Does Australia have what it takes to create the next Facebook?

Australia might not be top of mind as a hot spot for digital innovation but with Aussie companies like Kaggle, Atlassian and 99Dresses making a dent in the digital universe it’s only a matter of time before the next Facebook comes from downunder. To shine some light on this question Australian startup Floq has today released the first interactive map of tech startups down under.

Floq, which has been touted as the most beautiful and easy to use survey app on the market, created the map to help Australian tech startups get a clearer picture of the ecosystem down under, and the strengths & weaknesses of different locations.

The Startup Nation map, which can be found at – www.floqapp.com/startupnation – shows more than 150 startups across the country and across categories from digital marketplaces and ecommerce websites to social apps and mobile games. It was compiled with results collected from a survey that aimed to find out how important physical communities are in supporting startups and entrepreneurship. Startups, venture capitalists and founders of co-working spaces and incubators filled out the survey.

Floq founder Jonah Cacioppe said the survey was designed to see how supportive startups found the Australian ecosystem, and to test if the long held view that areas with more supportive ecosystems have a higher success rate for startups.

“We want to check two things: one, what folks think about the level of support their city, family & … Continue reading →

SurveyMonkey has long been the go-to for surveys but there’s a new kid on the block who’s about to change all that.

Perth based survey app, Floq launched to the public today, and has been receiving rave reviews by its user since launching a private beta three months ago. It’s been touted as the most beautiful and easy to use survey app on the market, something founder and ex-artist Jonah Cacioppe is particularly proud of.

“We’ve created something that’s not just easy to use, it’s beautiful. That’s what our users have told us, who are based all over the world,” he said.

“Over the past few years we’ve seen an emphasis on beauty with many apps. You just have to look at the likes of Path, Amen; the Instagram app was so popular because it allowed people to create more beautiful photos. There really is no excuse for users not to have a beautiful online experience.”

Apart from the fact that it’s just so goddam good lookin’, one of its most impressive features is the ability to compare the feedback you get from your surveys to others – something SurveyMonkey and the like have failed to do.

“If you create a survey or poll on SurveyMonkey not only does it take ages but you’ll never know what anyone outside your group or clients think about the same topic and questions,” Jonah said.

“That’s why we’ve built comparative benchmarking into Floq’s core. We believe context is king. Getting feedback from customers … Continue reading →

There’s a lot of buzz right now about entrepreneurship, innovation and the startup ecosystem with reports out of the US from Startup Genome ( a listing site for angels, VCs and startups by US tech clusters) and Startup Compass, (a great website with superb research and a benchmarking tool). And, we must say, we’re loving it.

After all, we’re a tech startup too and are certainly facing our own challenges in our first year. Knowing that we can reach out to the global community and sift through data to help us benchmark our progress makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside, especially because we happen to be based in the most isolated city in the world!

While the likes of Startup Genome, AngelList and Startup Compass are doing a great job of taking a big picture look at global innovation, we want to zoom in on Australia; scrape it with a fine-tooth comb and take a close-up snapshot of our ever evolving tech startup scene.

Startup Nation

Through quarterly pulse surveys the Startup Nation project aims to create a picture of the different factors that contribute to a vibrant startup community in Australia. We’ll do this by using the Floq platform to publish and distribute simple pulse surveys to the industry, and then publish our findings through interactive maps, infographics, white papers and more.

In this first survey we’re aiming to find out how important physical communities are in supporting startups and entrepreneurship. We spend endless hours in front of … Continue reading →