International Business Readiness for startups and scaleups

Over 30 April – 11 May 2018, 25 Indonesian entrepreneurs, government representatives and Venture Capital Association representatives were immersed in local entrepreneurial ecosystems in Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane.  Imagine if you had the opportunity to meet startups that had raised significant capital, investors, Mayors, business, industry and ecosystem leaders, with networking events and meetings that matched your goals and aspirations.

This exciting program for technology enabled start-ups leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators across AgTech, EdTech, FinTech, Health/MedTech, Business and Professional Services including Venture Capital and Government, was led by Wendy Perry and Ralf Muhlberger together with Nelson Salangsang and the team from QUT International for the Australia Awards Indonesia program.

Sydney was the first location including a welcome, program overview and lessons from Andrew Widjaja, who was involved in the setup of Metro TV in Indonesia, on Australian culture.  Participants heard from Max Girault from FLEET who in less than 12 months, the startup has completed a $5 million Series A capital raise, partnered with French space agency CNES, opened offices in LA and the Netherlands and seen its workforce balloon to more than 20 employees.

Following sessions on scaling up technology and people, the group visited Sydney Startup Hub, Stone and Chalk, FinTech Australia and Tank Stream Labs.  This was followed by a networking event on Darling Harbor with the Australia Indonesia Business Council (AIBC).  Speakers at this event included Michael Fay and Nick Leaver from AIBC; Rey from Snapcart, Luthfi from AMVESINDO (VC association) and Veronica from Tokopedia.

Guest speakers and meetings with Gaurav Sood – DigitalHealthX, Tom Durick – Data61 CSIRO, and Carolyn Birchill – Biversity saw participants pick up ideas for applying data, information and new discovery technologies plus fitting in a number of one on one meetings.

Flying to the City of Entrepreneurs, Adelaide saw a day’s training with award winning pitch coach Scott Perry and a session on the important of Intellectual Property with Adele Flego.  A MEGA Meetup that night saw Stanis, Maryati and Denita pitch alongside Australian entrepreneurs and startups from across the various industry sectors.

At the kick off of the City of Entrepreneurs Tour in Adelaide, Indonesian entrepreneurs met The Lord Mayor of Adelaide, Martin Haese and Councillor Houssam Abiad who welcomed them to South Australia.  The Adelaide Smart City Studio managed by Josh Garratt provided an intro to the local startup scene with the group visiting Moonshine Lab, Chooks SA (female entrepreneurs, founders and innovators), Collab4Good, Harvest Fair, KIK Coffee, ThincLab, Myriota and SAHMRI.

Exploring the city over the weekend saw people in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, at the beach, wineries, enjoying local produce, the environment and national parks.

Hamilton Secondary School was a highlight as participants experienced the Mars simulation then onto the Tonsley Innovation District for a tour and lunch on Capital Raising and Investing with James McGill and Stuart Snyder.  A quick stop in at world-leading FCT Flames where they create torches for the Olympic Games, fire and water effects then saw the group fly up to Brisbane for the final leg of the trip.

An engaging welcome to country by local Aboriginal dance group at QUT lead into sessions with QUT Creative Enterprise Australia – Nicole Jordan and Shelli Trung on Doing Business with Big Business and Fundraising in Australia and seeing pitched at the Catalyst Collective Pre-accelerator.

Investor, Anthony Owen – Failures and Funding followed by a visit to River City Labs with Sam Joyce and Peta Ellis plus an evening sessions on Collisions: Scaling a Global Business.

The final couple of days involved a ‘growth hack’ on participants’ projects, one on one meetings and visit to Blue Chilli.  Participants identified many highlights over the two weeks in Australia,

“I love the trips to FCT and Hamilton Secondary School. It opens our minds about what’s current, or other stuff that we didn’t know before”

“The opportunity to connect with Australian start-ups, companies, to visit the facilities related to our fields and to learn in one of the best institutions in Australia and be part of the alumni network”

“The highlight is the Mega Meet Up in Adelaide because every industry is joining the meeting up and get chance to talk deeper with other start up in same industry”

Pitching, presentations, evaluation and feedback was celebrated with a farewell dinner and awarding of certificates.  Saturday before heading home on Sunday, the group enjoyed the Gold Coast, fed kangaroos and took many selfies!

You can read all about the program via this Storify link:

https://storify.com/waperry/techscaleupid-5921a8944142d5e438b54f13#publicize

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