Why the Australian startup ecosystem must foster a global mindset

I recently enjoyed a very productive trip to Malaysia and Singapore, which was a great way to experience the startup scene there firsthand.

It’s interesting how some of the trends in South East Asian countries are mirrored in Australia. If there’s any one single trait that defines the startup scenes in this part of the world, it’s that they have a global mindset from the outset. Entrepreneurs in Asia start a company with a global market in mind, whereas in the US, most startups are focused on the domestic market.

This should be obvious, of course, given the size and spending power of the 325-million strong US population, more than 10 times the size of Australia or Malaysia. US startups don’t need to look overseas, at least initially.

Closing the gaps

The advantage of having a global strategy is that you don’t leave gaps for others to fill. When a market is neglected, it will likely develop a home grown alternative, sometimes called a “startup clone”. We see this happening a lot in Asia and other parts of the world, and often with great success for the local founders. Just consider Alibaba, China’s eBay (founded 1998) – and now doing more business than eBay (founded 1995) and Amazon (founded 1994) combined. Read more

Terry Gold - Startup daily - 9 Jun 2017