StartupAUS

Understanding Australian entrepreneurship culture.

The Client

StartupAus is a not-for-profit organisation with a vision to make Australia one of the best places in the world to build a tech start-up. Its efforts are focused on improving the regulatory environment, building a case for the right sort of Government support for a fast-growing sector, and increasing public awareness of the impact of tech start-ups across the country. StartupAus works with start-ups and investors to help governments around the country get the settings right to create successful start-up ecosystems.

The Challenge

StartupAUS has identified three factors to play a critical role in developing high-functioning start-up ecosystems. In order to thrive, start-up ecosystems need:

• An abundance of capital
• Access to a vibrant and appropriately-skilled talent pool
• A culture which encourages and nurtures entrepreneurship

Australian’s general public perception of entrepreneurship seems to remain a limiting factor for start-up formation rates. Anecdotal evidence suggests that community understanding of entrepreneurship is limited, and that negative social attitudes towards the tech entrepreneur journey remain prevalent. StartupAUS is looking for EMBA students to investigate the relationship between culture and entrepreneurship in Australia, and provide recommendations to effectively develop a culture of entrepreneurship.

The Solution

The EMBA team produced two key outcomes:

• Short and long term actionable recommendations for StartupAUS

With the objective of identifying cultural bottlenecks, perceptions and attitudes which might hold back potential and emerging Australian start-ups, the team confirmed some of the assumptions about a lack of support for entrepreneurship generally. However, it was also found that Australians value entrepreneurship and see Australia as having the opportunity to become a world leader in tech start-ups. A key recommendation from this project was for StartupAUS to focus on supporting Higher Education to promote entrepreneurship based on the finding that young Australians see self-made success via entrepreneurship as attractive.

“Partnering with UTS gave us an opportunity to engage with some of the most promising entrepreneurship-focused students in the country.”

- Alex McCauley, CEO, StartupAUS