Hello world
EUREKA is underway, company is formed, we're starting client work and looking towards a interesting future.
The idea for EUREKA has been some time in the making, and mainly from a desire to push beyond the current service offerings in existing patent firms. Listed ownership structures have consolidated so many former independent firms. And above all a desire to double down in the domains of software, startups and strategy.
It was never going to be an easy moment to launch. The Australian patent system had taken an unfriendly posture toward software. Startups were navigating a difficult investment environment. And strategy, as a practice, seemed to be on nobody's agenda. None of that was a reason to wait. There is rarely a perfect time to start something, and the window of difficulty is often precisely when the opportunity is clearest.
On the other side of the ledger: software continues to reshape every industry, software-driven innovation remains central to economic growth, and strategic IP management is only becoming more consequential for technology businesses. The conditions for a practice like EUREKA's are improving, not deteriorating.
The branding at least was a piece of cake, unlike other times. EUREKA was the only real choice as name given its associations with innovation and discovery, and especially with Ballarat where I'm currently living. With deep family connections as pioneer settlers across the central highlands of Victoria, Australia, and the Eureka name everywhere, why fight it? The house and study/office is a short stroll to the site where the famed Welcome Nugget was unearthed. The world's largest at the time, 69kg and 99% purity. I briefed the branding agency with the name and just said it had to be innovation/technical, focussed and perhaps a bit like a spider graph, and they duly came back with a golden yellow 'nugget', in this case a regular icosahedron.
If you don't know, The Welcome Nugget was discovered deep underground in Ballarat's Red Hill Mine, a party of 22 Cornish miners unearthed a chunk of gold that became known around the world as the Welcome Nugget. A succession of miners fainted upon realising what they'd found. The Ballarat Star led a media frenzy calling the find a 'monstrous nugget'. Even today it remains one of the largest ever found in the world.
As well as the associations with gold and discovery, of course the miners' independence movement culminating in the nearby Eureka Stockade.
No staff as yet, except for a black and tan kelpie. Back to work.
