There was once a London subway-style map that included many of the organisations and startups that made up the Sydney startup community. It was called StartRail, and the first version was created by an intern as a little project at BlueChilli. There were two updates, and a Melbourne map, eventually.
Like many things in the startup industry, it started small, created by optimistic, enthusiastic, pay-it-forward people who didn’t let the risk of scaling issues stop them having a go. Like many things in the startup industry it grew so quickly that it eventually became a victim of its own scale.
StartRail, and BlueChilli, are just memories now.
Like many things in the startup industry, nobody kept a detailed diary, saved backups, or took many photos.
While details blur over time, the relationships between startup people, and the songlines connecting their ideas and their common purpose, are the most important legacy of most of our startups.
Those shared memories between the people who were there, who passionately agreed and disagreed, who grabbed another coffee and a whiteboard marker, who stayed back a bit later to do just a little bit more. That still lives, while we do.