Hi SM Family,

Welcome back!!! (Can we still say that in Feb?)

The most useful thing I can do for you is to give you a snapshot of what’s happening at Startmate over the next year.

Enjoy this infographic that looks a bit like it was made by an 8-year-old but we believe gets most of the important info across!

Ask

Accelerator Alumni - when are you raising NEXT? - hit reply and let me know!

• We recognise that raising capital is harder than ever right now.
• That’s where we can help.
• Startmate will always take our pro-rata (from March), a competitive advantage so you know you already have money committed in your next raise.
• We can introduce you to our LPs and investors as part of your fundraise.
• So all you have to do is hit reply and let us know when you’re raising next.

• When?
• How much? At what rough valuation?

What should we build next? - answer 5 questions (max 3-min)

• Help us create the most value for YOU!
• The Startmate community wouldn’t exist without each and every one of you, so we want to understand what will add the most value to you and the community, and you think will make the biggest impact.

Do you want to co-run a program with Startmate? —> Fill in this form

• Startmate is looking to collaborate with subject-matter experts to design and deliver programs, based on their domain expertise.
• In short, the subject-matter expert develops the curriculum and delivers the content sessions to the participants. Startmate handles all of the promotion, operations and program management. Some examples of our past collaborations: Product Management 101 with Harry Hamilton, and Customer Success with Kirsty Traill.

Want to partner or sponsor a Startmate program? - Let’s do it - here

• Partner with us to help make Australia and New Zealand the best place in the world to build a startup? There are so many opportunities to get involved. Check them out here.

First Believers Cohort 5 is open and ready for you! - Apply here

• We’re looking for the next generation of angel investors to believe in and back the most ambitious startups in ANZ. Sound like you or someone you know?

Good

• Accelerator Week 0 is back IN PERSON: We kicked off the Summer'23 Startmate Accelerator with Week Zero in Melbourne – the first time IRL since 2020! We all know how difficult it is to make friends later in life; there aren't many opportunities to find and build strong relationships with a group of people who are also working on ambitious world-changing companies. Every single founder came together at the start of this week as complete strangers and left with a whole new set of teammates that they will be able to lean on over the next 12 intense weeks and throughout their founding journeys.
• Massive thanks to Chris Thompson, Chloe Hamman, Tom Mcleod, Eric Peck, Jenny Rudd, Melanie Robb, Chris Naoumidis, Alex Naoumidis and mentors who gave their time to raise the ambition and orientate these founders for success
• We had 1,174 EOI for the Climate Fellowship: The response to the Climate Fellowship has been phenomenal. We’ve received 1174 expressions of interest and have connected with some truly epic humans who are eager to get involved and contribute to the program. We’re looking to open applications in the coming weeks and launch the program in April. We’ll also be reaching out soon to those who have expressed interest in contributing to chat more about how we’d love you to get involved.
• The Student Fellowship has kicked off with 150 ambitious university students from across ANZ as they look to embark on a career in startups. One of the many highlights from the first week of the program include Mindset Health’s Alex Naoumidis & Blackbird’s Christie Jenkins coming to talk about how to best develop a Minimum Viable Product (‘MVP’) and the importance of a growth mindset.
• Glorious Holidays: We had two glorious weeks of office shutdown and the team is back feeling relaxed and rejuvenated. We had Startmates making the most of summer from Byron to Pambula to Streaky Bay (look it up!!)

Bad

• We’re still looking for an Accelerator Lead: we put up a job opening for a new Accelerator Lead in the month or so before Christmas and despite getting nearly 250 incredible applications, we didn’t land on someone to hire. Lots of lessons internally about getting clarity and alignment on what we need from a role like this, and not going to market before we’re ready!
• Athlete Fellowship applications took longer than expected: We have learnt a lot about how to generate epic applicants for the Athlete fellowship, but it was a trial and error process that ended up being really different from our traditional outreach campaigns. Huge thank you to all the Heads of Player Development from different sporting codes who helped us here!

Ugly

• Our social media game is non-existent atm: our media extraordinaire Bronte wrapped up with us in December and no one has been actively managing the socials or writing the newsletter since… apologies for the lack of consistent, engaging, informative content you’re used to!! You’ll be relieved to know that we’re nearly done with the hiring process for a marketing associate, who will be getting us back to regular operations very quickly.

Thanks, team!