Frequently asked questions

Startmate is building the ecosystem that startups need to thrive in Australia and New Zealand. We bring the most ambitious founders, operators and investors together in our programs.

👉 Founders - we help you get started and invest in your company

👉 Operators - we help you launch and perform in your career in startups

👉 Investors - we help you work through angel investing and have funds to invest in

Through Startmate’s community, wildly ambitious ideas flourish and powerful solutions are built.

Startmate was founded in 2010, a time when Australia had latent creativity and potential, but lacked venture capital and accelerators to support it.

Niki Scevak (who would go on to found Blackbird Ventures in 2012) and a bunch of successful founders (including Mike and Scott from Atlassian) put their money where their mouths were. Everyone invested $10k into a micro-fund to invest in the next generation of early-stage founders, and started building a community of successful founders to support them.

Startmate and Blackbird go a long way back, as we have the same founder: Niki Scevak, who first founded Startmate in 2010, then Blackbird in 2012. Upon founding Blackbird, Startmate became a wholly owned subsidiary of Blackbird. Startmate is owned 85% by Blackbird and 15% by the Startmate team.

Startmate is operationally independent of Blackbird, which means we run our own funds, team and decision-making.

We love working with the Blackbird team, in particular through legal/operational know-how spillovers. We sit under the Blackbird financial license (AFSL) but raise our own funds every 6 months.

Since ~2016, Startmate has become the Switzerland of VC in Australia and New Zealand. Whilst we work closely with the Blackbird investment team, we have most VC funds in the countries investing, selecting and mentoring in our programs such as AirTree, SquarePeg, Main Sequence, Rampersand, Skip Capital, Grok Ventures, to name a few.

We’ll create a world where Aussies and Kiwis can find meaning and purpose in their careers. Where Australia and New Zealand will be known as the most innovative nations in the world. And we’ll solve some of the biggest existential threats to humanity along the way.

We have all the potential to make this dream a reality, and our legacy at Startmate will be defined by how well we can unlock and unleash that potential.

Startmate Nation will change the world as we know it.

Startmate Nation is the place people come to change the world.

Startmate Nation brings together the dreamers, believers and builders who start, fund and work in startups.  In nature, we call this kind of symbiosis ‘mutualism’ - a type of relationship where all species involved benefit from their interactions. None can exist without the others.

We’re building an ecosystem within Startmate bottom-up instead of waiting for nationwide government or systemic changes.

Our main focus is on building the ANZ startup ecosystem. We want to make Australia and New Zealand leaders in technology. So the people who apply for our programs and memberships are generally people who are living, working, building & investing in Australia and New Zealand. 

However, the Startmate community is a global community. We have founders, mentors, investors, operators and partners scattered around the world.

Founders who apply and are accepted into our Accelerator program receive an investment of 120k. Applications open Sep-Nov & May-June. Check out the program and our investment terms. We also invest in founders via our Discretionary Fund all year round. Sign up to our newsletter here for more info.

Pre-product and pre-revenue.

Roughly 50% of the companies we back are pre-revenue and often pre-product. We love being your first investor and backing you right from the beginning. We just want to know that you’re obsessed with your customers and the problem you’re solving for them.

We’re industry agnostic; check out our portfolio page to see all the different problems our founders are solving. 

We invest in “Spikes”… sounds weird - we know (But it works for us).

1. Team - We would buy stock in this founder. They have unbridled ambition, off-the-charts determination, want to learn-it-all, and have a unique connection to the problem.
2. Progress - Things are happening fast. # customer interviews, # users, $ revenue, engagement, technical progress, top brand names signed up - they’re moving at speeeeeed.
3. Invention - Invented a new technology or a significant leap in technology.
4. Unique Vision - The founders see the future differently from everyone else, and it’s compelling.‍
5. 10x - The product is not incrementally better than alternatives, but 10X better. It could be 10X faster, 10X cheaper, 10X easier to use or 10X better quality.

There are a range of different ways to join the community. The most common way is by participating in one of our programs or memberships. Jump into "offerings" to explore more. You can also get involved as a partner, mentor or coach. Better yet, join us at our next event, meet some people already in the community, and hear their story of how they came to join Startmate Nation. Subscribe to our events calendar here or our newsletter here.

Startmate programs usually take place over a sprint period ranging from 2 weeks to 12 weeks. They are high impact, high commitment (~2-4h per week). 

Startmate memberships usually take place over a one-year period. They are high impact, low time commitment (~2-4h per month).

To help coach the next generation of talent in the ANZ startup ecosystem, check out this page.

There are a few stages to becoming a mentor for the Accelerator. To help coach the next generation of talent in the ANZ startup ecosystem, check out this page.

Coaches dedicate their time to people in our programs/memberships, while mentors are 100% focused on Accelerator founders. 

We have offices in Auckland, Sydney and Melbourne. Our HQ is in Surry Hills. Reach out to the team if you’d like to get in touch. 

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There are a tonne of different ways you can partner with Startmate, check them out here.  

Take a look at our careers page and our LinkedIn for live roles.