Govts urged to support homegrown tech

Start-ups are hard work and technology-based start-ups even harder, the CEO of one of Australia's best-known such ventures told last week's KCA commercialisation conference.

But if your venture is a success, you can "pretty much write your own ticket," Redfern Photonics CEO Chris Howells told the conference.

Howells is a veteran of the start-up scene, after launching Netcomm, now a listed company, in 1982.

He said starting a business in Australia seemed to be harder than it was in the US, with obstacles such as the taxation system, a smaller funding pool and less chance of big profits in the way.

"We expect our flora to grow in a harsh climate," Howells said. "There is no real domestic market, which is a systemic weakness our governments should eradicate.

"Early adoption [of new technology] by local buyers would be a huge boon," he said, but the Commonwealth government seemed averse to the risks of smoothing the way to market for new, homegrown technology.

"Many people in the government are very helpful," he said. "But we must seek to expect from our governments continuous improvement.

"The technology push is a problem for Australia. Hundreds of millions of dollars go into R&D in essentially academic enterprises... but it seems to me we need more commercialisation grants."

One solution, he said, could lie in revamping the CRC system. "If a CRC is having success we should double its funding," he said.

Howells said the success of Australia's traditional, land-based economy meant that the nation "never got the industrial age quite right."

The problem with the idea that information industries could underpin the economy, he said, was that Australia might not be able to afford to set up its knowledge economy.

The financial sector, he said, was also risk-averse, "which is understandable as you can lose your money very quickly."

Howells said that whether an entrepreneur was "a control freak or a facilitator, you'll get an enormous amount of satisfaction emotionally.

"But it's lonely at the top. A short period in a technology business is an awful long time in the real world."