🚀 About Startmate
Our Mission: Startmate’s mission is to make Australia and New Zealand the best place in the world to build a startup. Our community is at the heart of this mission.
Startmate Slack: The purpose of Startmate Slack is to create a space where our community can come together and connect. Share asks and offers, find top-notch talent or dream job opportunities, swap resources and insights, and much more!
Who’s in the community: The community is full of incredible founders, investors, operators, and supporters who have either gone through one of our programs or supported us along the way.
🏠 Community Guidelines
These guidelines and our Code of Conduct exist to foster a safe, supportive and inclusive community for all of our members and hope you to get the most out of the Slack community.
If a member fails to follow these guidelines or breaches the Code of Conduct, appropriate action will be taken. This may include warnings, temporary or permanent suspension from the community, or other measures deemed necessary by the Startmate team.
🌈 Always show kindness and respect
- Be respectful: We are a diverse community made up of people from different backgrounds and cultures. Treat others in the community with respect and kindness, regardless of their background, experience or opinions. We do not tolerate hate speech, discrimination, or any language that may be deemed offensive or hurtful to others. Let's work together to create a safe and inclusive environment for all members.
- Debate the idea, don’t critique the person: Engage in discussions and debates around ideas, not people. It's okay to have different opinions and to engage in healthy debates within the community. However, always focus on the ideas being discussed and avoid personal attacks or critiques. Remember, we are all here to learn and grow together, and attacking someone personally is counterproductive to that goal.
✍️ Engaging with the Community
- Keep discussions rich: This is a community for startup founders, operators and investors. Keep conversations rich and related to the community's purpose.
- Respond in threads: When responding to a Slack post, make sure you respond in the thread. This keeps things nice and tidy and makes it easier to return to at a later date.
- Post in the most relevant channel: We have different channels for different topics and purposes. Please use the appropriate channel for your posts to ensure that they are seen by the right audience. Check out our Channels Guide for an overview of the channels. You may see us redirecting posts to the best channel - this is to help you get the best response!
- No spam: While we encourage members to share their wins and milestones, please refrain from excessive self-promotion or spamming the community with irrelevant links or advertisements.
- Requesting new channels: We encourage members to suggest new channels. All channel requests will need to be approved by the Startmate team and receive wider community support.
🌱 Be helpful
- Give first: Give back in the community by being helpful to others. Share your knowledge, experience, and connections to support others achieving their goals.
- Ask for help: Ask the community for help when you need it - increase your surface area for luck to strike!
👋 Reaching out to members
Reaching out to others is a great way to build relationships and learn from one another. However, please recognise that everyone has their own preferences and boundaries when it comes to communication.
- Make the ask clear: When reaching out to other community members, be clear about what you are asking for or hoping to achieve. If you are requesting information, be specific about what you are looking for and why it is important to you. If you are requesting a meeting or call, provide context and suggest potential times that work for you. Clear communication makes it easier for everyone to engage and collaborate effectively.
- Respect others' privacy: Do not share personal information about other community members without their consent.
- Don't take it personally: If someone does not respond to your direct message, don't take it personally. Not everyone has the time or capacity to respond to every message they receive. While a follow up message can be helpful, please respect others' boundaries and avoid sending multiple messages if you do not receive a response. One follow up message is okay!
👀 Confidentiality
- Respect confidential information: Respect the confidentiality of information shared within the Slack community. Do not share or discuss confidential information outside of the community.