San Francisco Landing Pad
The Australian Landing Pad @ WeWork, San Francisco
The San Francisco Landing Pad operates out of WeWork, a global network of workspaces that includes entrepreneurs, innovators, service providers, corporate innovation departments, and investors. WeWork’s diverse membership has included Airbnb, Dropbox, Reddit, General Electric, Microsoft, Red Bull, Honda, and General Motors.
The program’s base at WeWork is located in the San Francisco financial district. The neighbourhood is peppered with startups, technology investors and established companies, all of which combine to provide a rich environment of skills and talent for Australian companies to draw upon.
WeWork’s 220+ offices across the world also provide participants with the opportunity to expand the Landing Pad experience across geographies as they scale their ventures globally.
While in the San Francisco Landing Pad, participants receive
- introductions to mentor networks and strategic partnerships designed to drive growth. The San Francisco Landing Pad has relationships with a variety of accelerators, universities, government entities, corporate innovation offices, and investors such as Y Combinator; RocketSpace; Plug and Play Tech Center; MBC Biolabs, and the San Francisco Startup in Residence (STIR) program.
- access to a curated community that supports Australian entrepreneurs. The Aussie Founders Network, a member-driven community of Australian founders, investors and industry advisors in the Bay Area, provides a hub of thought leadership and mentors to support Landing Pad participants.
- business advice and programming designed to help grow your business.
A sampling of workshops include:
- Legal essentials including entity formation, IP considerations and human resources
- Communications and marketing essentials
- International accounting essentials
- Selling to Corporates
- Pitch coaching bootcamp.
San Francisco dual civilian and defence Landing Pad
Austrade is partnering with the Australian Defence Export Office and CSIRO to deliver a tailored program for companies developing, or interested in, products for civilian and defence use, who are interested in entering the US market. The Landing Pads program provides tailored, cohort-based residencies to help Australian start-ups/scale-ups land and expand into major global innovations hubs around the world.
This Landing Pad residency program will commence on 27 May 2019 and conclude on 24 August 2019.
Land in the Bay
The Australian entrepreneur’s guide to the San Francisco Bay Area
Review this new publication from Austrade for information on scaling a venture into the San Francisco Bay Area.
The guide includes details on preparing for a United States expansion, the nuts and bolts of establishing and growing a company in the States, and an overview of the diverse resources available to Australian entrepreneurs during the journey.
Download the guide (PDF 2.3MB)
Resources
Find out more about doing business in the US.
Gabe Sulkes
Landing Pad Manager San Francisco
Originally from western New York, Gabe Sulkes joins Austrade from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where he managed entrepreneurship and investment-side offerings including the university’s startup accelerator program, alumni founders fellowship, and Oxford University private equity competition. During his time at Booth, Gabe supported the nation’s #1 university accelerator, the New Venture Challenge, and it’s $4 billion+ alumni portfolio including companies like Braintree, Bump Technologies, and GrubHub (NYSE: GRUB). Prior to Booth, Gabe managed sustainable transportation initiatives for the Illinois Department of Transportation and led efforts to create the state’s first Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan. As the Landing Pad Manager for San Francisco, Gabe empowers high-potential startups to scale in the United States and globally.