WOTSOWorkSpace has announced a strategic partnership with innovation powerhouse, Investible, to facilitate the growth of a national accelerator for start-ups.
Investible is a global start-up generator, bringing together investors and VCs with high potential start-ups to reduce risk of pre-IPO investment. Their programs are deliberately gruelling – designed to expose a start-up’s weaknesses and determine which ideas and products are scalable, resistant to market threats and readily commercialised.
Investible’s LAB Program is an eight-week, full time start-up accelerator, where winning companies access up to $250,000 in capital from the Club Investible network. The program starts with a 5-day entrepreneurial intensive boot camp held out in the bush, originally created by Creel Price for the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship in South Africa.
Additional commercialisation programs including workshops on sales traction, business models, investor readiness and financial acumen, etc. will also be held at various WOTSO locations throughout the year.
What does this partnership mean for WOTSO?
“Investible are like us – they open their doors to everyone from the next Ubers and Airbnbs to ‘deep tech’ start-ups and traditional industries,” said WOTSO Chief Executive Officer, Stuart Brown.
‘There’s value in throwing together people from different fields and walks of life and looking not just for the ‘start-up unicorns’ who promise a big exit and global disruption, but the ‘cockroaches’ – those that will weather the potential storms if and when the innovation bubble bursts,” he added.
This strategic partnership also allows Investible to rapidly scale their operations, taking advantage of WOTSO’s nine sites across Australia and will continue to scale as they secure spaces in Melbourne, Perth and other areas in NSW and QLD.
WOTSO’s recent expansion to Singapore is a big benefit to Investible as it has a growing tech sector, which in some cases is accessing capital on the Australia Stock Exchange.
Investible co-Founder, Trevor Folsom, said “Talent isn’t confined to the Sydney CBD and WOTSO has shown the value of establishing flexible, supportive, state-of-the-art workspaces in regional hubs, in addition to the major cities. Combined with our investors across the globe, the partnership with WOTSO enables us to actively identify great talent around Australia”.
“There’s a nice synergy in the fact that we grow start-ups with longevity and high growth potential and WOTSO provides workspaces that are flexible enough to grow with those companies. We see the relationship being mutually beneficial and a great base for our programs” added Investible co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Creel Price.
The partnership commenced with launch events at the Sydney WOTSO site this month and other cities beginning in February, 2017.
