“IN SILICON VALLEY, SUCCESS MEANS SOMETHING MUCH BIGGER”: STARTUP SPECIALIST COLIN KINNER

Colin Kinner doesn’t have much patience for the tall poppies of Australia or people who are intellectually dishonest in business. He does, however, have a great deal of time and respect for individuals who take the entrepreneurial plunge and attempt things “nobody else has tried before”. In fact, he’s coached hundreds of aspiring entrepreneurs over the past two decades and otherwise dedicated his career to shaping the nation’s startup ecosystem for the better.

In addition to being the founder and co-facilitator of Startup Onramp, a pre-accelerator for early-stage startups, Kinner is the Program Director for Slingshot’s Horizons (Tourism & Travel) Accelerator, a mission lead for the Startup Catalyst Silicon Valley program, the author of the StartupAUS Crossroads report, a volunteer mentor at River City Labs and the director of consulting firm Spike Innovation. He has also run a tech startup incubator, managed a $10 million seed fund and served on the boards of venture-backed tech companies.

Asked how he finds the time to juggle so many commitments, Kinner replied: “I often ask myself the same question!” He added, “Fortunately, there are 36 hours in the day! No, there’s only a finite number of hours in the day, so I’ve had to try to be very efficient.  That said, not all of the projects I’m working on require big chunks of my time in parallel. Right now, Startup Onramp and Slingshot are my core focuses – I’m dedicating the lion’s share of my time to both”. Read more

James Harkness - Dynamic Business - 20 Oct 2017