Great news for Sydney startups, the Pollenizer guys are looking to create a shared working space where startups can come and rent desk space on a monthly basis. There will also be some space for casual drop-ins. The idea is to create an amazing space, with an energetic vibe, that’s got wifi and open tables for coworking as well as being close to cafes, of course

I spoke to Mick Liubinskas and he said that they’re doing this because they believe the time is right for a real space for start-ups. I couldn’t agree more.

They’ve taken a look at about 10 properties and have now shortlisted that down to 3 - one in Kent st (CBD), one in Barrack St (CBD) and one in Riley St (Surry Hills).

This Thursday (3rd July) at 4pm they’re holding a session to get people who are interested together to see one of the options and to talk about it.

You can checkout all the details, as well as some photos of one of the short-listed spaces, on Mick’s blog. Just looking at the pics gets me excited about what the space could become.

There’s something to be said for technology’s ability to remove the need for us to all work in offices, but there’s also something to be said for the inspiration and productivity that working along side like-minded people can generate.

2 thumbs up to Mick and Phil for organising this.

UPDATE: per Mick’s comment - this info session will now be held at 1 Barrack St - same day, same time

More details can be found HERE

I recently came across the relatively new Australian local search/directory Clickfind. They aim to be a “a hybrid between a search engine, a business directory, and a search engine optimisation (SEO) system.” There is certainly some competition in that space. The well established local search engines are truelocal.com.au and yellowpages.com.au, and right now it looks like Clickfind is having to play catch-up against the bigger rivals.

Local search suffers from a critical mass problem. Searchers won’t use it unless there are a lot of listings, and businesses are unlikely to keep using it unless the traffic is coming through. I’ve tried to understand both sides of the business, but I don’t think I’m a typical user on either side.

As a searcher, I’ll be honest: I don’t get it. If I’m looking for something, I search on Google. In the rare case I can’t find what I’m looking for I’ll try Truelocal (purely from name recognition). After testing Clickfind, it isn’t immediately obvious to me what benefits it offers searchers over the other local search engines. I searched for accountants in Manly and was presented with a choice between ‘products’, ’services’, and ‘companies’. I don’t get the distinction, and it required me to make an extra click for me to see the results. When I search for something I want the results right away, and for local search I want to see them on a map.

From the local business perspective Clickfind offers a slightly more enticing value proposition. If I owned a local business I would consider running a trial. A listing costs $20/mth. There are a lot of small businesses which aren’t very tech savvy so this may be a good deal for them as a first entry into the online world. Truelocal, by comparison, offers free listings. The free listings are very limited and to get any real information listed it starts at about $60/month.

Perhaps the business model of Clickfind is based around selling to small low-tech businesses that may not want to consider other advertising sources such as Google. A quick estimate puts the number of advertisers on Clickfind at about 4000. If they are getting $20/mth from each that’s not bad for a company with only a few employees.

I think Clickfind will face a hard uphill battle against the established players. While they will probably carve out a nice profitable business I can’t see much more than that. On the other hand, their database of small businesses is quite valuable. Perhaps a large media company wanted to compete with News and their truelocal property will try to get into the local search space via the acquisition of Clickfind.