ITWire

Arjen Lentz, (right), the first employee of the former MySQL in Australia, is based in Brisbane; Upstarta Labs, a new initiative of his Upstarta organisation, helps to "create little tribes or families of like-minded entrepreneurs".

Upstarta Labs provides the space and people can rent desks there; the costs are low and Lentz also provides mentoring.

"There are quite a few incubators and co-working spaces sprouting all over the place," Lentz told iTWire. "Depending on their model, some disappear rapidly (possibly lack of solid budget), some are very expensive ($500-600/desk/month) and, just like with a share-house, the question is whether you will jive at all with the others there."

He said what made Upstarta Labs different from other incubators was that it did not invest or take a financial stake in the companies. "We provide opportunity in the collective setting, the equivalent of giving a person a fishing rod (in this case increasing their skills and experience over time), rather than fish."

The cost of a space at Upstarta Labs is $300/month/desk with six-month rolling subscriptions. "That way we have a good solid financial baseline," Lentz said. "We can start a location safely when there are about 15 desks 'subscribed' - the capacity of a place (depending on floor space) will be a bit higher (20-25 maximum to retain the 'little tribe' atmosphere) and the system remains sustainable even with a few less desks active at any one time."

He said admission was through a submission/panel comprised of experienced Upstarta people and peers who were at the same location. "Some casual spaces will also be available, but that's not directly relevant to the budget."

Lentz left MySQL and started his own database consultancy service called OpenQuery in 2007. Upstarta was begun two years later.

"Operating without external funding sources makes companies (and also non-profits) resilient to recessions and other setbacks as the way they organise their finances and general business tends to be fundamentally different," he said.

"Upstarta's current large public activity is with meetings in Brisbane, which are run by Peter Lock, Robert Ellen and myself. The group has about 150 members and a typical meeting will see 10 to 30 people depending on the topic, speaker and so forth. This in addition to the smaller mentoring work, talks at BarCamps (informal conferences), regular conferences and workshops."