A bunch of interesting/ entertaining shared links (shlinks) from the last few weeks at Pollenizer for your reading pleasure. Happy shlinking.
Current start-up/ VC climate in Australia:
Is Surry Hills becoming the new Silicon Valley? Mahesh Sharma thinks so:
http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/business-it/silicon-hills-it-has-a-ring-to-it-20120615-20egj.html
There has been a lot of discussion about the current venture capital climate in Australia. Asher Moses talks to 99dresses founder Nikki Durkin about the ‘brain drain’ of young entrepreneurs from Australia: http://m.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/brain-drain-why-young-entrepreneurs-leave-home-20120517-1ytoo.html
For a more optimistic outlook on Australia’s start-up climate, check out Jacky Yap’s piece. Keep an eye out for the cheeky reference to Pygg in the 2nd paragraph:
http://e27.sg/2012/07/03/is-australia-the-next-upcoming-tech-startup-hotspot-to-watch/
Heard of the Aussie Mafia? A bunch of Australian entrepreneurs, fed up with the lack of funding for entrepreneurs in Australia, are pooling together at least $20 million to invest in themselves. Read more on the Aussie movement into Silicon Valley:
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/300-the-small-aussie-force-willing-to-risk-all-20120604-1zqxi.html#ixzz1zXZgXrbH
Speaking of Tech hubs, this article looks at the development of the “new spirit of entrepreneurship” in San Francisco and a possible movement away from Silicon Valley. Interesting read.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/19/san-francisco-vs-silicon-valley-where-should-you-build-your-business/
The Startup Round-up
(News/ buzz about new start-ups around the world)
Instagram’s Systrom: Video is hard, but Cinemagram is interesting. Startups like Viddy and Socialcam are angling to be the Instagram of video — that is, to figure out some simple way of creating, editing and sharing mobile videos, in a way that resonates with users like the photo-sharing service has. Read more: http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/19/instagrams-systrom-video-is-hard-but-cinemagram-is-interesting-also-focus-on-big-problems/
BancBox unveils its its new payment platform. Co-founder Sanj Goyle says: “PayPal could be built on top of our platform.” http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/20/bancbox-debuts-its-payments-platform-you-could-build-a-paypal-on-this/
Watch out Pandora, Spotify just introduced a free, streaming radio service in the U.S: http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/19/watch-out-pandora-spotify-just-introduced-a-free-streaming-radio-service-in-the-u-s/
Other stuff:
What is your one metric for your startup? http://blog.asmartbear.com/one-priority.html
“From board meeting to board meeting, we are seeing a similar pattern. Web is flattish. But mobile is growing like a weed.”
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/07/mobile-is-where-the-growth-is.html
Plastic-eating fungi found in the Amazon may solve the world’s waste problem: http://mashable.com/2012/03/07/plastic-eating-fungi/
Higgs Boson announced. If it pans out, this will be this year’s Nobel Prize. This is huge for our understanding of Physics: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/07/watch-live-higgs-talk/
Mark Zuckerberg talks about the Facebook IPO: http://www.borowitzreport.com/2012/05/25/a-message-about-facebook/