Brisbane Women in Blockchain: First meetup for me but not for most of the women there!

Quite randomly, I ran across the Brisbane Women in Blockchain meetup announcement. So I tagged along since the topic of the discussion was AI. It was an interesting discussion coming from the panel consisting of Katrina Donaghy of Civic Ledger and Tracy Kay of Axalon. I was especially intrigued by the idea that AI-powered tasks that did something, like decode images, would be harnessed to write blocks.

Right now, writing new blocks on a blockchain is mostly a “make work” function. Algorithms solve a computational puzzle, and the fastest to solve is the one given the right to add a block to the blockchain. The idea is that the “proof of work”, instead of being something a make-work task like solving a puzzle, can be something useful like analysing a medical image. At least that’s how I understood the concept.

Overall, the discussion was too high level. I was hoping for a more a more of a deep dive into the topic of AI. But the discussion was kept at a higher concept level. But I think that was more because I happen to pick a meetup that was doubling as new member recruitment and a retrospective.

Indeed, I gathered this is a close-knit meetup with a fair few women being regular attendees. Given my terrible track record for Women Who Code, I am not sure if I’ll be able to become one of the regulars. But this meetup did intrigue me and reminded me that I wanted to explore blockchain and their application more. So maybe I should spend some time developing a blockchain powered idea and get around building it!

SheEO: Activating in Australia!

Last Wednesday, I attended the Brisbane “activation” event for SheEO. The SheEO model brings together 500 women, called Activator (thus an activation event) who contribute $1100 each as an “act of radical generosity”. The money is polled together and loaned out at 0% interest to five women-led ventures selected by the Activators each year. The goal is to have a perpetual fund that continues, funding women-led ventures.

I think it’s a great idea that borrows from endeavours like the Grameen Bank, which was cited by Monica Bradley the MC for the night. SheEO’s first goal is to find 500 women in Australia, but on the night, they made clear it would great to have 500 women in Queensland alone! I don’t know if they will succeed, but I certainly wish them well. I will certainly keep them in mind in the coming year for possible activation.

The main guest speaker for the night was Carly Brown, Founder of UNE Piece, whose company fits the mould for a venture that can apply to the SheEO fund. Because the SheEO fund has a simple criterion, do you have an annual turnover of $50,000? If so, you can apply. I gather UNE Piece is up there and so can apply.

I like the simplicity of the application process. It really is about the “wisdom of the crowd” or rather, the wisdom of the 500 Activators. I can see pitfalls with the model but overall, it can be better than having “a process”. It sounds weird but I am reminded of a recent tweet by Peter Laurie regarding the “process” of application. I.e. some teams understand the process better than others. But it doesn’t mean they are a better startup then another that isn’t as good at process deconstruction. In many ways that is not too dissimilar to publication or grant applications in the academic world or even Oscar nominations. If you have a process, it can be gamed. So maybe just relying on 500 women with skin in the game, in the form of money, might be the way to go!

Few things make me more stressed than rapidly assessing a startup from an application form and a short video.

Some teams understand the process, some don't. I worry about how well that correlates with quality of the startup.

— Peter Laurie (@pjlaurie) November 9, 2018

So yes, I had a good time learning about radical generosity and how women are elevating other women. Nothing left to say but point out that event was hosted at the BDO offices and they have an amazing view! I understand one of the WeWork Brisbane offices is in the same building, and I am so tempted to sign-up for that office. Alas! I am not in a position to indulge in that type of expenses yet. But I hope that changes soon!

Pitch Ready Workshop

One of the people I met at The Hour was Marisa Warren, the CEO of Elevacao.org. Purely by chance, I was already signed up to attend the Pitch Ready Workshop, which was hosted by Marisa the following day.

It was a great experience. I especially like the pitch practice that was integrated into the presentation. I happen to sit next to Deb Morrison, CEO and Founder of Pet Cloud, so we ended up partnering each other while we practised different parts of our pitch. Pet Cloud is a mature stage startup, while Start with Tinni just ten days old. So the difference in our pitches was night and day. Deb had the “why”, “what” and other aspects of her business down pat, while I am still polishing my pitch. So that was my big take away from the day, I need to get my story straight.

So the onus is now on me to take what I learnt at the Elevacao Pitch Ready Workshop, combine it with what I learnt on the Creative 3 Pitch 101 Webinar earlier in the year get the pitch for Start with Tinni right. Beyond that, we talked about taking turns pitching for Koostoo. So I need to be ready for that too!

I ended the day by taking a tour of the River City Labs, which is also in The Precinct, which is where the Pitch Ready Workshop too place. It was good to see the limits of River City Labs and get a proper context of how much space they occupy within the Precinct. I am not ready to talk more on that side of things. Suffice to say that I am giving serious considerations to working out of the co-working space at least for a short while.

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Starting with a Pitch: River City Labs Friday Open House

Last Thursday, the 1st of November, I officially launched Start with Tinni! But how to announce to the wider Brisbane entrepreneurial ecosystem? Fortunately, River City Labs Friday Open House was on the next day! So naturally, I registered to pitch. I didn’t hear anything back. But I attended anyway and had a mild shock when my name was called to pitch. Good thing I love public speaking (you heard that right, folks). So got up and pitched away!

The reception was good, and there were many requests for my business card. But we’ll see how many of the leads from the event pans out. As for the other pitches, there were a couple of no-shows. But those who did pitch had some great ideas!

First there was Flight Suit and Monarc Global, who I heard pitch before during Startcon. Both of them are looking to change how we travel. Indeed, I hope they get together and collaborate because I think there is a lot of synergy between them. Flight Suit wants to make booking business travel easier, Monarc wants us all to fly like monarchs. I cannot think of anything more boss then flying private charter for business!

On the night, I was not the only one pitching a startup to startup business. The night’s drink sponsors were Innofy, who present themselves as intellectual property for innovators, by innovators. They are someone I will keep in mind when I have to deal with IP.

The last pitch I remember properly is Flood Mapp, who is building a predictive flood map with smart alerts support. I think its a great idea given the realities of climate change. This brings me to the pitch that was a practice pitch for an idea. I don’t remember the name of the gentleman who pitched. But he proposed an interesting idea involving giving away solar panels to densely populated cities such as Mumbai. The monetary model would involve selling excess electricity made from the panels, and by importing and incinerating garbage. But the garbage incineration, which would be used to make electricity when the solar panels aren’t producing enough, will be done in a clean manner. So there will be minimum pollution. I don’t know how possible it is but the idea is good.

The final pitch of the night was from someone looking to build a startup around the idea of local specials. I think the business is called "Local Specials” or something like. I don’t know. I didn’t catch the name and my conversation with the founder ended prematurely and so I wasn’t able to get more information about the business. Still, I think the idea has legs in regional cities and may be combined with a few other ideas around local marketing that I have encountered, he may be able to make something viable out of it.

Overall, it was a fun afternoon and I am very grateful that I got to launch Start with Tinni to a room full of applause! I will be taking out a casual membership of River City Labs in the coming year. So, this won’t be the last monthly pitch event I attend!

QUT Foundry IDEAS Launched Showcase: Pitch 'n' Party

I am not handling the days very well. It was only last Thursday, just two days ago, that I was sitting in the audience for QUT Foundry IDEAS Launched Showcase! But this time, I wasn’t just an audience member. I was also the CTO of one of the startups pitching: Koostoo!

Andy Smith, pitching for Koostoo

Koostoo is about three months old. It’s a very early stage startup, which is why I haven’t spoken about it until today. You need to give these ideas room to germinate. I think we have had enough successes in the short term to spur us on. The biggest success came at the IDEAS Showcase because the judges opted to give us a share of the 20k prize pool.

We came 3rd behind Excise Cloud, a craft beer startup, and The Anything Company, a rocketship startup. Now I know our idea is good because it took beer and spaceships to beat us! I have written up about Koostoo on Medium. I am excited and looking forward to working with the core team, as well as the students interns QUT has provided us thought their capstone program. Watch this space for more updates!