Following Australian Startups and Tech Trends

Today we showcase an exciting and successful venture co-founded in 2007 by Andrew Ballard from Drysdale on the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria, My Perfect - Don't Search, Choose or in other words it turns the idea of a search engine completely around. In a recent email-based interview with Andrew, 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? We've developed a revolutionary new type of search engine - so different, in fact, that we've coined the phrase 'choice engine' to describe it. To go back one step - there's a fundamental problem with the way traditional search engines work. So fundamental, in fact, that everyone seems oblivious to the problem. Traditional search engines begin with a single query and return thousands or millions of results. These results are determined by a complex algorithm that takes into account relevance, straight keyword matching, user hi

Today I would like to give you some more insights into how this journey of following Aussie technology startups started and where I'm heading with this initiative. I have been following technology startups coming out of Australia since 2005. I published the first comprehensive list of startups in Australia in 2006 for RWW . Martin Wells & users at Whirlpoolforums provided leads in compiling that list. From their onwards, I have kept a close eye on the new ventures coming out of Australia. In March 2008, I conducted the First Online Startups Carnival which was Judged by Duncan Riley, Ross Dawson & Justin Davies .  During the carnival, we (Judges and I) covered nearly 30 startups. Since then I have covered an additional 40 startups - so in total 70 startups and interviews with VCs & Angel Investors . This list will be growing, as I will be covering more in the coming days/weeks/months/years. In addition to this, I have started publishing market analysis , technology

Today we showcase an exciting and successful venture co-founded by Adele Whish-Wilson in 2002, Momentum Technologies Group - Live Video Streaming Over Mobile. In a recent email-based interview with Adele , she gave insights into her venture and how she is progressing with it. This is what she has to say: • Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests? My background was initially in psychology and communications, which led to roles in the private, community and government sectors that covered everything from supporting health campaigns to assisting in developing state government department e-business strategies. My interest in finding ways to improve ‘how things are done’ led me to take a role as a business analyst, then onto starting Momentum in 2002 – where I continue to be focused on assisting our clients find a better way to get things done. My interests are long-distance running (completed my first marathon last year, and did Oxfam’s 100km Trailwalker this year),

Today we showcase an exciting and successful venture co-founded by David Jones in 2005, ThreatMETRIX - Security for eCommerce Applications. In a recent email-based interview with David, 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? We created ThreatMetrix to deliver a new layer of security protection specifically for the explosive growth of eCommerce transactions. With the growth of over 20% pa of online credit card transactions and web 2.0 applications now monetizing, the fraudsters have taken advantage of their anonymity on the internet to steal credit cards, fraudulently purchase products and launder money. ThreatMetrix delivers intelligence to eCommerce sites to detect both good customers and fraudsters using stolen identities. • Who are the people behind this and how it started? The founders and core team previously built security products for SurfControl (now WebSENSE) - we saw the u

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 showcase an exciting and successful venture founded by Grant Simonds from Melbourne, Australia, MComms TV - a software solutions company that specialises in live Mobile TV monitoring, digital audio/video mixing, transcoding and Mobile TV Ad Insertion for the telecommunications industry. Their products are used by network operators and content providers globally to deliver innovative Mobile TV services to subscribers. In a recent email-based interview with Grant, 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? MComms Monitor enables video streaming operators to monitor the availability of multiple video streams on-screen and using SNMP traps. Provides a “Video Wall” for staff and customers to view available streaming content. MComms Transcode converts redundant live video streams from the internet, IPTV and analog/digital feeds into compatible Mobile TV video streams. A stream can

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

I'm delighted to say that our ongoing efforts to cover technology ventures/startups, tech trends and business models coming out of Australia got a boost today. Our Following Startups and Tech Trends portal is now part of the global startup site Alltop . Thanks to all of you who recommended this portal.

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, 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