JDNEST EP1- Startup Journey and Stories. Welcome to The Never Ending Startup Podcast- . A podcast and book by Dr Jon Drane about his start up which was founded in 1993, how it lasted this long and what lessons it brings to modern startups.  The circular business entrepreneur. Built to last.
The Never Ending Startup Podcast: Lessons for Modern Startup Journey and Stories of Longevity
The podcast  shares Dr Jon’s insightful entrepreneurial journey, history and inspirations.

It includes interviews with ‘accelerator startups’ from The University of Newcastle’s I2N Innovation Hub about their journey and inspirations.

It also covers the state of Australia’s innovation ecology and lessons for new startups.

The podcast and book build a social and entrepreneurial framework for startup journey and  longevity.
This JDNEST Episode’s Central Question:
How long will your startup last?

Startup culture has traditionally been based on 'single invention' ventures, supported by seed capital (founders money and sweat) and venture capital (investment bank funding).

The focus on debt capital creates a time stress related to the importance of outcomes and return on investment.

Venture capital is the trading of other peoples money and so has an urgency and fragility by nature.

The startup that is built to last recognises these forces. The Never Ending Startup seeks to create startup ventures that are built to last.

Dr Jonathan Drane, July 2024
What is a Startup?
‘The term startup refers to a company in the first stages of operations. Startups are founded by one or more entrepreneurs who want to develop a product or service for which they believe there is demand. These companies generally start with high costs and limited revenue, which is why they look for capital from a variety of sources’. (Investopedia Definition)
Dr Jon defines the meaning of startup, seed capital and entrepreneurship:
“Startups are often seen as Silicon Valley type high tech experimental innovations that require risk related endeavours. These are more at the extreme end as examples of entrepreneurship and startups. The essence of startup is to ‘venture and to innovate’ a new business idea and offer it as a product to the real world and is often termed entrepreneurship. In this way startups require courage as well as ingenuity. As an example a new form of retail offering that is exciting and ‘risk based ‘and requires ‘seed capital’ can also be classified as a startup. Seed capital is usually required and provided by the inititators and champions of the startup. Seed capital is money that is out of the initiators  and their champions’ pocket that is equity based (not debt funded). Equity means that the seed fund provider is given a share in the enterprise.” Dr Jon Drane.
What is  The Never Ending Startup Podcast About?
The Never Ending Startup is the story of award winning researcher, writer, innovator, historian  and entrepreneur Dr Jonathan Drane and his journey through the world of  high rise construction, property development and then into  start up ventures, the genesis of which he discovered only recently, had its inception over half a century earlier.
Dr Jon’s Startup Journey and who inspired him - Startup Journey and Stories of Longevity
His first start up called Optimum Search was established in 1993 and still stands today with a deep quarter century history of entrepreneurial achievement and ‘catalyst research’ with some failure along the way, the latter being a central part of the DNA of its success.

The story starts in the midst of his post war 1950s upbringing as a hot housed adolescent who was introduced by his father to a strange mixture of  ‘chemistry sets’ , explorer Jacques Cousteau, physicist Professor Julius Sumner Miller and Australia’s Professor Harry Messel with the latter’s famous blue science book being in nearly every high school class room.
How History of Innovation guided Dr Jon’s startup journey and stories