Re:Atlassian files for IPO
by danieltillett on Monday November 09, 2015 @06:20PM
(#10536550)
Australian are rapid adopters of tech, except for those who happen to be CTO’s or CEO. There is a real cultural cringe towards anything Australian when it comes to technology. I just wish we could get to the point where we think of Australian tech in the same way as we think of Australian sport.
My one positive is things today are nowhere near as bad as they were 15 years ago when I started. We have a great base of talent and with a little government support I could see Australian’s getting over their cringe.
The biggest problem is the very small market. Tech needs a big market to support it due to the sheer expense of it. Aus + NZ is only 25 million people - the nearest masses of humanity are a full workday's flight away. Compare to the US, Europe, or south / east Asia itself.
Re:Atlassian files for IPO
by danieltillett on Monday November 09, 2015 @07:08PM
(#10536749)
Small markets can be good while you are starting out as it allows you to make sure you are able to achieve high penetrance at relatively low cost. In a large market you don’t really know how broad an appeal your product has until quite late in the process.
With no industry other than "digging things up", extremely expensive and slow internet, and large family homes all over the middle of the city, it is pretty indisputable. All you have mentioned is that, yes, our banks and government can adopt technologies quicker than other countries that are much larger.
Those people you deride as 'digging things up' also really push the envelope when it comes to tech. Both the mining and agricultural sectors are lapping it up. I used to work for an agricultural telemetry startup and there's a ton of interest in the sector - depictions of farmers as backwood yokels who are fearful of technological change are bad stereotypes.
Yes, the internet here is expensive and slow. You can thank the current government for it's intentional blocking of better infrastructure there. But just because the internet is comparatively slow here doesn't mean that the country is a backwater overall. The internet in the US is amazingly fast... if you're in the right spot. It's fucking awful if you're in a bad spot. Yet we don't paint the US as a technological backwater.
And then there are regressive forces like the last PM, who gutted science funding in permanently damaging ways.
It's a complex picture, but I think it's unfair to say Australians shy away from tech. Tech startups are harder here because of both government red tape and small market size, but that doesn't mean there's no real appetite for tech here. And frankly, given how much people here on HN say employee options are worthless, it's not the Australian regulations on options that would be holding anything back.