Welcome to The Never Ending Startup Podcast- JDNEST Episode 2 : Startup Journey and Stories covering Pathways and Circularity-  Dr Jon reflects on his humble origins and pathways in the laundry sink lab and backyard tree of his 1960s upbringing. He is inspired by Jacques Cousteau the famous ocean explorer and scientist who invented scuba diving. Circularity versus linear approaches to growth are explored along with the sustainability of the planet. 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.

In this episode we concentrate on the theme of circularity versus  linear.
This JDNEST Episode’s Central Question:
Is your startup circular or linear?

This episode covers: Circularity versus Linear Growth (extract from upcoming book).

In doing so we explore the central question of sustainability of our planet when industry and business in general works on a linear growth model and can learn from an more organic circular approach.

The linear model has served capitalism well but is also not only a significant cause of business failure due to under capitalisation but also goes against the future sustainability of our planet. The planet’s resources are finite not infinitely linear.

Dr Jonathan Drane, July 2024
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
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
In this way the story also  provides a lived ‘side history’ of Australia’s post war innovation path, its ‘lucky country’ label, and  its  subsequent ‘brain drain’ then independence and research initiatives from CSIRO to a modern innovation ecosystem.
Taking Dr Jon’s Lessons to the Modern Startup: Interviews with startups from UON I2N
Spurred by his attendance at innovation hubs and start up groups in the COVID era in  2022 and at the age of 67  Jonathan saw quite clearly what history can only reveal; that for the true start up, innovation is never ending and should not be seen as a single life defining achievement (whether good or bad) or a grab for wealth and celebrity.

The podcast includes interviews with modern startups including an exciting line up of interviews with ‘accelerator startups’ from the University of Newcastle’s Innovation Hub called I2N.

The accelerator startups cover important areas of our social, economic and environmental futures and they are used as themes for the interview related episodes.

Below are linked in posts of support for the podcast by startups I interv...