Note: This is a guest post by York Butter Factory member Anecsys.

One of the most effective ways to increase business revenue is to expand into new markets. In the modern world, the huge advances in communications technologies have made this easier than it has ever been. This means that for a modern business or startup, the opportunity to expand to meet the needs of a worldwide market is a real possibility with only a minimum outlay. Doing business in another country is now easier than ever.

However, before translating your website, you must consider if your startup can support the various languages when dealing with customer enquiries over the phone or by email etc. The best way to begin in new markets is by targeting those markets that already speak the same language as your business (in this case, probably English). Once you’re confident in new English markets, the next frontier would be a non-English speaking country.

Once you have decided to expand your startup into new markets, you may be limiting your target audience by only having your website in one language. The translation of a website is one of the most cost-effective ways to increase your potential customer base. The reason it is so cost effective is that it makes great use of already existing infrastructures.

For example, your startup has already met the cost of website design and web hosting costs. This means that a version of your website, available in a new language, can piggy back on this existing infrastructure which you have already invested in.

Businesses which make the best use of the investments they have already made are the businesses which are most likely to be successful.

A new language version of your site will mean that international users who speak that language will begin to find your site as it is listed on international search engines.

This is a very organic way of increasing your potential customer base and number of website hits. Shortly after you introduce a new language to your website, you will begin to see that the IP addresses which are used to identify visitors to your site are coming from areas of the globe which you were not able to access before.

If your website is in English you will notice that your website visitors mainly come from mainly English speaking countries such as The US, Canada the UK and Australia among others.

You will also occasionally find visitors from other regions as some people speak English as a second language. The majority of users outside the English speaking world will not be able to find an English only website. If you introduce other languages these visitors from outside of the English speaking world will increase as they are able to find your site using their own language.

This is especially important today as many of the emerging world economies do not speak English as their first language. The world’s top businesses are currently making massive efforts to access these emerging markets such as China, India, Russia and Singapore. These nations are bucking the trend of global decline by remaining financially strong. There is currently a great opportunity ensure that your startup is well placed to take advantage of these emerging markets by making the effort to engage with non English speaking web users.

By being the first mover in your sector you can steal a march on your competition.

Website translation is easier now than ever before, and by combining the power of technology and smart human translators, you could be up and running in a matter of days.

The post Expand your Startup into Emerging Markets appeared first on York Butter Factory.

Today’s Experts. Tomorrow’s Superstars –  Professional Services Champions League (PSCL) 

In 2012, Johann Odou and John Persico joined the York Butter Factory with a mission to launch the world’s leading events competition business for the global Professional Services Industry.

The vision was grand. The recipe simple.  Find exciting disciplines within Professional Services. Bring together the world’s best experts and brightest participants. Celebrate success with major prizes and mega sponsorship.  Ensure the widest-range and highest quality of technical and commercial questions and case studies.  Adjudged by the world’s pre-eminent Judges & Authorities.  Deliver entertaining and highly energetic Live World Finals Events.

Today their World Events business has grown rapidly and is wide-known to participants as the Professional Services Champions League (“PSCL”).  The current portfolio of “Super” Events include:

• Financial Modelling World Championships | MODELOFF (www.modeloff.com) – New York, USA Finals
• Gamification World Championships | GAMMIFY (www.gammify.com) – San Francisco, USA Finals
• Big Data World Championships | TEXATA (www.texata) – Texas, USA Finals

Aside from thousands of participants, perhaps most impressive are the companies and mega sponsors represented – including Microsoft, Bloomberg, S&P Capital IQ, Deloitte and more.

Last year’s inaugural Financial Modelling World Champion and winner of the $25,000 Cash Prize was 24-year-old Alex Gordon from PWC Corporate Finance (New Zealand).

“We just love our World Championship Events – they’re fun, dynamic, highly challenging” says Odou. “Every day we meet and discover amazing Professional Services talent worldwide of all ages and backgrounds – whether it’s Consultants, Innovators, Students, Investment Bankers, Thought Leaders – their expertise has just never been discovered in their firm or country.  We provide an independent, powerful global events platform to help showcase their high performance and expertise. We celebrate their awesomeness”.

Open education and learning has always been at the core of PSCL World Events.  “We openly release most questions and answers on our websites – we love seeing professionals and students improve for future years.  A professional lifespan is generally 82 years – life’s too short not to be awesome.

We believe all professionals should follow their dreams – openly releasing questions helps them achieve greater mastery, purpose and accomplishment. Admittedly it also means we need to keep innovating and raising the bar annually within each industry”  Persico notes.

Headquartered at York Butter Factory in Melbourne, we’re proud to watch the rapid growth of this exciting “Red Bull-like” World Events business. But they’re still tight lipped on the target industry for their next World Championship Event – and we’ll be keeping an eye out for more of their exciting events.

About Professional Services Champions League (www.pschampion.com)

PSCL administers annual world championship events that identify and celebrate the highest standards among practitioners and students. Participation in Champions League events help professionals and students improve their skills and build their professional careers. High performing participants build their reputation as established and future superstars within the Professional Services industry.

PSCL operates independently credentialed events involving over 100 countries and leading global industry sponsors. Competition management actively organizes competition questions, prize money, governing regulations and media rights for all Championships Events.

PSCL’s World Championship events are best known for challenging case studies and multiple-choice questions that combine wide-ranging technical excellence, commercial objectives and theoretical foundations. PSCL also works collaboratively with private enterprise, universities, training providers and governments worldwide to facilitate independent Championship “warm-up” events and run other technical competitions and challenges.

Next Upcoming World Championship – 2013 Gamification World Championship (September 2013, Live Finals San Francisco)

Here’s the official Launch video (50 seconds)- http://vimeo.com/64191791#

The post Professional Services Champions League appeared first on York Butter Factory.

2013 saw York Butter Factory residents WeTeachMe take centre stage as they quickly launched in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney in rapid succession.

Today, WeTeachMe lists over 500 unique courses and events; injecting over 6,000 courses and events into Australia over the next 12 months. Co-Founder Kym Huynh believes that they can push this number to 16,000 by June 2013.

From left to right: WeTeachMe founders Martin Kemka, Cheng Zhu, Kym Huynh, and Demi Markogiannaki

Essentially, WeTeachMe is the easiest place to list, discover and book in-person courses. For those offering courses, WeTeachMe helps grow revenue, save time, and reduce costs. For those looking for courses, WeTeachMe offers a one-stop location for any course in any given locale.

Since their launch, WeTeachMe have followed up with a plethora of powerful new features and bug fixes in their quest to create the world’s most advance course management system. They have recently added 12 new features to their plethora of powerful tools to help manage courses and streamline the way events are handled.

The WeTeachMe Platform

They have also had some fantastic customer feedback from their clients, receiving glowing testimonials from their many clients, including the famous Cupcake Central, which saw ticket sales skyrocket by 400%. It comes as no surprise then that The WeTeachMe Team recently came runner-up in 2012′s IT Invention Test, and then quickly followed suit by being shortlisted for both 500 Startups and TechStars!

We here at York Butter Factory love the passion and energy The WeTeachMe Team bring to the community and the platform, and have recently installed WeTeachMe to power York Butter Factory’s community courses and events. You can find all the exciting events that we’re running here at our Events page.

The WeTeachMe Team are regulars in the York Butter Factory community, running the monthly Sales Startup Huddle, an educational meet up with the aim of sharing the best practices and procedures to skyrocket your sales, and embody the culture that is persistent at York Butter Factory; a drive and determination to power through any obstacles, and the grit to get things done.

We’re proud to be hosting The WeTeachMe Team at York Butter Factory. In the mean time, sign up for one of York Butter Factory’s seminars and events here.

Note: WeTeachMe Co-Founder Kym Huynh recently revealed that The WeTeachMe Team were shortlisted for both 500 Startups and TechStars’ early 2013 intake.

The post An Insight into WeTeachMe appeared first on York Butter Factory.

The past week has seen a whirlwind of amazing events, people, and wins right here at York Butter Factory. From running 7 top notch events over the course of 5 days to YBF members being featured in various online publications, we believe that the York Butter Factory ecosystem is primed for some big wins in 2013, if the past week is an indication of things to come.

We’ll start this Weekly Recap with some highlights of the events that have taken place over the week, followed by a quick shout-out to the amazing YBF members who have some wins to share!

1. Startup Sales Huddle with WeTeachMe

The Startup Sales Huddle is a monthly event run by the great people at WeTeachMe and York Butter Factory, with the aim of sharing the best practices and procedures to skyrocket your sales.

For the first Startup Sales Huddle of the year, WeTeachMe co-foudners Kym Huynh and Demi Markogiannaki presented on the challenges that they faced in the first few weeks following the launch of their platform – and the ways that they overcame these challenges to come out on top.

Here are some key takeaways from Demi and Kym’s presentation at the first ever Startup Sales Huddle here at York Butter Factory:

Lesson 1: Going out there and meeting clients was the most effective way to sign on our first clients.

Takeaway: Always push for meetings, rather than selling through cold calling.

Lesson 2: Close the deal when it’s hot – when clients are interested, get them right there and then or ask for the next meeting.

Takeaway: Don’t be complacent – seal the deal before they become cold again, otherwise you risk having to start the sales cycle again.

Lesson 3: Treat each relationship like an egg.

Takeaway: Clients want to be assured that there is a face attached to your company.

Lesson 4: They like the persistence. We won’t stop until they ask us to stop.

Takeaway: Try not to sell over the phone, and always be persistent with your clients until they personally ask you to stop. Cold calling will also come naturally eventually.

Lesson 5: Discover what your sales team is good at, and amplify it.

Takeaway: Each team member will have a different sales process – identify what that process is, and amplify their abilities in these processes.

Thank you Kym and Demi for sharing your amazing stories and insights – we’re looking forward to the next Startup Sales Huddle where a different startup founder will be sharing their experiences.

2. YBF Tuesday Skillshare – Capacity to Create by Paul Higgins

For the week’s skillshare, we had Paul Higgins present on how we can increase our Capacity to Create through identifying the various ways that our mind and technology can interact to form a synergistic workflow.

The talk covered various points and facilitated some great discussions among attendees. Here’s a quick overview:

Point 1: We can increase our ability for empathy by identifying what our preferences are (and that of our clients / partners) through the use of Ned Hermann’s Whole Brain Preference.

Point 2: The Six Box Concept – Identify the top 5 things that you are going to be famous / successful for, and identify the top 6 things that you need to do to achieve them.

Point 3: Email best practices – Do not leave your tasks in the form of an email. Immediately convert them to a task, note, contact, or calendar invite.

Point 4: There are various tools out there that will help to streamline and organise your workflow – some of them include Evernote, Podio, Asana, Slideshare, and Yammer.

3. Melbourne Mobile Meetup – Prototyping and Architecting your Apps

This was the first time that York Butter Factory had the pleasure of hosting the Melbourne Mobile Meetup – and we certainly are looking forward to the next Mobile Meetup here at YBF!

The meetup drew a great crowd of developers and great individuals – speakers for the event were volunteers who agreed to share their knowledge, and the event saw a turnout that was bigger than anticipated!

For the slides that were presented during the event, head over to the Melbourne Mobile Meetup page.

4. Startup Grind with Red Bubble

This session of Startup Grind Melbourne saw RedBubble founder Martin Hosking in a Fireside Chat with the crowd, sharing his experiences on growing Red Bubble to becoming a well-known name in the online e-commerce community.

 5. Advance Innovation Pitch Fest

The Melbourne leg of the Advance Innovation Pitch Fest saw the program being held at the York Butter Factory to the tune of a great crowd and quality startups.

During the night, the Pitch Fest saw 10 high-potential startups pitch their idea to a panel consisting of Doron Ben-Meir, Stuart B. Richardson, Nathan Sampimon, and Malcom Thornton.

These startups consisted of One Touch, Veridocx, MCommsTV, dataGO, Marketing4Restaurants, Slipperfits, Riskflo, and York Butter Factory members HealthKit, Capture Us, and Advisory Labs.

Congratulations to all the teams involved!

Finally, we’d like to give a quick shout out to the following York Butter Factory Members for their wins over the past week:

1. Adventure Capital

Congratulations to Adventure Capital for being featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Asia Venture Capital Journal, and E27!

Here’s an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal Article:

 Adventure Capital hopes to grow the number of investments in its stable to between 25 and 50. The fund will allocate between A$500,000 to A$5 million per company in return for stakes no smaller than 10%, and is focused on Australian startups with global ambition.

Adventure Capital has been instrumental in shaping the startup ecosystem in Australia, and we’re excited to follow their journey and to be a part of the startup ecosystem in Australia that they have forged.

2. Alison Hardacre, co-founder of HealthKit and Specialist Link:

Congratulations to Alison, who was recently featured in Women’s Agenda!

Now, the finalist in the NAB Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards sees an opportunity to make a difference on a global scale. “I saw the potential for the internet to change health. I understood the difficulties facing the system, doctors and patients,” she tells Women’s Agenda

For the full article, head on over to Women’s Agenda.

3. GetViable

York Butter Factory members GetViable are launching their amazing platform in the upcoming week – keep an eye out for it!

Thanks for reading, and the team here at York Butter Factory are looking forward to even bigger wins from our members, and to more quality events taking place that will take the Australian Startup Ecosystem to the next level!

The post Weekly Recap (11-15 February 2013) appeared first on York Butter Factory.

Over the next week, York Butter Factory will be hosting 7 very exciting events and workshops that will inspire, educate, and cultivate entrepreneurial spirit.

(Click on the event headings to head to their respective websites)

1. Tuesday Skillshare – Capacity to Create by Paul Higgins (12 February 2013, 12:00 PM)

Every Tuesday, York Butter Factory hosts Tuesday Skillshare sessions at lunchtime (12:00 PM). Skillshare sessions are hosted by a member of the startup or York Butter Factory community with a skill to share with everyone else (as the name suggests), and attendees are welcome to bring along their lunches to these sessions. These skills are not limited to their area of expertise, and could range from a lesson they picked up from a book, to the experiences they gathered from travelling.

For our previous Skillshare sessions in 2012, we saw Marc Harrison give a talk about how to refine your presentation, Christopher Ballard (Launcher from Uber) on his experience launching Uber in 7 locations around the world, and Tim Morris on Video Production.

To kick of 2013′s Skill Share Sessions, Paul Higgins from eCoaching will be hosting a workshop called ‘Capacity to Create’. This workshop will cover the many productivity tools which could potentially aid in streamlining your workflow, ideas on how to control your mental state to get more out of your day, and other ideas on how to stay productive.

Everyone is welcome to our Skillshare sessions, and we’re always keen on meeting new and exciting people!

2. Startup Sales Hustle (11 February 2013, 6:00 PM)

Are you running your own sales strategy and feeling a little bit lost, frusturated and in need of a helping hand to show you the next steps on how your sales strategy can become more efficient and effective?

You’re not alone.

The good news is, almost everyone feels the same way. The better news is, now we’re doing something about it. Every month, 12 times a year, Melbourne’s startup scene will converge on an evening of startup sales huddling to share the best practices and procedures to skyrocket your sales.

Sales is arguably the most critical component of transforming your startup into a sustainable business because without paying customers, your startup is just one expensive hobby.

Now you have the opportunity to take control and take your sales strategy to the next level.

3. Startup Leadership Program (12 February 2013, 6:00 PM)

Startup Leadership Program is a selective, world-class training program for entrepreneurs who want to become top startup CEOs. Melbourne SLP Fellows will build a life-long network with a group of outstanding founders, and connect with a growing community of business partners, experts, advisors and investors.

The York Butter Factory has hosted the Startup Leadership Program since 2012, and we are certainly very excited to see the quality of entrepreneurs coming through the program in 2013.

4. Melbourne Mobile Meetup – Prototyping and Architecting your Apps (12 February 2013 (6:30 PM)

For this Melbourne Mobile Meetup session,  we take a step back from developing your apps to look at a variety of tools and techniques for ensuring a better built app in the long run.

These include tools, processes and best practice advice for creating paper and digital versions of what it is your app is actually going to do, giving you a simple example of your ideas to show to users before diving into code.

We also look at how best to architect your app for optimum use and flexibility, wether you are looking to create a responsive design or a pure downloadable app.

This will be the first time the Melbourne Mobile Meetup will be held at the York Butter Factory, and there will be many more to come!

5. Startup Grind with Red Bubble (13 February 2013, 6:00 PM)

Startup Grind is a 40-city event series hosted in 15-countries that educates, inspires, and connects entrepreneurs. Rooted in the heart of Silicon Valley, Startup Grind brings the world’s greatest founders and investors to tell their stories on stage and share it with our global startup community.

This Startup Grind session will see Red Bubble founder Martin Hosking in a fireside chat with the crowd, answering questions about his startup and about the incredible growth that Red Bubble has seen (raising $6.5 Million and topping 1 Million orders).

6. Clojure Meetup Group (14 February 2013, 6:00 PM)

The Clojure Melbourne Meetup Group consists of those who are interested in the Clojure programming language.

7. Advance Innovation Program Pitch Fest 2013 (15 February 2013, 5:30 PM)

Join us in selecting Australia’s most innovative start-ups for the 2013 Advance Innovation Program. Companies will have just 5 minutes to convince a panel of senior entrepreneurs and investors that their technology has what it takes to play on the global stage.

Selected companies will depart to the U.S. in April to take part in the Advance Innovation Summit in Silicon Valley.

Companies pitching include;

• Veridocx – Felix Thiang
• AdvisoryLabs – Shane Yin
• MComms TV – Grant Simonds
• Capture Us – Alexandra Kinloch & Ben Rashleigh
• HealthKit – Alison Hardacre
• dataGO – Peter Cain
• Marketing for Restaurants – James Eling
• OneTouch- Hany Pham
• Slipperfits – Michael Scanlon

It’s going to be an exciting week ahead for the startup ecosystem!

The post Upcoming Events (10 – 16 February 2013) appeared first on York Butter Factory.

Over the past week, we’ve had some quality entrepreneurs, startups, and events flow through the York Butter Factory ecosystem.

Here’s a quick update on the many things that have taken place this week;

1. World Startup Report with Bowei Gai

In his effort to document the world’s startup communities, Bowei Gai (founder of Cardmunch, acquired by LinkedIn) decided to allow himself to be exposed to the many different startup cultures in each location around the globe.

As part of his journey in each location, the World Startup Report organises an event to bring together the best of the local startup community and to provide an insight into the world of startups for those who have yet to dip their toes into entrepreneurship.

For the Melbourne leg of his journey, the York Butter Factory had the privilege of organising the local World Startup Report event, drawing an enthusiastic entrepreneurial crowd and providing Bowei Gai with an insight into the local startup community.

The World Startup Report event consisted of several segments. It began with Bowei Gai sharing the motivation behind his journey, and what he managed to observe about the startup community in India.

Next, we had the privilege of having Brad Feld (TechStars and Foundry Group) on a live video conference, sharing his unique insights and taking questions from the crowd for a solid 20-minute session of insight and knowledge.

The last segment of the event consisted of a Founders Panel involving Stuart B. Richardson (Adventure Capital & York Butter Factory), Leni Mayo (99 Designs, Flippa, Sitepoint), Long Zheng and Edward Hooper (121 Cast & Soundgecko), and Jayson Hornibrook (Peazie). The panel took various questions from the crowd and shared their thoughts about topics related to the startup and entrepreneurial scene in Melbourne.

The World Startup Report was also recently covered by Tech In Asia, with York Butter Factory and York Butter Factory co-founder Stuart B. Richardson receiving a special mention.

To follow Bowei Gai on his World Startup Report journey, follow him on twitter at @Bowei and the World Startup report at @WorldStartupRpt.

2. NetSquared Meetup – Top 10 Charity Videos of 2012

Hosted by Kyle Vermeulen and his wife, Richenda Vermeulen from Ntegrity (who works from the York Butter Factory), the event organised by the NetSquared Meetup Group shed light on the many factors that made the top 10 charity videos of 2012 into the successes that they were.

The night kicked off with a steady stream of participants braving the sudden Melbourne downpour to attend the event still brimming with enthusiasm and energy.

To all who attended – we here at the York Butter Factory hope you had a great time, and we’d like to thank NetSquared Melbourne for running an insightful (and entertaining) event!

We’ve had a great start to the year 2013 with some amazing events running at and with the York Butter Factory. To keep an eye on all our future events, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter; the year ahead is definitely on track to get bigger and better!

The post Weekly Recap (28 January – 1 February 2013) appeared first on York Butter Factory.

What Is It?

The World Startup Report aims to document our world’s startup ecosystems through a series of reports detailing the local culture, trends, key players, and challenges. The reports will be available for free, to benefit everyone in the global startup community.

The event is also to identify and empower local startup activists to become the ambassadors of each ecosystem. The World Startup Report will leverage this network of ambassadors to help connect people to each other and to the global startup community.

Who Is Involved?

1. Bowei Gai

Bowei is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and fire starter behind the World Startup Report mission, and will be here in Melbourne as the main ambassafor for the World Startup Report. He was formerly the founder of CardMunch (acquired by LinkedIn).

2. Dave McClure

Dave McClure is the founding partner of 500Startups, and is an advocate behind the World Startup Report project. He is one of the most well known international seed investors with over 450 investments to date.

3. Brad Feld (Live Feed)

Brad is a managing director at Foundry Group and a co-founder of TechStars. Brad is also the author of Startup Communities, one of the most well known books on how to create a startup ecosystem. He is also an advocate behind the World Startup Report project.

Where Is It?

The World Startup Report in Melbourne will be hosted by the York Butter Factory,  a co-working space for high potential Web 2.0 startups, and which aims to drive a supercharged ecosystem of entrepreneurs through its many initiatives. The York Butter Factory was founded by Stuart B. Richardson and Darcy Naunton, both partners at Australia’s leading early-stage technology venture capital firm, Adventure Capital.

Due to overwhelming demand, the World Startup Report will be held at the following venue;

Level 2 (under The Hub Melbourne),

673 Bourke Street,

Melbourne,

VIC 3000.

During the World Startup Report

1. Opening talk from Bowei Gai

2. An interview session with Brad Feld via live feed from the U.S.

3. A fireside chat with the founders of some of Melbourne’s best startups and investors (99 Designs, Peazie, 121Cast, Adventure Capital).

4. Q&A session with the audience

The World Startup Report is an amazing initiative that will shed light on the diverse startup cultures that are present all around the world, and we are proud to be the hosts of this incredible initiative.

To sign up for the event head over to our Eventbrite Page.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The post The World Startup Report (in association with the York Butter Factory) appeared first on York Butter Factory.

The Optus Singtel Innov8 Seed Program will be having an information session at 12:30pm this Friday (25 January 2013) at the York Butter Factory, to spread the word that Season 2 of the Innov8 Seed Program is now taking applications.

What is the Optus Singtel Innov8 Seed Program?

Here is a quick summary of where the Optus Innov8 Seed Program fits in, courtesy of the people behind the program;

If you’re a startup that’s ready to take it to the next level and are looking to raise some funds, the Optus Innov8 Seed Program  is a great platform for you to do so.

121Cast, long-time residents at the York Butter Factory, were one of the two startups who successfully became a part of the Optus Innov8 Seed Program, and have raised $250,000 as a result of their participation in the program.

Feedback: Optus Innov8 AAA+++. Highly recommended seed program.

- Long Zheng, 121Cast co-founder

To find out more, come along for the information session (link below) to learn about the program, and to meet Optus Innov8 principals Alfred Lo and Rebecca Hay.

Optus Innov8 Seed Program Information Session

The post Optus Innov8 Seed Program : Upcoming Event appeared first on York Butter Factory.

From The Verge to TechChrunch, CNet, Lifehacker, The Next Web, and Gizmodo, York Butter Factory residents 121 Cast are making waves in the tech scene for their text-to-speech transcription service, named SoundGecko.

Essentially, SoundGecko is a service that allows you to transform articles and text from websites, RSS feeds, and PDF files into speech over the cloud – this means less battery consumption on your mobile devices, and transcriptions speeds that aren’t limited to the hardware on your device.

Since their launch, Soundgecko has released a Chrome Extension, iOS, Windows 8, and Android apps, and have received both Microsoft Skydive and Dropbox integration; an impressive feat for the startup. It comes as no surprise then, that the 121Cast team have recently released a WordPress plugin for the popular blogging site. Dubbed the ‘Listen Button’, the plugin allows users to easily listen to the post on their device through the SoundGecko text-to-speech process. Since the soft-launch of the plugin, it has now been installed in over 90 prolific blogs and websites.

We’ve also just installed the SoundGecko plugin for the York Butter Factory website – you can find it at the start of each post, and we invite you to try out the fantastic service.

We here at the York Butter Factory are avid SoundGecko users, and have been using it quite extensively to help us consume content while multi-tasking.

It also looks like we’re not the only fans of the 121 Cast team – the team has recently raised $250,000 from the Optus Singtel Innov8 seed fund, with co-investment from Adventure Capital, also residents of the York Butter Factory.

At the York Butter Factory, 121 Cast have been active in embedding themselves in the community and bringing value to the co-working ecosystem that surrounds our co-working space. They’re regular participants at our YBF Show and Tell sessions, and have been invaluable in helping out their fellow residents where possible.

The 121 Cast team embodies the culture that is persistent at the York Butter Factory; active participation, a willingness to share both knowledge and skills, and the drive to ultimately get things done.

We’re proud to be hosting the 121Cast team at the York Butter Factory, and the many other resident startups, businesses, and residents that are positioned for big wins in 2013.

Note: 121Cast Co-Founder Long Zheng recently shared in a YBF Show and Tell session that a post on his blog, IStartedSomething, achieved over 35,000 views in a day, and received over 1,000 upvotes on Hacker News (with a personal reply from Paul Graham). Check out his post here.

The post The Rise of York Butter Factory Residents 121Cast appeared first on York Butter Factory.

These founders consisted of Richenda Vermeulen from nTegrity, Alison Hardacre from HealthKit, Nicola Gracie from FitIntegrate, and Demi Markogiannaki from WeTeachMe.

Here’s an excerpt from their website;

In September 2012, I visited the York Butter Factory co-working space in Melbourne. I met 4 incredibly smart, passionate and driven women there who are truly changing the world from a basement in Melbourne!

Incredibly smart, passionate, and driven indeed! Besides running their startups, these startup founders are also leaders in several meet up groups and are active members of the York Butter Factory Community.

Watch the video below, and enjoy the interview!

The post Women as Entrepreneurs – Melbourne Interview appeared first on York Butter Factory.