Petre's long career in tech includes heading up software giant Microsoft's operations for Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, and establishing Kerry Packer's tech investment vehicle ecorp. He established Airtree in 2014. The industry statesman now sees parallels between the current startup boom and the dot com boom and bust of two decades ago where people invested in "anything and everything" without enough domain experience.
Petre says founders also need to be wary of over-extending themselves into areas where they do not have expertise. While Australia's economy has taken a huge hit from the coronavirus pandemic Petre says the impact has been less severe on the startup sector. "The one thing that's super clear from [Prime Minister Scott Morrison] and [science minister] Karen Andrews is they either don't understand and don't like software, or they understand but don't like software," he says. "They've got a religious aversion to software which doesn't make sense. Their obsession with manufacturing is not matched by what should be an equal obsession with software.
He says not cutting RDTI is a "smart move" but says software companies are not addressed specifically which means it is up to the Australian Tax Office and Department of Industry to interpret the legislation.This hasn't worked out well in the past with many software companies who thought they were doing the right thing subsequently hit with audits and repayment requirements.
carawaters Great article carawaters first time I have heard from a senior VC partner offering some perspective about the industry and the hubris surrounding it. A lot of super money going in here, questions about likelihood of start-up success, fees charged, trying to find the next google.
mattallen carawaters I was tasked with following Australian VCs for about three years and after an accumulation of tweets / blogs / etc the conclusion was that there was significant risk of taking money from a dipstick and being stuck with them. So we went a different route.