Amazon Web Services’ head of startup ecosystem says money “tends to follow talent”, and there’s plenty of investment in the Aussie landscape

Despite Australia’s startup landscape being “very different” to just three years ago, the head of startup ecosystem at Amazon Web Services believes it’s changed for the better and faces a promising future with a number of talented entrepreneurs coming up through the ranks.

Speaking to StartupSmart at the AWS Tech Summit in Sydney, Ian Gardiner said there was only $200-300 million in venture capital for tech startups in Australia three years ago, compared to around $2 billion today.

While he admits money isn’t everything for a successful ecosystem, he believes cash “tends to follow talent”.

“We’re starting to see a lot of great startups coming into the ecosystem, such as Canva, Atlassian, or Freelancer,” Gardiner told StartupSmart.

“We’re also seeing a number of them come through the other end thanks to the IPO markets being relatively healthy here in a way I’m not sure it is overseas.”

Despite a number of startups moving to the US soon after launch, Gardiner thinks the challenges facing startups in Australia “aren’t that different to anywhere else”, and a startup’s greatest challenge is the same wherever you go. Read more

Dominic Powell - StartupSmart - 7 Apr 2017