Red Lizard Software Wins ANZA’s Tech23 Prize: Company Most Ready for US

by Viki Forrest, CEO ANZA Technology Network

It’s my pleasure to announce that Red Lizard Software has been chosen to receive ANZA’s Tech23 prize, which is awarded to the company we saw at Tech23 last month who demonstrates great potential for the US market.

Red Lizard Software’s Goanna product cleans up software bugs for developers, reducing the time programmers spend testing and debugging. Red Lizard estimates that software bugs are a $100 billion (USD) problem. And, they have a solution that can remedy this expense within minutes. The upshot is that higher quality software gets to market faster.

Read more about Goanna here.

Our prize for Red Lizard Software is a slot in our 2010 Gateway to the US program. Valued at $3,995 (USD), Red Lizard will have the option of taking part in a US market analysis workshop next year in Sydney, then working with a US-based coach who will get them ready to pitch in Silicon Valley to potential US investors, partners and others from the tech community who can further facilitate US market exploration and entry.

Congratulations to Red Lizard Software. We look forward to working with you!

Enter the Dragon: Shanghai, Sydney, Silicon Valley Venture Capital Forum, November 19/20

Is Shanghai the next Silicon Valley? Will China’s formidable economic presence on the world stage bring entrepreneurs and venture capitalists together to build solutions for the next generation?

Come find out the answers to these questions and more when Advance presents “Enter the Dragon”, a video conference linking Silicon Valley, Shanghai and Sydney, November 19/20. Click here for times and location in each city and to register now.

Learn more about: China’s emerging opportunities for innovative entrepreneurs in the global economy; the difference between Silicon Valley and China VC ecosystems; building your global networks for business opportunities; navigating a foreign market with trusted resources; China’s growing clean and green tech market opportunities; how Silicon Valley’s innovation and Australia’s unique blend of resources, clean fossil fuels, water and solar technologies will neatly fit in this vast market sector as the world reshapes itself in the next two decades.

Panelists include:

• Ford Tamer, Operating Partner, Khosla Ventures
• Matt Jones, Partner, Nth Power
• Ron Cao, Managing Director, Lightspeed Venture Partners, China
• Alison Leopold Tilley, Partner, Pillsbury, co-leader South East Asia team
• Darren Ho, Managing Partner, CMHJ China
• Tony Surtees, Executive Director, Prime Digitalworks Pty Ltd
• Dr. Mannie Liu, Director, Renmin University, Venture Capital Research Center
• Victor Westerlind, General Partner, RockPort Capital Partners

Moderated from Silicon Valley by Dr. Larry Marshall, Managing Director, Southern Cross Venture Partners and from Shanghai by Joseph W.K. Chan, Partner and Head of China VC & PE, Pillsbury.

This event is FREE to ANZA TechNet and Advance members. Sponsored by Advance, with support from ANZA TechNet, Southern Cross Venture Partners and Pillsbury. Click here to register as well as to get the locations and time for this event in Silicon Valley, Sydney and Shanghai.

Accepting Expressions of Interest in the ANZA TechNet Gateway to China Pilot Program

We’ve had a number of enquiries into the Gateway to China Pilot program since we sent out an e-blast yesterday, so we have re-posted the link for the Expressions of Interest here.

This Pilot program will be open to Australian entrepreneurs looking to get into the China market. If you are interested (or know someone who is), please follow this link and enter a brief description of your company by 9 November 2009.

We will have more information for those who express their interest shortly after the closing date for registrants given above. The Pilot is still in its planning stages, but as of now ANZA TechNet will tentatively be holding FREE workshops in Australian cities in February 2010, with a 1-week trip to Shanghai in March 2010 to meet with China-based coaches who will help you navigate the complexities of the China business culture, explore business opportunities and learn more about doing business in the China market.

While many companies will be invited to the FREE workshop, only five will be chosen to go to Shanghai.

If you’d like to register your interest, click here. To find out more details about the Pilot, contact ANZA CEO Viki Forrest at viki@anzatechnet.com.

Results of the 3Q Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index

Read the interpretation of the steady results revealed in University of San Francisco associate professor of entrepreneurship Mark Cannice’s quarterly study of nearly 40 Silicon Valley VCs byTechCrunch writer Sarah Lacey in “Venture Capital’s 3Q Temperature” .

On a scale of 0 to 5, VCs view the current climate for investing and economic recovery to be 3.37. This is the same figure Cannice derived in 2Q ‘09. The good news is VCs still feel there are a lot of good new companies out there, and they know that to make returns ten years from now, they have to keep the dollars flowing now.

But there’s a downside that keeps the score stagnant from 2Q to 3Q ‘09. According to Lacey, “if VCs can’t spin mature companies off to buyers or public market investors, they have to keep more reserves for them that can’t go to new deals. And without those exits—some firms may not be able to raise their next funds, which also hurts their ability to do new deals.” (Read more)

Note: To read the 3Q Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index in full, click here.

Great Day at Tech23

Dan Bisa (left) and Justin Barrie (right) catch up with ANZA CEO Viki Forrest at Tech23 in Sydney. Photo by KazzaDrask Media.

An impressive lineup of companies today at Tech23 in Sydney. Twenty-three companies gave us a look into Australia’s technology future across consumer web, enterprise, mobile communications, clean/green and in between, digital media and SaaS/cloud computing.

We picked a favorite in each category that we thought has what it takes to make it in the global marketplace. Our choices were:

• Posse (Consumer Web)
• Red Lizard Software (Enterprise)
• QMCodes (Mobile)
• HEARD Systems (Clean/Green/In Between)
• We Are Hunted (Digital Media)
• Simmersion Holdings (SaaS/Cloud)

It was good to see our friends from Perkler, a 2008 Gateway to the US company who did not pitch at Tech23, but was there to lend support to these up-and-coming next wave of Aussie innovators. Kudos to Rachel Slattery and her team at SlatteryIT for putting together an excellent show and well-run event.