Engineers Collective

Building is easy, leading people is hard.

Engineering isn’t always as simple as build, code, execute. You need excellent people skills to advance your career.

Engineers Collective is an exclusive membership helping experienced software engineers nail the people side of their role alongside leading engineers at the same level. 

You’ll gain access to peer-driven advisory groups to solve the challenges you currently face and masterclasses to set yourself up for success and grow as a leader.

📆

Applications open:
Early/mid 2024 with rolling intakes

Program Dates:
Ongoing annual membership

📆

Membership dates: Ongoing annual membership

Program Dates:
Ongoing annual membership

✏️

Intake Close: 27 January 2025

Applications Close:
27 January 2025

đź“‹

Eligibility: SYD or MEL based, 3+ years work experience

Applications Close:
27 January 2025

🤝
Scale the engineering career ladder

The Engineering Collective is designed to add jet fuel to your career by improving your people skills as much as your coding skills. You’ll set yourself up for promotions, nail the projects you’re owning, and gain the tools you need at the time you need them to succeed in the people-side of your role. And ultimately move swiftly up the engineering career ladder.

✨
Learn from peers in similar roles

Ever wondered what on earth you’re doing in your role? Ever wished you could see how others had approached a similar problem? You are not alone.

You’ll be connected to a community of engineers in a similar role and career stage that are facing similar problems. This is your unfair advantage to navigate challenges together.

🚀
Learn people skills from industry leaders

Gain practical people and leadership skills you can implement immediately to supercharge your career as an engineer. We’ll tailor the topics to your needs and switch up the delivery mode to keep it engaging.

From in-person hands-on workshops with leading startup operators and founders to ask-me-anything sessions with people two steps ahead of you, you’ll be growing and having fun while doing it.

📆

Register for Startmate International Women’s Day

Register interest

Meet some of the incredible women in our community

What is the
‍Engineers Collective?

People are hard, to be a great engineer you need to nail the people-side of your role. 

Think of this membership like GitHub, but for the people stuff. 

Simply put, we help you advance your career by teaching you the people stuff you can’t Google. 

‍

In this membership, you’ll get: 

đź’¬ Peer advisory groups: Monthly. In-person. Meet with your group of peers to help you solve the challenges you face.

🏆 Skill-building masterclasses: Bi-quarterly. Mix of in-person and virtual. From feedback, effective 1:1s to learning to lead a team, you’ll transform the way you work.

đź‘ŻPeer engineers at the same level: A community of engineering leaders that become some of the most important people in your career journey.

‍

Locations available: Sydney, Melbourne. 

Keen to join but aren't based in those cities? Submit an Expression of Interest form.

Time commitment: 2-3 hours monthly.

Are you a wildly ambitious founder and pre Series A fundraise?
‍The Accelerator is for you.

🙏

We're industry agnostic.

‍We've invested in companies spanning an insanely diverse range of industries. From ed-tech, health-tech, prop-tech and climate-tech to space-tech, fin-tech and legal-tech.

đź’Ş

You're never too early.

‍67% of Accelerator companies had no revenue when they appliedand every cohort has had at least one company that is idea-stage and pre-MVP.

đź‘­

We strive for equal representation.

‍Diversity builds smarter solutions. Since 2021, 40% of our companies have 1 or more women co-founders.

Ready to nail the people side of your role?
‍Engineers Collective is for you.

🤺

Experience
Minimum of 3 years experience in any software engineering role, from Software Engineers to Engineering Managers and CTOs.

🙇

Connections
Who are looking to build meaningful connections with other epic engineers.

đź“Ť

Location
Based in Sydney or Melbourne.

Check out our
‍track record

  • 50% of companies raise post-accelerator
  • Startups raise an average of $1.8mil. off the back of the accelerator

Join a community that will help you go from idea to IPO

🔥

Hiring

We have over 3000+ of ANZ’s most talented operators in our community. Our incredible Startmate fellows are hungry to join a high-growth startup and ready to support you on your journey.

🔥

Investors

We have built an army of over 250 early stage investors who are inspired by your commitment to changing the world. They are here, ready to be your First Believers, and invest.

🔥

Funding

We invest in you from day one and continue to believe in you forever after. This is a unique fund in ANZ that automatically invests all Startmate pro-rata for our alumni, which means you can go into your fundraising conversations already knowing you have the Startmate pro-rata committed

Apply for the
Engineers Collective

Great engineers need to be able to lead as well as build.

📆

Program Dates:
Ongoing annual membership

Membership Dates: Ongoing annual membership

✏️

Applications Close:
27 January 2025

Applications Close: 27 January 2025

đź’¸

Membership cost: $550 quarterly (incl. GST)*

Program cost:
$550 quarterly (incl. GST)

*minimum term is 12 months

What you’ll get out of the Accelerator 
  1. Investment: We invest AUD 120k in each company so that all your energy is focused on building your startup.
  2. Founder friends: You’ll be surrounded by a cohort of equally ambitious founders on the same journey.
  3. Pitch perfect: We’ll tear your pitch deck to shreds and by the end of the Accelerator you’ll have a bulletproof deck ready for investors.
  4. Launch your startup to the world: Pitch your startup to an audience of thousands at Demo Day.
  5. A product people want: You’ll spend 12 weeks laser-focused on your customer, how you can improve your product and the results to drive meaningful growth
  6. Mentorship: You’ll be partnered with ANZ’s most successful founders, operators and investors who have skin in the game and will run through brick walls to see you succeed 
  7. SME: We’ll connect you with subject matter experts who can provide tailored industry advice on how to approach your business
  8. Community: You’ll gain access to ANZ’s largest startup community of founders, operators and investors who are ready to support you on your journey.  
  9. World-class talent pool: Within our 2000+ startmate fellowship alumni are the hires you need to take your startup to the next level at your fingertips: pre-vetted, upskilled, and hungry to join a high-growth startup. 
  10. The best platform in ANZ to raise capital: Having the Startmate brand behind you will be a stamp of approval to every potential investor or employee you meet.

Frequently asked questions

What's the investment?

You have the option of paying the annual fee upfront or in quarterly payments.*

‍

  • Annual: $2000 per year
  • Quarterly: $550 per quarter ($2200 per year)**

‍

*Prices are inclusive of GST
**Minimum term is 12 months

I’m not a Software Engineer with >3 years experience. Can I join?

Currently we’re only accepting applications from people with >3 years of experience in software engineering.

If you’re a hardware engineer, or if you have <3 years experience, let us know that you’re interested in something like this for yourself!

‍Fill out this form and we’ll be in touch when we open up the Collective to beyond software engineers!

I'm not based in Sydney or Melbourne. Can I still join?

Although we are only open to Sydney and Melbourne members, we are keen to open up new locations across ANZ.

If you are based in another city, please submit an Expression of Interest form and let us know where you're based! When we announce new cities, you'll be the first to know.

Is attendance compulsory?

The value of this membership is supercharged by the epic engineers in the community.

Because of this, we expect our members to commit to all of their peer advisory sessions as well as most of our bi-quarterly masterclasses.

Members who miss more than 3 peer advisory sessions will be withdrawn from the membership (except in extenuating circumstances).

What is the time commitment?

At a minimum, we expect our members to commit to all peer advisory sessions, which will be held monthly (1.5 hours).

On top of this, in a given month there will also be either an in-person workshop or a guest speaker session (an additional ~1 hour).

Is the Engineers Collective virtual or in-person?

This membership is a bit of both. In-person peer advisory sessions are held across Sydney and Melbourne, while masterclasses rotate between in-person workshops and virtual guest speaker sessions.

Keen to join but aren't based in those cities? Submit an Expression of Interest and let us know where home is for you!

Essential Reading