Another RCL Pitch Afternoon!

Team Josari took advantage of the River City Labs open day to work from RCL last Friday. Naturally, that meant we ended the day taking in some pitches while eating chips! Okay, the rest of the team was drinking. But I, of course, don’t drink anything harder than coffee and even that is usually drowned in milk and sugar! But I digress.

I am not going to go pitch by pitch. But I am going to highlight two pitches. Firstly, it was great to hear once more from Anne-Marie Walton of Kids Wantu. She’s in the middle of a crowdfunding campaign. I have already pledged, which acts as a pre-order for her family activity app Kids Wantu.

I cannot wait to get the app, so I can use it to do activities with my niece and nephew. My niece is 4 and spends at least 3 days with me. But at the moment she spends way too much time watching movies and tablets when she’s over. My nephew is under 2, and it would be great to be able to be prepared to entertain him as he grows older!

The other pitch I wanted to highlight was from Joshua Savage about his two cannabis-related businesses. I have noticed an absolute explosion of cannabis-related startups. I like Joshua’s approach to the explosion because he’s on the support side. His two companies are helping growers and consumers, grow and consume good quality cannabis. I think that’s a smart approach. His two businesses are 1) Australia Cannabis, and 2) Disruptive Industries.

Finally, there was a pitch on the night that was for a consumer-facing app. The pitch made me realise that we need to stop thinking of users as the product. We live in a post-Cambridge Analytica world that’s already drowning in data. I don’t believe this is an environment into which we should be launching another app that tries to make money by monetising user data.

Especially as there are movements afoot to force companies to share the revenue generated by selling user data with said users, I don’t think selling data is a viable business model for new ventures. For long term success, I think it’s time we moved beyond treating our user as the product. Maybe I am wrong in this. Only time will tell!

The Connect Collaborative

A few weeks ago, two people reached out to me on LinkedIn about The Connect Collaborative. I didn’t know anything about this collaborative, but I asked around. I got wildly different takes. One of my mentors, I have several, had heard about the Hub. So she let me know that it was a well-known networking venue with hundreds of members. A co-worker in one of the startups I work with said he had gone but got bad vibes. But another founder I am working with said that he had been a few times, and found the people lovely. Also that he had worked with people he met at some level. So naturally, I had to go and check things out for myself!

Turns out that the two people who invited me, Doug and Wells, knew each other. Doug had invited Wells. So that worked out. I attended the talk last week, which on personalities. That’s bumped the article I have wanted to write about personality tests near the top of my to-do list. I went back yesterday, but I couldn’t stay for the talk. I touched base with Doug and Wells, and a few others that Doug invited to the Hub. But I am suffering from a weird ear issue and chronic headache, so by the time 7:30 PM rolled around, Tinni.exe was very much shutting down.

So why did my co-worker get “bad vibes”, and why did the other founder think everybody was lovely? Well, Connect Collaborative does use network effect, which can give of multi-level-marketing (MLM) vibes. Indeed, just last night Doug acknowledged that some people do come into the Hub thinking they are about to get an MLM pitch from Amway. Amway being notorious for co-opting entrepreneurial language. Some rules might not make sense on the surface, like waiting to be introduced. But I can see the benefits of slowly meeting people.

Also, I think that whoever the speaker is the first time you attend can make a huge difference as does whoever invites you into the room. Also what you know about the Hub can probably colour your impression. I got such wildly different takes on people who attended that I am more curious than apprehensive. But so far, no one tried to sell me anything, and it seems like a small business version of a lot of startup events I have attended.

There are overlaps, of course. People I know from the startup scene turned out to be regulars at the Hub. So it’s interesting. I’ll try to go a few more times and see where it leads. It should be fun and interesting!

Insights on Social Enterprise from Canada: An Impact-Led Breakfast Forum

On Monday morning, I had scrambled eggs for the first time in a long time! Why was I having special food? Because I accepted the invitation from Social Traders, QSEC and Impact Boom spend time in conversation with David LePage!

David LePage is a serial social entrepreneur. He’s currently the co-founder, Director and Managing Partner of Buy Social Canada. But he is also the designer, and was the initial Executive Director of Community Impact Real Estate (CIRE). He is a founding partner of the Social Enterprise Institute (SEI). David is also a Principal with Accelerating Social Impact (ASI), one of Canada’s first ever hybrid social enterprise corporations. So he has a wealth of experience on which he can draw to share some great insights.

The key insight from David’s key note were the six things he believed social enterprise needs to thrive. These are:

1. Business acumen

2. Social value finance

3. Access to markets

4. Measurement of impact

5. Networks of social entrepreneurs and supporters

6. Supportive public policy

I think he is spot on with his assessment because the world is about systems. You need to put the right systems in place for social enterprise to thrive. The panel that followed the keynote echoed the sentiment.

In addition to David LePage, the panel consisted of Social Traders’s David Brookes, Food Connect and QSEC’s Emma-Kate Rose, and English Family Foundation’s Belinda Morrissey. The conversation was moderated by Impact Boom’s very own Tom Allen.

The presence of Tom should be a clue that I was not the only person from Impact Boom Cohort of 2019 at the breakfast. So we had a bit of a reunion!

#WaiTALK A Tale of Two Countries: The AI Edition

On Wednesday, the monthly Women Who Code meetup merged for the night with the launch of the Women in AI’s WaiTALK series. It was also at the Brisbane office of WeWork, which I wanted to check out for quite some time. WeWork is in the old Mincom building, and it’s where I used to work when I worked for Mincom way back when! I have to say, and it was a pretty nifty setup.

Given that this was the launch of Women in AI, there was a bit of a lead into the talk. Max Kelsen, Queensland AI, Young Women Leaders in AI and WeWork It was great to learn a bit about all the organisations, especially since I didn’t know anything about Young Women Leaders and my knowledge of Queensland AI was limited. But then it was on to the main event!

Becks Simpson talked about her sabbatical year working in Canada and China. She compared the AI and innovation scene in those two countries against each other and to Australia. She emphasised the need for diversity, for governmental support and also of dreaming big. I loved how she didn’t shy away from the AI and ethics discussion either.

So I am going to do my best to attend more WaiTALK. I will also make more of an effort to attend more Women Who Code meetups. It should be fun!

Lord Mayor's Social Enterprise Business Forum

I joined many of my cohort mates from the Impact Boom Elevate+ last Wednesday at the Lord Mayor's Social Enterprise Business Forum. I have heard about these, but this was the first one I attended. It was perfect timing too because my new business cards as the CTO of Abide had just arrived! So my co-founder, Andy and I, used the event as a massive opportunity to pitch Abide so that we get inputs and have the opportunity to explore collaborations.

The forum was also a learning opportunity boasting the speakers Alex Hannant, Co-Director, Yunus Social Business Centre, Griffith University who spoke about the "Ingredients for success and failure - 10 things I've learnt about social enterprise". It was a great talk that highlighted the realities facing social enterprises. I especially liked the tip about "letting zombies dies". He was saying that as social entrepreneurs, we are often driven by passion and belief. So we might often keep ventures going that are in realities zombies. I think this is a good tip for everyone who are passionate about what they do. It's not just about business but also jobs, creative endeavours etc., etc.

The second speaker was Emma-Kate Rose, General Manager, Food Connect, who spoke about "Running a business with heart and purpose: why social enterprises are on the rise". But unfortunately, I was not able to stay for that talk. Overall, I had a good time, and I am going to see if I can't make more of these forums!