Microsoft: Investors should get behind our innovators
with KATHLEEN SKENE & ALISTER THOMSON AUSTRALIAN investors need to be more prepared to back start-ups even though most of them fail, according to Microsoft’s global tech guru.
Microsoft global head of start-ups Annie Parker said Australians, unlike investors in Israel, the US or Europe, were often not prepared to back risky but potentially good business ideas.
“Over 80 per cent of startups fail,” said Ms Parker, who was previously chief executive of tech co-working space Fishburners. “Other countries seem to be okay with the fact that maybe only one in 10 ideas will succeed because they know that one will pay off. ”
Ms Parker will be a guest speaker at the second annual Myriad festival in Brisbane this week that will bring together investors and tech entrepreneurs. The three-day conference will also attract leading Silicon Valley companies including Twitter, Spotify and Google Ventures.
She said Australian investors needed to back start-up entrepreneurs who had ideas that may not necessarily always succeed on the first attempt.
“Maybe their fourth or fifth idea will succeed,” she said. “We will not be the lucky country forever and we need to really back start-ups.”
Microsoft announced in February that Sydney will join Seattle, Beijing, Berlin, and London in becoming the location of the eighth Microsoft ScaleUp program. More than 700 start-ups have graduated from the program and raised almost $3 billion in venture capital.
Microsoft did not take an equity stake in the start-ups but helped companies commercialise their ideas.
Ms Parker said she was excited about the Myriad festival and the burgeoning start-up ecosystem in Brisbane. Myriad will be held from Wednesday to Friday at the Royal International Convention Centre.