Following Australian Startups and Tech Trends

Today we showcase a story of a man who is, an entrepreneur and a successful Angel investor, helping a lot of Australian business to realize their dreams. Clay Cook is based in Perth, Western Australia. Let us explore a bit further how Clay is helping others and what he thinks about innovation coming out of Australia. This is what Clay has to say in his interview with me. • Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests? My "tags" would go something like… Serial tech entrepreneur, Ineedhits, Mint i, Vibe Capital , Gooruze, Angel investor, Father, Husband, Relaxed, Perth, Australia, Nice guy. • What is the name of your venture firm? We are Angel investors and over the past couple of years of years have invested around $500k of our own personal money. • Who are the people behind this and how it started? It is myself and my wife Rachel Cook. We started investing in 2006 when we invested in 1stRed (formally Red Lottery), and then we continued with investments into M

Today we are fulfilling our promise to bring you an in-depth interview with one of the designers of a new venture, Ben Haylock, from Sydney, Stripe - Australia’s first mobile radio subscription service and the first digital radio network to launch in Australia. It utilises broadband and 3G networks and allows you to listen to any Stripe radio station from your computer and most 3G mobile phones, wherever you are in Australia!. In a recent email-based interview with Ben, 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? Hi. I’m Ben Haylock, and I’m a designer of digital media content platforms. Work-wise, I love using technology to create experiences for audiences. My personal interests are riding enduro motorbikes, amateur cheffing and generally spending time with friends and family. Please tell us about your venture/company? Well, Stripe is Australia’s first

Today we showcase an exciting and successful venture co-founded by Darcy Byrne, from Perth, Australia, Boozle - it allows users to find the cheapest booze in your suburb. In a recent email-based interview with Darcy, 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? Boozle searches 1000's of liquor stores in Australia to find your favorite beer, spirits and premixed drinks at the cheapest price, and at your closest outlets. • Who are the people behind this and how it started? Darcy Byrne and Luke Mahe • How long it took before it was up and running? About 8 months, but we have done several iterations over time. • What is the main objective/mission behind your venture? We want to make it easy for users to find the alcohol that they are searching for at the cheapest price and closest to them. • What services does it provide for consumers or customers? An alcohol search engine and review syste

Today we showcase an exciting and successful venture founded by, Alex in 2006 from Melbourne, Australia, Mostyle ! - comes from “Mobile” + “Lifestyle” - a telco-independent mobile ecosystem that not only provides the tools to build a mobile site but offers the distribution, community and multiple enablers for the monetising of mobile content through advertising or micropayments. In a recent email-based interview with Alex, 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 a Computer Science degree from RMIT University and am nearly done with a Master of Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Swinburne University. Over the past 10 years, I’ve been working in different areas of mobile gaming and entertainment, dealing with content, portals, industry building and development. My range of professional experiences has mainly been with Nokia (Mobile Entertainment Platform)

Today we showcase an exciting and successful venture co-founded by, Mark Harbottle in 2008 from Melbourne, Australia, 99designs - it connects thousands of designers from around the world with clients who need design tasks completed fast, and without the usual high cost and limited choices you get from most traditional design firms. In a recent email-based interview with Mark, 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’m 34 years old. I have a degree in computer systems engineering. I started my wo rking life as a programmer, but I eventually found I was much better at online marketing, which back in 1995 was an area not many people had explored. I’ve worked with pure internet businesses for 13 years now. The first 4 years after I graduated I worked with one of Australia’s first internet companies, and the last 9 have been spent working on my own businesses. I started

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 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

In our ongoing coverage of startups coming out of Australia and interviews with CEOs, Media Personalities, Philanthropists, and VCs, today we showcase a successful venture and an exciting entrepreneur Ben Barren, co-founder of Gnoos - Australia's Largest Blog Search Engine for Consumers and Enterprises. I recently met Ben through our common friend Duncan Riley. I was highly impressed by his breadth of knowledge and enthusiasm. I followed up with him to do an email-based interview with me to explore his thoughts on the progress of his various ventures and new emerging trends. This is what he has to say: • What is the name of your company, the people involved, and can you provide some background on the venture? Red Lion Ventures Pty Ltd owns Feedcorp Pty Ltd and Gnoos Pty Ltd . Red Lion Ventures was co-founded by Michael Leone and Ben Barren. The business has doubled revenue in the last 3 quarters so we’re hitting a real growth spurt. In early 2005 Michael and I believed there wa

In our ongoing coverage of startups coming out of Australia and interviews with CEOs, Media Personalities, Philanthropists, and VCs, to gauge the innovation and startup landscape in Australia, today we showcase our interview with, the co-founder of Webdirections - Conferences for web professionals held in Australia and North America, John Allsopp. I did this interview with John to know more about Webdirections , its offerings, its progress and future plans and how his second venture Westciv is progressing. Let us explore what John has to say about the progress of Webdirections and Westciv Australia. This is what he has to say: • Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests? I'm a software engineer, with a computer science and maths degree, coupled with quite a few arts subjects at university, and most of a law degree. Born and raised in Sydney, I lived for a time in the UK, and Italy in the early 1990s, before starting my first company in 1994 I live just out