[cybergoat]

I'd like to mention another local success story. Hidden away in Fisherman's Bend in Melbourne is Blackmagic Design (http://www.blackmagicdesign.com). 99% of sales are overseas and they compete with the likes of Canon and Sony. The company was grown organically without any external funding, and does engineering and industrial design in-house. This is not an easy thing to do (hardware is expensive to develop!) but it can be done.

disclaimer: I used to work for Blackmagic

[danieltillett]

I have always been impressed by Blackmagic. Yes the key to success here is to bootstrap. If you go down this path Australia is one of the better places in the world to do it.

[cybergoat]

Some other bootstrappers from Melbourne:

* PayDirt - http://paydirtapp.com/

* Cycling Analytics - https://www.cyclinganalytics.com/

Other products developed in Melbourne (I am unsure of the levels of VC):

* Aconex construction workflow - http://www.aconex.com/

* Redbubble - http://www.redbubble.com/

* Realestate.com.au - http://www.realestate.com.au/

I don't always understand the hype about investment. If someone is giving you their money, you are giving up sovereignty. If you can build something that earns enough to continue growth, then you can afford to make some mistakes.

Edit: Formatting

[brongondwana]

Don't forget FastMail! https://www.fastmail.com/ - we don't make a giant deal about being from Australia since most of our business is from overseas as well.