Nicole O’Brien is CEO of Fishburners, a not-for-profit co-working space and community hub for tech startup founders with a rich history of supporting Australian tech companies since its inception in 2011. For over a decade Nicole has also been the Director of Corporate Services for ACON, a community health organisation. In her conversation with Will Tjo, Nicole discusses why her outlook on the Australian startup ecosystem is overwhelmingly positive, and how technology has helped bridge the geographical divide between Australia and the world.
Fishburners: https://fishburners.org/ACON: https://www.acon.org.au/
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Adam Spencer: Let me tell you about our partner, Teamified. If you need to build a top-notch team quickly, Teamified is your go-to solution. They not only provide fractional CTOs, they can also do contractors and even remote team members tailored exactly to your needs. And whether you're looking for expertise in the Philippines, India, or Sri Lanka, Teamified has you covered. What's amazing is that Teamified uses a blend of AI and human expertise to cut hiring times by 50%, cent. Their platform handles everything from automated onboarding to day-to-day management and even performance tracking. You can also handle rewards and recognition, buy equipment, and order training all through their platform. Simplify your hiring process and get the best talent fast with Teamified. Check them out now and transform your team. Go to dayone.fm/teamified. That's dayone.fm/teamified. Thank you, T-E-A-M-I-F-I-E-D, and get started today. Hi, I'm Adam Spencer, founder of the Day One Network, which is bringing the history of the Australian startup ecosystem to you. I believe in founders. It's why I do everything I do at Day One and our media company, W2D1 Media. And that's why the Day One Network exists, to create helpful content for founders. We've got some great shows in development, but a large part of what we do couldn't be done without support from our partners and sponsors. And I couldn't be happier than to be working with NTP, who get community better than any other technology recruitment company out there. A Newcastle company like mine, NTP are invested in seeing the growth of the local tech community in Newcastle, Sydney, and more broadly Australia. So thank you, NTP, for helping us bring helpful content to founders and the startup community in Australia. Back to the interview. Hi, I'm Adam Spencer, founder of the Day One Network, which is bringing the history of the Australian startup ecosystem to you. I believe in founders. It's why I do everything I do at Day One and our media company, W2D1 Media. And that's why the Day One Network exists, to create helpful content for for founders. We've got some great shows in development, but a large part of what we do couldn't be done without support from our partners and sponsors. And I couldn't be happier than to be working with NTP, who get community better than any other technology recruitment company out there. A Newcastle company like mine, NTP are invested in seeing the growth of the local tech community in Newcastle, Sydney, and more broadly Australia. So thank you, NTP, for helping us bring helpful content to founders and the startup community in Australia. Back to the interview. Hi, I'm Adam Spencer and welcome to Day One, the podcast that spotlights Australian startups, founders, and the organizations that empower Australian entrepreneurship. We go back to the beginning to tell a story of Australia's most inspiring founders and how they built their companies. You're listening to a special interview series as part of a documentary W2D1 is producing about the history of the Australian startup ecosystem. This episode was conducted by guest host Will Cho. On the episode today, we have—
Nicole O'Brien: I'm Nicole O'Brien and I'm the CEO of Fishburners, which is one of Australia's largest hubs for founders to get their idea off the ground and to grow their new venture.
Speaker C: When would you say that you really started to get involved with this whole startup ecosystem?
Nicole O'Brien: Look, the startup ecosystem is fairly new to me. I have to admit, when Fishburners was brought to my attention, I had never heard of them, but quickly realised that they were very well known and influential within the startup ecosystem. My experience with startups really had been, you know, I had been involved in creating a couple of small startups within the not-for-profit sector, but didn't really acknowledge or refer to them as startups. I just thought really they were getting new ideas, businesses off the ground. But yeah, there's a flourishing startup ecosystem and, you know, all thanks to Silicon Valley and the impact it's had on the rest of the world and the unicorns that have come out of there. And so a lot of interest by governments and, you know, philanthropists and VCs in particular in growing that sector here. And today we've got a fairly thriving startup ecosystem that is obviously struggling at the moment under the lockdown, as a lot of businesses are, but certainly very resilient as we saw from the last lockdown.
Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. So it filtered through because of Silicon Valley and the movement there. Australia's startups ecosystem started to flourish as, would you say in tandem with the way that the American ecosystem is going?
Nicole O'Brien: Oh, look, I think you're a much smaller population, and so obviously it's all relative. And look, I think certainly the risk appetite within the investment community is probably not as high as it is in Silicon Valley. But look, having said that, there's a lot of investment money out there, and we've seen a huge growth in superannuation funds. And so I think there's definitely a much stronger appetite now for putting some of that money in riskier ventures and also in ventures that are really creating sort of those innovations and those new ideas and products and services that we need to drive our economy. So while I'd say it's obviously on a much, much smaller scale than Silicon Valley, I think it's certainly— Yeah. We're growing and developing our startup ecosystem and hopefully learning from some of the mistakes that have been made.
Speaker C: Going towards this idea of, you mentioned risk appetite and how Australia's ecosystem, you know, perhaps might not be as bold or adventurous as the Silicon Valley ecosystem. Would you say as a whole, the community is on the right track?
Nicole O'Brien: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think we're always, going to be somewhat limited by the fact that we are in an island nation and it's a much smaller population. And so we're never going to be able to scale homegrown, you know, unicorns in the same way that can happen in a country like the US. But given we're not limited by borders anymore, I think certainly we've seen some great growth stories come out of Australia like your Canvas and Atlassian and, and certainly quite a number of the new fintech players that are making a, yeah, certainly giving some of those Silicon Valley startups a run for their money, that's for sure.
Speaker C: Yeah, that's very interesting. So would you say that the biggest limiting factor in Australia is just its isolation and, you know, perhaps the population just isn't big enough to sustain that sort of activity?
Nicole O'Brien: Yeah, absolutely. But I just don't think that's probably not, you know, while that might have been a barrier, once when you were relying on moving physical goods from point A to point B. I think now technology has enabled the ability to be able to scale beyond those geographic borders. And so it's probably not a limitation anymore. I just think that we are removed, I suppose, culturally and socially from the rest of the world. And this lockdown certainly hasn't helped. But, you know, I think it's— technology is the big enabler here, isn't it, really? And— Yeah. It means that we can transcend those geographical barriers. I suppose at the end of the day, it's being able to get access to some of the talent that we might not have access to here and being able to, you know, get access to those new markets. And, you know, there are cultural differences from market to market. And so that's certainly, you know, going to be factored into anyone's growth plan.
Speaker C: Yeah, definitely. So technology is helping bridging those, what used to be, I guess, gaps and limitations. But, you know, now it's just more about developing our own unique voice.
Nicole O'Brien: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker C: What do you think makes Australia unique compared to other countries in terms of the startup ecosystem that we provide?
Nicole O'Brien: Probably I think that there's a lot of entrepreneurs that didn't really recognize that they're an entrepreneur. I think While, you know, a lot of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have probably come out of particular universities and campuses, I think we're seeing a lot of our entrepreneurs are coming out of corporate, really. You know, they've spent the last 10, 15 years working in corporate sort of day jobs and realized that they've got the capacity and the ideas to be able to go out and do things on their own. So maybe that's like, I'm not sure if that's particularly unique, but Australians, I suppose, yeah, look, I don't know, we're such a diverse multicultural nation now. I'm not sure if there's a particular unique Australian startup identity. And I know we've certainly got a very diverse community at Fishburners. And so I think they're like most entrepreneurs, they work really, you know, once they're very dogged and very driven and, you know, resilient and focused.
Speaker C: It's interesting that you mentioned how Australians tend from university not to really decide that I'm going to be an entrepreneur, and, and it's more of that sort of accidental type journey where maybe they've been in industry for 10, 15 years and then saw a gap in the market and decided to execute on that. But it's the labeling doesn't seem to really be there.
Nicole O'Brien: No, that's right. But I think, you know, certainly this universities are trying to change that, and there's certainly a much bigger emphasis and focus on nurturing that entrepreneurial mindset and giving, you know, students the tools and the skills and the resources to be able to consider that as a pathway for sure.
Speaker C: Absolutely. Do you have any unpopular opinions about the Australian startup ecosystem?
Nicole O'Brien: No, I think, you know, it's, I think that the ecosystem is really, is exciting, it's great. It certainly, you know, needs to continue to be supported. By government because it's, it doesn't happen in a vacuum. And so that, yeah, no, I think as long as that support continues, my opinions are positive.
Speaker C: Could you tell us more about what you meant by having more support from the government and what does that look like?
Nicole O'Brien: Well, look, the ecosystem needs to be supported, it needs to be nurtured, it needs to be invested in. Most entrepreneurs, unless they're serial entrepreneurs and have exited out of successful companies, you know, are bootstrapping. And so in those, you know, initial early stages, they need as much support as they can possibly get, whether that's through, you know, access to incubation space and resources and learn— and all those things that, you know, the incubators and the accelerators provide, or whether it's access to, you know, grants and funding. Mm-hmm. To help them, you know, bankroll those ideas and getting, you know, and getting them off the ground. So, you know, the role of government is really critical in fostering that and creating the ecosystem, really contributing to the ecosystem, because it takes a whole community of ecosystem players to really raise a, you know, a successful startup. And that's from the VCs through to to the incubators, the accelerators, the talent, and the funding that's available, and yeah, to support that.
Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. So it's just about being intentional about the support and providing a space where startups can actually go to, to grow.
Nicole O'Brien: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker C: So are there any particular areas aside from that, from government support, that could be better about the Australian ecosystem?
Nicole O'Brien: Look, I think any incentive to encourage people and support them in getting new innovations and new ideas off the ground. I think certainly, you know, the corporate sector has a role obviously to play there, and the corporate sector has certainly— is investing in incubating some of its own innovation and startups. We've seen quite a bit of that, for instance, in the fintech space. Yeah, look, I think it's definitely those incentives there needs to be that encouragement there because it's a big, it's a journey that you need to undertake and anything that's provided to make that less risky and easier and financially feasible, I think is, you know, obviously a really good thing.
Speaker C: And lastly, Nicole, if an entrepreneur or founder came to you and given all your experience with Fishburners and, you know, the mistakes, wins, and so on, what's one piece of advice would you want to give them?
Nicole O'Brien: Surround yourself by other smart people. I think certainly being part of a community of peers and practice, I think practice is definitely, I think, the make or break for so many entrepreneurs. Just having people that have been there before, that have got skills, that can fill in some of those skills gaps that you might not necessarily have, I think a huge game changer for any entrepreneur. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs would say that's really what was, you know, the, the big difference for them was finding an amazing co-founder or being surrounded by other really smart people who could support them along the way.
Adam Spencer: I hope you enjoyed that interview. More interviews are on the way. Follow the podcast wherever you're listening right now. Stay tuned for more interviews with many, many more amazing people from the Australian startup ecosystem. Thanks for listening and see you next time.
Nicole O'Brien: Bye.
