Maker Faire Sydney - Fireside Chat - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 28, 2014, 02:23:45 pm
content: I will be interviewed in a fireside chat by the CEO of Sydney based venture capital/incubator/Accelerator company BlueChilli at the Sydney Maker faire August 16th from 12:30-1:15pmhttp://www.bluechilli.com/Anyone got any ideas on what we should discuss?Either for me about content creation, youtube, the blog, hardware, electronics industry etc, or for Sebastien about VC/Incubator type stuff.Everyone is of course invited, the more the merrier.Yes, I'll be recording it.

author: JonnyBoats
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2014, 03:31:11 pm
content: Dave,Two topics I would be interested in are:1) The changing role of the VC. With funding sources like Kickstarter, IndieGoGo etc., why should a start-up deal with a VC (and give up a lot of equity)? Also how has the role of the VC changed in the last few years and what do they have to offer beyond money? Related to this is that it often costs much less to bring a kickstarter project to market then it cost to setup a lab, build a prototype, bring to market etc 10-20 years ago.2) Is education doing a good job of preparing people for an entrepreneurial world? Traditionally someone getting a EE (or most other) degrees would set his sights on getting a job as the first step in life after graduating. It was not that long ago that a lucky (and good) engineer could look forward to a decades long career with a major firm like IBM or Bell Labs. Today senior engineers in their later years (50 +) often face layoffs and seem for whatever reason to have difficulty becoming an entrepreneur. My theory is that the problem does not lie in the mechanics of doing a kickstarter project for example but rather the belief system that most workers have internalized over the years which make them prisoners of their own minds. On the other end of the age spectrum, here in the USA at least, there seem to be lots of college graduates in their early to mid twenties who are either unemployed or under-employed; why don't we see more of these people being entrepreneurial, even if it is a side business while they work a day job at McDonald's?

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 28, 2014, 10:14:19 pm
content: Great questions, thanks.

author: pickle9000
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2014, 12:02:59 am
content: To flip the previous question a bit.I think anyone would say that education helps open doors so that's a dead end. Does he have any non engineers on staff doing development work that would normally be done by an engineer? If so how did they get the job? If not would his hiring system of hiring allow it?May also be worthwhile to give him the Dave interview tip: "Take a board / project with you, show them what you can do".

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 13, 2014, 12:00:11 am
content: Here it is, this Sat, be there or be square:http://makerfairesydney.com/2014/08/13/maker-talks-trends-in-hardware-innovation-featuring-dave-jones-from-eev-blog/The title is "Trends in Hardware Innovation".Anyone got any suggestions about what trends I should talk about?

author: jeremy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2014, 01:37:21 am
content: how does the hardware startup environment of Australia compare to places like Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv, etc? Are we on par? I'm guessing the answer will be no

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2014, 02:01:43 am
content: I'm sure a lot of that has to do with whatever regulations the local/state/federal government has in a given area.Move government red tape could mean slower adoption.