Australia’s tall poppy syndrome and ‘grind culture’ holding back our start-ups

New research details the deep-seated cultural problems plaguing the nation’s tech companies, even if they’ve moved on from free lunches and table tennis tables.

Sapia.ai chief executive Barb Hyman says Elon Musk represents the “unstable jerk” prototype dominating Silicon Valley. Picture: Aaron Francis

Tall poppy syndrome and a “grind” culture are plaguing Australia’s start-up ecosystem, new research has found.

And while the sector has matured from its period of free lunches and meaningless perks, deep-seated cultural problems are preventing many of the nation’s start-ups and their investors from reaching their true potential.

The research, based on interviews with 500 start-up leaders and conducted by cloud computing provider Amazon Web Services, found that after an overly buoyant 2021, there was now a return to less speculative practices, and a focus instead on more traditional markers of a successful business.

However, pitfalls like grind culture and tall poppy syndrome were keeping talent away; 93 per cent of start-up leaders said they believed there was still a grind culture in the start-up landscape, while 80 per cent have experienced some form of “tall poppy syndrome”.

Blackbird Ventures creative director Joel Connolly pointed to Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes as an example of someone who regularly attracts criticism for his strong environmental ambitions.

“I get sick of seeing people who stick their heads up getting cut down – and I think the greatest example of this is Mike Cannon-Brookes and the criticism that gets thrown at him week in, week out for someone who’s essentially trying to solve one of the greatest challenges we face as a species,” Mr Connolly said.

“I don’t like that about our culture.”

Blackbird Ventures creative director Joel Connolly.

Australia’s start-up culture was overall much healthier than that of Silicon Valley, however, according to Sapia.ai chief executive Barb Hyman, who said Elon Musk represented the “unstable jerk” prototype dominating the Valley.

“Australians tend to have a natural humility and that type of leadership is what you see here,” she said. “I think there are some benefits in terms of tall poppy syndrome, given Australia’s more humble culture is for the better.

“For me, tall poppy syndrome is the mother-in-law or the friend or the Instagram post that is constantly questioning whether you have done the right thing. But I just love proving people wrong, and especially those who don’t believe in what I can do.”

One fifth of start-up leaders said they worked until burnout, highlighting the constant pressure and long work hours associated with building a fast-growing tech start-up.

The leading causes of grind culture were found to be internal pressures stemming from high-achiever talent in start-ups, making sure a company was the most successful it could be and a “dog eat dog” mentality.

“When you start a start-up, there’s generally four or five people around the table and you’re just trying your best not to die,” said HotDoc founder Ben Hurst.

“You just have to work really hard and long hours, because it’s a matter of survival. And then if you’re fortunate enough to go beyond that period, where it’s more about being sustainable, that’s almost an existential transition because you go from almost masochistically slogging your guts out to furnishing a culture where you’re prioritising mental and physical health.

HotDoc founder Ben Hurst.

“I think you have to be quite conscious about how you build that.”

The research ultimately found that most start-up leaders (86 per cent) believed that culture contributed to organisational growth and 85 per cent reported that culture was important for both securing new investment and attracting talent. It found that having the right culture could contribute to a happier workforce, staff retention and higher productivity.

“Talking to start-ups every single day of the week, you quickly learn that culture is a critical ingredient for success,” AWS local head of start-ups John Kearney said.

“The days of ping pong tables and perks are behind us in some regard. They’re still there and people do enjoy them but it’s not the main thing that people focus on these days.

“It’s more around the broader benefits of how to build work-life balance, how to build a good workplace culture – even the training, support, development, rewards and being able to encourage people’s personal interests to shine in the workplace.”