Startup Muster launches 2017 survey to help better connect Australian startup ecosystem

Startup Muster, the annual survey looking to capture the state of the Australian startup landscape, has launched its 2017 edition.

This year’s survey has a focus on helping survey participants connect with each other; ‘supporters’ will be able to define the kind of startup they can best support, with startup respondents then able to engage with matching supports.

Startup Muster will also aim to connect founders with supporters that have received positive recommendations from startups in similar spaces, or with similar needs.

Monica Wulff, CEO of Startup Muster, “As a founder it’s sometimes hard to know which support options will be most helpful. Instead of asking startup founders what they want, Startup Muster will show founders the supporters that have generated recommendations from startups like their own, opening up opportunities that they may not have considered.

“We’ve been asked for something like this for years, and it will be nice to provide more value back to everyone who generously provides their time in the survey”.

This builds on the change made in last year’s survey, which sought to go beyond existing startup founders to also engage with those thinking about launching a startup, and organisations that work around and support startups, such as coworking spaces, incubators, accelerators, investors, mentors, and universities, recognising the important role they play in building the ecosystem.

The 2016 survey captured answers from current founders, future founders, and ‘helpers’ or supporters, recording 118,926 total responses from 1478 founders, 432 potential founders, and 801 supporters.

Following a post-survey validation and cleaning process, the final data presented has come from 685 verified founders, 239 potential founders, and 474 supporters. The 2015 edition, which surveyed only founders, had a sample of 602 verified responses.

The survey found the vast majority of startups are still based in NSW, with almost 41 percent of respondents based in the state and 34.7 percent in Sydney alone. A third of respondents representing the ‘supporters’ category are also based in Sydney.

These figures dropped from 2015, when over 46 percent of respondents were based in NSW.

Rising instead were Queensland, with 19.3 percent of startup founders based in the state, up from 16.5 percent in the 2015 report, and South Australia, with 4.9 percent of founders based in the state.

Image: Monica Wulff. Source: Supplied.