Connecting Corporates and Startups at the SydETM

“If you want to build a business in Australia you need to connect with Corporates.” Kara Frederick, General Partner at Reinventure (Westpac) said to the crowd gathered at WooliesX for the inaugural Sydney Enterprise Tech Meetup.

Recently, CoVentured attended and showcased our platform at the inaugural SydETM meetup. The SydETM fosters innovation in the Sydney enterprise tech ecosystem through promoting early stage technology companies, educating tech startups and enterprises on how to work together, and creating an environment where entrepreneurs, investors, and businesses can network and learn.

Corporate Startup partnerships are key to building and growing innovation. This was the key theme for the panel of speakers who were:

• Kara Frederick (General Partner at Reinventure),
• David Parfett (Head of Group Innovation & Ventures at Qantas),
• Marcus Bartram (Partner at Telstra Ventures)

The panel was chaired by James Cameron, Partner at Airtree VC who asked the speakers to explore the pros and cons of corporate venturing, and how effective this is as a channel for building strategic relationships.

The panel told us, Corporates have the resources and Startups have the proof of concept. By working together, Startups and Corporates can accelerate their growth. For a successful relationship to take place, it’s important that the Corporate is open to working with a startup and has the right process in place. And for a Startup it’s important to understand what you bring to the table and the relationship you want with the Corporate.

This panel discussion was the perfect segway into our showcase of the CoVentured platform. We explained to the SydETM audience that CoVentured was launched because we understand it's often difficult for a Startup to know which Corporates are open to a conversation, what they are looking for and who to talk to. And most Corporates realised that an innovation strategy should include engaging the startup world to gain access to new technology, new ideas and the best talent.

Two other enterprise marketplaces also showcased their platforms, Already Built which helps corporates sell tools they have built internally, and Expert360 shared their new platform for managing internal project resource utilisation which is now in beta.

The SydETM is a great community helping Corporates and Startups share value and connect with one another. We were excited to share CoVentured at the event and look forward to supporting the SydETM community further.

If you want to know more about SydETM and their upcoming events, or would like to showcase your startup, jump onto CoVentured and check out their profile here.