Going Global: Thinking Big From The Start
Details
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Hey Everyone,
This month's Lean Startup Melbourne is all about Going Global.
We’re honored to present the founders of two multi-billion dollar technology companies -- Paul Bassat (Seek and SquarePeg Capital) and John Collison (Stripe) in an exclusive, intimate fireside chat. They’ll discuss their companies’ journeys from newly hatched startups to multinational success, and the insights they’ve gleaned about when and how to expand globally.
We’ll then follow with a panel discussion which will provide you with all the tools (and reasons) you need for an expansion to the UK.
IMPORTANT!!:
We are starting earlier this month, and we have a different venue for this event -- 1000 Pound Bend in the CBD. Make sure to check out the details, so you show up at the right place and the right time!
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The schedule of the night will look like this:
• 5:00pm - Arrival and networking
• 5:20pm - Welcome
• 5:25pm - A brief message from our Sponsors
• 5:30pm - Going Global: Thinking Big From The Start - Part II of the Fireside Chat Series with Paul Bassat (Seek.com.au and SquarePeg Capital) and John Collison (Stripe.com)
• 6:10pm - Audience Q&A
• 6:25pm - London: First Stop In Taking Over The World - Panel discussion with Richard Celm (Accelerator London), Dr Noel Duncan (Sisu Wellness), Andrew Oury (Oury Clark), Alison Airey (UKTI) & Asher Tan (CoinJar)
• 6:55pm - Audience Q&A
• 7:10pm - Networking and Refreshments
Welcome to the continuation of the Fireside Chat Series we kicked off last year with legendary Australian entrepreneur and investor, Seek.com.au and SquarePeg Capital co-founder Paul Bassat moderating a conversation with Stripe.com co-founder and President John Collison.
Last year, in front of a sold out crowd, they had an intimate, open-ended conversation about the key lessons they've learned while launching their startups. Now they'll talk about the key insights they've learned from expanding their businesses around the world.
In the last 2 years, Stripe has expanded to over 20 countries worldwide, working with the fastest growing Internet startups in each of those regions, and helping companies like Twitter, Pinterest, Kickstarter and Shopify expand internationally. Come hear from John about what he thinks are the most compelling business models and Internet growth opportunities globally.
Seek itself has become a dominant global business, launching new products in regions as diverse as China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, South Africa, Kenya, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand.
They’ll talk about key insights that Australian startups should consider when expanding internationally: the when, why, and how to make it pay off.
If you've ever wondered how founders think and talk about their work when they're not on the record, and how they think about juggling all of their projects and priorities amid expansion chaos, this is your chance to listen in and ask some questions yourself!
After the fireside chat we’ll transition into a panel discussion where you'll learn all about why London is a great first stop in going global, and how you successfully make the transition. The panel discussion features Richard Celm as moderator.
Richard launched and managed Accelerator London between 2005-2014 -- it was one of the first Innovation Centres in Shoreditch, in the heart of what is now known as Tech City.
The panel will feature a 30 minute discussion, followed by 15 mins of Q&A covering the following themes:
• London Start-up Landscape & Ecosystem – Programmes, Space, Assistance
• Governance, Legal, Visas, & Company setup options – Specific for Australian’s launching in London. What others have done, what’s possible
• Grants, Funding and other assistance – What’s available, how accessible is it, what you need to do
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Fireside Chat
John Collison
John is president and co-founder of Stripe, the online payments company that is expanding Internet commerce by making it easy for businesses to start accepting payments from all over the world in minutes, with just a few lines of code. John and his brother Patrick Collison started Stripe in 2010 while John was studying physics at Harvard. Their goal was to make accepting payments online simpler and more inclusive, after learning firsthand how difficult it was. Today, the 254-person (and growing!) Stripe team powers thousands of online businesses around the world. Prior to Stripe, John co-founded Auctomatic, which was acquired by Live Current Media in March 2008. Originally from Limerick, Ireland, John lives in San Francisco, California, where Stripe is based.
Paul Bassat
Paul is a co-founder and major shareholder in Square Peg Capital, which is an active investor in early stage and growth stage technology businesses throughout the Asia Pacific region. He is passionate about mentoring management teams that are focussed on building outstanding businesses. In 1997, Paul co-founded SEEK and served as CEO and then as Joint CEO from 1997-2011. SEEK is the world’s largest online employment business and in 13 years went from a start up to one of Australia’s top 100 companies with a market capitalisation of $4.9b.
Paul started his career as a lawyer and practiced for 6 years working on a range of corporate transactions. Paul holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Commerce from The University of Melbourne. He also holds board positions with Wesfarmers and the Australian Football League.
Panel Discussion
Richard Celm
Between 2006-2014 Richard setup and ran one of the first Innovation Centre's in Shoreditch London, in what is now “Tech City”. The centre ‘Accelerator London’ went on to win a number of awards and was recognised in 2009 as one of the top innovation centres in London by the London Development Agency. Whilst there, Richard designed and delivered start-up programmes to hundreds of businesses across London including Innovate London, a £3 mil project linking London’s top innovation centres on behalf of the European Union and Mayor of London. He was also part of the original team that establish and ran the first Digital Shoreditch in 2011, now Europe’s largest creative tech & entrepreneur festival.
Prior to moving to the UK Richard setup, ran and sold small businesses in Australia and USA. Highlights include General Manager of Watson Laminates in San Diego, USA and Marketing Manager and part owner of eatfresh.com (http://eatfresh.com/) (at the time Australia’s largest independent online grocer) in Melbourne, Australia.
He is a mentor on the Startupbootcamp Mobility programme in Copenhagen, a Trustee of the Royal Fusiliers Charity Fund and a programme facilitator and mentor on the University of Cambridge’s Queen’s Young Leaders Programme. He has an MBA from the Melbourne Business School and is a start-up advisor to the Tasmanian Government and a small business mentor for companies in Melbourne and Europe.
Dr Noel Duncan
Noel’s main aim is to help people improve their physical and mental well being, combining technology and human support interventions.
He holds a PhD in Exercise Physiology from the University of Melbourne, and has 20 years experience in elite sport, research and corporate health industries. This includes being Head of Conditioning for the Victorian Bushrangers, as well as the Collingwood and Richmond Football Clubs.
Noel previously co-founded the Fitness2live companies in Australia, UK & USA, which got acquired by McKesson (Asia Pacific) in Sept 2009. He is currently developing his second startup Sisu Wellness with Australian/UK offices.
Alison Airey
Alison heads UK Trade and Investment (UKTI’s) investment team covering Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. In this role, she promotes the UK as a place to do business, with a focus on high priority sectors such as ICT, advanced manufacturing, and life sciences. She also drives UKTI’s Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing promotion work for UKTI’s Australia and New Zealand Network.
Prior to this, Alison held a range of senior roles in business and government. She has advised companies such as BAE Systems, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto on government-relations strategy in Australia and Japan. Alison began her career in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, where she promoted Australia’s interests in North Asia. She is a fluent Japanese speaker and has post-graduate qualifications in Economics from the Australian National University.
Andrew Oury
Andrew started his working life building guitars, and wishing to be an inventor, went to UCL and LSE and studied business and mechanical engineering. He then realised a job in engineering wasn’t exactly what he was looking for, so after a year working in a hedge fund environment and realising that was not a world he wanted either, he joined the family business of lawyers and accountants.
Aside from this Andrew has always been involved in running his own and other businesses. In 2000 Andrew set up a record label (Buttercuts Records Ltd) which released records for around 8 years. He also became, and still is, heavily involved in the skin care industry, developing, branding and launching several Icelandic skincare products into the UK market.
He is a partner at Oury Clark, which specialises in helping businesses set up in the UK
Asher Tan
Asher has a background in economics, formerly providing analysis to leading business magazines on company financial performance and the wider economy. He leads CoinJar - a successful AngelCube alumnus and Australia’s favourite bitcoin company.
SPONSORS
And as usual, this event wouldn't be possible without our generous sponsors:
UKTI
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UK Trade & Investment is a British government agency that provides dedicated, professional assistance on all aspects of locating a new business in the UK or expanding existing facilities. Our services are free-of-charge and include:
• assisting overseas entrepreneurs to develop innovative UK business opportunities through our Global Entrepreneur Programme;
• providing market research on opportunities for your product or service;
• making introductions to sector networks such as industry leaders, chambers of commerce, service providers, universities and centres of R&D excellence;
• and providing analysis to help you choose the right place to set up.
OURY CLARK
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With 80 years of experience Oury Clark are Accountants, Lawyers, Consultants, Recruitment Specialists and Financial Advisors offering a complete solution for your business.
Market leaders in helping Australian entrepreneurs expand and grow in the UK, and Europe, for the last 20 years.
The combination of cross-border and cross-discipline expertise means that Oury Clark are uniquely positioned to give you the right pragmatic solutions for the growth of your business in Australia, to the UK and beyond!
London +44 (0) 207 067 4300
STRIPE
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Stripe is the most complete, fastest improving, and fastest growing payments platform available today. Stripe provides a flexible set of APIs that instantly enable businesses to accept and manage online payments, from anyone, anywhere in the world.
Stripe now processes billions of dollars a year for thousands of businesses, from newly-launched startups to Fortune 500 companies. Stripe's mission is to increase the GDP of the Internet, and since Stripe powers so many new businesses, its user base is a snapshot of how quickly the Internet is changing; many users are in categories that barely existed five years ago. Web and mobile businesses around the world using Stripe include Twitter, Kickstarter, Shopify, Catch of the Day, 99designs, Canva, RedBalloon, Salesforce, Lyft, and many more.
Get started accepting payments instantaneously, in over 110+ currencies, with just a few lines of code. You no longer need to apply for a merchant account, open separate currency accounts, make a deposit for a bank reserve, or wait weeks for the bank to approve your account. Now with Stripe, you can become a global online business immediately. We also provide extensive tools, out of the box, for supporting your marketplace, platform, or subscription business models. Sign up now at http://www.stripe.com/au
Stripe is now 254 people globally and headquartered in San Francisco. We're hiring! Come join our team in Melbourne – send us an email to jobs+australia@stripe.com. The company has received $200 million in funding and was mostly recently valued at $3.5 billion; investors include Sequoia Capital, Peter Thiel, and Elon Musk.
BLUECHILLI
Bluechilli are a fantastic company who have just started making investments (https://www.meetup.com/Lean-Startup-Melbourne/events/57228152/#90165182) in Melbourne. A combination of a VC, Digital Agency, Incubator and Accelerator, they are keen to partner with sales and marketing focused startup founders on their technology builds.
So if you have a great idea but no tech founder, hit em up! You can check them out online (https://www.meetup.com/Lean-Startup-Melbourne/events/57228152/#83203830)!
ENVATO
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Envato is one of Australia's most successful start ups. Based in Melbourne and a family business, we're a digital creative marketplace that serves 5 million members in over 200 countries.
Envato is a network of sites used by millions of people for their creative projects. The network comprises Envato Market, Envato Studio, and Tuts+.
Envato Market offers users millions of creative assets, project files and kits to use for web, print and video projects. Envato Studio connects users with a community of freelance talent. Tuts+ helps people learn creative skills online with video courses and free tutorials.
BANK OF MELBOURNE
Bank of Melbourneis supporting small business by giving three businesses the opportunity to bring their plans to life with a $10,000 grant.
To apply visit http://www.bankofmelbourne.com.au/grant .
LIFX
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LIFX (pronounced LIFE-X) pioneered the smart light in 2012 with the first Wi Fi-enabled, multi-colored LED that’s controllable via a smart device. Designed to last over 22 years, LIFX offers the brightest, most flexible smart light for your home or office.
LIFX works with Nest and other smart home devices to give consumers an easy way to experience the connected home, without needing additional hardware.
Headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley, Redwood City, California, LIFX is a global brand with roots in Melbourne, Australia. LIFX products are available online and at select retailers in the US, Australia, and Europe.
Going Global: Thinking Big From The Start