Steve Baxter Quotes

105 Steve Baxter Quotes

1 2 3

[In September 2013] Before I started my first business, my job was actually fixing binoculars.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2013 on what inspired him to open River City Labs.] I have several investments, and after travelling to Sydney I saw a great example of getting support for entrepreneurs and helping them get started in an organisation called Fishburners. I came back to Brisbane and looked for Fishburners, and other similar organisations and they didn’t exist, so that was the start of it. I looked at doing it commercially as a full proﬁt business, but to be honest it’s not a big business. So I decided to launch the business, but with a bit more philanthropy involved.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2013 on a game called ‘Dragon Season’ released through Right Pedal Studios.] It’s been discovered by a number of people in China, even though we only released it to the Australian Android market, and it’s found its way to about thirty-four thousand installations. That was really very surprising. It wasn’t what we’d planned, but we’re now pursuing some Chinese producers…
Steve Baxter

[In October 2013.] Since River City Labs opened its doors last year, there’s been a gradual shift. I’m actually a little disappointed with the startup scene in Brisbane… when I see the startup scene in Sydney compared to Fortitude Valley, it’s completely stark.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2013.] There has been market failure with regards to tech startup in Brisbane. There are some really good businesses here, but when you look at the level of activity elsewhere you can see that we’re behind the eight ball. It needs serious local and state government help and support and if they want to do that, they have to be willing to spend the money.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2013.] It’s embarrassing when Auckland, New Zealand, have a higher angel funding rate than anywhere in Australia. That is because of direct government intervention.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2013.] I’m just going to read you some statistics: The number of startup incubators in the US is 1400, compared to 30 in Australia; The number of angel investors in Australia is 500, compared to 300,000 in the US; We do approximately 50 Angel deals per year, compared to 63,000 a year done in the US; There are eight early stage VC funds in Australia; there are 420 in the US.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2013.] In Brisbane there are three coworking spaces/incubators – in Auckland there are six. In the same year, Auckland recorded 45 Angel Investments per annum, while Brisbane had two. Auckland’s 40 venture capital investments trumped Brisbane’s 30, and the whole of Australia was only marginally higher at 72.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2013.] There are a lot of businesses that are hesitant to spend money on sales and marketing yet still expect to gain the interest of investors. You need to do put in the effort and prove to investors that your business is a worthwhile prospect.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2013.] The idea has got to be something that makes a splash. Technology has such great potential to have a huge impact, and it just takes the right idea turn the world on its head.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2013 on whether he was going to Sydney to look for more new startups.] Not really scouting, I already have eleven investments, I had twelve - which is too many. I would love to get back down to maybe seven or eight.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2013.] Right Pedal Studios and River City Labs take up a fair bit of my time.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2013.] Really what I’d like to do is less, and be able to spend more time with my 11 week old daughter to be quite honest.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2013.] My hobbies are ﬁshing and ﬂying, of which I get to do precious little…
Steve Baxter

[In October 2013.] It’s surprising what can take up time in your day.
Steve Baxter

[In April 2014.] Dream big or go home.
Steve Baxter

[In April 2014.] Australia’s economy is far too reliant on our all-too-finite resources and tourism industries. These are plagued by fluctuating commodity prices and currencies, and weather - factors that we have little positive control over.
Steve Baxter

[In April 2014.] High-growth tech start-ups could account for $US109 billion and 540,000 new jobs by 2033. To say it is a huge opportunity is an understatement.
Steve Baxter

[In April 2014.] It’s all too simple: We just don’t have enough young people willing to dream big, give it a go and start up their own venture.
Steve Baxter

[In April 2014.] The Australian education system is geared towards preparing students for the workforce, not towards equipping them with the skills, knowledge and encouragement to start their own business. We need to imbue them with wanderlust for a life of beating their own path and leading the world from our great nation.
Steve Baxter

[In April 2014.] As I found out myself when I launched my first tech start-up in 1994 (almost 24 years old), when you’re young you are far more willing to take the risks you need to succeed. We need to equip our own young people with the drive and desire and technical skills to be the next Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg.
Steve Baxter

[In July 2014 on Brisbane based startup DoseMe.] DoseMe is an Aussie life sciences startup with the potential to significantly improve outcomes for millions of patients. It has an opportunity to transform a critical part of the medical industry, enabling a personalised medicine tool to be implemented easily and rapidly. By helping doctors to implement best practice dosing methods, DoseMe can also help health funds, hospitals and the government reduce the financial cost of adverse outcomes.
Steve Baxter

[In July 2014 on Brisbane based startup DoseMe.] From an investment perspective, the team behind the business is exceptional. They have in-depth expertise in both the medical industry and technology development, and also have the ability to execute the idea and build a business. It’s a very exciting Australian company with global ambitions.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2014.] It’s been twenty years since I started my first business… I throw myself into these and I’m actually very pleased to not be actually running a business anymore. So what I do is invest in others that run businesses that I enjoy being around.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2014.] I’m probably on a different part of a journey. I don’t regard myself as an entrepreneur anymore although others probably would.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2014.] I’ve never really considered myself an entrepreneur to be honest. I’m just a guy that does things that make’s sense at the time.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2014 on looking at his own journey.] I don’t spend a lot of time looking at my own navel and guess what’s happened.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2014.] I don’t like anyone who thinks they have a right to my revenue.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2014.] I’m not an employee. I don’t play nice in large groups.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2014.] Google’s next door to an airport. So I went off and got my pilot’s licence.
Steve Baxter

[In October 2014.] I’m 43 years old now and I still think Twitter should fail. I don’t get Twitter. Why does Twitter work? I have no idea. Would I have invested in Twitter? Not a chance in h*ll.
Steve Baxter

[In November 2014.] Our economy is still hugely reliant on stuff we dig out of the ground, yet we live in an age when next generation technology is creating opportunities to break into every industry sector. Australia needs technologically capable and entrepreneurially inspired young people.
Steve Baxter

[In November 2014.] If our future business leaders are going to succeed, they need to be willing to take risks, start businesses, to fail and try again.
Steve Baxter

[In November 2014.] In Australia a large proportion of our first-time entrepreneurs are in their thirties and forties. Relatively few younger Australians engaging in creation of high-growth startups, compared to other countries and particularly to Silicon Valley. As a result, many startups founded here are at the lower end of the risk-reward curve, and are focused on small niches or domestic markets.
Steve Baxter

[In November 2014.] Having young people become entrepreneurs is important because startups are high risk (most fail) and as a general rule, an individual’s risk tolerance decreases over time, particularly once they have a mortgage, a family and an established career.
Steve Baxter

[In November 2014.] Having a founder starting young can be a factor in creating world-changing businesses, and we’ve seen that with Steve Jobs at Apple, Bill Gates at Microsoft, Sergey Brin and Larry Page at Google, and Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook.
Steve Baxter

[In November 2014.] We need to capture the imagination of the next generation, to show them what is possible and encourage them to go make a job, not just go get a job.
Steve Baxter

I'm actually born in Cloncurry in Northern Queensland and I was raised and grew in the Barron Basin…
Steve Baxter

You know you're old when you go to a 25th reunion of anything especially when it's a bunch of army guys who still think they are 21.
Steve Baxter

I left school at grade eleven so, I didn't quite finish high school. I did a couple of part - time years at University because I wanted to
Steve Baxter

1 2 3

Return from Steve Baxter Quotes to Quoteswise.com