If you want to get $16 million from the NSW government for your startup, probably the best bet is to start abusing people

US businessman Dana White has a net worth of around A$800 million.

As CEO and president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) his salary tops A$30 million annually.

His good friend, Donald Trump, rocked up to UFC 309 in New York last November with Elon Musk in tow.

Last month White joined the board of Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, perhaps to give the Facebook founder the masculine energy he so desperately craves.

UFC’s 2023 turnover was around US$1.3 billion (A$2.1bn) and operating income US$755.7 million (A$1.2bn).

On Sunday night, a sell-out crowd of 18,253 at a stadium in Sydney’s Olympic Park paid between $220 and $5000 to watch 8 fights in UFC 312. It set an Australian indoor sports event record generating US$7.687 million (A$12.3m) in gate revenue.

There’s no doubt UFC is wildly popular with fans heavily invested, especially financially. It was lucrative for all concerned and everyone in NSW paid around $2 person to make it happen and make Dana White even richer.

The NSW Labor government, run by self-confessed UFC fan premier Chris Minns, handed over $16 million to bring UFC to Sydney for 3 events. The government estimates they’ll deliver around $30 million in stimulus for the local economy, which seems like quite a modest return for such a large investment.

White’s business will probably make just as much from global pay-per-view sales.

The Premier joined White on a podcast run by Sydney entrepreneur Mark Bouris.

The editor of The Sydney Morning Herald didn’t like it and took a swipe at the NSW government for handing over the cash. Sydney tabloid The Daily Telegraph threw a punch at controversial US middleweight Sean Strickland, a self-confessed “neo-Nazi”, on its back page, headlining it: ‘Will someone, please… knock this guy out’. It came after he said Australia’s gun laws in the wake of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre “kind of pathetic”.

Most Australians would argue that it it means only 0.096 people per 100,000 people die from gun-related injuries, compared to 14.6 in America, then we’re happy being pathetic.

Killer feral cats?

But White returned fire on Sunday saying “for a place that is so tough – everything on land, in the water, can kill you – you have the biggest pussies I have seen in the media in my life… That guy [the SMH editor] has to be the biggest fucking wimp on planet earth.”

As for Strickland, well “I’m a big believer in free speech”, White said.

Watch an excerpt of White’s expletive-laden rant below, but careful with the sound – it’s a long way from safe for work.

And not that he says all of this in front of NSW government logos and “Feel new Sydney”. Oh what a feeling.

https://twitter.com/ChampRDS/status/1888483742177546248

Strickland, who lost the headline fight and had his nose broken, is the UFC’s pantomime villain, saying some pretty unattractive things if you’re not into racism, misogyny and homophobia as entertainment.

He says he’s “American white trash” who thinks of Australians “as English white trash”, so he has “a lot in common with you fuckers”. He also thinks “it’s real fucking communist here,” because of all the road safety cameras.

“How do you get a blowjob while you drive? Do you get a ticket for that, is there that kind of camera?” Strickland asked in pre-fight media.

Strickland lost it again, over Tele’s ‘knock him out’ report, and in comments that will surprise the paper’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, the fighter whined about the mean things “these fucking communists in the media” said about him. Sticks and stones and middle-weight title holders may break his bones, but names hurt too.

So what does all this have to do with startups and tech? Aside from the reference to Musk and Zuck?

Women not a priority

Well, it’s about priorities. It leaves me wondering if women founders in startups need to fight for money from the government.

When Labor assumed power in NSW in 2023, and began cutting funding for startups, including halting programs, and for the Sydney Startup Hub, it tried to blame it all on “secret program cuts” by the former government.

Then 18 months ago, Labor promised an “innovation blueprint” saying it wanted to “reset its relationship”.

A year later, you’d have to say that if this was a Tinder date, the sector has been ghosted, amid promises for a blueprint by the end of FY25.

The only action the NSW government’s taken is wanting to move the Sydney Startup Hub from its CBD location to ‘somewhere’ in Tech Central in late 2025.

The thing about finding $16 million for UFC – lord knows White needs NSW taxpayer funds to scrape by and make it to Australia – is that it reminds me that the Minns government killed off plans for the $10 million Carla Zampatti VC fund to back female founders because it didn’t have the money.

Victoria’s $10 million Alice Anderson Fund, which the NSW version was modelled on, has now backed women in nearly 40 startups. It co-invests at a 3:1 ratio, meaning that for every $1 invested, private sector investors contribute $3.

Will those startups generate more than $30 million in economic value? They already have.

But the NSW government would prefer to spend $16 million for a $30m benefit.

It couldn’t afford to back women in tech to build companies that one day could be worth as much as Canva, but it found even more cash down the back of the couch for blokes to go the biff in a cage and kick each other in the head.

This isn’t an either/or argument. They could have backed both – and I’d not be writing this right now. But they chose not to. Taxpayer funds for a bloke on his way to becoming a billionaire? (Please) shut up and take my money. Taxpayer investment in startups founded by women? Yeah, nah.

Whose nose does the NSW startup sector have to break and leave bloodied to get the government support it also deserves?

We know the data around a lack of support for women in tech. It’s a massive market failure an area where government intervention is not only sound, but also the right thing to do.

A fight card lasts a few hours, then the circus leaves town.

A modest investment in women building companies could lead to generational changes, employing many more people, bolstering the economy and transforming society.

Perhaps women founders in NSW should start punching and kicking each other, and swearing and shouting about everyone being pussies. Perhaps then they’d also get $16 million in support from the NSW Labor government too.