Upstart was founded in 2015 by Rob Nathan
Rob is CEO and Founder of startup Australian Tenders with over 30 years experience in tech. He is passionate and committed to supporting emerging WA startups, and has worked alongside other leaders in the space to build a bigger, stronger and more active innovation and investment startup ecosystem in WA.
2015
Upstart Investments, together with Spacecubed, founded one of the first seed accelerators in Aus in 2015, Amcom Upstart.
2016
Amcom morphed into Vocus Upstart in 2016. We provided 15 startups with seed capital and an extensive three-month mentoring program based on the Techstars playbook.
2017
Rob became involved as a mentor in the Plus Eight Accelerator Program.
2019
Upstart founded Freo Startup Fest in partnership with Charlie Gunningham and Paula Taylor as a cornerstone event of Curtin University’s West Tech Fest. Freo Startup continues today as one of West Tech’s most popular events.
Freo Startup continues today, as one of West Tech’s most popular events.
2019
Rob was awarded the Pearcey WA Entrepreneur of the Year for his work with Australian Tenders, Vocus Upstart Tech Accelerator, eGroup, mentoring and advisory, and several angel investments.
2021
Launched West Tech Investor Network together with Larry Lopez, Tash Teakle and Andrew Outhwaite.
2023
The West Tech Investor Network expanded to ~20 investors looking to make investments of $50,000-$100,000 in early-stage technology companies who are looking for pre-seed or seed funding.
2024
The West Tech Investor Network became the Curtin Angel Syndicate, providing a mechanism for the founders to access capital from angel investors drawn from the Curtin community, and for prospective investors to gain an education around the process of angel investing. Rob is the Syndicate Lead.
2025
Launched the Plus Eight Syndicate together with Brodie McCulloch (Spacecubed) an Tracie Clark, a powerful gateway for sophisticated investors to gain early access to some of Western Australia’s most promising startups.
