What Australia can learn from US startup life - and our Tall Poppy problem

When Jim Cooper, CEO of Blue-X, a California-based innovation services company for startups, moved to the US three decades ago, he had some trepidations. Now he loves it, but the former Sydneysider is back "home" for Christmas and in his shorts, to share his experiences on the final Startup 360 episode for 2025. Jim, who coaches an AFL team in Orange County, not far from Disneyland, has some strong thoughts on the Australian mindset and how to hustle."We've only got really one metric and that is at the end of the fourth quarter, we've got more points on the board than our opposition," he said. "So I treat every single startup as if it's three-quarter time with five goals, two, down, and we need to do something in the next 20 minutes to turn this game around so that we can win it. He also believes tall poppy syndrome is a thing in Australia and tells cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell it's holding us back, alongside the "report economy" endless reports, and no action. "We gaze inward, we see what we're missing and then we do very little about it except write a report. We don't address the problem head on. We like to be safe and we like to say a lot of safe things in Australia," he said. "We like to be very comfortable and polite. We don't like to tell the hard things that people don't like to hear. We can't confront that in Australia and I think that's a real fault of ours, being on the outside looking in and kind of seeing that now, you know, it makes me, it makes me cringe. It kind of makes me a little bit angry as well." And don't get him started on aphorisms like "punch above our weight".Episode 41 of Startup 360 is an extended Summer edition, diving into what Jim Cooper's learnt about startup life - he first launched accelerators in the US in 2010, and has worked and advised around the world on innovation and company building. It's also the last episode for 2025. Have a wonderful Summer and happy new year! The show will be back at the end of January, just as everyone packs up the beach umbrellas and heads back to work. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don’t forget to read ⁠StartupDaily.net⁠ for all the ANZ tech news for free!