8 companies from this year's Startmate batch incorporated in the US from day 1 (last year only 2 flipped up post incorporation).
Flightfox is in YC. Happy Inspector is in 500 startups. Scriptrock raised in the US. Ninjablocks went nuts on Kickstarter and also raised in the US. The other 4 I believe are either back in Australia or are heading back here, most of them also raised money in the US.
So why did they incorporate in the US instead of Australia? Because ONE company from Startmate 2011 raised in Australia (that'd be us), and even then most of our first round came from the US.
So the choice is either to run an incubator that results in no companies getting funded, OR you get them to a place where they can raise money and be successful, and last I checked that's the whole point of an incubator.
As far as VC's go, it makes literally no sense for a VC to be pushing their portfolio companies to the US were valuations are higher. All they'd be doing is making it more expensive for themselves to invest in future rounds. They're not that dumb.
There will continue to be no investment in startups in Australia until there is PROOF that investing in Australian startups isn't a dickhead investment. The best way to do that is to do everything you can to get these companies to be successful. These companies are doing great things in the US and it is ALREADY encouraging several (up to 6 that I know of) new funds to get started in Australia WITH substantial incentives from the Aus Govt.
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What a lot of shit.
8 companies from this year's Startmate batch incorporated in the US from day 1 (last year only 2 flipped up post incorporation).
Flightfox is in YC. Happy Inspector is in 500 startups. Scriptrock raised in the US. Ninjablocks went nuts on Kickstarter and also raised in the US. The other 4 I believe are either back in Australia or are heading back here, most of them also raised money in the US.
So why did they incorporate in the US instead of Australia? Because ONE company from Startmate 2011 raised in Australia (that'd be us), and even then most of our first round came from the US.
So the choice is either to run an incubator that results in no companies getting funded, OR you get them to a place where they can raise money and be successful, and last I checked that's the whole point of an incubator.
As far as VC's go, it makes literally no sense for a VC to be pushing their portfolio companies to the US were valuations are higher. All they'd be doing is making it more expensive for themselves to invest in future rounds. They're not that dumb.
There will continue to be no investment in startups in Australia until there is PROOF that investing in Australian startups isn't a dickhead investment. The best way to do that is to do everything you can to get these companies to be successful. These companies are doing great things in the US and it is ALREADY encouraging several (up to 6 that I know of) new funds to get started in Australia WITH substantial incentives from the Aus Govt.