The Great Australian Rip-off: What we are doing to #StopTheRipOff

I can’t believe that it’s already the end of March! I didn’t even do a New Years post! Have I been that busy? Yes, yes I have!

It’s been incredibly rewarding and challenging working full-time as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Kyco Australia. As much as I would like to say that it’s been smooth sailing with nothing but wins but that has not been the case. We have suffered many setbacks and even forward steps often resulted in us going backwards. That is, however, the reality of startup life with the journey being more of a zigzag then a straight line.

Onwards with new partners and a new plan! On Thursday the 24th of March we launched The Great Australian Rip Off campaign to expose the secret payments and incentives many Australians don’t realise are driving up their cost of living for services including electricity and the internet. 

 Insurers have admitted secret commissions paid to commercial comparison websites – some as high as 40 to 60 per cent – end up being passed on to most Australians through higher premiums. Our startup was created to address the market inefficiency born from this rip-off. So it makes sense for us to shine a light on the problem. So join us to #StopTheRipOff, your wallet will thank you!

UQ Ventures Entrepreneurship Bootcamp - MVP Development + Kalvitree

A new experience for December and Thursday, I got to have a nice “fireside chat” style session with Marvin Fox for the MVP Development Workshop as part of the UQ Ventures Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Business Bootcamp for Australian alumni and ex-pats in Mumbai. The BootCamp is delivered in partnership with the Australian Consulate-General in Mumbai.

The session went for two and half hours, during which I discussed my experience developing MVPs, pitfalls when developing and releasing MVPs, finally engaging in the philosophical discussion of what even is an MVP!

It was a great experience and I hope to do more of these types of sessions and give back to the university and startup communities in 2022.

Another thing I am looking forward to in 2022 is continuing to assist in the growth and development of Kalvitree as their tech advisor on their brain trust. Subha Chari and the Kalvitree team had a big win recently by being chosen as one of the recipients of the Techvista, Catalysr Migrapreneur Activate Grant (MAG). Here’s hoping for more good things for Kalvitree in the new year to come!

Panellist on MIT Bootcamps Graduate Panel

Early morning today, at 1 AM in fact, I stayed awake to take part in the MIT Bootcamps Graduate Panel as a panellist. I spoke on the topic of “How to make the most of the Bootcamp community”. The full agenda was:

10 – 10:10 am ET → Introductions led by MIT Bootcamps team

 10:10 - 10:25 am ET → Helena Franco, MMSc-GHD candidate at Harvard Medical School: how to adopt lessons learnt from the Bootcamp into your professional and personal life

 10:25 - 10:40 am ET → Sharmin (Tinni) Choudhury, CTO of Kyco Australia: how to make the most of the Bootcamp community

10:40 - 10:55 am ET → Gareth Hewlett, Digital, Data & Network Convergence Director, Consumer CTIO at BT: how to think like a start-up for people used to working in a corporate environment

10:55 - 11:10 am ET → Giannina Gambini, Growth Manager Country at Tuxpas - Workplace from Facebook Partner: how to work with people from very different from yourself – whether it’s background, culture or personality

11:10 – 11:30 am ET → General Q&A (moderated by Bootcamps team)

I wasn’t as fluid with my speaking as I wanted to be and I feel I went for a bit too long. But I did cover the ground I wanted and encouraged the new MIT Bootcamp graduates to continue to say yes to opportunities to interact and participate with MIT Bootcamp community activities.

I truly believe that the power of “yes” is the way to get the most out of the MIT Bootcamp community. Whether that means saying yes to events, panels like the one this morning or just yes to organising something yourself, thus putting yourself out there and opening yourself to interaction and opportunities is the way to get the maximum benefit from the Bootcamp community.

To be fair, that’s the way to get the most out of any community but especially true of startup and research land I feel just because networking is so much more important within both. So go say yes to good, interesting opportunities from trusted sources. I have to qualify because I don’t want people to be so open that their brains fall out. There are way too many scams out there for me to encourage people to say yes without adding a word of caution. But still, do not doubt the power of yes!

Kyco is LIVE!!!

I have a contract dated from May 2019 hiring me as the chief of technology with the holding company of what is now Kyco Australia. It’s been a long journey but we are finally live! The Kyco website soft-launched on the 18th of November and officially went “live” on the 22nd of November when our advertising campaign kicked into gear.

The launch party was on the 24th of November at the Cielo Rooftop bar! It was a bit thank you to everybody who helped us get here. Our marketing company, our developers, our lawyers and more! The whole team was there and a good time was had by all!

It was also the day for the RiverPitch Live 2021 and I bought in-person tickets. But it was raining and I wasn’t feeling 100% so I didn’t end up going. I tried to catch the live stream but that didn’t happen. So, I ended up not going to the majority of the events I signed up for and paid tickets for but that’s life sometimes!

The important thing is that Kyco is now fighting the good fight against Comparasites and I am happy to be on the team! Why not join us?

Not to bury the lead, but I am also now full time with Kyco as their Chief Technology Officer. What that means is that I will not be taking on new clients for Start with Tinni for the foreseeable future. But I’ll still be helping existing clients and one off events like my recent speaking engagement! That was a lot of fun and I wouldn’t mind doing more but for now, Kyco is my main focus.

SEVENTEENx Brisbane '21

I have signed up to attend a few events in November and already I missed one but this time last week, I did manage to attend SEVENTEENx at QUT’s Room Three Sixty.

I didn’t know what this event was about, all I knew was that Tom Allen was speaking at it and since it’s been some time since I got to hear Tom speak, I thought, why not! The event featured four speakers who talked about how they are incorporating and addressing the UN’s Global Goals into their business. It was a great event with inspirational speeches and really made me want to get back into the social impact space.

The featured speakers were Danielle Duell from People with Purpose, Tom Allen from Impact Boom, Larissa Rose from GG Enviro, Billie Murphy from Solar Buddy and Dan Allen from Trade Mutts. I also ran into my Impact Boom Elevate+ cohort mate Sameer Punde or EcoWeeders.

It was a great way to spend a humpday evening. I am glad I made the effort to attend and I look forward to attending the rest of my November events!