Startup Tasmania, Inc. was founded in 2011 by Oliver George, Byron Teu, Polly McGee, Jason Gorman and Joss Fenton. The founders had previously been involved with OpenCoffee Hobart, a social gathering with a digital/entrepreneuristic bent when they took the opportunity to form a support organisation for the fledgling Tasmanian startup scene.

The organisation started Tasmania’s first co-working space in the basement of 71 Murray Street, Hobart. Many Tasmanian entrepreneurs found their feet in “the lair”, including Secret Lab, QikID and Grifby, and many more joined us for our regular breakfasts, drinks and mentoring events.

When the basement space became unavailable, a number of our members pulled together and established The Typewriter Factory, initially as individual office spaces with Startup Tasmania as one of the founding tenants. We operated a (much smaller) shared office in The Typewriter Factory for a few months until they expanded into their larger coworking space in the loft. We now use this space regularly for our Hobart events.

More recently we’ve supported the establishment of Cradle Coast Innovation in the North-West, The Catalyst Project in the North, assisted with the organisation of GovHack Tasmania and have organised Tasmania’s part of the inaugural Startup Spring festival.

Want to make more history with us? Join Startup Tasmania now.

Partner organisations

We’re not the only ones in this neighbourhood supporting startups. Check it:

• Enterprize Tasmania
  Innovation Hubs in Hobart and Launceston helping to build the Tasmanian startup community.
• The Van Diemen Project
  A range of services from free business mentoring, free business advice, a youth business incubator, events and more.
• Cowork Launceston
  A coworking & events space in the Launceston CBD.
• Switch Tasmania