Making Sydney a competitive tech start-up hub

Sydney’s status as a global hotspot for innovation is set to grow as the City of Sydney’s new tech start-ups action plan gives entrepreneurs support to launch new businesses.

The plan aims to foster a vibrant tech start-up ecosystem which will not only provide support for people to start their own tech business, but also link them to industry support programs and, importantly, investors.

Currently, 44% of all start-up companies are based in Sydney, compared to 17% in Melbourne.

Stephane Ibos, CEO and co-founder of Sydney-based global start-up success story Maestrano, which provides integrated cloud apps for SMBs, said Sydney is a great place to launch a tech start-up.

“We’re proud to be part of such a vibrant ecosystem,” said Ibos. “With a solid and properly built action plan, I’m sure that City of Sydney will provide the support our start-ups need to thrive and reach a global scale,” he said.

“Helping start-ups access mentoring and capital, and supporting them in getting their first clients and define their go-to-market strategies, will undoubtedly help many aspiring businesses grow faster and improve their robustness.”

The City’s draft plan was viewed by more than 3000 people during a three-month public exhibition last year. Feedback that followed called for more skills and knowledge training to help start and scale business through programs, workshops, seminars and international speakers.

“We’ve developed our tech start-ups action plan to encourage more people to take the risk on starting a high-potential start-up, to increase opportunities for them to access investment and talent, expand office and event space, create a more connected ecosystem and reduce the regulatory barriers they face,” said Lord Mayor Clover Moore.

“The needs of tech start-ups are often very different to those of other small businesses. To create the jobs of the future, we need to find ways to develop more skilled entrepreneurs, particularly women, and enable them to scale and succeed in a large and often global market.”

The start-up economy 2013 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers predicted the Australian tech start-up sector could generate more than 500,000 jobs by 2033.

Interested persons can get involved in a number of initiatives that currently support local tech start-ups, such as the annual CeBIT technology conference, Startup Week Sydney, Springboard Enterprises Australia (a fast-track accelerator program to support up-and-coming female entrepreneurs) and the popular 101 Business Seminars, which features tech start-up sessions (also available as podcasts).

Image caption: Maestrano CEO Stephane Ibos. Image courtesy of City of Sydney.