The Weekly Digest: Don’t give up this Global Entrepreneurship Week (or ever)

Happy Global Entrepreneurship Week! Here’s the wrap of the stories we covered this week, so you can catch up on your reading over the weekend.

Apple Inc has hit a roadblock in their bid to trademark “startup” in Australia, and Kogan got into a fight with Click Frenzy.

We spoke to the local co-ordinator for Global Entrepreneurship Week about the 230+ local activities, new research revealed Australia is the third most entrepreneurial country in the world, and some of Australia’s leading entrepreneurs were celebrated at an awards night on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Ireland is making a play to attract our best and brightest, announcing a start-up ambassador for Australia, a campaign director told us how to get more sales via Facebook, and Nina Hendy shared seven tips to make your business look bigger.

Don’t give up

The big theme of our stories this week is a perennial mantra for start-ups: don’t give up.

Niki Scevak, serial entrepreneur, investor and advisor, shared why ideas don’t fail, teams that give up do. It was also a recurring theme in the Start-ups are Scary series we launched this week.

We heard from the co-founders of 99designs, Canva, Thank You Water, Vinomofo and Seek about their toughest and most terrifying moments, and how they made it through.

Investment and accelerator news

We spoke to an investor and advisor who’s worked with some of the world’s leading start-ups about his top five tips for seeking investment, heard from a start-up that raised $2 million and got the inside scoop on what the plan is for the new Telstra-backed accelerator.

The ANZ Innovyz Start program, one of Australia’s leading accelerators, announced they’ll be opening an intake in Sydney early next year. We spoke to managing director Dr Jana Matthews about why they chose Sydney, and how the program has evolved in the past few years.

Entrepreneurs shared their plans

Start-ups may be hard work, but they’re also rewarding and a lot of fun, especially according to this MBA student who’s chucked in her plans to get a corporate gig to work for a start-up instead.

We heard the business plans, passion and growth strategy behind a nursery furniture company, a museum mapping tech company, a Melbourne beer company, and a start-up turning one-week-old this weekend.

Also this week, find out how to boost your profits as we head into the traditionally quiet period of Christmas, why getting a handle on hyperbolic language will revolutionise how you do business, and how to find the perfect business partner.