Bootstrappr comes out of stealth mode
When Apple supremo Steve Jobs was interviewed for the famous 1996 PBS documentary Triumph of the Nerds, he clarified exactly why people get involved in technology start-ups.
"I was worth over a million dollars when I was 23, over $10 million when I was 24, and over $100 million when I was 25," he told interviewer Robert X. Cringely. "It wasn't that important," Jobs continued. "Because I never did it for the money."
(Credit: Apple)
Paraphrasing later statements by Jobs, the Apple king, like many entrepreneurs, felt compelled to become a pirate and revolutionise the industry from his own, sometimes leaky, ship rather than "joining the navy" and simply taking a safe job in a large corporate like IBM.
These sentiments can be found everywhere in the Australian technology start-up scene, which is currently bulging at the seams with new companies. Take Bronwen Clune, a former news journalist who is now the energetic leader of Perth-based social news outfit Norg Media.
Or Ben Barren, a dotcom veteran with a string of corporate names like Ninemsn in his past, and who is now selling his own brand of Web 2.0, developed in Melbourne, right back to them.
It's with this energy in mind that I'm starting bootstrappr, a new blog hosted on ZDNet.com.au that will track the fortunes of Australia's technology start-up scene. We'll hang out at Barcamp and keep an eye on twitter, test out the latest and greatest from Aussie entrepreneurs, and be the first to tell you when they fall in a heap.
Of course, while Jobs may not have co-founded Apple for the money, there is no doubt it must be nice to be worth a cool US$5.4 billion (according to Forbes).
So the ultimate judgement that bootstrappr will apply to every start-up we come across will be, simply put, our opinion on whether they have what it takes to "boom", or whether they are likely to hit rock bottom and "bust".
Hopefully we'll find the next Wotif.com, Seek or Realestate.com.au along the way.