David Jones store build - time-lapse video

When our David Jones store was being built Ritwik took a time lapse video of the store coming together. Enjoy!

Advertising on YouTube

Great article on why web video ads shouldn't look like TV ads with a brilliant example of a successful video by McDonalds.

You know you've made it when...

...you find counterfeit product posted online! ;)

From a website in Vietnam. Check out the tag...

8 Tips for Startups Raising Capital

Last Friday I gave a presentation at Fishburners sharing 8 lessons we learnt through our Series A fundraising process. Fishburners filmed the talk which I've embedded below. The sound improves dramatically just after the 6min mark. :)

Welcome to the Shoes of Prey team Ann, Helen and Sue!

I'm very excited to welcome Ann Chen and Sue Su to the Shoes of Prey team in China!

Ann joined Shoes of Prey a few months ago and has been working on managing our production schedule and sourcing. Ann hails from Henan Province and has a Bachelor of Engineering from Zhengzhou University. Before joining Shoes of Prey, Ann worked in various women's shoe trading companies as a developer, paper pattern maker and 3D scanner operator.

Helen hails from Hunan province and has been working with women's shoes her entire working life. She majored in Business English at technical college in Hunan and speaks and writes English fluently. Prior to joining Shoes of Prey, Helen worked as a developer at a women's shoe trading company, liaising with foreign clients to develop new shoe prototypes. Prior to this, Helen was a buyer for a shoe factory where she was responsible for coordinating and executing the purchasing of materials in accordance with clients' requests. Outside of work, Helen is a keen cook and also enjoys riding her bike.

Sue recently joined our team in China and is a local of Guangdong Province. She earned a Degree in English Education from Zhaoqing College and speaks fluent Cantonese, Mandarin and English. Sue previously spent six years at a shoe trading company primarily working with Nike to develop baseball and soccer shoes. Whilst there, Sue held the positions of developer, promotions team leader and purchasing team leader. Sue was also previously a part-time English teacher to local children.

It's great to have Ann, Helen and Sue on board!

Sydney Appiness

The team at Pollenizer, with sponsorship from Telstra are running a hackathon to make apps for charities. Details from their website:

DO GOOD. GEEK OUT. WIN BIG.

24th, 25th of May and 1st June @ Pollenizer Hive, Surry Hills

Make somebody happy with an app they need.

Appiness is for people who love to make something new. We invite designers, engineers and entrepreneurs to gather for two and a half days of relentless creativity to build brand new apps that truly help people.

The competition begins on Friday evening (24th May 2013) with a pitch for help from four charities. After the pitches, we form into teams and get issued with an Appiness toolkit for each member of the team.

Over the next two Saturdays (25th May 2013 and 1st June 2013) and any time we have in between, we build our apps.

Teams will be supported by leading figures in the Australian startup community and the winners will be backed by Telstra and Pollenizer to take the product forward to the next level.

Places strictly limited to 50 attendees.

You can apply for a spot here: http://appiness.eventbrite.com

It's a fantastic concept, is a great opportunity to give back and no doubt will be both fun and a good Sydney startup community networking opportunity. Mike and Ritwik from the Shoes of Prey team have both applied to attend.

The Australia Tech Startup Sector

Following on from our Startup Australia workshop, PwC research finds $109 billion economic lift and 540,000 jobs to be unlocked from Australian tech startup sector.

The report "The Startup Economy: How to support tech startups and accelerate Australian innovation" (embedded below) provides a snapshot of Australia’s 1500 current tech startups and a roadmap to help ensure the success of the sector.

Australian entrepreneurs working more closely with educators, government and corporate Australia is the key to unlocking the potential of the tech startup sector. The startup sector is a rapidly growing part of the economy which has the capacity to contribute four per cent of GDP or $109 billion and create 540,000 new jobs by 2033.

According to the report findings, the key ways to unlock the potential of the sector are:

• Attract more entrepreneurs with the right skills: In the short term Australia needs 2,000 more tech entrepreneurs each year drawn from the existing workforce. In the long term, our education sector must produce more skilled tech entrepreneurs.
• Foster a stronger and open culture of entrepreneurship: Australia has a considerably higher ‘fear of failure’ rate than nations like the U.S. and Canada, constraining the sector. The tech community is key to changing this by celebrating its own success and becoming more inclusive.

Also important is:

• Encourage more early stage funding: Funding for the Australian tech startup sector will need to increase. Australia invests approximately $7.50 per capita in venture capital per annum (all quoted in US$ figures), compared to the United States ($75) and Israel ($150).
• Open up local markets to tech startups: Governments are major consumers with spending totalling $41bn in 2012. They can become more startup friendly with procurement reform. Continue to improve the regulatory environment, such as removing the barriers created by taxing Employee Share Option Plans up front.

PwC Google the Startup Economy 2013