The NEIS Program

On Saturday I made a small post to celebrate the 1st Anniversary of Start with Tinni. One of the things I mentioned in that post was that Start with Tinni was part of the NEIS scheme during its first year. It was a good experience.

The NEIS grant amounted a little over $10k, most of which I used to upgrade equipment, insurance, necessary saas service, pay for travel to Launch Festival, costs beyond tuition I had in associated with the MIT Bootcamp. Finally, the out of pocket expenses I had for Impact Boom Elevate+ accelerator. So, in essence, I used the grant to expand my network and build my knowledge.

I am incredibly grateful that I am in a position where I could spend the grant like this. I know that for many, the grant goes towards more essentials things as they wait to generate revenue

I also received training and mentorship through the NEIS program. The training happened in a group setting, so if you believe that the value of accelerator programs is mainly in the cohort, I am glad to have made the acquaintance of such a great bunch of people.

As for the training, I started my six-week in-person workshop-based training in July of 2018. But I didn’t officially launch my business until the 1st of November. I needed the extra time to implement everything I learnt properly. The workshop training also led to a formal qualification in the form of Certificate IV in New Small Business.

I went through the Sarina Russo Group, and so received my certificate through their institute. I thought I had a good grasp of business basics, but there were holes in my knowledge that the training helped to fill. Also, it was nice to have time and space to stop and think about the business.

Finally, I was assigned an official mentor through NEIS and Sarina Russo, and that was extremely helpful. Because sometimes, you need a mentor who has been there, done that and can help guide you. Mine was Sandra Gartner, and I am very grateful to her for her year-long mentorship and support.

1st Anniversary of Start with Tinni

Last year, 2nd of November was a Friday, so I took the opportunity to formally announce the launch of Start with Tinni at the RCL Pitch Night. My pitch got me one connection at least and launched and eventful year of Start with Tinni!

It’s been a packed year,

1. Start with Tinni completed the NEIS program

2. I completed the MIT Bootcamp

3. I finished Impact Boom Elevate+ with Abide

4. I attended the Launch Festival on the back of Abide

5. I got to participate in the QUT CEA Collider Bootcamp Day with Josari

6. I successfully project managed the launch of the Josari MVP, also the Abide MVP, and the first Your Happy Place MVP

7. Finally, I helped Birnam Wood navigate a crucial phase in their existence

But it’s also been a year of lows; my grandfather was still alive on the 2nd of November 2018. I am not celebrating much today because my grandmother is very sick. I might lose her before the year ends. Still, I am grateful for everybody who has been on the journey with me. Here’s to year 2 of Start with Tinni!

SheEO Australia Simulcast, If the Shoe Fits, Big Ideas Competition & Small Business Expo

Last week ended in a flurry of activities! I started Thursday early with the SheEO Australia Simulcast, where I got to listen to how SheEO has progressed in Australia since I attended the launch event last year. It was an inspirational way to start the morning, where I also put myself forward by asking for people to contact me if they need my services as a consultant CTO.

During the morning I found out about the “If the Shoe Fits”, a pop-up shop from The World’s Biggest Garage Sale. I ended up buying two shoes, both of which turned out to be Shoes of Prey shoes! I was thinking that they had unusual looks. But I didn’t realise that they were unusual because they were custom made! Shoes of Prey was a very successful startup that died trying to scale-up. As a startup enthusiast, I am glad I got a chance to get a hold of a pair of this part of Australian startup history.

Thursday ended with my regular meeting with Josari at the QUT Foundry, which is when I discovered that the Foundry was hosting the Big Ideas competition. I stuck around for two pitches. I wish I could have heard all of them but I had to get going. But the two ideas I got to hear were pretty cool. One was a robot that can be a companion to stressed university students. The other was about a shampoo bar with minimum packaging that can be sold by the homeless. I think both ideas are worth exploring further.

Finally, on Friday I checked out the Small Business Expo. I heard mixed reviews for the expo. So I wanted to check it out at least once. There was a good mix of businesses there, including some MLM traps! I didn’t have a game plan for promoting myself to the people there. But I was happy to take the scene in and hang out with Anne-Marie Walton of Kids Wantu, and Paul Buckwell of Josari. I’ll have a better game plan the next time I visit. But for now, I am glad to be enjoying my weekend. Also, Happy Diwali for those celebrating!

Breakfast with the QCE & Brisbane Innovate

Wednesday was a very busy day for me. I started the day having breakfast with my Impact Boom Elevate+ cohort mates. We were hosted by Leanne Kemp, the Queensland Chief Entrepreneur, and Craig O'Kane, the Director of the Queensland Chief Entrepreneur office. It was a great experience, I got an update on where everybody is, picked-up tips from the Leanne and Craig. The food was great too!

After the “Founders Breakfast”, almost all of us, plus Leanne, hoped on a maxi-taxi and crossed the river to attend the Brisbane Innovate 2019. Brisbane Marketing organised the half-day event to bringing together businesses and residents to collaboratively solve city-wide challenges.

This year, the summit focused on will focus on 1) Amplifying small business growth; 2) Innovating for effective, sustainable construction; and 3) Engaging out of town students.

I was in the Amplifying small business stream. There was a lot of ideas generated. Being an idea-vampire, I took pictures of all the idea boards. I also put my name down on a few boards that I was interested in and let’s see if there is enough interest to take those ideas further.

Finally, being a Wednesday, I was able to buy lunch from the Brisbane City Markets, which was great fuel ahead of my last meeting for the day. Wednesday was a good day!

Creative3, The Awards

Last Thursday, I had the privilege of attending the Creative3 Awards. It was my first time going to the Awards. But I did get to the Creative3 Dinner last year. Indeed, I believe the Creative3 Awards replaced the Dinners because the Creative3 teams like to keep things fresh by mixing things up. The event was extra special because the team was celebrating ten years of Creative3!

I always enjoy activities organised by QUT CEA because they bring the most interesting speakers. But before we get to the four speakers, here are the four winners from the afternoon:

• The Rising Star, Creative Tech: Creatively Squared

• The Innovator, Creative Tech: Toast VR

• The Rising Star, Fashion: Buluuy Mirrii

• The Creative Trailblazer: Monica Davidson

Congratulations to all the winners! They were a great cross-section of the creative industries sector of Australia. But now, on to the speaker!

The first speaker was Carolyn Miller, the founding director of communications consultancy: The Honeycomb Effect. She gave a fascinating talk about brands and how important and emotive it can be. She also touched on how we often define ourselves by NOT following brands, but that still involves acknowledging brands. As I was sitting there, I was thinking about how I consider myself an Android person and partly define myself by not buying Apple products. I enjoyed her talk that’s partially captured in the article “There Are No Boring Brands, Just Boring Marketers“.

The next speaker was Nick Rakis, who is a business designer and founding Partner of Accelio. He is one of the mastermind CSIRO’s ON PRIME program. His talk focused on the fall of Blackberry, and now Microsoft was heading that way after losing the mobile wars to Google and Apple. But he pointed out that Microsoft had quietly bounced back, overtaking Google and Amazon in market cap during our current cloud and AI wars. He talked about how the current CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, hand changed the culture of Microsoft so that it could better tackle current and future challenges. The central message of listening to customers is one I have heard before. Still, unfortunately, it is a message that businesses just don’t seem to do! After his talk, I added Satya Nadella’s book, Hit Refresh, to my wish list.

And now: A fashion interlude!

(I swear the audience missed it’s cue to clap on the day but that’s another story!)

After a short break and a short fashion show, we were back with Mareile Osthus, who is the Chief Category Management Officer, The Iconic! Her talk focused on “new retail” now that we are no longer bound the old limits of geography. She talked about how, when she was growing up in a small town in Europe, she could tell a classmate who was wearing a particular brand had most likely been to the US recently. You can’t do that anymore. I mean, obviously there are still places where Amazon does deliver or the Iconic is not available. But for the most part, brands are not geographically bound and we can shop any brand, any style and at the price point of our choice. So what becomes the differentiator? Mareile suggested it will be around values, customer experience and aspirations. I agree and I think new retail will be exciting!

Finally, the last talk of the night was delivered by Adam Elliot, the Oscar Award-winning independent stop-motion animation writer and director. Unlike the others, he’s talk was more motivational and less educational. But it was a great way to end the afternoon. I enjoyed all the talks, and I look forward to seeing what Creative3 does next year!