Following Australian Startups and Tech Trends

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

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.

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 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

Today we showcase an exciting and successful venture founded by, Mark White from, Brisbane, Australia, Locatrix . It provides mobile social networking solutions for deployment by network operators and location-based services to corporate customers and application solution providers. It uses location to create and shape mobile content experiences that engage subscribers and generate ARPU. This is the engine beneath Telstra’s (Sensis) Whereis Everyone . We recently learnt about Locatrix while compiling the list of Emerging Mobile Startups in Australia . 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 a native Queenslander, completing a degree in Computer Science at the University of Queensland before embarking on a career that gravitated towards technical marketing roles here and in Singapore for US multinational companies:

Today I would like to introduce Josh Sharp from Melbourne, Founder of Tech Collective - a site that aggregates prominent and up-and-coming Australian bloggers who write about the new generation of the web and related technologies. In a recent email-based chat with him, he explained his future plans and a new venture he is working on, named, Recursive Media § Please tell us about yourself, your background and your interests? I'm a web developer in Melbourne, and up until now have been primarily focused on building web applications for SMEs. I'm interested in where the mobile and cloud computing spaces are going, and how having a 'persistent' link to the web is really going to change people's behaviour. I'm also keenly interested in helping the local startup community grow and develop. § Please tell us about your venture/company? TechCollective is an aggregator of prominent local bloggers in the web startup space. Its aim is to foster the local community and sp

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 are delighted to bring you a new venture 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!. Their music stations are all genre-specific and commercial including 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, disco, country, metal, rock, hip hop, Japanese pop and many more, all accessible from your 3G mobile phone. We will soon be covering their venture in more detail as part of our interview series , in the meantime this is what Stripe Management has to say in their press release. In a move which is expected to increase the take‐up of 3G mobile services in Australia, Stripe will launch over 30 new radio stations, Australia wide. The Stripe service will allow the Australian public to access 40 stations by Christmas and 100 by the end of 2009, via the int

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 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 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