Articles

For Anne-Marie Birkill, CEO of i.lab technology incubator, life has been rather serendipitous. Graduating with a science degree, she fell into plant biotechnology, where a short-term secondment to Brisbane transformed her into General Manager and 25 percent shareholder within two years. So began a twenty year career spanning management, consulting, lecturing and new technology incubation.

First off, let's be clear. We have to kill the phrase 'online classifieds'. At best, it has the weary note of strained metaphors, like moving staircases and horseless carriages. At worst, it's symptomatic of a dated way of thinking about the world. These days, winning in classifieds really means winning in markets. And that, dear readers, is a much tougher job.

The Packer deal took everybody by surprise. It coincided perfectly with the media reform announcements, but in fact had more to do with maximising shareholder value than with media reforms.

Everyone knows that business is all about cycles. What goes down must go up, and vice versa. With my dot-com scars so recently healed, I am loathe to be trumpeting another technology boom. But things are certainly afoot.

It seems like every bus shelter you pass features a back-lit silhouette of a dancing girl or boy with wires coming out of their ears. You don't have to read the logo to know that it's another ad for iPod. But did you know that the ad is doing wonders for Apple PCs?

The similarities between start-ups and film projects are even greater in the US, where venture investors are likely to install their own people into a business for a short period of time to help get it moving.

About four years ago I took a break from my day job and went to Hollywood to chase Australian actors and filmmakers. The idea was to write a piece for Rolling Stone Australia on the lives of Aussie expats working in the entertainment industry. It was a similar project to one I had done a year earlier looking into the lives of expats in the technology equivalent of Hollywood - San Francisco's Bay Area.

It's been a tough ride for the online crowd, but things are finally moving again, thanks to broadband uptake, new technologies and a bootstrapping ethos that never really died. We chatted to four of our leading internet entrepreneurs about the state of web 2.0 in Australia.

It's been a tough ride for the online crowd, but things are finally moving again, thanks to broadband uptake, new technologies and a bootstrapping ethos that never really died. We chatted to four of our leading internet entrepreneurs about the state of web 2.0 in Australia.

'Going Public' means different things to different people. For the entrepreneur it's the capital injection to take the business to dizzy heights. To investors...

NEW YEAR, FRESH START Ever dreamed of ditching the day job? Swapping from salary slave to enterprising entrepreneur? Of course you have. But what...

FIGHT LIKE A NINJA, PLEASE LIKE A GEISHA THE NINE CODES OF NINJA MARKETING Marketing is both a science and an art. It is also like...

Some companies are built to be sold. The intellectual property and business processes are bedded down and bundled into a transferable package. Find a market gap, identify potential buyers, build it, drive home the value and make the trade sale. And then, if you enjoyed the ride, do it again.

Even the brightest of ideas can quickly lose its shine. All it takes is a moment of distraction, an unforeseen complication... or an act...

The path from start-up to success story can be a challenging journey. These two Victorian innovators are taking the path less travelled, turning good ideas into profitable international businesses, and they're not looking back!

One of the great misconceptions about patents is that they can only be obtained on an invention of a tangible item. However, patents can also be obtained for how a business function is performed, provided certain criteria are met. These patents are known as "business method patents".

For small-to-medium sized enterprises, it takes more than just a well-rehearsed sales pitch to catch and keep the eye of a cashed-up suitor.

For small-to-medium sized enterprises, it takes more than just a well-rehearsed sales pitch to catch and keep the eye of a cashed-up suitor.

It's not news that the number of eyeballs searching for products and services online is growing rapidly. But you're possibly not aware of just how rapidly growth in internet commerce is occurring.

Don't be caught unprepared if a journalist calls your office requesting an interview. Preparation is the difference between good publicity and bad publicity. Here are some simple things you can do to maximise the outcomes of a media interview.