Since announcing StartMate – and its list of investors and mentors – back in August, those of us working on the project, particularly Niki Scevak, have been working hard on getting all the scaffolding of this new venture in place. And while there’s a lot of boring bits – including the legal work provided by DLA Phillips Fox – one of the more exciting bits has been getting our application form together.

The good news, we’re now accepting applications for the first cohort of outstanding startup founders to join the StartMate program.

If you’re a part of a technically focused founder and you’d like some help from some of the best startup executives in Australia to get started on building a great company, make sure you apply before the end of November.

The 5 lucky startups selected will benefit from awesome advice and support from the mentors, connections into Silicon Valley including a ticket to demo your startup at our launch event in San Francisco, and of course $25,000 to help you and your co-founders start building an amazing lean startup.

I’m really really excited and honoured to be a mentor and investor in StartMate – and I’m also really looking forward to working to help our lucky first cohort to build something amazing.