Women's Entrepreneurship Day

Yesterday, I spent an inspirational hour listening to a panel of women discuss the issues, challenges and the wins women entrepreneurs have faced and overcome. But also how much further we have to go. The panel consisted of:

• Anne-Marie Birkill, Director and Venture Partner at OneVentures;

• Sabrina Chakori, Founder of Brisbane Tool Library;

• Rachael Dagge, UQ's Chief Student Entrepreneur; and

• Holly Tattersall, Founder and CEO of Women in Digital.

So it was a good mix of diverse leaders that Sam Jockel, UQ Ventures' Entrepreneur in Residence, facilitated expertly. I haven't been as good at attending online events. But the panel reminded me why it's important to take the time to join and listen. But I am looking forward to more in-person events now that Australia is doing well in the fight against COVID.

Josari Launches Android App

Almost two years ago now, I first joined Josari as their consultant/virtual CTO. It has been a fruitful relationship so far, and this year, we have reached a new milestone. The Josari App is now available on the Play Store! Josari is a marketplace for instant advice. It allows you to connect with a range of professionals via video chat.

We started the work on the Android app using QUT Capstone Student Interns. The students did their best but their skill level was not quite up to what we needed. I stepped into code a bit myself but once the students finished up, we hired a freelance Android developer to take the code, add the missing features and finish-up the Android app.

So during my time with Josari, we have managed to get the Josari iOS app out of development hell and out the door. We have also launched the Android app. We also have a student team, courtesy of QUT capstone again, building the Josari Web app.

The web development student team has a higher skill level. They are doing a great job and we hope to launch the Josari Web app soon. With the product completely, it’s now all over to sales and Marketing!

Sharka Bosakova & UnMasked Exhibition

I live!!!! COVID-19 did disrupt my plans by a lot. But Start with Tinni was as active, and I was working hard to help clients get their businesses ready for post-COVID activity. One of the people and business I am working with is Sharka Bosakova. Sharka is the creative mind behind the 3D Ova Jewellery and the UnMasked Exhibition.

I met Sharka last year, but we started working together in earnest when Sharka was accepted into the Sunshine Coast Fashion Incubator The Refinery. As part of the program, we revamped and launched her website and woo-commerce based shop with 3D Ova jewellery and some of her fashion creations. 10% of all sales revenue goes towards Sharka’s Madagascar Project, which is dedicated to educating, and empowering women and their family in Madagascar.

The 3D Ova aren’t just jewellery but also art. Sharka uses them to explore her emotions and express her artistic intentions. As a result, the pieces are now part of the UnMasked Exhibition. At the time of writing, the exhibition will be active for two more days at GCA Grey Street Gallery. Please check it out for yourself.

I have had a lot of fun working with Sharka. I am looking forward to working with her more. Check out the video of Sharka talking about her work with Popsart, featuring me crashing the live stream near the end!

My Many Personalities & the Tests I Had to Take

Hey, remember when I was part of Your Happy Place? I was only in the startup for seven months, but it was my first prolonged exposure to personality tests. Just as I was wrapping up my involvement, I ended up taking to different personality tests. I have wanted to write about my thoughts on personality tests for some time. I finally put fingers to keyboard and got the article published on Medium! Please check it out and give a clap if you like it.

Group Mentoring with Nyree McKenzie

I spent the first Friday of March by attending a group mentoring with Nyree McKenzie, the founder of Bidhive and a fellow MIT Bootcamp Alumni. She also won the AWS 2019 Founder of the Year.

It was a great session that covered Nyree’s journey and the lessons she learnt along the way. She emphasised the need to have your personal life aligned with your founder dreams. She talked about how her previous business, Thought Bubble, that she spend 16-year building was both a source of inspiration that lead to Bidhive but also something she now has to exit to commit to Bidhive.

She pointed to some tech she found very helpful. Namely Canny, which she is using to gather customer feedback to help her map out a product roadmap that will lead to her releasing exactly what her customers want. It’s a great idea. I will note that tool down for future use.

Speaking of tools, and a slight aside, I don’t think I ever mentioned Kiite.ai, which can be used to create a sales playbooks. It was recommended to me during a sales workshop I attended. But I don’t think I ever blogged about it. But I think it’s worth noting here. Because sales strategies were something Nyree covered at length. She mentioned that from day 1 she only went after enterprise, using language that would cause small businesses to self exclude. Enterprise can be a mixed market to go after but it has its downsizes. Namely, procurement processes for Enterprise are long and complex. So the conversion takes time. Also, per Lewl Jury’s mentoring talk last month, Enterprise customers are very needy when it comes to customer care attention.

Nyree has earmarked Robotic Process Automation (RPA) as a way to help ease some of the pressure currently on her small group of staff. RPA is something I am familiar with through my work with Comprara. I will definitely watch Bidhive to see how Nyree’s strategies workout.

Overall, it was a great talk. I am glad I attended. I asked a bunch of questions. But I left straight after and thus missed the River City Labs, First Friday Bytes. I wish I stuck around but I was “peopled out” as they say. But maybe in April, I’ll get to attend the First Friday Bytes!