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The Never Ending Startup – The circular business entrepreneur. A book and podcast by Dr Jon Drane about his start up which was founded in 1993 and how it lasted this long.
The Never Ending Startup is the story of award winning researcher, writer, innovator, historian and entrepreneur Dr Jonathan Drane and his journey through the world of high rise construction, property development and then into start up ventures, the genesis of which he discovered only recently, had its inception over half a century earlier.
His first start up called Optimum Search was established in 1993 and still stands today with a deep quarter century history of entrepreneurial achievement and ‘catalyst research’ with some failure along the way, the latter being a central part of the DNA of its success.
The story starts in the midst of his post war 1950s upbringing as a hot housed adolescent who was introduced by his father to a strange mixture of ‘chemistry sets’ , explorer Jacques Cousteau, physicist Professor Julius Sumner Miller and Australia’s Professor Harry Messel with the latter’s famous blue science book being in nearly every high school class room.
In this way the story also provides a lived ‘side history’ of Australia’s post war innovation path, its ‘lucky country’ label, and its subsequent ‘brain drain’ then independence and research initiatives from CSIRO to a modern innovation ecosystem.
Spurred by his attendance at innovation hubs and start up groups in the COVID era in 2022 and at the age of 67 Jonathan saw quite clearly what history can only reveal; that for the true start up, innovation is never ending and should not be seen as a single life defining achievement (whether good or bad) or a grab for wealth and celebrity.
The podcast includes interviews with modern startups including an exciting line up of interviews with ‘accelerator startups’ from the University of Newcastle’s Innovation Hub called I2N.
The accelerator startups cover important areas of our social, economic and environmental futures and they are used as themes for the interview related episodes.
The never ending start up is a journey through life, innovation and one’s innate desire to create, that should never be quelled, ridiculed or sidelined due to the apparent ‘apparition’ of failure.
Taking the reader through his journey and the central inspirations that guided his life, Jonathan builds a social and entrepreneurial framework for what he calls ‘the circular start up’, the type that never ends and keeps giving no matter what obstacles occur.
The never ending startup…
Availability:
The book is being produced and there is a popular podcast that you can visit with the storyline being produced in episodes.
The Never Ending Startup will also be available as an ebook and audio-book
See our podcast page for updates:
JDSLAB Introduces New Podcast: The Never Ending Startup -The circular business entrepreneur
Learn about Dr Jon’s Mentoring Programme
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