It’s time we talked about secrets

In his seminal book Zero To One, co-founder of PayPal and legendary Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel wrote about one of my favourite topics:

“There are many more secrets left to find, but they will yield only to relentless searchers. We are within reach, not just of marginal goals set at the competitive edge of today’s conventional disciplines, but of ambitions so great, that even the boldest minds of the scientific revolution hesitated to announce them directly.

But we will never learn any of these secrets unless we demand to know them, and force ourselves to look”

Anything worth knowing, is still, or was once a secret.

The Myriad team have built our lives around the rigorous process of search, discovery and sharing of secrets from one world to another.

We do this, not just because it’s fun and way more interesting than working 9–5 in an office job, but because we are deeply passionate about unlocking and creating new value.

To people all over the world, Australia is a big, beautiful secret.

And conversely, to many Australians (and let’s be honest, most western countries), our extraordinary talented and complex neighbours in Asia represent billions more secrets waiting to be understood.

Now let me reveal two of the mind boggling ‘secrets’ I’ve uncovered during 18 months of intensive research;

1. More than half of the world’s middle class now live in Asia-Pacific

2. More than 43% of Australians are either 1st or 2nd generation.

It’s hard to put those statistics in context, but let’s just say as an extremely fortunate white dude growing up in one of the most multi-cultural cities on earth, I was shocked to realise how little I really understood about the myriad of Asian cultures who had brought so much variety and value to our country.

With this landmark project, we plan to explore the myriad challenges and myriad opportunities these secrets create all over Asia-Pacific. How? By employing the same framework utilised by thousands of people and companies tasked with ‘innovation’.

By designing environments where two or more ideas can smash into each other in seemingly impossible ways.

As my co-founders from SXSW and Slush can attest, the model we’re adapting is simple, yet proven to be incredibly effective;

Unlock economic and cultural value by engineering shared experiences.

In addition, we will bring the biggest names in venture capital to ensure startups from Asia-Pacific are given access to world class funding and investment opportunities.

We’ll work tirelessly alongside the world’s best storytellers and publishers to help raise the profile of the regions most innovative people and projects.

But most importantly, we’ll use every single resource at our disposal to help create new connections between Australia, New Zealand and all across Asia.

Without compromise, there can be no true collaboration.
And without collaboration, we are lost.

Inter-city rivalries like Sydney vs Melbourne might be fun for sports fanatics or even super competitive local politicians, but it’s time we recognised our relevance on the world stage and began acting accordingly.

Nobody north of the collective border could care less about who convinced Tech Company X to set up a regional office in Coastal City Y, let alone how lame we sound to tech tourists or genuinely global citizens.

Simply translated, Myriad means ‘a countless or extremely great number’.

We take that to mean infinite possibilities, created by and viewed from infinite perspectives.

And we consider it our duty to showcase the work and amplify the voices of those outside the traditional business landscape.

The internet is the most important thing to happen to humanity since we figured out how to breathe oxygen… Let’s not waste the opportunity by myopically focusing on companies built and funded by rich white dudes in Silicon Valley.

The future belongs to those who see beyond traditional metrics like race, gender, language or even wealth.

The future belongs to those who see and create a myriad of new opportunities between the dots.

If that sounds like you, we can’t wait to meet you.

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