A key plank of Startup WA's activity is ADVOCACY. That means developing policies, meeting with decision-makers and promoting debate of strategic initiatives in support of our mission - to create the local foundations to enable global success for the ventures of tomorrow.

Startup WA's Top Ten Recommendations for WA's State Government are on our website here.

Underpinning each of these recommendations are evolving strategies. To ensure these are representative of the startup community, we are undertaking an ongoing co-creation process — inviting experienced industry practitioners and community members to contribute, discuss, draft and drive strategies specific to their areas of interest.

We have created a public board on Trello which sets out the recommended process, policy goals, considerations and other criteria. You can check it out here.

Broadly, the goals of StartupWA policies are to:

Improve key metrics of the ecosystem, benchmarked against other cities
Increase the likelihood of WA-based technology startups succeeding
Reduce the barriers to starting, finding cofounders, accessing support and training, and growing and scaling your venture in Western Australia
Reduce the barriers to for WA technology startups to compete for contracts and procurement with government and established businesses in WA
Grow the 'startup' culture and mindset

Considerations and guidelines as to what makes a good policy include:

Alignment with StartupWA’s mission, values and vision: growing WA as an attractive location, creating the local conditions, enabling the global success, of the ventures of tomorrow
Popularity of the recommendations with the ecosystem, including with reference to published strategies, documents, and based on surveys of the sector
Effectiveness in achieving the WA government’s stated aspirations, given the current economic, social and political conditions, and based on successful implementation in comparable jurisdictions
Relevance - this has several meanings: First, is it relevant to the industry right now. Second, is it relevant to the person / organisation to whom we are advocating i.e. are this actionable for them, a material concern.

Policy Process

These considerations guide our policy process.

To ensure consistency and effectiveness we adopt a standard format for all draft policies. In summary the approach is:

The case for change — Why is this important? Why is now the time to act?
Key principles — What? How? Who?
First Steps — What do we need to get started?

To ensure policies are impactful we seek to identify a number of measures for success - ie. metrics; “what would success look like?”

If support or action by the Government is required, we also try to give consideration to which of the ‘levers’ of government does each policy touch (awareness, expenditure, regulatory).

Over time, we would like to add resources and examples of where other, similar policies and initiatives have been adopted elsewhere, what worked best and how each can be improved upon.

You can see an example of a draft policy statement here. Please feel free to add your comments too - these are moving documents, with strategies intended to evolve in line with community needs and expectations.

How can you help?

The top ten policies for advocacy have their own board on the public Trello page here. In short, they are:

Look forward - be positive about role of startups in our future
Review risk - change Government procurement criteria
Open Engagement - early industry partnerships
Focus on Transformation - leverage major projects
Proactive strategy - update the scope and content of State strategy
Entrepreneurial education - ensure entrepreneurship is an attractive career option
Enabling regulations - identify regulations that enable industry development
Increase employment - concessional payroll tax rates for startups
Encourage co-investment - sidecar funds with angel investors; and
Targeted attraction - win the battle for talent

We are experimenting with co-creation of a couple of those policies at the moment.

If you are interested to help guide a policy or strategic initiative in support of winning the battle for talent or changing Government procurement criteria please let us know.

I would like to help co-create a policy in support of winning the battle for talent

I would like to help co-create a policy in support of changing Government procurement criteria

If you are interested in any of the other policy areas and would like to be contacted as and when we go through the co-creation process for each of those then please reach out via email now too.

Please keep me in the loop with policy co-creation projects, I would like to help in the future

If we are to be effective advocates, it is crucial that Startup WA provides a positive, visionary voice for the innovation and technology sector. The first step, though, is always to listen.

So... What major policy changes and reforms would you like Startup WA to be advocating for? Are you interested in co-creating a policy in your area of expertise or passion? How can you help and who else should we be speaking to?