Catalysr 2020: Migrapreneurs wanted in Victoria! (1 of 3)
Tl;Dr — We are looking for migrapreneurs in Victoria for our inaugural program run in Melbourne called First Gens 2.0 in partnership with ygap.
Applications and more details can be found on this link and closing soon on 15th December.
If you have been following me on social media for the past few months, you would have seen a lot of activity happening.
Sydney, Melbourne, New Zealand, Ethiopia, Kenya, UK — wait what?!
I know that in our age of social media it can be hard to keep up, so I will break it down.
I will be doing three blog pieces from now till the end of the year, to share what’s happening in the Catalysr universe, our plans for 2020 and how you can be a part of the journey!
- First part (this blog) is looking at the changing nature of startup ecosystem in Australia, and how our work is shaping up in Melbourne.
- Second part, is where I will sharing my learnings from the Westpac Social Change Fellowship (travels) so far and plans for 2020.
- My last piece of the year will shed a light on our strategy going forward.
Migrapreneurs Wanted in Victoria!
I was asked to comment by a few people in the startup ecosystem on the changing landscape of the Australian startup ecosystem, in particular announcements by Blue Chilli & Telstra backed Muru-D to stop supporting early-stage startups.
As my friend Monica Wulff from WeWork Labs wrote that corporates need startups as much as startups needs corporate support, and fellow early-stage startup builder Bede Moore from Antler has fantastically outlined that there’s never been a better time to build a startup in Australia, there’s not much to add. If you haven’t already, I recommend reading their articles.
I’d only say that we at Catalysr have been very grateful to work alongside and get the support of the amazing team at Blue Chilli and Muru-D, who have been very generous with sharing their time and mentors with us and our migrapreneurs over the last 3 years.
For us at Catalysr, we are more determined than ever to dig-in and be the best pre-accelerator for migrapreneurs in Australia and beyond.
We are driven by grit and deep resilience that runs through every migrapreneur’s blood and will continue to not only support early stage founders but double down on our vision of building a better and more inclusive Australia —what we call Australia 2.0!
In line with this, I am excited to share that we are now accepting applications from Migraprenuers for our inaugural Melbourne program in collaboration with ygap — called First Gens 2.0
We have partnered with ygap to do something new — a genuine collaboration between a pre-accelerator (Catalysr) and accelerator (ygap First Gens) programs to give migrapreneurs a full year’s worth of support from idea to scale.
If you’re a migrapreneur based in Victoria, you can apply to join the First Gens 2.0 program, which is comprised of 3 stages: (IDEATE + VALIDATE) run by Catalysr and (ACCELERATE) run by ygap First Gens team, with the top teams getting a chance to get $25k each in funding (equity-free).
A key thing to note, to make our program as founder friendly as possible, there’s no fees or equity that you have to give away. It is a completely FREE program, courtesy of our kind sponsors LaunchVic.
To find out more details and apply follow this link! Applications are closing soon on 15th December.
Growing our tribe
To support this work, I am very glad to share that we’ve brought on two new team members who bring wealth of knowledge and networks to help take our program to the next stage.
Firstly, meet our new Head of Operations — Marlowe Mackenzie
Marlowe is a Canadian-Australian who spent most of her life in Nicaragua. She has been leading operations and partnerships at HeyYou for the past 4 years, and we’re thrilled to have her on board to manage our programs across Sydney and Melbourne.
Also meet Kim Nguyen — our Melbourne program coordinator, who is a shared resource between Catalysr & ygap.
Kim has a background in media + comms, and is currently studying law. She’s worked at Refugee Legal previously and currently runs her own social enterprise called People of Purpose, which I highly recommend you to check out!
We are also very stoked to work with another one of my friends, Adelide Mutinda — program manager at the ygap’s team who comes with a lot of experience in running exceptional programs across the globe.
Join me for a fireside chat to find more…
If you are a migrapreneur or aspiring migrapreneur based in Victoria and have been waiting for a sign to launch your startup, this is it!
For any questions, you can email us on hello@catalysr.com.au or come along to a Fireside chat this Friday evening at the FYA Hub in Melbourne CBD.
Apply today on this link! Applications are closing soon on 15th December.
For mentors
If you’re a mentor and would like to get involved to support our migrapreneurs, you can sign-up using a form on this link, and our team will be in touch.
