian Walker, the summit team is seeking online comment from start-up founders and those involved in the community to inform discussions.
Start-up veteran and RiverCity Labs co-founder Steve Baxter wrote on the forum:
“The goal needs to be a stretch and it needs to be stated in terms that will be relevant in 20 years’ time. I think we should aim to take a larger than par share of the Australian start-up scene. Defining things in terms of metrics of specific things (businesses, exits etc may be tough if in 20 years’ time this is not how the successes are counted). I think that economic benefit and jobs in particular will be a steady mechanism over decades to judge success. So in the PwC report it was noted that this sector could be worth $109B and 540k jobs by 2033, if Queensland is ‘x’% of the Australia population/GSP then we should aim to have the same proportion of the new sector (‘x’%) plus 20%.”
Elaine Stead, investment director at Blue Sky Alternative Investments, said on the forum:
“While I think we need to (sic) many things to grow the Qld innovation ecosystem, I believe the two biggest hurdles to our innovation sector are 1) the dearth of capital and the dearth of expertise in founding and growing small or technology-based businesses. I am a firm believer that we need to develop policies that support the 1) growth the amount of Qld based angel/VC and PE capital available to ventures and small business to circa $250 M within 5 years and 2) importing/developing/networking of relevant expertise.”
Wayne Gerard, co-founder and chief executive at mining start-up RedEye Apps identified developing career paths, the ecosystem and supporting legislation as key to growing the local start-up sector.
He writes that defining the government’s role in establishing the ecosystem was also key.
“Co-ordinating, supporting, strengthening and leveraging the existing start-up activities, groups, networks, funding, and media to increase the awareness of our growing start-up ecosystem, locally, nationally and internationally to attract more entrepreneurs, investors, developers, support service providers, clients,” Gerard wrote.
The summit will take place on December 12, 2013. The online forum closes December 4.
Rose is the current head of growth at Rampersand Ventures. She was formerly a reporter at StartupSmart.
