The Weekly Digest: New partnerships, investment news and plenty of tips

Despite many corporates slowing down and packing up this week as we roll towards Christmas, the Australian start-up community has been powering along launching a car made entirely of Lego that runs on air and announcing new partnerships.

The big one this week was Tiger Pistol, which is now one of two companies listed as Facebook’s preferred marketing partners. Co-founder and chief executive Steve Hibberd spoke to us about what this means for his company, and how they got in touch with Facebook after 18 months of perseverance.

Investment announcements haven’t slowed yet, with an education app start-up announcing a Commercialisation Australia grant of $50,000 and an emergency response system start-up that planned to raise $500,000 but ended up raising $1.2 million after tweaking its pitching material.

Also in investment news, an angel investor expert has warned the Australian angel networks to develop slowly, and the director of new ventures at NICTA, Andrew Stead, crunched the numbers of 71 investment deals made in 2012 and shared his findings about what Australian investors look for with us here.

For every start-up that receives funding, there are plenty that don’t. This start-up decided to pursue their dream to go global with no extra capital, and all of their friends telling them it was a bad idea. They made it work after working through the overwhelming stress.

The government announced it was abandoning two tax reforms that would have boosted the start-up scene, but it’s been a rougher week for workers at car maker Holden. The local start-up community in Adelaide has thrown open their doors to welcome any aspiring entrepreneurs among their number.

Many local entrepreneurs are exploring ventures in the outsourcing and freelancing market, so the merger of international outsourcing giants Elance and oDesk is sure to change the playing field a bit.

In other international news, an Australian start-up has returned from the 10X accelerator based in Ohio and another entrepreneur shared his insights after attending the Lean Startup conference in San Francisco.

Closer to home, we shared tips to get the best work-life balance you can over the summer holidays, how much the average freelancer is charging, and three tips for creative entrepreneurs who can struggle to sell their work without selling their soul.

Finally, we heard from a start-up tapping into the power of the crowd to compete with roadside assistance heavyweights, an award-winning education platform enabling anyone run an online course, and shared an infographic on how to master your fears as you move forwards as an entrepreneur.