A research note prepared for the Superteam Australia bounty program
Why I'm Writing This
If you've spent any time around Australian startup Twitter, LinkedIn, or a Stone & Chalk co-working kitchen, you've heard some version of the same sentence: "the ecosystem here is fine, but." Fine funding, but scattered across a hundred portals. Fine regulatory intent, but slow to actually land. Fine talent, but expensive and mobile. That "but" is doing a lot of work, and I think it's mostly hiding a more useful truth.
Here's the thing I want to convince you of over the next few thousand words: Australia in 2026 is not short on support for digital economy founders. It's short on a map. The grants exist. The regulatory clarity — genuinely significant regulatory clarity, more than most founders realise — landed this year. The organisations exist. What's missing is someone sitting a founder down and saying, "here's what applies to you, here's the order to do it in, here's what it'll actually feel like."
That's what I've tried to build here. Not another list. A walkthrough.
