In conversation with Trevor Townsend, Managing Director of Startupbootcamp Australia
On the 13th of December, 2017 Startupbootcamp Accelerator (SBC) announced that WePower is one of eleven energy companies, from thousands of global applications, to be chosen for the prestigious energy track in Australia.
Recently Nick had a conversation with Trevor Townsend, Managing Director of Startupbootcamp Australia, talking more about the program and our future cooperation. Please find the recording and its summary below.
Nick: Trevor, before the New Year’s we were accepted to Startupbootcamp program and you are leading the program, so just in a few words could you tell about yourself.
Trevor: Yeah, sure Nick, and it’s great that WePower is on the program. We’re really happy to have you guys as part of the cohort. My background is work in technology companies for over 20 years. Over the last number of years I’ve been an investor and an advisor to many startups. I’ve got involved with Startupbootcamp about a year ago, I’ve got an idea to get a smart energy program up and running, and with their sponsors — Energy Australia, Spotless and the Victorian Government we’ve got a program up and running, which is fabulous. We look to be able to use Startupbootcamp model to accelerate the startups that are coming on to the program. It kicks off at the end of January and we’re really looking forward to getting started.
Nick: Startupbootcamp is one of the biggest accelerators in the world. Tell a bit more about the Startupbootcamp.
Trevor: Yeah, sure. The Bootcamp has been around since 2010. It now runs 21 programs around 13 countries. It has accelerated over 500 startups, so it’s an incredible amount of entrepreneurs that it has worked with. You know, it’s big, hairy, audacious goal is to accelerate 10 000 startups. That’s what we’re trying to achieve. We run programs in verticals like Fintech, IOT, Smart cities and so forth, and we’re running a smart energy program. Startupbootcamp has been able to grow by focusing on helping startups within a particular vertical grow and we do that by bringing together corporate partners, mentors and the matching startups with those people, giving them access to information, contacts and funding that they wouldn’t get otherwise.
Nick: We’re happy to be in the Startupbootcamp program and we know that there were many many applicants to the program as well. Could you tell us a bit about the selection process?
Trevor: The selection process is probably the Startupbootcamp’s secret sauce. We put a lot into the whole recruitment exercise. I mean Startupbootcamp overall would see 20 000 applicants or startups per year. For each program we would talk to 2 000 startups to see which ones were appropriate to apply. And for our Energy Program we had 469 applicants from about 15 different countries. We then whittled that down through a process of interviews, fast-tracks where we bring the startups together. WePower joined us is Rome along with ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott, which was a great time when I first time met Nick. And we did a world tour of those fast-tracks. We ran 28 of them around the globe. My business partner Richard and I met in person probably 300 of the startups that applied for the program. And we whittled that down, spoke to the startups and looked for the ones that we could help as well as the ones that we could get on the program. And finally we came down to selection days in December. 20 startups from 11 countries came to Melbourne for 2 days of meetings with over a 100 mentors and through that process over that two days, which — as you could recall — it was quite intense we were able to select 11 startups to the program this year. All 20 that came along to selection days this year were great business. But unfortunately we were only supposed to put in 10 but we have selected 11.
We went 10 percent over because it was such a hard choice. We looked to have startups in different areas: startups that are doing demand response, startups that are providing distributed energy resources, energy monitoring, an API based business app in India that is really interesting and of course WePower that is doing really interesting things in terms of helping green energy. Helping people access green energy and the whole process of investing in power plants, which is, you know, a fabulous idea.
This year, on the 27th of April Startupbootcamp Energy Australia will hold it’s Demo Day. This year demo day is in support of the 11 startups who have come to Melbourne from around the world to participate in Melbourne’s first global accelerator program.
Come along to hear final pitches, meet the teams and network with SBC extensive network of ecosystem experts and industry leaders!
