Paul Bassat examines the evolution of the ecosystem

02/24/22 • 42 min

The History of the Australian Startup Ecosystem: Interview Series

After practicing as a lawyer for six years, Paul Bassat co-founded Seek with his brother Andrew in 1997, which in 2005 was floated on the Australian Securities Exchange with a market cap of $587 million. Paul moved on from Seek in 2011, and in 2012 co-founded Square Peg, a global investment firm which today has over US $1 billion in assets and has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Tel Aviv and Singapore. Paul is also a Commissioner of the Australian Football League, and a director of Wesfarmers LTD. In his conversation with Adam, Paul discusses what it was like founding an internet startup in the early days before Australia’s ecosystem had developed, as well as the remarkable rate of change in the ecosystem over the last several years.

See full show notes https://w2d1.com/paul-bassat

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This episode is sponsored by NTP

This episode is sponsored by NTP NTP is the technology recruitment company that values community and who are invested in seeing the growth of Australia's local tech community.

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See full show notes https://w2d1.com/paul-bassat

Mentioned in this episode:

This episode is sponsored by NTP

This episode is sponsored by NTP NTP is the technology recruitment company that values community and who are invested in seeing the growth of Australia's local tech community.

Previous Episode

Melissa Widner discusses the huge progress of startups

Melissa Widner is the CEO of Lighter Capital, an investment firm that is based in the US and launched in Australia in 2020. Their novel model involves lending to early stage startups and linking repayments to revenue, without requiring founders to relinquish equity. Melissa has a long history in the startup world, having been CEO or board member of many companies. In her conversation with Adam, she discusses Lighter Capital’s new model, and the ways in which she believes the Australian startup ecosystem has made huge progress in the last 5 or so years.

See full show notes https://w2d1.com/melissa-widner

Mentioned in this episode:

This episode is sponsored by NTP

This episode is sponsored by NTP NTP is the technology recruitment company that values community and who are invested in seeing the growth of Australia's local tech community.

Next Episode

Alan Jones: Can we talk about smartphones?

With experience founding and co-founding tech startups since 1995, Alan Jones is a veteran of Australia’s startup ecosystem. An angel investor and advisor, Alan has supported Australian startups independently and through BlueChilli, Blackbird Ventures, Pollenizer Ventures and Startmate. In his conversation with Adam, Alan discusses how the internet’s disruption of media companies made possible Australia’s first tech startups, and how the advent of wifi and the smartphone dramatically impacted Australia’s startup ecosystem.

See full show notes https://w2d1.com/alan-jones

Mentioned in this episode:

This episode is sponsored by NTP

This episode is sponsored by NTP NTP is the technology recruitment company that values community and who are invested in seeing the growth of Australia's local tech community.