How do you land a model take care of international music celebrity Robbie Williams?

Straightforward – ship him a tune by way of voice be aware.

At Startmate’s latest Alumni Demo Day in Sydney, Andy Miller from non-alcoholic beer startup Heaps Regular  (Startmate class of winter 2020) recalled how he heard from the singer’s crew that Robbie was a fan. It’s been greater than 25 years since he’s had a drink, however after coming throughout the model on his Australian tour.

The celebrity and brewer started chatting about turning into a model ambassador, however when the dialog went quiet, Miller adopted up by recording himself singing to Williams asking what his favorite drink was.

For extra sensible recommendation, we spoke to Andy and a few of the different founders pitching on the evening about their largest classes going via the accelerator.

His recommendation? Simply begin.

“It sounds corny, but it surely’s actually [to] imagine in your self and begin earlier than you’re prepared, since you’ve already bought every little thing that you just want to have the ability to succeed.”

“And work it out as you go. One of the best ways to resolve the issues that you just suppose you’re going to have is to simply begin doing one thing.”

Francis Vierboom, who cofounded drone begin up Propellor Aero in 2015 (the identical 12 months he did Startmate), had two items of recommendation to share.

The primary: work at one other startup earlier than beginning your individual.

“One factor I like to inform individuals is attempt to not begin your first startup. It’s actually helpful to get expertise round startups and dealing in a startup, earlier than you begin one your self,” he stated.

“No less than that works for us. And clearly plenty of individuals simply dive into doing it.”

The second is to determine the place your prospects will probably be buying to your merchandise.

“It’s typically a extremely onerous query for startups. And for us as an organization that was promoting a software program product to development groups, it’s a fairly onerous query to reply: when and the place is a development firm purchasing for software program? It’s not many locations,” Francis stated.

“However determining distribution and the way your prospects are entering into the temper to purchase you is pivotal to your corporation. And Startmate pushes you onerous to go and discover individuals which are in that purchasing temper.”

Andy O’Connor from JustFund (Startmate Summer22 cohort) had an identical drawback, constructing monetary options for individuals going via divorce. The recommendation he acquired at Startmate and now shares is to hone in on the purchasers.

“Once you’re taking a look at a extremely vital social drawback, it’s very onerous to know the place to start out. Significantly on the subject of a know-how enterprise, the place you’ve got a major product construct value earlier than you’ve got product market match,” he stated

“We had 5 implausible mentors and so they had been all very clear — simply keep as near your shoppers as you possibly can all through the whole journey of the enterprise. So [it’s] consistently talking to shoppers and your prospects to study as rapidly as attainable the place our product suits finest in fixing issues for them.”

We additionally requested the founders about how the Startmate group formed the trajectory of their startup.

Suppose larger

For Francis from Propeller Aero, it was about how they pushed him to suppose larger.

“It’s at all times been a trademark of Startmate that they need to stage up your ambition. They need you to suppose larger about how a lot scale you possibly can obtain,” he stated.

“And that’s clearly actually vital for the enterprise buyers who’re in search of these huge, outsized returns of their investments too.”

WORK180 founder Gemma Lloyd on stage on the Startmate Alumni Demo Day.

Gemma Lloyd from WORK180 (Startmate class of 2018) stated the Startmate group is among the most supportive networks she’s ever been a part of.

“The founders and mentors are so beneficiant with their time and recommendation; everybody genuinely needs to see one another succeed,” she stated.

“In an business the place solely round 2% of VC funding goes to girls, assembly different girls founders and buyers, comparable to [Skip Capital founder] Kim Jackson, gave me an actual sense of belonging and a perception that change is feasible once we raise one another up.”

Startmate CEO Michael Batko stated they needed to convey collectively a few of the founders from throughout the years backed by this system to encourage the subsequent technology of founders.

“At conventional Demo Days you see the success over 12 weeks, however you might be nonetheless questioning which firm goes to make it,” he stated.

“Alumni Day flipped that on its head. As an alternative, you bought to witness the awesomeness of the businesses that made it, but additionally hear concerning the rollercoaster of a experience that constructing an organization is. As Andy Miller, founding father of Heaps Regular, put it superbly, the journey is one stuffed with curveballs: Good or Dangerous – who’s to say?.”

The subsequent Startmate Demo Day for the Winter25 cohort is on subsequent Thursday, October 23, on the Timber Yard in Melbourne. Particulars right here.

• Evan Lim is the content material lead at Local weather Salad — a group supporting Australian local weather tech founders.