The cap on international students means fewer startup founders and less employee talent for early stage startups in Australia. The risk appetite it takes to uproot your life and move to another country to study is exactly the mindset that drives people to take the risk to start (or join) a new company. I talked about this in a recent podcast with Will Richards where we discussed the impact of the controversial cap on international students and what it could mean for Australia’s startup ecosystem, universities, and economy. Full conversation from the ~24 minute mark here: https://lnkd.in/gNsH46VN UNSW Founders #entrepreneurship
I can understand it is a shit sandwich. And many don't like it. But the derisk and decentralise strategy also holds opportunities. The other risk appetite crowd you can potentially tap is found within, the large alumni communities at each University. Success as an entrepreneur increases with age up to age 60. Older entrepreneurs have a wealth of experience, deeper pockets, better manage risk, and greater emotional intelligence. By all means, if you decide to continue to roll the dice with international students then so be it. Frankly, the caravan has moved on. Otherwise, start reimagining what success looks like and design a barbell strategy that harnesses the best attributes of two different but complementary cohorts to drive forward a more innovative future for Australia.
What an incredible episode 👏 You really dived deep into how the proposed cap could negatively affect the Australian startup economy
Insightful
Senior Associate at Encour | Co-founder of Overnight Success | Writing Winning Formula
5moGreat to chat as always, David! Thank you for helping explain this issue.