A tale of two continents: The opportunities between Australia and Southeast Asia

There’s more than land and sea between Southeast Asia and Australia. Here are the few things I learned about the opportunities for growth, talent and investment.

“I used to be fit,” Murray said as we reached the top floor.

Murray, Co-Founder and CEO of Fishburners, was showing us around Australia’s largest tech-focused, co-working space. Fishburners currently houses 176 startups, run by 250 individuals working across four floors of desks, meeting rooms, couches, and foosball tables. These are four floors dedicated to fostering a community that hopes to fuel Australia’s next best export.

Murray runs Fishburners as a not-for-profit organisation. That’s right. It’s a co-working space that charges its members a minimal fee, sources out private sponsorships, and then returns every cent back to the community.

“We’ve reached our maximum capacity here. We’ve spent 18 months searching for a new building, but have struggled to find one. It’s frustrating to have the demand we have, and the supporters we have, and being held back only by the availability of space.”

Fishburners hosts over 500 visitors a week in community meetups, workshops, and Demo Day-like pitch events. Asked why there’s suddenly so much interest in the local tech space, Murray explains, “I’ve spent 18 years creating and supporting startups in Sydney, and the last five years have been remarkable. More startups are being created than ever before, and suddenly people are starting to see the opportunity here. We have talent, capital, access to markets, a stable business environment and an increasingly ambitious culture. It’s also an incredibly beautiful place to live.”

All these numbers and Murray’s experience, accurately reflect the growing interest and excitement over the local Australian tech and startup scene. An excitement that seemingly, has yet to reach Southeast Asia.

In six days of meeting key contributors to the local ecosystem in Sydney, here are the observations from someone barely scratching the surface.

Scarce early stage funding

Based on Tech in Asia’s data, seed funding in the first two and a half quarters of this year alone already amount to US$963 Million in Asia. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Recall that in 2015 alone, the following companies launched early-stage funds: Alibaba, KK Fund, GMO Venture Partners, Venturra Capital, and three separate 500 Startups Funds.

This borderline insane amount of early-stage funding available has its obvious perks. It encourages more people to pursue their dreams of becoming entrepreneurs. It equips companies with resources to hire or poach talent. It gives startups a chance to explore a plethora of product directions.

However, it’s not all rainbows and butterflies. There are additional issues brought about by its surplus. Just because a company receives funding doesn’t mean it truly adds value to consumers or to innovation. Theoretically, the market can act as a filter by allowing the non-value adding companies to die. VC funding intervenes in that market process by prolonging the startup’s life or giving the team a chance to pivot, even if, “saving something and preventing its destruction are not entirely the same thing.” To oversimplify a bit, bad companies can last longer in Southeast Asia.

Entrepreneurs equipped with experience