The Innovation Show: Recent Episodes
Eastern Innovation Business Centre
A show that showcases start ups, innovators, and entrepreneurs from various industries and disciplines. This show is supported by the Eastern Innovation Business Centre in Mulgrave, Victoria.
Institute of Excellence (Despina Karatzias)
- Despina runs a leadership training business based in Melbourne called Institute of Excellence.
- Despina is working with various tourism operators in Victoria and is advising and guiding business owners. Her messages include running business audits and educating yourself on what SEO means, thinking about how you communicate with your customers, and many other worthwhile activities.
- People that rise to the top out of this pandemic: business owners, leaders, and teams that care about their staff and will do anything they can to keep them. Finding ways to pivot and continue to support people and the community.
- An emotional milestone: “This is enough!… this is no longer congruent with my values.” Then create a strategy to move forward.
- Tools for emotional intelligence: Seeking mentors and/or coaches, self awareness (understand where gaps are), having the right people around you, have a daily ritual.
- Don’t just sit there and whinge, take action!
- The worst thing that can happen to your business if you don’t market yourself right now is NOTHING. Nothing will happen for you.
Links:
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/despinakaratzias/
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https://www.instituteofexcellence.com/
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BeExcellent
- https://www.facebook.com/BeExcellentHQ/
- https://twitter.com/desikaratzias
- https://www.instagram.com/BeExcellentHQ/
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/instituteofexcellence/
It's late September 2020 and the government has rolled out new eligibility criteria for businesses accessing JobKeeper.
This information is general in nature and it is recommended that you seek professional financial advice for your own circumstances.
- Max - https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxine-parker-071343143/
- Judy - https://www.linkedin.com/in/judy-o-connor-1b60a2129/
- https://accessabilityaustralia.com/
- Access Keys was conceptualised and developed by Judy and Max as a resource and valuable tool for access, and sensory advice for various venues and events.
- Cooper IP - https://cooperip.com/
- As co-founders, using boundaries and sharing the same core values helps achieving the same goals.
- Learnings as business owners: be authentic, clear, and concise with how you operate.
- Spent 12-18 months on developing their business before launching
- Jason - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason0078/
- Jordan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanyim/
- https://inhaabit.com/
- Augmented reality is a technology that allows someone to visualise what an object would look like within the same space using a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet.
- Inhaabit’s niche is producing hyper-realistic AR imagery
- Suzanne Harward AR App - https://inhaabit.com/say-yes-to-the-dress-with-augmented-reality/
- Learnings: When working with family, test out the waters, ensure that your routines don’t clash.
Amit (SAPTax)
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/amit-aggarwal/
- http://saptax.com.au/
- From a corporate background, Amit using his CPA qualifications and experience to help startup founders in all phases of their business.
- Danielle and Amit discusses the impacts of COVID-19 for startups and other businesses.
- Discussions around government stimulus packages through COVID-19, and compliance.
- What is your cash flow focus?
Giving Socks a Second Life - Michael Elias (Manrags)
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-elias-22822312/
- https://manrags.com.au/
Show notes:
- Developed a return and recycle program, one of the most successful in Australia
- Initially launched subscription brand for premium quality socks
- Realised that there was no sock recycling program, and launched the first one in the world.
- Textile waste in Australia is very big
- Created a program where consumers can leave their unwanted clothes/socks at their front door to be picked up by Manrags and then put into the recycling process
- Working with other organisations to access Manrags warehouses and take fit-for-wear clothes for those in need
- Part of The Circular Advantage group: http://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/the-circular-advantage-from-denmark-to-australia/
- Expressions of interest: https://www.birchal.com/
- Advice for startups: Just get started.
No Cure For Hearing Loss - Laurent Dapremont (Cotral)
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurentdapremont/
- https://www.cotral.com.au/
Show notes:
- In the business of protecting the health of employees (hearing protection and hygiene)
- Above 85dB is the point where hearing protection is recommended
- The problem with noise is when it’s painful, it’s too late. Consequences of hearing loss, and unfortunately no medication or cure after the fact.
- Ear muffs vs disposable ear plugs. Problem with the ear plugs is the thinking of one size fits all.
- Cotral produces hearing protection devices that are customised for each person, for each of their ears using 3D scanning. The result is a perfect fit, thanks to the moulded, customised product.
- Observation that Australian businesses don’t value ear protection as European businesses
- Favourite quote: “It always seems impossible until it is done - Nelson Mandela”
Waste to Energy - Damien Bassett (Delorean Energy)
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/dbas/
- http://www.deloreanenergy.com.au/
- damien.bassett@deloreanenergy.com.au
Show notes:
- Business formed 7 years ago
- Convert food waste into electricity and gas (working on a project with one of the largest anaerobic facilities in the Southern Hemisphere)
- Brought the technology into Australia and developing it in-house, producing local jobs
- Main challenges around the regulatory framework and approval process with the government. Investments can be financial, as well as support frameworks.
- Engagement with the industry will provide an opportunity to educate various bodies that can benefit from the technology
We chat with Rod Ponce de Leon, co-founder of Kulroom
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodolfo-ponce-de-leon-65145a15/
- https://www.kulroom.com/index.html
- Kulroom was developed 5 years ago to solve the distribution problems for microbreweries and other beverage production businesses
- Rod has created an end-to-end and automated dispensing platform for various beverage products
- Learnings: define the scope of a project thoroughly, find investors in the early stage of business rather than using own money.
- Current stage: product ready for sale (certifications in place), just-in-time production
- Problem Kulroom solves simple setup and automated delivery with new generation machines for new bars/restaurants who struggle with initial costs to setup beer fonts
Lithium-sulfur battery research with Dr Mahdokht Shaibani
We chat with Dr Mahdokht Shaibani from Monash University about her research into batteries made with a lithium-sulfur chemistry.
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahdokht-shaibani-29868440/
- https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/supercharging-tomorrow-australia-first-to-test-new-lithium-batteries
- https://newatlas.com/energy/lithium-sulfur-battery-smartphone-five-days/
Danielle and Vlad have a conversation about mentors; getting started being a mentor, what to expect, and what you have to offer.
Michael Cooper from Cooper IP joins us and talks about what startups need to think about to protect themselves and their business ideas.
You can find Michael's website at cooperip.com
- Michael talks about protecting your competitive advantage
Today’s episode highlights humanity and technology coming together. We are joined by Shaj and Paul from deoblockchain. deoblockchain is the winner of the Eastern Innovation 6 for 6 Pitch Night.
We discussed how blockchain awareness will solve many issues we have today in various industries and the importance of culture of service. Paul stressed on using the blockchain technology as a platform to utilise the interfaces of different system visible across the supply chain. Shaj touched on the personal aspect of doing things better and finding ways to improve and innovate further. deoblockchain would like to lead the conversation, document it’s vision to help grow businesses and create global solutions. It was also mentioned how the business is based on technological solutions but the basic foundation is focused on relationships, communication, understanding and clarity.
Check out the links below to know more about deoblockchain, Shaj and Paul:
Website - https://deoblockchain.com/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/deoblockchain/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/deoblockchain/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaj-narayanan/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-tesoriero/
Today’s episode talks about clever ways to help households and businesses be more sustainable and efficient. We are joined by Erik Zimmerman, entrepreneur and CEO of Echo Group. Echo Group is the winner of the Monash Business Awards in the innovation category.
Erik talked about how his previous experiences with other companies such as Sara Lee, Unilever, ANZ and AGL and what made him realise the three elements of success in business: (1) Strategy, (2 )Effort and (3) Talent. He also discussed how important it is to have metrics and scoreboard to identify their "Must Wins". Erik along with his colleagues identify their 5 Must Wins every year and share them with the entire company. Through these "Must Wins", employees are made aware of what needs to be done and are also encouraged to contribute to achieving the goal. Erik stressed the importance of involving everyone in the company and giving them a chance to express themselves.
Check out the links below to learn more about Echo Group and Erik Zimmerman:
Website - https://echogroup.co/#
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/echo-group-australia/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-zimmerman-292540/?originalSubdomain=au
Niccii Rossouw is the founder of Exaptec. Exaptec is a scaling venture that’s bringing telepresence and social robots to Australia and the world.
We talked about how technology and social robots are enabling human connections and changing the world. Exaptec has been a huge part of the robotic solutions in a lot of sectors including industrial and education. Learn more about the Temi robot and why it’s called “Alexa on wheels”.
Check out the links below to learn more about Nicci Rossouw and Exaptec:
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/NicciRossouw.Exaptec
Email - sales@exaptec.com.au
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicci-rossouw-015a44110/?originalSubdomain=au
Exaptec - https://www.exaptec.com.au/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/exaptec/about/
Temi - https://www.robotemi.com/
BeanstalkAg
Guest: Will Taing
This episode is brought to you by Eastern Innovation, where we talk to entrepreneurs, founders, start-ups, industry experts, and people who are helping our start-ups and our innovation in the ecosystem all throughout Australia and the world.
Will Taing is one of the co-founders of Beanstalk Agtech. Beanstalk Agtech is a group of people doing amazing things for start-ups in Australia and the Australia-Pacific region.
Tune in to this episode where we talk about some of the things that start-ups really need to know from the team at Beanstalk Agtech. And you will learn how to be a part of the Graft Challenge and discover what’s happening across Australia, India, and the Australia-Pacific region in agriculture.
Check out the links below to learn more about Will Taing and Beanstalk Agtech:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamtaing/
https://www.beanstalkagtech.com/
https://www.graftchallenge.com/
https://www.livescience.com/58790-crispr-explained.html
Language your way (Pawan Lalwani)
- http://www.languageyourway.co/
- https://au.linkedin.com/in/pawanlalwani
- Gamifying learning to motivate students
- Started in China (learning English)
- Transitioning from web, to app based learning
- Attended four Meetups a week
- Learnings:
- Life’s not going to be fair as competitors will always have advantages over you
- Check to see if someone wants to buy your product before you start
- People are happy to help but we tend not to ask for it
- Never mention your core IP in your presentations
- You need to get your branding out
- Stage innovation
- Other links mentioned:
- Founder Institute - https://fi.co/
- Survey Monkey - https://www.surveymonkey.com/
- The Infographics Show - https://www.youtube.com/user/TheInfographicsShow
- Gary V - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCctXZhXmG-kf3tlIXgVZUlw
- Gil Hidas (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gilhidas/) from Kesem Health (http://iuflow.com/)
- In 2005, Gil was in the travel industry as part of the first few business ventures he embarked on (as featured on Getaway TV).
- Created Paperact Electronic Filing Cabinet as part of his corporate software background.
- Family of doctors, and is the primer to get into the medical field. 5 years ago, speaking with his brother who’s a urology specialist, one of the major problems with patients are keeping an accurate urinary diary. 6 months after that initial discussion, Gil decides to create a solution, iUFlow.
Ideas and Tips:
- Go to the source and speak to people who will be the champion of your product. Ensure these champions are passionate about what you do.
- Understand what your target market values.
- Spend time and resources with investors.
- Start-ups need to consider: Idea, team, business model, funding, timing (most important).
- More successful startup CEO’s are in their 40’s!
Links and resources mentioned:
- https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/medicare/physician-financial-transparency-reports-sunshine-act
- https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gross_the_single_biggest_reason_why_startups_succeed
- Sarah Leung from ALG Seaweed (http://algseaweed.com/)
- Promoting healthy cooking and eating, wanted create a brand to do this
- Started researching her market simply by asking how they consume seaweed products
- Professional divers harvest Tasmanian Wakame (kelp) from Spring to October every year
- Farmer’s market as a distribution channel
- Produce the product at Monash Food Innovation Centre (https://www.foodinnovationcentre.com.au/) and found a great network there
- Sarah’s learnings:
- Spend more time to research your biggest market
- Have a prototype (minimum viable product) and test quickly
- Doing the farmer’s market, realised that the product needs to be packaged into a smaller jar
- No work/life balance just yet! Still learning J
- When it comes to family time vs work, need to set boundaries and priorities
- Links:
- http://algseaweed.com/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-leung-15601a28/
- https://www.foodinnovationcentre.com.au/
- https://www.eventbrite.com.au/o/chris-rockley-ethnobotanist-and-scientific-illustrator-6302143345
- https://www.xero.com/au/
- https://www.rocketseeder.com/
- Dr Zivit Inbar - https://www.differenthinking.com.au/ and https://au.linkedin.com/in/zivitinbar
- Founders and sales team with software experience
- Managing staff and thinking about cultural and gender diversity
- Encouraging our children and future entrepreneurs through the process of the learning as opposed to the result, and cultivate courage, and creativity.
- Founders stepping out beyond their fears, risks and consequences already considered:
- Surrounding yourself with a strong leadership preforming team
- Thinking strategically as soon as you have a team to scale up
- Scaling up is big challenge
- Want-to-be founders (still working for someone):
- Stress, ambiguity of employment, and goals constantly changing
- Cultivation of trial and error, team atmosphere and vibe
- Working for another start-up, maybe an unstructured environment
- Recruitment process
- Start-up eco systems globally and in Australia
- The start-up conversations and ecosystem needs to be the focus for government
- Courses provided
- Leadership, practical tools
- One on one coaching
- 25 people per cohort, all different stages of start-ups
- Interactive and forces you out of your comfort zone
- Links mentioned:
- https://www.smartcompany.com.au/startupsmart/advice/soft-skills-the-vacuum-that-exists-within-many-australian-startups/
- Fund your way - https://startupvictoria.com.au/
- https://launchvic.org/
- https://www.seek.com.au/
Danielle interviews startup brothers Derek and Damien Lacey from Bluestone Yeast who are producing an all Australian liquid yeast for micro breweries.
Taylor Tran from Coworking FYI
- Taylor Tran, co-founder coworking.fyi and #CCCnoosa. Taylor is co-cofounder of coworking.fyi a national network of innovation spaces for entrepreneurs and curator of Crypto Coast Convention for blockchain #CCCnoosa. Taylor is also a champion for the Victorian Government's Digital Innovation Festival #DIFvic for the past two years, he holds an MBA and written 3 books on innovation and emerging tech.
- Digital disruption is happening faster (blockchain and artificial intelligence)
- Noosa Digital Hub Peregian Beach
- https://www.noosanews.com.au/news/start-up-heads-up-a-crypto-currency-new-wave-of-bu/3594132/
- https://www.noosa.qld.gov.au/digital-hub-peregian-beach
- https://www.facebook.com/peregianhub/
- https://peregianhub.com.au/
- Advisory board, investors, government, and entrepreneurs to put technology and innovation event together
- Book - https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/228392616?selectedversion=NBD60771387
- Co-working:
- Do a stocktake of the innovation narrative in your area. Work out where the gaps are and where you want to go.
- Work together and be flexible, really understand your clients
- Councils not to lead the innovation co-working initiative
- 1/3 of workspaces in the future will be flexible/innovation workspaces
- Co-working network - https://www.coworking.fyi/
- New law passed in Australian Parliament - https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:%22legislation/billhome/r6195%22
Host: Danielle Story, Eastern Innovation Business Centre
Production: Glenn Biclar, Alba Prime
Danielle speaks with Toby Aikins from Pin Payments.
Pin Payments is an online payment processing services that services Australian businesses and spans across other countries.
- Pin Payments was established in 2011
- Melbourne based office, with Perth being the engineering and development base.
- Original problem being solved was access to reliable foreign payments via API’s for Australian businesses
- Key hurdle data security systems, online audits, to convince banks that Pin Payments can be responsible for thousands of accounts to allocate merchant facilities
- Once Toby got the model right, word of mouth really kicked off. Little marketing was done.
- Next step is international expansion. Australia is a small, conservative, and competitive marketing for payments.
- Currently over 11,000 business with three support staff
- Using Singapore to reach into South-East Asia
- US seems to be more progressive than Singapore in terms of payments
- Pin Payments is setting up in London in 2019!
- UK market is much more mature compare to Australia
- Once a week, team has a Zoom (https://zoom.us/) meeting for updates from sales, support, engineer and finance. Sharing is key, no secrecy from different departments, complete transparency.
- Slack (https://slack.com)and Trello (https://trello.com) is a tool used for team communications
- Help Scout (https://www.helpscout.net) is used for customer correspondence
- Advice: Solve a day-to-day pain point. Take a few more risks, trust technology rather than people)
Visit https://pinpayments.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pinpayments
Hosted by Danielle Storey – CEO, Eastern Innovation Business Centre (http://www.eibc.net.au)
Produced by Glenn Biclar – Alba Prime (http://www.albaprime.com)
Giri Giri - http://www.girigiri.com.au with Geoffrey Mann and Kana Ando.
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/girigiriAus
Apple App Store - https://girigiri.app.link
Google Play Store - http://bit.ly/girigiriAndroid
An app that can help you find your spontaneous experience.
- Japanese for just-in-time or last minute.
- Started by talking to businesses in the city of Monash to find out what problems can be solved.
- For businesses with boards, have a diverse team with various backgrounds and disciplines, tactical and strategic. Be able to communicate well and get along well on a personal level.
- Do a minimum viable product (MVP), give to the businesses and consumers, and learn that what others are saying or not what they’re doing. It makes sales and marketing a lot easier as they embrace the app.
- Spoke to other start-up founders at https://rmitactivator.edu.au/launchhub/ and it was a great opportunity to solve different problems and bounce ideas off each other.
- If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. - AFRICAN PROVERB
- Ripped pieces of paper from a notebook as a business card with a mobile phone number on it!
- Keep the jargon down when talking with potential customers.
- Talking to angel investors and backers, currently looking at Melbourne market in the next 3 months, then 3 other states after that, then overseas.
- Australia isn’t as competitive as Silicon Valley in terms of investors and other start-ups.
Hosted by Danielle Storey - CEO, Eastern Innovation Business Centre
Produced by Glenn Biclar - Alba Prime
In this episode, Allira chats with Sarah Munnings and Robyn Hall from Grow: A Creative Community:
- Taking risks and opportunities: you don’t know where it could take you and who you might meet
- Partnerships and providing for the community
- Challenges: diving your time, letting go of control, accepting not everything is perfect, sharing responsibilities and not having to do everything
- How to deal with social media: just put it out there and know that you can’t control how the world reacts
- Working with Link Health as an auspice partner
- Creativity can help with people’s mental health
- Having a mentor is extremely useful and mentorship is available for the community
- Take your ideas and map them out on paper, then action it
- Generous offer to our listeners (business planning, risk management, different perspective on your business direction)
Mentioned links in this episode:
- Grow: a creative community - https://www.facebook.com/growacc/
- https://wovenbysociety.com.au/grow-creative-community/
Connect with us at the Eastern Innovation Business Centre in Mulgrave. Visit us at http://www.eibc.net.au
Questions, comments, and feedback can be directed to innovation@eibc.net.au
Podcast produced by http://www.albaprime.com