CALLING ALL STARTUPS

BANK of Queensland (ASX: BOQ) and coworking community River City Labs are banding together to sponsor spirited startup founders.

Startup founders are being urged to send in their application for the ‘Sponsored Entrepreneur’ program.

Five will be selected as the recipients of three months specialist mentoring and training, including full time access to coworking space at River City Labs Brisbane startup hub in Fortitude Valley and its affiliated networking events.

The national River City Labs brand currently has a membership 100-people strong and has hosted more than 100 events in two years.

River City Labs founder Steve Baxter says BOQ is the first corporate sponsor of the program, fitting as they are “visionary corporates”.

“We are excited to have a visionary corporates such as BOQ recognise the opportunity to grow our local business economy.

“Queensland has the ability to become Australia’s leading Startup State in the coming decade. If we take positive control of the growth of our entrepreneurial community, the returns to Queensland and Australia could be enormous.

“The recent Crossroads Report by StartupAUS identified that high-growth tech startups could account for $US109 billion and 540,000 new jobs by 2033 – and we want to see Queensland attracting as many of these jobs as we can.”

Greg Pink, head of SME & commercial broker at BOQ, says the company recognised the large investment required to get startups off the ground running and felt they could capitalise on their position to give a helping hand.

“We understand that the early stages of starting out is not financially viable for everyone, and we wanted to make it possible for those who have a great business idea but don’t yet have the funds to get going,” says Pink.

“We're keeping our eye out for founders who are 100 per cent committed and want to give their Startup the best chance to develop and succeed.”

Applications close Friday 29 August. For criteria and more information: http://www.f6s.com/brisbanesponsoredentrepreneursprogram.