Entrepreneurs at the Australian National University

Greeting from the Australian National University in Canberra where Peter Davison, founder of the Fishburners Start-up Space, is speaking to the ANU Entrepreneurs Society. Peter described Fishburners as "tech but not too tech". He argues there are two types of Entrepreneurs: naive tech silicon valley types who mostly fail and the Jedi knights with skills, knowledge of their field and a network of trusted colleagues. He argues that Silicon Valley is unique and attempts to emulate it elsewhere are unlikely to succeed. For Australia he suggests an alternative strategy of encouraging entrepreneurs to look at a problem in depth, build a network of stakeholders and be prepared to change their idea. He recommended the work of Saras D. Sarasvathy. Peter ended with some suggestions to get started, many of which revolved around leveraging the university for business. Peter was surprisingly ambivalent about not-for-profit ventures, given that the funded the non-profit Fishburners.

ps: It happens I was at Fishburners in Sydney last week and the ANU is opening its own co-working space "Entry 29 Co-working Space" in a few weeks time. This will offer office space for as low as $200 a month. The new venture is named after Griffin's entry in the competition to design Canberra, which was "Entry 29" (Canberra was founded 100 years ago this week). The Entry 29 building is at 17 Childers Street Acton ACT (behind the Conservation Council), ideally located between the ANU campus and the Canberra CBD.

Peter Davison at ANU Entrepreneurs Society

Peter Davison, founder of the Fishburners Start-up Space, will be speaking at the ANU Entrepreneurs Society 2013 Welcome Event, at the Australian National University in Canberra, 6pm 15 March 2013.

The ANU Entrepreneurs' Society proudly presents to you our annual welcome session. This is a meet-and-greet event for new, existing and non-members and a great opportunity to gather aspiring entrepreneurs. Join us and find out what the club is all about, get a sneak preview into our upcoming events, and help us cultivate a vibrant entrepreneurial community at the ANU.

This year, our guest speaker for the welcome session is PETER DAVIDSON. We are honored to have someone of Peter's caliber speaking at our event. Among a long list of other achievements, Peter played an integral role in developing the Internet giant PayPal’s current business model and founded and was the sole investor in Fishburners, a thriving nonprofit community for startups in Sydney. He now mentors and sits on the advisory board of numerous local startups. He is also a PhD student of entrepreneurship. ...

As usual, our events are free and fully catered. Please bring along your friends. We are looking forward to meeting all of you!
Location: Australian National University - CBE Lecture Theatre 2
Date: March 15th 2013
Time: 6-9pm
Regards, The ANU Entrepreneurs Society Executive

Fishburners Startup Workspace in Sydney

Last night I attended the Sydney Educational Technology (SydEduTech) Group and talked about "MOOCs with Books" at the Fishburners Sydney Co-working Space. Originally I had assumed that "Fishburners" was the name of a fish restaurant, but it turned out to be a building dedicated to providing low cost shared office space to new start-up businesses (including a 3 days for free trial). The building is an old warehouse converted to offices in New York loft style (there is als an office in Darlinghurst). There is a shared kitchen, games and presentation room, where we had the SydEduTech meeting. It happens that some of the occupants of the building I recognized as fellow participants in the Canberra Innovation ACT program at the ANU, where we were learning how to deveop a new business idea.

The name Fishburners come Fishburn, which was one ships of the first fleet which arrived in Sydney in 1788. It is not clear why the enterprise is named after the ship. But this is not the first hi-tech venture to have a confusing name.