There are some serious problem with the immigration laws in Australia that would make such ecosystem very fragile.<p>For example, we tried to hire a remote friend to move inland and work with us - and he is over qualified - yet because he's over 30, his chances of making it after 2 years of struggle with immigration are next to none.<p>So as long as this happen, startups will be dead in the water. Australia has a lot of smart people, but that's not enough. The US west coast attracts all the smarts and doesn't block them in.
"[No] Australians are much more risk adverse"
<i>I think they mean averse in this phrase</i><p>its not that Australians are more risk averse, its that we have a culture of "tall poppy syndrome", which means that people that tend to become outliers, especially highly successful, tend to get "taken down a peg". It's ironic because we have quite a high work ethic.<p>I lived in Northern California for a few months and saw a massive difference in the way that people believe that anything is possible and look up to innovators (as a society).
I wish it wasn't the case, but based on recent HN discussion[1] .au has a number of issues to overcome (esp. re: dispersal of equity to founders)<p>[1] <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4169847" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4169847</a>
There's been a long history of Australian inventors leaving Australia to get backing in Europe or the US.<p>Hopefully things are changing for the better:
E.g.
Atlassian -
<a href="http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/entrepreneur/100m-software-sold-a-year-not-a-single-cold-call-20120628-214k1.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/entrepreneur/100m-so...</a><p>99designs -
<a href="http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/managing/blogs/enterprise/need-some-help-the-world-is-waiting-20110602-1fh0j.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/managing/blogs/enter...</a>
If you're interested in the startup scene in Australia there are some great groups. e.g. Silicon Beach. The Jelly events are great too. You tend to find the same people at the occasional hack-a-thon and unconference-style events.<p>I'd also recommend getting over to some co-working spaces. Events are great, but I've found them a better way to connect to a broader audience. In Melbourne I'd recommend Inspire9, but there are others (The Hub, OpenHub). There are similar counterparts in Sydney.
"if there are two startups, one in Australia and one in the USA, both targeting the USA market, which do you think is going to win?”<p>99Designs vs. Crowdspring, <a href="http://www.google.com/trends/?q=crowdspring,+99designs&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/trends/?q=crowdspring,+99designs&c...</a>, leads me to believe that 99Designs is more popular, even though it was also later to market.
They didnt mention that a lot of Australians go overseas to work for companies, which could be a boon for us if an ecosystem blooms here, as I know a lot of entrepreneurs would love to move back to australia for the lifestyle.
Original page on Quora:
<a href="http://www.quora.com/Is-Australia-becoming-a-hot-place-to-do-startups" rel="nofollow">http://www.quora.com/Is-Australia-becoming-a-hot-place-to-do...</a>
The left-learning government is not supportive of startup business. And the economic indicators are not good.<p>Notable issues include<p><i>High income earners</i> cannot offset business losses, thus deterring entrepreneurs.
<i>IR protections</i> intrude on flexible working.
<i>Border protections</i> make labour import difficult, despite the lack of a critical mass for skills.
<i>Government spending is high</i> (although less than in the US), at 34% of GDP, leaving less on the table for investors to slosh around. This is set to grow as the population age pyramid inverts.
<i>Productivity is low</i>. The only thing keeping growth competitive is the resources sector. This is probably an economic time bomb.
<i>Banks</i> are massively risk averse and unwilling to lend, although the problem is not as severe as in the UK.
<i>Business failure</i> is perceived by many as personal failure rather than a learning experience.<p>The current government is essentially the political branch of the unions. They'd much rather prop up the dying manufacturing sector. Unfortunately there is no credible alternative party.<p>If Australia is really unlucky then the ticking productivity bomb will explode along with the demographic inversion, causing a welfare crisis, a debt catastrophe, and probably a major recession.<p>None of this prevents anyone from having a crack.