It is sometimes difficult to differentiate between a startup and a small business.

A startup differs to a small business largely in its focus on growth, innovation and in its behaviours.

A startup is a business venture which is unique and different from mainstream businesses. They’re highly scalable, disruptive and use innovation. As they expand, they create jobs and wealth, making them an important part of the mix in Victoria’s economy.

Victoria is home to more than 2,700 startups, with more than half within the technology industry. Startups that are exceptionally successful and have a valuation over $1 billion are known as Unicorns. Some examples of Unicorns in Victoria include REA Group, Seek, CarSales, MYOB, Aconex and Envato. Collectively these startups are now worth more than $32 billion.

If you have a business idea or an innovative concept, StartUp Ballarat is available to support you.

StartUp Ballarat targets a mix of people, with the overall objective to facilitate collaboration involving innovative thinking within our community. Some of these community groups may include, but are not strictly limited to:

• Commuters to Melbourne, who have developed an innovative concept which could progress to an established business within Ballarat
• Existing business owners, who have an innovative concept within their respective industry and are looking for support to progress the concept
• Mumpreneurs - Mums within the workforce or at stay at home mums, who have developed an idea or a market gap, but are not sure how to move their idea from a concept to a business
• Seniorpreneurs - Retired community members who have developed a market leading solution or who have identified a market gap and looking for options to progress the idea to a business
• Corporate employees who have a business idea outside their corporate role and are consequently looking to establish a business
• University students who can add value to concepts developed by other community members or who have their own capacity and willingness to progress the idea into a business
• Other community members who have developed an innovative idea or industry solution which could have the potential to be disruptive within the existing market

Put simply, if you have a great business idea, StartUp Ballarat encourages you to get involved in this exciting new initiative – and become part of our startup community!

This program will introduce you to services available within the Ballarat community, to assist you in developing your concept from an idea to a scalable business.

StartUp Ballarat will provide you with a work space and consequently opportunities to meet other people working at the same stage as you.

It will introduce you to programs and events to help build your skills and develop your concept to an established business.

Scaleup is the phase directly following startup when a business enters a growth phase following successful validation of its product within the marketplace, and economic viability.

Incubators provide reduced cost or free office space to startups and provide focused training and connections to mentoring.

Accelerators provide comprehensive programs run over several weeks to support the entire team in their journey to develop a prototype, validate the market, grow the team and establish the infrastructure upon which the startup will grow.