UQ Innovation Panel: Back by UQIES invite to be a panellist!

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I was back in UQ on Wednesday to be one of four panellists for UQIES Innovation panel. It was fun, especially since I got to stir the pot a bit!

Also, I hadn’t met my fellow panellists before, at least so far as I could recall, and so it was always nice to meet new and interesting people. The other panellists were:

  1. Pauline Fetaui, the current General Manager of River City Labs

  2. Indi Tansey, the chief officer of people, product and planet

  3. Amelia St Bake, the Digital Strategist of St Baker Energy Innovation Fund

Below are the questions that were emailed to me before the event. I think we got through most of them with some variations and some additions from the audience. I am sure you can see where they gave me the opportunity to say some very controversial things!

  1. Your background and the journey you guys have taken to get to where you are now?

  2. What does innovation mean to you and why is it such a critical component of your life?

  3. Touching on successful entrepreneurs for a second do you believe there is a pattern of behaviour they all exhibit that makes them successful? And if so, what are they?

  4. Is consulting or experiences in other “traditional career paths” a requirement in the start-up world or is that a misconception or does that consulting experience add extra value?

  5. What opportunities are available for business students in the fields of start-ups & technology, bearing in mind a lot of us have little to no technical knowledge?

  6. All of you have amazing experiences and projects you’ve worked on. Thinking back to one of those many journeys or projects you’ve worked on or built, firstly what was/is it and what’s something you wish you knew at the start?

  7. What valuable gem of a resource has helped you in the past and that you’d recommend to students?

A good time was had by me, and hopefully by the audience. I had some great conversations with the students over the cheese platter. I have also seen a few people connect with me on LinkedIn. Finally, having nothing in particular to promote, apart from Kyco and The Great Australian Rip-off, I decided to finally go ahead with that podcast I have been thinking of launching for some time now. Episode 1, out now!

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

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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

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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!