How do you land a model cope with world music famous person Robbie Williams?
Straightforward – ship him a track by way of voice be aware.
At Startmate’s current Alumni Demo Day in Sydney, Andy Miller from non-alcoholic beer startup Heaps Regular (Startmate class of winter 2020) recalled how he heard from the singer’s crew that Robbie was a fan. It’s been greater than 25 years since he’s had a drink, however after coming throughout the model on his Australian tour.
The famous person and brewer started chatting about changing into a model ambassador, however when the dialog went quiet, Miller adopted up by recording himself singing to Williams asking what his favorite drink was.
For extra sensible recommendation, we spoke to Andy and a number of the different founders pitching on the evening about their largest classes going by way of the accelerator.
His recommendation? Simply begin.
“It sounds corny, but it’s literally [to] believe in yourself and start before you’re ready, because you’ve already got everything that you need to be able to succeed.”
“And work it out as you go. The best way to solve the problems that you think you’re going to have is to just start doing something.”
Francis Vierboom, who cofounded drone begin up Propellor Aero in 2015 (the identical yr he did Startmate), had two items of recommendation to share.
The primary: work at one other startup earlier than beginning your personal.
“One factor I like to inform individuals is strive to not begin your first startup. It’s actually precious to get expertise round startups and dealing in a startup, earlier than you begin one your self,” he stated.
“Not less than that works for us. And clearly plenty of individuals simply dive into doing it.”
The second is to determine the place your clients shall be purchasing in your merchandise.
“It’s often a really hard question for startups. And for us as a company that was selling a software product to construction teams, it’s a pretty hard question to answer: when and where is a construction company shopping for software? It’s not many places,” Francis stated.
“But figuring out distribution and how your customers are getting into the mood to buy you is pivotal to your business. And Startmate pushes you hard to go and find people that are in that buying mood.”
Andy O’Connor from JustFund (Startmate Summer22 cohort) had an identical downside, constructing monetary options for individuals going by way of divorce. The recommendation he obtained at Startmate and now shares is to hone in on the purchasers.
“If you’re taking a look at a very important social downside, it’s very exhausting to know the place to start out. Notably on the subject of a expertise enterprise, the place you have got a big product construct value earlier than you have got product market match,” he stated
“We had five fantastic mentors and they were all very clear — just stay as close to your clients as you can throughout the entire journey of the business. So [it’s] constantly speaking to clients and your customers to learn as quickly as possible where our product fits best in solving problems for them.”
We additionally requested the founders about how the Startmate group formed the trajectory of their startup.
Assume greater
For Francis from Propeller Aero, it was about how they pushed him to suppose greater.
“It’s at all times been a trademark of Startmate that they need to stage up your ambition. They need you to suppose greater about how a lot scale you possibly can obtain,” he stated.
“And that’s clearly actually vital for the enterprise traders who’re in search of these huge, outsized returns of their investments too.”
WORK180 founder Gemma Lloyd on stage on the Startmate Alumni Demo Day.
Gemma Lloyd from WORK180 (Startmate class of 2018) stated the Startmate group is without doubt one of the most supportive networks she’s ever been a part of.
“The founders and mentors are so generous with their time and advice; everyone genuinely wants to see each other succeed,” she stated.
“In an business the place solely round 2% of VC funding goes to girls, assembly different girls founders and traders, akin to [Skip Capital founder] Kim Jackson, gave me an actual sense of belonging and a perception that change is feasible after we elevate one another up.”
Startmate CEO Michael Batko stated they needed to carry collectively a number of the founders from throughout the years backed by this system to encourage the subsequent technology of founders.
“At conventional Demo Days you see the success over 12 weeks, however you’re nonetheless questioning which firm goes to make it,” he stated.
“Alumni Day flipped that on its head. As a substitute, you bought to witness the awesomeness of the businesses that made it, but in addition hear concerning the rollercoaster of a journey that constructing an organization is. As Andy Miller, founding father of Heaps Regular, put it fantastically, the journey is one stuffed with curveballs: Good or Unhealthy – who’s to say?.”
The following Startmate Demo Day for the Winter25 cohort is on subsequent Thursday, October 23, on the Timber Yard in Melbourne. Particulars right here.
Evan Lim is the content material lead at Local weather Salad — a group supporting Australian local weather tech founders.
