Last week’s Lean Startup Melbourne event was entitled Doubts to Dollars – dealing with early stage uncertainty in startups and drew a crowd of close to 400 people, making this regular forum as THE networking venue for the local startup scene.

Photo by Ben J. Bickford

Of course, the evening’s festivities would not have been possible without the generous support of our hosts, inspire9, and sponsors BlueChilli, Startup Victoria, the Startup Foundation and the Kussowski Brothers. To kick-off proceedings, Daniel Mumby from the Startup Foundation pitched at older would-be entrepreneurs (“those with responsibilities like families, jobs, mortgages…”) in support of his organisation’s new accelerator program, which kicks off this month, under the banner of “Think and Break Free”. Next, a team of successful entrepreneurs was assembled, to discuss key startup topics, including:

• Idea
• Team
• Finance
• Product/Market Fit

On the panel were:

• Sydney Low, co-founder of former Australian ISP, Freeonline back at the dawn of the century. (Check out his YouTube channel for some marketing archeology from the early days of web surfing, when internet access was dial-up, iPhones were a twinkle in Steve Jobs’ eye, and “social media” meant the gossip column in your tabloid newspaper.)

• Steve Hibberd, CEO and co-founder of social marketing platform, Tiger Pistol. Previously, Steve was a founder at Accumulate, now part of Wishlist Holdings.

• Samantha Cobb, who is founding CEO at biotech AdAlta, and who has a background in IP commercialisation.

• Justin Dry, co-founder at wine startup Vinomofo, and one of the people behind Qwoff, an online community for wine enthusiasts.

The initial discussion covered some of the basics to consider before launching your own startup venture, such as product testing, market analysis, listening to customers, getting honest with yourself, and protecting your IP. There was also a surfing analogy – about timing/positioning yourself to catch and ride the wave, rather than trying to paddle out to the breaker….There were also some very personal observations (including painful lessons) such as how to deal with failure (“keep pivoting, fail fast”), maintaining staff motivation when deals don’t complete, the importance of building prototypes (“even if it’s just a PowerPoint slide”), and the value of having confidants (on the board, and among key investors). However, the evening’s recurring theme, dear to many past, present and future startup founders and entrepreneurs, was all about the money – not just where it comes from in the early days of any startup (angel investors, venture capital and private equity); but how easily it can disappear.

The panel of speakers emphasised the importance of cashflow (i.e., “making payroll”), and knowing how fast or how far your money may need to go in early stage growth and the initial product development stages:

First, assuming you are not fully self-funding, you need to convince an investor of your idea. Both the team and the investors need to believe in the founders.

Second, really challenge your market/product fit – be open to telling people what you are doing so you can get validation. (Note to local startups: the Australian culture, whether it’s the tall-poppy syndrome, or a lack of trust, means people tend to hide new ideas…)

Third, work out what your cash burn rate might need to be. Stick to the capex budget as much as possible, manage the milestones (“next step of value”), and be prepared to double the costs/double the development time. Maybe spend more on marketing than on the product development – better to have an MVP that is bringing in revenue, than waiting for the perfect product that never ships….

Finally, a member of the audience wondered about the best route to establishing a startup: “should I learn to code, work for another startup, or get a job at a big firm?”. The succinct advice from the panel: “just do it.” While it may be tempting to do side projects to keep the money coming in, they may prevent you from making progress (or they become the startup). As one participant put it when describing his own new startup venture: “there is no Plan B; it’s Plan A or bust!”

POSTCRIPT TO JANUARY’S LEAN STARTUP MELBOURNE: In an earlier blog on Lean Startup Melbourne, I discussed some of the obstacles facing local startups in getting funding, and the challenge of engaging institutional investors in the startup community. Two recent developments suggest that debate on this topic is starting to gain some traction:

1) Catherine Livingston, incoming President of the Business Council of Australia, spoke on ABC Radio National about the need to connect institutional funds with domestic assets and investment opportunities that tend to get overlooked by local investors (at about 6′ 15″ into the interview).

2) Westpac bank has called for industry and regulator collaboration to provide better access to financial data on startups, and SMEs in general, in support of developing risk-based funding options for new businesses.