getting-there-faster

[Music plays and white text appears on a black screen: “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity” – Albert Einstein]

[Black and white images flash through of Nolan Bushnell and text appears: Nolan Bushnell, Founder of Atari – ‘Father’ of the video game industry]

Nolan Bushnell:  1974 I almost lost Atari. 

[Image changes to show a black and white shot of Nolan Bushnell talking to the camera]

We’d made a couple of blunders, grew too fast, didn’t control what we were doing and ended up literally running out of cash.

[Image changes to show a black and white shot of Evan Thornley looking at the camera and then the image changes to show a black and white shot of Evan Thornley talking to the camera and text appears: Evan Thornley, Co-founder of LookSmart – Australia’s first tech company listed on NASDAQ]

Evan Thornley: We actually started with funding from a corporate partner, the Reader’s Digest, but they got themselves in trouble and I got a phone call from New York saying, “Well, we’re not giving you any more money, shut the business down”.

[Image changes to show a black and white shot of Lars Rasmussen wearing headphones and looking at the camera and then the image changes to show a black and white shot of Lars Rasmussen talking to the camera and text appears: Lars Rasmussen, Creator of Google Maps]

Lars Rasmussen: The tech market had just had this massive crash back in 2001 and ‘02 and did very, very little investor money out there and very few people willing to risk it all in a start-up and so it was just my brother and I and we couldn’t get anyone else involved.

[Image changes to show a black and white shot of Paul Bassat looking at the camera and then the image changes to show a black and white shot of Paul Bassat talking to the camera and text appears: Paul Bassat, Co-founder of Seek – The world’s largest online employment marketplace]

Paul Bassat: Sometimes you’re feeling a little bit lost and you sometimes need the advice and perspective from people on how to work through what, at times, might feel like a really difficult situation.

[Image changes to show a black and white shot of Michelle Simmons looking at the camera and text appears: Michelle Simmons, Creator of the world’s smallest transistor – 1 atom in size]

Michelle Simmons: Help comes in many different formats. 

[Image changes to show a black and white shot of Michelle Simmons talking to the camera]

You never know how it’s going to work out.  Sometimes it just putting you in contact with somebody else.

[Image changes to show a black and white shot of John O’Sullivan looking at the camera and text appears: John O’Sullivan, Inventor of WiFi]

John O’Sullivan: Would WiFi have happened without help? 

[Image changes to show a black and white shot of John O’Sullivan talking to the camera]

I don’t think it’s possible to imagine a situation where we wouldn’t have been in a position to have invented the WiFi technology, yes.

[Image changes to show a black and white shot of John O’Sullivan looking at the camera and then the image changes to show a black and white shot of John O’Sullivan talking to the camera]

Try to bring together a lot of people with deep skills but quite different skills, that’s exactly what Data61’s trying to do. 

[Image changes to show a black and white shot of Michelle Simmons looking at the camera and then the image changes to show a black and white shot of Michelle Simmons talking to the camera]

Michelle Simmons: I’m a Quantum Physicist and we’re trying to build a silicone based quantum computer here in Australia.  When I took over as Director of the Centre I wanted to get an Advisory Board to advise me on things that I wouldn’t necessarily be very expert about.  But I guess one of the other things that I really looked for was people that were passionate and so people that could understand high technology, could realise the relevance of it and were excited about what we did.

[Image changes to show a black and white shot of Paul Bassat talking to the camera]

Paul Bassat: There are a lot of people who have been through similar analogist challenges and problems that you have and if you can reach out for those people for help and get great advice that’s going to enormously increase your likelihood of success.

[Image changes to show a coloured shot of Lars Rasmussen looking at the camera and then the image changes to show a coloured shot of Lars Rasmussen talking to the camera]

Lars Rasmussen: We hooked up with a company that offered to give us like literally a square mile of data around where we lived and I think literally if we hadn’t found someone who was willing to help that little, unfunded start-up like that Google Maps would never have happened.

[Image changes to show a coloured shot of Nolan Bushnell looking at the camera and then the image changes to show a coloured shot of Nolan Bushnell talking to the camera]

Nolan Bushnell: I had some wonderful mentors all the way from Bob Noyce one of the founders of Intel to Jerry Sanders one of the founders of A.M.D., Steve Jobs and Wozniak who worked for me early on and they say I mentored them and then later on they mentored me and so what was really good about it is that we kind of really tightened up the company.  We just came out of that problem like a rocket.

[Image changes to show a coloured shot of John O’Sullivan looking at the camera and then the image changes to show a coloured shot of John O’Sullivan talking to the camera]

John O’Sullivan: When we demonstrated the first chip the CISCO systems almost immediately made an offer.

[Image changes to show a coloured shot of John O’Sullivan looking at the camera and then the image changes to show a coloured shot of John O’Sullivan talking to the camera]

It was a big moment and we actually saw our chips in CISCO products all around the world.  The rest is history. 

[Image changes to show a coloured shot of Lars Rasmussen looking at the camera and then the image changes to show a coloured shot of Lars Rasmussen talking to the camera]

Lars Rasmussen: It’s increasingly important to have academic, government funded researchers helping out and looking both at how can that world help out start-ups.

[Image changes to show a coloured shot of Paul Bassat talking to the camera]

Paul Bassat: A number of people working together collaboratively in a very passion aligned way is always going to be far more powerful and far more impactful.

[Image changes to show a coloured shot of Evan Thornley talking to the camera]

Evan Thornley: When you’ve got great and powerful institutions like Data61 willing to fight your corner when you’re trying to play on the global stage you’ve got to take advantage of that.

[Image changes to show a coloured shot of Michelle Simmons looking at the camera and then the image changes to show a coloured shot of Michelle Simmons talking to the camera]

Michelle Simmons: I actually moved to Australia back in 1999 mainly because of the culture that was over here.

[Image changes to show a coloured shot of Lars Rasmussen talking to the camera]

Lars Rasmussen: My biggest success came out of Australia with Google Maps.  I lived there for most of the time that we did that and I think because Australia is such an incredible place to live it attracts an incredible amount of talent.

[Music plays and coloured images flash through of Michelle Simmons, Evan Thornley, John O’Sullivan, Lars Rasmussen and Nolan Bushnell]

Paul Bassat: To those many, many people who have helped me along the journey I say thank you.

[Image changes to show a coloured shot of Paul Bassat talking to the camera]

You’ve had a huge impact on my career and I’m very grateful for that help.

[Image changes to show a coloured shot of Evan Thornley talking to the camera]

Evan Thornley: Everyone gave more than they got in the early days and hopefully everyone got more than they gave by the end of it.  So thanks for being part of the journey.

[Image changes to show a coloured shot of Lars Rasmussen talking to the camera]

Lars Rasmussen: Thank you.

[Music plays and image changes to show the Data61 and CSIRO logos and text appears: Get there faster with us, data61.csiro.au]