The Weekly Digest: All of this week’s start-up tips, latest news and opportunities

It’s near impossible to cover everything that’s happening for Australian start-ups, but we’re giving it our best shot.

While we’re busy capturing and sharing the Australian start-up community’s news, it’s nothing compared to the long days and sleepless nights that goes into running a start-up. Because you’re busy, we thought we’d start publishing a weekly summary of our daily newsletters so you can see all the news at a glance.

Here’s what happened this week.

Hot topics: Dynamic equity splits, free apps and crowdfunding

We received a lot of emails on our exploration of why Australian start-up founders are exploring dynamic equity splits, and this article on why free apps may be damaging the commercial potential of the $53 billion industry.

Crowd funding continues to be a hot topic, with one of our mentors exploring crowd funding firsthand; this start-up founder shares why they turned to Kickstarter rather than searching for an angel investor; and we reveal the top five tips of an ambitious new crowd funding campaign happening right now.

We also heard from mentor Greg Ferrett about why the sales spiel is dead, and engagement is the sales strategy that actually works.

Three companies announced successful investment rounds

Design marketplace DesignCrowd raised $3 million and spoke to us about how their international expansion plans; budgeting app Pocketbook closed a $500,000 seed round and shared who and how they’re planning to hire their first employee; and Loke Digital, a tech company targeting the hospitality industry closed their second seed round, bringing their investment total to $1.1 million.

Rapidly growing and now Silicon Valley-based start-up BugCrowd shared their steepest learning curve: getting over their Australian bashfulness and learning how to “speak American” to investors.

We also heard from five experts about why Australian investment will continue to grow as Australia learns how to value tech companies better and explored new data that suggests investors are over games and are looking for a different kind of app these days.

Founders and leadership

So many start-ups fail, but we got advice from a business accelerator about why sheer determination and the ability to think on your feet could save yours; what business owners can do to support their employees with depression and reduce the stigma; and how retailers can ensure their supply chains are ethical.

Posse founder Rebekah Campbell shared her tips for creating a start-up culture strong enough to rival Google’s; a project manager at a South Australian University was named Entrepreneurial Educator of the Year and Nina Hendy shared the five experts every sole trader needs to have on speed dial.

And, we announced our top 20 entrepreneurs under 25 in our 2013 Future Makers list; found out why this entrepreneur decided to launch her first start-up in her 60s; and discovered why this founder wants more competition.

New opportunities, competitions and grants

Three major Australian cities will take part in the Global Startup Battle this weekend and Ford Motors has reached out to the Melbourne start-up community to be part of an upcoming hackathon.

The chief executive of Bakers Delight shared their top tips for sourcing retail locations; a new franchise is coming to Australia and preparing for our feisty entrepreneurial culture; and new research reveals that only 19% of deals are now done in person.

Two governments launched new start-up targeted initiatives with Parramatta City Council is seeking start-ups to re-awaken its CBD by offering $10,000 grants; and the NSW Government has appointed an advisor for creative start-ups.

Topics to watch

Wikileaks this week revealed Australian copyright may be in trouble, with the Federal Government possibly planning to adopt several problematic parts of the United State’s legislation, and Vanessa Emilio explains what you need to know about the incoming changes to privacy laws.

If you’ve passed a major milestone and have news you want to share, please get in touch directly: rpowell at startupsmart dot com dot au

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