Partnership between StartupAUS and Salesforce aims to “champion” local startup ecosystem

Salesforce has announced a partnership with StartupAUS to help the not-for-profit champion the industry, according to Salesforce head of startup relations Ludovic Ulrich.

The announcement coincides with the launch of the company’s Salesforce for Startups program in Australia.

Ulrich says Australia has all the elements of a successful startup ecosystem in place and he hopes the partnership adds more weight to the lobbying efforts of StartupAUS.

“We want to help line up all the great startup leaders in Australia to champion the industry,” he says.

“Together we want to foster the ecosystem, by bringing our brand and our reputation on board. We want to be part of the dialogue, along with StartupAUS, when it comes to regulation. Ensuring it’s very startup and founder friendly.

“(Australia’s startup ecosystem) is super active right now. The planets are aligned and the ingredients are here. I’m impressed with its energy level and maturity. I would use the adjective ‘vibrant’.”

StartupAUS board member and entrepreneur-in-residence, Fusion Labs’ Peter Bradd, says StartupAUS is excited Salesforce is joining as a partner.

“Salesforce and StartupAUS believe a home-grown tech sector is vital to Australia’s economic future,” he says.

“But getting there will require a national imperative to create the right environment, with a supportive culture that empowers new entrepreneurs and provides future generations with the tech skills needed to succeed.”

The Salesforce for Startups program helps tech entrepreneurs access Salesforce technology and resources to help build and scale their startups. It’s free to join and members get access to content and platform resources to help build an app. Registered startups have additional access to product special Salesforce product offers. Of course the benefit for Salesforce is it’s building a relationship with startups that might become customers as they start to mature. Startups will also be encouraged join the Pledge 1% program.

In partnership with Atlassian and the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado, the program encourages companies to pledge one per cent of their time, equity and product to charitable causes.

Salesforce senior vice president and general manager Desk.com, Leyla Seka, adds that the company was keen to push both models in Australia because of the startup activity they were witnessing here.

“Many companies are heading to the US from Australia and killing it. We’re using these brands and we’re loving these brands,” Seka says.

“StartupAUS is coming to it and approaching a whole bunch of things that are going on Australia, like a heap of government restrictions and different things they’re addressing as a non-profit. We love startups and really wanted to find a way to help the Australian startup community.”

Follow StartupSmart on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.