JOSEPHMARK CREATES AN AUSSIE STARTUP 'BUZZ' FEED

WANT to know which startups should be on your radar? Brisbane digital studio Josephmark has just launched a platform which lists the Australian startups creating 'buzz' in real time. 

The agency responsible for the revamp of Myspace and the Twitter-acquired music service We Are Hunted has launched Vest in response to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's innovation agenda.

The Josephmark team, headed by former Brisbane Young Entrepreneur winner Ben Johnston, is aggregating data on Australian startups and charting them on the Vest mobile and web platform ordered by whose being talked about the most in real-time.

The goal is to give startups a platform to be seen, let them surface potential partners and suss out their competition. On the other side of the same coin, venture capitalists can source ideas to back.

"There are so many great ideas coming out of Australia at the moment, but there's no central place to go and find out about the latest and greatest in Australian tech," says Johnston.

"Vest celebrates the innovative, the awesome and the local, but we also want it to put a spotlight on business and venture capital education.

"Being entrepreneurial isn't valued as highly as it should be - we don't have to encourage risk, we just need to nurture the new."

Johnston has said previously to Brisbane Business News that his studio likes to be on 'the mark of industries on the cusp of change'.

Business and data are now the sweet spots. Previously Josephmark dabbled heavily in areas like video and music when streaming services were gaining popularity.

"We have a reputation in music definitely and taking it up a higher level we look at industries going through points of change," says Johnston, who splits his time between Brisbane and LA.

"There is a massive influx in data collection, and the collecting of that data is one thing, but the output of that and what it really means in the sense of a whole new domain is really interesting."

Josephmark director and partner of digital ventures, Jess Huddart, says it's due time that Australian startups are elevated to higher levels.

"The government's innovation agenda is absolutely essential for our country, but only a small step in the right direction," says Huddart.

"As a digital ventures practice with multiple startups under our belt, we know the challenges of finding funding and launching companies. Most of the time, the belief and the backing comes from North America, and we need to have more of that at home, on Aussie shores."