Mike, the co-founder of
Atlassian has written a post about
the lack of big and successful Aussie global web 2.0 startups, making some good points in it. There's also a nice discussion in the comments too, giving some other points including some interesting ones about the state of our legal system and how non-conducive it is to startups. Check it out at:
http://blogs.atlassian.com/rebelutionary/archives/2007/02/where_are_the_aussie_startups.htmlNot having been through the whole startup thing, or heard anything from the wider Australian community about startups (apart from the fact that my parents would rather I focus on my studies 110%, funding me so I don't have/want to work, though that's probably an Asian thing more than anything else), there's probably not much I can add with any authority (not that much of the stuff on this blog comes with much authority anyway
).
But I reckon the biggest barrier is the fear of change, the fear of the unknown, the fear of the unplanned and the fear of failure. We all have these great ideas, some more wacky than others, but most of us just don't have the guts to get out there and try it out. Most of us don't even get to the point where we need to consider the legal or business situation. Fear is a sort of safety blanket for us - once that's gone we're bare to the world. The world would be a much more interesting place if we all just tried to make that big idea inside our heads reality, if its so wacky that no one takes it up, fine, but at least you tried it.
Enough mindless babble - I think its obvious from what I've posted on this blog that I'm gonna give it a go, screw what everyone else thinks - I'll be the partially blinded (figuratively speaking), self-driven, hard working, head-first diver going to make a splash in the startup pool
. But talk's cheap, so I'll leave it there.