Life at muru-D
Lots of people are asking me how life is going at muru-D after 5.5 years full on with Pollenizer. Honestly it’s very new, very interesting and very challenging.
muru-D is a startup. It got OK’d five months ago and now there is a room, a team, a website, and a lot of interest. There is a shared spreadsheet with a draft program. Daily talks with entrepreneurs. Lots of chats with mentors. And some interactions with the big Telstra elephant.
Mostly there is a lot of work to do. Applications closed on Monday 25th 12pm. First priority is to get as many good applicants as possible. Then it’s picking the ones we can have the best impact on.
Amazingly we had over 300 expressions of interest and 200 fully complete and eligible applications. I was blown away. I really needed at least 50 and hoped for 100. 200 went way past my expectations.
Of course this is a vanity metric. What really matters is how many of them were quality. Good teams, pursuing big businesses with some early action.
Here is my rough view of the numbers;
- 10% half-hearted pitches of ideas
- 15% ecommerce businesses or portals (not a fit for muru)
- 5% 2nd (or 3rd) time entrepreneurs with strong pitches
- 10% successful business people with their first digital business
- 15% corporate people looking to startup
- 35% young, first time entrepreneurs with good pitches
- 10% university students through programs
Most of them were from Sydney, but we got a good selection from Wollongong, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane.
Of that mix I’d say that at least half were reasonable enough to consider for muru-D based on our criteria. That’s 100 companies. And our shortlist was only 40 spots and the final selection only 10. Ouch. That really hurts. So much potential.
Thankfully there are lots of options for startups. No path is easy, but it’s a lot easier than it was even 5.5 years ago when Pollenizer started. Back then there were few angels, nearly no ESVCLP’s, no Startmate, no Blackbird, no Squarepeg, no Angelcube, no Silicon Beach, no Fishburners, no Innovyz, no Inspire9… the list goes on….
From here we will short list to about 20, meet with the startups and pick the final 10. The program starts mid Feb. Game on.
I’ve also been blown away by the industry support. Some great mentors have agreed to support this new program and that means the world to me. These are people who know startups and their help can make the difference of success and failure for a new company. I hate using allcaps but I feel I must – THANK YOU SO MUCH!
As for Telstra, well so far it’s been great. Solid support, lots of interest, plenty of encouragement and a surprising number of high credbility startup people. I think they’ve set it up the right way to allow it room to breath without quarterly reporting. muru-D, like all things in startup land, need to be impatient for action but patient for results.
The space at Paddington is good. I really would have loved it to be next to Fishburners or Pollenizer to build the buzz, but it’s a good office and there are a bunch of good people living nearby (Mike Cannon-Brookes and Dean McEvoy) so maybe that proximity will help. It’s also got a table tennis table which I love playing as a break, though Ben here is kicking my butt so far…..
Speaking of the team, Ben has been great. Diving out of Telstra and into the role with his sleeves rolled up. Annie has also been fantastic. Open, authentic, creative, supportive, tough. Bringing her here from London is a big win for the startup community.
Of course no amount of mentors, Telstra or cool office will make a crappy team hungry, or a bad product rock, or a dumb idea brilliant. It’s all down to the entrepreneurs. That’s what I’m here for. I hope that is why Telstra, muru-D and the mentors are here for. They are the ones to make it happen.
So life is weird being a startup along side a $26 billion dollar company but it is still a startup. Lots of good people, lots of good startups, lots of good work.
Life is good.