• The Sydney Startup Hub has offically opened.
• The hub, the largest in the southern hemisphere, will house 2,500 entrepreneurs over 11 floors.
• Three incubators are already up and running, while others are in various stages of construction.
• The aim of the hub is to connect hopeful entrepreneurs who wouldn’t normally have crossed paths before

The new Sydney Startup Hub (SSH) is the largest startup hub in the southern hemisphere, spanning 11 floors and 17,244 square feet of space.

The aim of the SSH is to enable and encourage people who wouldn’t normally have crossed paths before to be able to share and collaborate together, and is the first of it’s kind in Australia.

Jobs for NSW will invest $35 million in the SSH over five years. It will accommodate 2,500 people in various startup incubators.

Last year Business Insider visited the new Tank Stream Labs which was the first incubator to open in the SSH.

Fishburners and Stone & Chalk are now also open for business, and The Studio will be completed at the end of the month.

Also now open are shared common areas, bookable meeting rooms, the regional landing pad, and a cafe.

Each incubator has a different industry focus, and a different layout, design and work vibe.

Scroll down to take a look inside each.

The entrance to the SSH is on York Street in Sydney CBD

Inside, the escalators on the right take you up to the public, shared common areas of the SSH

This is the main boardroom which can be booked by external companies for meetings and events

There are nine of these type of meeting rooms that can be booked through reception, but the smaller meeting rooms can only be booked by tenants.

The theatre has 110 seats, and is perfect for video launches, large-scale presentations and movies

The regional landing pad is strictly for rural and regional entrepreneurs only

Visitors who want to access the area need to obtain an access code from reception, who will check if the visitor is part of a startup that meets the criteria.

It has its own meeting room inside.

Just like a public library, anyone can just walk off the street to use the space

But it must be for entrepreneurial reasons only.

Staff roam the common areas every few hours, and will approach guests they haven’t seen before to find out how they are finding the space, what their startup ideas are, and can connect those who could collaborate together.

Visitors are only allowed to use one free hour of internet, after which time they will need a code to stay logged in

There’s a wide range of startups using the space already, including corporates, not-for-profits and for-profits.

The view over Wynyard Park is very nice

There’s even a cool graffiti wall

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Fishburners are one of the tenants in the SSH that has just opened. Let’s take a look around the space

The neon blue sign catches your eye as soon as you step out of the lift. The office is blue-themed.

It has two levels, 600 desks, and 200 startups here

Fishburners is focused on tech startups, and claim to be Australia’s largest community of scalable tech startups.

The office is open-plan, and bright

Fishburners also has locations in Brisbane and Shanghai, China. Potential members apply for membership online, and once accepted, can work at any of the three locations.

Shared/hot-desk community memberships have a flexible one month minimum term, and dedicated desks have a minimum two month term.

Residents of Fishburners, or “Fishies” as they’re known, can use the 3D printer courtesy of The Cognitive Company

It has 22 meeting rooms

Each room is named after a place or event that’s special to Fishies. This is the Ultimo room, which is where the first Fishburners office opened in 2011.

The kitchen is huge. Here people can work while putting their feet up, have informal meetings, and eat lunch

It’s also the main events space.

Fishburners holds regular meetups here, including it’s “cryptocurrencies and croissants” breakfast, which is a meetup for those interested in learning more about investing in digital coins.

Every Friday, investment partners are invited for an informal practice pitch night. Each startup has the opportunity to pitch their ideas and receive feedback from investors.

There’s Young Henry’s beer and Bilpin apple cider on tap.

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Stone and Chalk are another startup incubator that has taken up residence in the SSH.

It is two and a half years old, houses 110 startups, managing $230 million capital.

It has a very different interior design to Fishburners

It’s a lot darker, and the furniture wouldn’t be out of place in a kitschy hipster bar.

There’s a ping pong table too.

The typical size of the startups in Stone & Chalk are 3-4 people

Startups come to Stone & Chalk to scale domestically and globally, and take advantage of their extensive VC and customer contact book

A number of bigger startups have their own purpose-built offices

Flare HR, Data Republic, Trade Ledger, Reinventure, OpenSparkz and Cloudcase all have their own separate, purpose-built offices within the Stone & Chalk hub.

There’s a lecture theatre and an events space

To join Stone & Chalk, every application is reviewed by CEO Alex Scandurra and community manager Rebecca Schot-Guppy to ensure they meet the criteria and are the right market fit.

Residents were using this meeting room to film a video

The massive teddy bear office mascot oversees daily operations

Like most offices, there’s organised chaos. This ping-pong table has been repurposed into the boardroom table

The nerf gun wars scoreboard has been put aside during the busy budget reporting season

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When Business Insider visited the SSH, creative media startup incubator The Studio was still under construction

The Studio is focused on fashion, tech hardware, media, design, music, gaming and creative industries.

Expressions of interest are open online. CEO Chantal Abouchar will review all applications.

We were told that there would be 150 desks, a VR room, a green screen studio, a soundproof meeting room and recording studio.

There will be an education space where specialist workshops and information sessions will be run.

Any of the rooms can be booked by residents of The Studio for free, and residents of the SSH for an hourly fee.

The design for the space will have a plush, old Hollywood glamour theme. It will be completed and open for business at the end of the month.

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