Following Australian Startups and Tech Trends

In the ongoing coverage of exploring new startups coming out of Australia, today we explore a promising startup - RetailMeNot.com . It is co-founded by Bevan Clark and Guy King of Stateless Systems, Sydney, Australia. In a recent email-based interview with Bevan, he explained how he is progressing with his venture. This is what he has to say: • Please tell us about your venture/company? Stateless Systems is a bootstrapped venture focused on building websites and tools that make the Internet easier to use. Our web properties include: RetailMeNot.com : Find and share coupon codes for thousands of online stores BeatMyPrice.com : A people-powered price comparison engine CushyCMS.com : A super easy hosted content management system OurSignal.com : Social news aggregator and visualizer BugMeNot.com : Bypass compulsory web registration PDFMeNot.com : Takes the hassle out of viewing PDFs online JungleCrazy.com : Browse Amazon products discounted by at least 70% • Who are the people behind thi...

As we reported earlier the Online Local Search and Directory Market is Heating up , which is an emerging marketplace as confirmed by the Sensis FY08 report . Today we explore one of the new entrants in this segment, Local.com.au , founded by Ron Brewster of Sydney, Australia. In a recent email-based interview with Ron, he gave insights into his venture and how he is progressing with it. This is what he has to say: • Please tell us about your venture/company? local.com.au is a directory of business and services Australia-wide. We allow free advertising for all businesses, including FREE links to websites. For $1 a day, businesses can rise to the top and add pictures and videos to listings. I believe we have the BEST directory model currently on offer in Australia. • Who are the people behind this and how it started? Myself primarily, but I have a very good coder and a series of consultants who I work with. I had the idea back in the late 1990s when I could see tourism embracing the inte...

Stephanie Rice  became the golden girl from Glamour Girl after winning the gold in the Beijing Olympics. In a country like ours where we look for role models, we normally follow people who are accomplished sports person. We definitely don't have as many role models in the business community as compared to sports, which also suggests some interesting aspects of our society. In a knowledge-based economy like ours, it's vital that we need to encourage people to look at entrepreneurship as a career. There are not many people who follow this path here, but there are some who have chosen this path especially if you are a woman, which makes it more laudable. So I have compiled this list of emerging Business and Executive Women of Australia, who are not only contributing to our economy but also helping others to flourish in their ventures. Let's look at this list: Amanda Gomes , founder of online website SmartCompany - the website for SMEs and entrepreneurs. After 20 years in prin...

Today we showcase an exciting and successful venture founded by, Marc Lyne from, London, UK, Brownbook - A free business directory that ANYONE can instantly edit. Brownbook , one of the emerging players in the local search market which is heating up , seems to be following the Wikipedia model - publish then filter. All these players are competing in this market worth $235 million as reported last year (2007). It is expected to reach $532 million by 2010 . In a recent email-based interview with Marc, he gave insights into his venture and how he is progressing with it. This is what he has to say: • Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests? I have an extensive directory industry background, having put Scoot (formerly Freepages) on to the web in 1995, rolled out to Belgium, Holland and France and then sold Scoot UK to British Telecom. I then spent 4 years as the CTO of BT Directories - added the classified business directory to the BT PhoneBook, directory enquiries a...

WebEquity , a new service launched by internet entrepreneur Paul Middleton From Sydney, providing access to internet business development specialists (web developers, designers, marketers, etc.) who are willing to work on an equity or revenue share basis rather than cash payment. This is an interesting move and a welcome news for Australian startups community. More on this initiative by Paul can be found in the press release here: WebEquity has addressed both issues by creating a community of experts in their field who are willing to work on the development of new business ideas in return for a share of their success. In theory, you could have a new, professionally designed internet business up and running in hours without incurring any development costs. The brainchild of internet entrepreneur Paul Middleton, the service sprang from Paul's own frustrations at not having the time to develop his internet business ideas. “I haven't been able to launch half of my ideas because ...

Today we showcase an exciting and successful venture co-founded in 2000 by Ex-MD, Mal Jago, who now has a digital consultancy business Earworm Consulting, from Sydney, Australia, Coastal Watch - provides accurate surf reports for beaches around Australia and live streaming vision. In a recent email based interview with Mal, he gave insights into this venture. This is what he has to say: • Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests? Spent 15 years as a Foreign exchange Dealer before a sea change in 2000 into Coastalwatch • Please tell us about your venture/company? Surfcams at beaches to provide surf reports and conditions to surfers/boating/ Surf Life Savings • Who are the people behind this and how it started? Chris Lane- Surfer and IT guru wanting to avoid getting up at UNi and wasting his time getting to the beach and find no waves. • How long it took before it was up and running? 1-2 years established 1998. • What services it provides for consumers or customers?...

Today we showcase an exciting and successful technology business co-founded by Keith Lang, from Canberra, Australia. plasq - Best known for “Comic Life”, is a software company that creates applications for Mac and PC. It’s a bit over 3 years old and gained recognition in the Mac community when Comic Life was bundled with all-new Macs for a year. plasq has also won various awards for its software and works hard to design fun, intuitive and creative visual applications. In a recent email-based interview with Keith, he gave insights into his venture and how he is progressing with it. This is what he has to say: • Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests? Keith Lang, Co-Founder of Plasq. I’m a musician by training, with a Bachelor's Degree in Classical Music Composition. I was involved in audio software for quite some time, on the musician's side of things, before getting involved in the software side. • Who are the people behind this and how it started? Rober...

Today we showcase an exciting and successful technology business co-founded by Aram Mirkazemi, from Tasmania, Australia. Morfik - a commercial vendor of professional software development tools. Morfik was established to address the need for an integrated high-end development tool that empowers software developers to leverage their existing skills to build Rich Internet Applications without the need to master Web technologies such as HTML/CSS/HTTP/SOAP etc. In a recent email based interview with Aram, he gave insights into his venture and how he is progressing with it. This is what he has to say: • Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests? I am a professional software developer with many years of entrepreneurial experience in developing commercial CAD systems and Web Application Development tools. My interests are Rapid Application Development (RAD), Integrated Development Environments (IDE), Rich Internet Applications (RIA) Using Ajax and emerging technologies, ...

Today we showcase an exciting and successful technology business co-founded by Cameron Reilly, from Australia,  The Podcast Network - the World's First Podcasting Business. In a recent email-based interview with Cameron, he gave insights into his venture and how he is progressing with it. This is what he has to say: Please tell us about yourself, your background and your interests? I'm 37, stunningly handsome, brilliant, and like long walks on the beach. What is the name of your venture/company? I'm the founder of The Podcast Network , MODM, Geeks Who Care, Twittories and The Church of LOTU. Please tell us about your venture/company? Where to start? The Podcast Network - the world's first podcasting business. We currently produce over 80 podcasts with a monthly audience of about 500,000 people from around the world. MODM - a monthly networking event for the digital media industry Who Care - a charity based on getting geeks together to use their geekful powers for good ...

Today we showcase an exciting and interesting startup from Melbourne, Australia, 2Vouch - a social recruiting site that helps employers and recruiters find hard-to-reach people. It was founded by Riges Younan. I further explored 2Vouch and how Riges is progressing with his venture in a candid interview with him. This is what he has to say: • Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests? I am currently the founder and CEO of 2Vouch a Social Recruiting site. I have over 12 years of professional executive search and recruiting experience gained in Sydney, Melbourne, London and New York. I have been responsible for the successful launch of five start-up recruiting offices for various firms as well as the development and deployment of sophisticated sourcing techniques & processes that lead to superior results for clients. I bring deep industry knowledge and extensive sales, marketing and management experience to 2Vouch. • What is the name of your venture/company? 2Vouch...

Today we showcase an exciting and interesting startup, in the online business directory search market segment, from Sydney Australia, FreeConnect - An online business directory search with multichannel capability, including VOIP. It was started by John Kennedy and was launched on May 28, 2008. In my view,  FreeConnect is definitely a unique service in the Australian business directories market segment as compared to other players . It has the huge potential to change market forces. It offers consumers a free way to connect with the business of their choice via (multichannel) telephone, email, SMS and VOIP. It is also Australia’s first-ever VOIP online directory service. It allows businesses to post a wide array of information - everything from their address and contact details to product and service information, photographs, payment options, business history and more – all at no cost. The only payment businesses make is for the actual lead when it connects them with a customer l...