Blog

Greetings, fellow tech entrepreneurs in Australia and the UK!

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend an incredible event at Australia House with The Honourable Stephen Smith Australian High Commissioner  to UK and  Secretary of State & President of the UK Board of Trade Kemi Badenoch  to celebrate the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement #AUKFTA entering into force that shed light on some valuable insights for our community. Today, I want to share my reflections and highlight three areas that I believe will significantly benefit early-stage startups and scale-ups, just like Skyjed.

So grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and let's dive into the exciting possibilities that lie ahead.

The UK is a large and growing market with a strong economy. It is also a hub for innovation and technology, making it an ideal market for tech founders. I was enlisted into an incredible Austrade program called 'Born Global' and Investment NSW Fintech Academy.  These programs provided valuable insights and support as I entered the UK market. They also helped me to connect with potential customers and partners.

So good infact I came across to the UK last year for 4 weeks and ended up staying on the Market Expansion Program for 12 months, scaling to 100 clients now on the Skyjed platform.

I am confident that the AUKFTA will create new opportunities for tech businesses like Skyjed. I am excited to see what the future holds for the UK-Australia tech community

What is the AUKFTA

The Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement (AUKFTA) is a trade agreement between Australia and the United Kingdom. It was signed on 17 December 2021 and entered into force on 31 May 2023. The agreement eliminates tariffs on over 99% of goods traded between the two countries, and it also includes provisions on trade in services, investment, and intellectual property.

The agreement gives tech businesses greater access to the markets of Australia and the UK. This will create new opportunities at scale to sell our  products and services. The AUKFTA is a significant agreement that will boost trade and investment between Australia and the UK. It is expected to create jobs including tech areas, support early stage start-ups to enter and scale in these markets and boost economic growth in both countries. 

"Its often a strategic decision to enter a new market and for me it was about the size of the market opportunity and customer pull - requests for demos and trials that i couldn't pass by and decided to throw everything at this"

Here are my takeouts for Tech entrepreneurs and innovators:

Mobility: Facilitating the Two-Way Flow of Tech Talent: 

In today's competitive landscape, finding and hiring talented individuals with the right expertise is a constant challenge. At the event, one of the key takeaways was the significance of mobility for the two-way flow of talent. This concept opens doors for attracting skilled professionals to join our ventures and enables us to explore opportunities abroad. By embracing mobility, we can tap into a global pool of tech talent, ensuring we have the right leadership, customer-focused teams, and software engineers to drive our businesses forward.

Free Flow of Data: Empowering Global Infrastructure and Collaboration:

As tech entrepreneurs, we understand data's crucial role in our ventures. However, setting up infrastructure and managing global data sets while maintaining privacy and compliance standards can be daunting. The event shed light on our challenges in this arena and presented potential solutions. Embracing the concept of the free flow of data will enable us to streamline our operations, improve collaboration with customers and partners across borders, and leverage the power of data-driven insights. This is particularly relevant as we strive to build innovative solutions that transcend geographical boundaries.

Protecting Innovation: Safeguarding Intellectual Property 

The three areas discussed you can read more here Tech benefits - its worth the time - mobility, the free flow of data, and protecting innovation - all offer immense potential for early-stage and scale-up companies, including Skyjed. 

Remember, our collective efforts as tech entrepreneurs are shaping the future. Let's grab the possibilities and create a thriving ecosystem where innovation knows no bounds.

Im the founder of Skyjed a product lifecycle and governance platform.  We are a full end-to-end SaaS lifecycle management platform using Ai-machine learning technologies.  Skyjed enables our clients to make more strategic lifecycle decisions to launch, monitor, optimise and win with brilliant products. Our industry leading platform has received numerous awards and recognition from clients and industry bodies, demonstrating our commitment to innovation and excellence.

Watch your Skyjed demo

If you want more information try this link Contact

or just email me Leica.Ison@skyjed.com