Google jumps into Aussie start-up arena
Google Australia today announced a series of start-up events, to help Australian entrepreneurs transform their ideas into start-up businesses.
The company is launching "Google Sudo", which Google Australia and New Zealand engineering director Alan Noble called a start-up "shindig", which will consist of talks, panels, Hangouts on Google+ and networking events to bring the budding entrepreneurs together with investors and experienced businesspeople. The hope is that entrepreneurs will benefit from the insights and advice of those who have gone through the start-up process before.
The idea for the program had sprung from a Google Developer Day in Sydney, Noble said on the Google Australia blog.
"What struck me about these budding entrepreneurs was that, although they were overflowing with ideas and technical know-how, they were hungry for advice on things like how to attract funding, find business partners and market their idea or product," he said.
Google decided to fill the start-up wisdom gap with the Sudo program. The name comes from the Unix command "sudo", which grants systems administrators super-user privileges.
"Think of a Google Sudo as something that grants entrepreneurs [access] to some of the secrets of success," Noble said.
The first event will be held on Wednesday, 30 May at 5pm AEST, in Google's Sydney offices. It will be an interactive session that will, amongst other things, cover incubation and venture capital.
The speakers will be Noble, Shoes of Prey co-founders Mike Fox and Mike Knapp, Sydney Angels co-founder Vivian Stewart and Southern Cross Venture Partners managing director Bill Bartee, representing the entrepreneur, angel investor and venture capital elements of the industry, respectively.
Noble asked those interested to register their interest, although he cautioned that the company would not be able to accommodate everyone.
"There's no shortage of budding Aussie entrepreneurs wanting to give start-up life a go," he said. "Everyone benefits from a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem and we think companies like Google can play a role in fostering the enormous talent we have down under."