Internode founder Simon Hackett to pitch in to help startups at Startup Weekend Adelaide event on July 12-14 Simon Hackett, Internode Founder (centre) with Startup Weekend Adelaide participants Julia Beardsley and Michael Dawson (right). Picture: Campbell Brodie. ONE of South Australia's most successful entrepreneurs of the past two decades will help other people to bring their ideas to commercial reality. Simon Hackett and the company he founded, Internode, will support Startup Weekend Adelaide which begins next Friday. "Just as I was encouraged by people when I started out, Internode aims to encourage these entrepreneurs to build the next generation of successful businesses," he said. Internode joins Google Australia, Adelaide City Council, Piper Alderman and BDO in sponsoring the July 12-14 event, now in its third year. Internode will contribute cash, prizes and technical support to the 80 budding entrepreneurs. Among them will be Julia Beardsley and Michael Dawson. Ms Beardsley, who has degrees in biomedical science and commerce, works at Flinders Partners, the university's commercialisation arm. "I've had a fascination with entrepreneurship," she said. I love the passion, drive and spirit of the people involved. They have the attitude of overcoming the odds and the creativity to develop new strategies. At the startup weekend, participants will make brief pitches of their ideas then vote to pursue the best concepts - with teams forming to bring them into shape. Ms Beardsley will either pitch her own idea or join a team. She believes a collaborative approach is a great way to avoid the likelihood of failing in isolation. Mr Dawson, who runs a company which nurtures startups and a digital animation studio, will provide support to a team through his knowledge of the app development process. "If I see something interesting, I'll be joining that team," said Mr Dawson, who attended last year's event. Mr Hackett co-founded Internode in 1991 and built up the internet service provider to a company with 260,000 customers by December 2011, when it was sold to iiNet for $105 million. He has stood aside from an executive role but sits on the iiNet board and keeps close contact with the company. Mr Hackett will talk to the Startup participants about the merits of having a go. He said Silicon Valley was far more forgiving of failure than Australia and this was a culture that needed to change. "For someone starting, the fear of the consequences of failure, not necessarily the failure itself, can be a formidable barrier," he said. I'd like to see us set up structures so there's a soft landing for people who are genuinely having a crack at it. In the US this works with companies taking entrepreneurs under their wing and guaranteeing income for a period even if a project doesn't work out. Previous Startup Weekend Adelaide events have spawned the likes of Encyclopedia of Magi, UniCoach, DataMunch and FitUsIn.