So apparently there’s an event happening in Sydney this week? Everyone in Australia’s startup ecosystem is descending on the harbour city for the second edition of SXSW Sydney.
I (SmartCompany editor-in-chief Simon Crerar) am filling this from a cafe in Hobart, en route to HBA and then Sydney – my day started with a 5.55am alarm and the 6.45am Cygnet bus.
This week our star senior tech reporter Tegan Jones and I will be bringing you all the news, views and “Overheard at the ICC” gossip we can right here: we hope you’ll join us, email me here or slide into our DMs if you have any juicy hot-takes.
We are planning to attend half a dozen or so events each day.
Simon:
I joined Tegan for the non-official finale to day one at SXSW Sydney: Startmate’s gigantic demo day/rave at the iconic State Theatre. TJ’s top four pitches are below. I concur with two of her choices (physiotherapy clinician support platform Preve and fire protection player Hurtec). I also liked postpartum wellness hotel Borne and Kiwi natural oil extraction technology business NE Tech.
After the rave (sorry Demo Day) we stumbled out into a rainy Sydney evening. A very excited Startmate CEO Michael Batko informed us the first 100 people to make it to the Cargo Bar after the party would receive a free hat.
TJ wisely headed home to care for her sick cat (see 09.00 post below) but I braved the drizzle and hot-footed it down to Darling Harbour to claim my cap: who knows, it might be sunny tomorrow?!
Over fizzy wine and house beers – but no non-alc options – I chatted to the founders of Preve, Hurtec and Borne, who Startmate had helpfully tied balloons to for easy identification.
After debriefs with ecosystems legends Alan Crabbe (founder of Frontcover and co-founder of Pozible and Birchal) and Gary Williams (Group Group head honcho, ex-Tractor Ventures, ex-FuckUp Nights) I retired to my hotel.
We’ll have more on Startmate tomorrow. SC
Tegan:
Sadly my hotspotting wasn’t up to the live blogging task.
Perhaps it simply couldn’t handle anything after the opening DJ set.
Instead, I have collated my top four picks out of the startups that pitched:
Hurtec
Hurtec wants to modernise the efficiency and safety of firefighting with a system that includes retrofitting existing vehicles with automated pumps and sensors, as well as SaaS element that removes the need for paper forms while en route to a fire.
The founders say that its system can reach higher fires, that the pump can refill with the push of a button, and that the system captures critical data in real time.
It is also bringing out bespoke utes fitted with the tech.
Considering how brutal our bushfire season is, I really hope to see this startup flourish.
Preve
Preve is tackling a common issue in physiotherapy: patient follow-through. And look I may be biased on this one as I have chronic neck and shoulder problems.
Also because the founder’s outfits were serving Sven from How I Met Your Mother.
According to the founders, the biggest issue with physio is patient drop-off rates.
Preve has built a platform that incentivises patients to stick to their recovery plans through automated tracking and payment reductions.
Perhaps most impressive was offering patients a discount on physio sessions as an incentive to go back while still injured in recovery. I’d be super interested to see how this would play out in practice and who foots that gap in the bill.
Fairgo.ai
Fairgo.ai is going after inefficiencies in the recruitment market with AI- generated video interviews.
With the average cost per hire in Australia sitting at around $20,000, and the time to hire stretching to 29 days — it is definitely a market ripe for disruption.
Fairgo.ai’s solution says it can cut screening costs from $180 to just $1 per applicant.
Employers are able to provide a job description and Fairgo.ai’s platform automatically generates relevant interview questions. Candidates then complete a live video interview, which is recorded and reviewed by the hiring team at their convenience.
The platform says it can reduce recruitment bottlenecks and mitigate hiring biases, especially for businesses dealing with high application volumes. Considering that AI still has a bias problem in many respects, I look forward to seeing how this plays out.
Recant.ai
Recant.ai aims to block online abuse by using AI to block harmful messages before users ever see them.
It will also send a message to the abuser to tell them to stop and warn them about potential outcomes, such as legal ramifications. The founder also said that users will be equipped with the information, such as escalating to law enforcement, they need if the abuse were to continue.
The service allows users to set boundaries across platforms to block exactly what they don’t want to see.
Its MVP has been on Twitter, but it is also in the process of building for Instagram with 10 paying customers already on-board.
For brands, businesses and influencers, this could be a useful tool to manage online toxicity. This is particularly true for Australia when we have such tight defamation laws that can result in lawsuits based on what random people post on a brand, business or publication’s social media.
But I wonder about whether individuals who don’t have the money to protect themselves should have to pay for something like this. I’m thinking things like teen bullying, which has resulted in suicides
It’s just a shame that we’ve gotten to a point where the responsibility for protection is falling on individuals rather than the platforms themselves. Big tech has a lot to answer for in that regard. TJ
Tegan:
We’ll get to the startups in a moment, but we’re taking a quick detour for a cheeky exclusive.
The evening has been peppered with videos of former Startmate accelerator founders and one was Sophie Silver — co-founder of Polymath.
Polymath is an EdTech startup that transforms maths into individual, tailored games for kids.
During the short video Silver revealed that the company had closed a $1.5 million pre-seed raise earlier this year. Details were light but we’re working on it. TJ
Tegan
A special shoutout to the two blokes behind me (I was in row H) who chatted throughout the Welcome to Country.
Mates, never do this. It’s disrespectful. You’ll be fine not hearing your own voice for five minutes, I promise.
Fortunately, the rest of the audience was doing the right thing. TJ
Tegan
The day turns into night as the startup community decamps from Darling Harbout to the State Theatre for Startmate’s Demo Day.
Eleven startups from the winter accelerator cohort will take to the stage to pitch up a storm.
They’ll follow now huge successes in the Australian startup ecosystem that also went through the program in the past. These include Heaps Normal, Uluu, Morse Micro, Bugcrowd and Upguard.
As I said earlier this morning, last year Science Minister Ed Husic opened the night, dropping an interesting nugget about the National Reconstruction Fund (NRF) directing investors to invest in women.
Considering the size of Demo Day has ballooned out from last year, I wonder if it’ll stick with the high calibre opener (and maybe even a scoop) this year too?
Some of the startups we’ll see tonight include involve:
There’s no wi-fi to speak of and my hotspot is screaming in pain — but I’ll do my best to keep you updated through the night! TJ
Simon:
Plate It Forward’s journey began with a vision to transform the hospitality landscape by intertwining delicious food with powerful social impact.
“I didn’t start a restaurant to be the fifth best Sri Lankan restaurant,” Christie-David told the SXSW audience.
“The goal was to create a restaurant that people understood was a social enterprise. Our first restaurant was Colombo Social in Enmore, launched in November 2019 (a great time!) which was about growing up as a migrant. The food we created was fusion food – soft shell crab taco with roti. Kabul Social and Kyiv Social have followed.”
On a mission to break the cycle of inequality, Plate It Forward has now provided more than 600,000 free meals and paid more than $4 million in wages to underrepresented community staff.
There are 12,000 social enterprises in Australia, generating 1% of GDP, and employing 1.6% of employees. Although Plate It Forward is a male-founded business, Christie-David points out 50% of Australian social enterprises are led by women vs 20% of traditional businesses. SC
Simon:
Mercifully only 45 minutes late (thank you Qantas) into Sydney, I hot-footed it straight from the airport to the ICC, checked my bag and registered in five minutes (no queues, being late = winning), had a Who Gives A Crap moment in the expo, and still made my first session Plate It Forward, with culinary entrepreneur Shaun-Christie David, who is on a quest to become Australia’s first Good Food Guide Hatted (or Michelin-starred) social enterprise. SC
Tegan:
I’ve heard from multiple sources that SXSW passes weren’t checked at the sessions held at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) last year.
Is this free-for-all carrying into 2024?
If you’ve been loitering around Broadway and can confirm or deny, let us know! TJ
Tegan:
We’re almost halfway through day 1 (after parties not included) and apparently the registration queue hasn’t improved much.
It’s still snaking and very slow-moving.
According to a source, the staff started accepting QR codes from those who left the line to catch Canva’s Mel Perkin’s keynote. TJ
Tegan:
You can always count on X / Twitter to provide the gossip goods.
One attendee spotted a vending machine (hall 4 entrance on level 2) where the visible prices had been removed. After making a selection they found that the price of gum was $12????
They were also kind enough to check out the tampon prices for us. Also $12. Or, roughly a 240% markup.
A great reminder why conventions and businesses need to offer period products for free.
What gives, ICC? Why no visible prices and why the massive price gouging?
In other deeply unsurprising news, the registration lines have apparently been long and arduous. TJ
Simon
The most recent tech conference I covered as a reporter was in 1999 (!!!!). I have never been to the OG SXSW in Austin, and missed last year’s inaugural Sydney event at the last minute when kids went down with covid the week before.
This week, we’re doing a live blog/rolling virtual news desk – and full disclosure the last time I did this as a report was in 2005-9 when I covered entertainment for The Times, specifically two weeks each May and ten days each September covering the Cannes and Venice film festivals.
We know there is HEAPS going on in Sydney this week, including lots of startup/tech/AI-related stuff, plus the official SXSW pitch comp. I have four events at the ICC and UTS biz school this afternoon before hot-footing it to meet Tegan at the State Theatre for Startmate’s Demo Day. Exciting!
We’ll update this rolling blog each day, linking to previous days at the top and bottom if you’ve just come in. Mostly these will be short items – *what we’re seeing/hearing*, gossip, chatter etc – with SC at the foot if I write them, and TJ if Tegan does. We’ll link out to anything more substantial we publish as standalone articles.
SmartCompany’s mission is to fight for, champion, and scrutinise SMEs and startups, authoritatively covering entrepreneurship and the cultural, strategic and technological innovations reshaping workplaces. A huge amount of what happens this week is potentially newsworthy: if we hear about it, you’ll find it here. SC
Tegan
If you’ve been anywhere near LinkedIn over the past few weeks you’ve probably been gratuitously smacked in the face with SXSW hype. And while I approach most over enthusiasm with an air of fear and mistrust, I’ll be along for the ride.
Unfortunately for this technology reporter, her SXSW is off to a rocky start with an emergency vet visit preventing me from catching most of day one.
And it’s a shame because Q-CTRLS’s Quantum x Underwater GPS session was going to be a particular highlight of this little nerd’s morning.
Still, there is plenty of juice to be had tonight with Startmate’s Demo Day. Last year Minister Ed Husic spoke, dropping a tasty little tidbit around the NRF directing investors to invest in women.
Unsurprisingly we haven’t seen a lot of that a full year later. But what else is new? Will we see some similar spice sprinkled around tonight? Stay tuned.
Of course, we can’t be everywhere, especially when sitting in a vet clinic.
So we’re relying on you, attendees. Have you heard anything juicy? Are panelists saying anything interesting, or even better, controversial? Are there any rumours swirling about the event itself, like asking people to host panels for free?
I couldn’t possibly comment on that, but maybe you can.
Find me on LinkedIn, Instagram or drop a comment below.
Anonymity guaranteed. TJ
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Simon Crerar is the managing director of Impact&ble, a sustainable impact advisory firm. He was editor-in-chief of SmartCo Media from 2022-24, and before that the founding editor and then GM of BuzzFeed Australia. Simon began his career on Fleet Street at The Times, and has also worked for the SMH and News Corp Australia. He champions businesses having a positive impact on LinkedIn.
Deputy editor
A multi-award-winning journalist, Tegan has been reporting on technology, telecommunications and gaming for the past 10 years. She regularly appears on mainstream media channels as an expert tech commentator. Her previous roles include editor of Gizmodo Australia and global reviews editor at Finder. She has also served as a reporter and editor across Business Insider, Lifehacker and Kotaku Australia. Tegan is also the co-host of one of the top technology podcasts in Australia, Weird Tech. You can find her on Twitter @Tegan_Writes.
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