Via The Australian:
A year ago, when Sydney start-up accelerator Blue Chilli conducted a four-week campaign to recruit new entrepreneurs to its program, it got 140 applications.
A few months ago, when it launched She Starts, a program aimed at attracting young women entrepreneurs, it got more than 800 applications for 10 positions.
“We are definitely seeing an increase in young people who have ideas for new business and want to make things happen,” says Blue Chilli founder and chief executive Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin.
“And the number of venture capital funds which have been started over the last 12 months has doubled, taking advantage of the new tax changes.”
But a year after the Turnbull government’s much-heralded National Innovation and Science Agenda, Eckersley-Maslin says he’s disappointed that the government’s focus on innovation and start-ups has waned.
“The underlying motivation is still there,” he says. “But the marketing of it has turned off. The government’s focus has definitely shifted away.
“There was more emphasis spent on marketing the message than there was on delivering the outcome.
“Some of the government’s initiatives announced in the innovation statement haven’t been fully implemented.
“The new package of tax incentives for investors to put money into start-ups is a good start, but it still falls a long way off what other countries are doing.”
…“The word innovation has been interpreted, from the election result, as a bad thing — that in people’s minds it is associated with the question, ‘Am I going to lose my job?’.“
Doing nothing is more important.
