Answers from the archive

15 questions about how the Australian startup ecosystem was built, answered only in the words of the 19 people who were there — every passage verbatim, attributed, and linked to the moment in the episode it came from.

Where the archive cannot answer a question with real evidence, there is no page for it.

• How did venture capital get started in Australia?

  3 passages — James Alexander, David Burt, Kate Cornick

• What role did Atlassian play in Australian tech?

  3 passages — Mark Pesce, Brendan Hill, Adam Spencer

• What happened to Australian startups during the dot-com crash?

  3 passages — Adam Spencer, Matt Bullock

• How did Australian accelerators and incubators start?

  2 passages — Adam Spencer, Matt Barrie

• What role did government policy play in Australian startups?

  2 passages — Kate Jones, James Alexander

• Why did Australian founders move to Silicon Valley?

  2 passages — Bill Tai

• How did Australian startups raise money before venture capital existed?

  3 passages — Allan O'Connor, Kate Cornick, James Alexander

• Who were the first Australian technology entrepreneurs?

  3 passages — Evan Thornley, James Alexander, Adam Spencer

• What made Australian startups different from American ones?

  2 passages — Silvia Pfeiffer, Zoe Piper

• How did Australian universities contribute to the startup ecosystem?

  2 passages — Malcolm Turnbull

• How did the first Australian tech companies find customers?

  2 passages — Evan Thornley, Malcolm Turnbull

• How did Australian startups approach going global?

  2 passages — Peter Davison, Kate Cornick

• What was it like to start a technology company in Australia in the 1990s?

  2 passages — Evan Thornley, Rohan McDougall

• How did Australian startups attract technical talent?

  3 passages — Wayne Gerard, Malcolm Turnbull

• What advice do experienced Australian founders give first-time founders?

  2 passages — Kate Cornick, Mick Liubinskas