This article was published on June 5, 2012

Floq map of Australian tech startups shows what’s up down under


Floq map of Australian tech startups shows what’s up down under

Not so long ago we had a little chat with Australian survey software startup Floq, which mentioned that it is using its own software to start a map of its home country, showing where the fresh new tech companies are emerging.

True to its word, Floq has launched its interactive map of Australian tech startups and the amount of pins embedded appears to be growing. Floq tends to focus on making things attractive and understandable, so it’s no wonder that this project looks pretty neat.

The Startup Nation map shows more than 150 startups around the country and across categories from digital marketplaces and ecommerce websites to social apps and mobile games.

It was put together with results collected from a survey that aimed to find out how important physical communities are in supporting startups and entrepreneurship. That’s an interesting angle for questions when you note that Australia is a place of wide spaces as well as urban conurbations and the way a physical community reacts locally can be quite different to a reaction on the Web.

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Floq founder Jonah Cacioppe said the survey was designed to see how supportive startups found the Australian ecosystem, and to test the view that areas with more support have a higher success rate for startups.

“We want to check two things: one, what folks think of their city and close social network, and how the different cities in Australia fare. Our second aim is to see if the guys and girls building pixels that do more mingling, and live in cities or suburbs that foster more random meet ups, track any different. Does having a coffee with colleagues really help foster bigger ideas and better companies?”

This first set of results show that mentors and advisors are the most supportive. Friends follow and then family and cities. Investors come out as the least supportive aspect of the Australian startup ecosystem.

The map shows a breakdown of the major cities and how they fared in each of the above categories. Based on the total scores Sydney comes out top of the pack in terms of supportiveness across all five aspects (city, family, friends, mentors and investors). Followed by Melbourne and Perth.

Tasmania, Brisbane and Adelaide’s response numbers are at this stage too small to be properly ranked but early indications show Tasmania doing well. Who knew the little island would have such a nurturing nature for startups?

Definitive mapping

The map and first survey on community and success are a part of a bigger Floq initiative, Startup Nation, which company hopes will become a definitive resource for the Australian tech startup community.

“Through quarterly pulse surveys we’ll aim to create a picture of the different factors that contribute to a vibrant startup community in Australia,” says Cacioppe. “We’ll do this by using the Floq platform to publish and distribute simple pulse surveys to the industry, and then publish our findings through the interactive map, infographics and white papers.”

Cacioppe said he hopes the resource will help Australian startups get a clearer picture of where they stand and what they need to do to create an environment in which the next Facebook could flourish. “It’s no secret that Silicon Valley has an unbelievably supportive network driven by everyone’s that no doubt contributed to the success of startups like Facebook. The data we’ve now got gives us a clearer idea of just how supportive our country is for tech startups,” he said.

Floq will be releasing more information in an infographic and full report from the survey over the coming weeks. Those who haven’t filled out the survey are naturally encouraged to visit and fill in a form online.

➤ Startup Nation Map

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