Kyco is LIVE!!!

I have a contract dated from May 2019 hiring me as the chief of technology with the holding company of what is now Kyco Australia. It’s been a long journey but we are finally live! The Kyco website soft-launched on the 18th of November and officially went “live” on the 22nd of November when our advertising campaign kicked into gear.

The launch party was on the 24th of November at the Cielo Rooftop bar! It was a bit thank you to everybody who helped us get here. Our marketing company, our developers, our lawyers and more! The whole team was there and a good time was had by all!

It was also the day for the RiverPitch Live 2021 and I bought in-person tickets. But it was raining and I wasn’t feeling 100% so I didn’t end up going. I tried to catch the live stream but that didn’t happen. So, I ended up not going to the majority of the events I signed up for and paid tickets for but that’s life sometimes!

The important thing is that Kyco is now fighting the good fight against Comparasites and I am happy to be on the team! Why not join us?

Not to bury the lead, but I am also now full time with Kyco as their Chief Technology Officer. What that means is that I will not be taking on new clients for Start with Tinni for the foreseeable future. But I’ll still be helping existing clients and one off events like my recent speaking engagement! That was a lot of fun and I wouldn’t mind doing more but for now, Kyco is my main focus.

SEVENTEENx Brisbane '21

I have signed up to attend a few events in November and already I missed one but this time last week, I did manage to attend SEVENTEENx at QUT’s Room Three Sixty.

I didn’t know what this event was about, all I knew was that Tom Allen was speaking at it and since it’s been some time since I got to hear Tom speak, I thought, why not! The event featured four speakers who talked about how they are incorporating and addressing the UN’s Global Goals into their business. It was a great event with inspirational speeches and really made me want to get back into the social impact space.

The featured speakers were Danielle Duell from People with Purpose, Tom Allen from Impact Boom, Larissa Rose from GG Enviro, Billie Murphy from Solar Buddy and Dan Allen from Trade Mutts. I also ran into my Impact Boom Elevate+ cohort mate Sameer Punde or EcoWeeders.

It was a great way to spend a humpday evening. I am glad I made the effort to attend and I look forward to attending the rest of my November events!

October Ends with Headshots!

October did not bring everything I was expecting and it had a lot more downs than I wanted. But I managed to finally get around to moving my business name, Start with Tinni, to a new ABN. Also, and more excitingly, I got new professional headshots!

My last set of good headshots were done through Josari. I love them but they were due for a change. If only because there was a pandemic between the headshots and now! Also, I plan to do some marketing for my consulting business come 2022. So it made sense to update my images.

I got three shots done:

1. A plain headshot with a nice background, you can see it on my “career summary” page

2. The image with this post that I hope conveys that I am Brisbane based without having to say it!

3. Lastly, a meeting short that I felt it was better to have than not but I suspect my uses for that will be super limited

I hope the new professional headshots and my new business structure will help me grow my business in the new year. In the meantime, it’s head down and working hard towards Kyco “go live” and Christmas sales for Sharka Bosakova!

Mentoring UQIES, Weekend of Startups!

Yesterday, I stopped off at the Advanced Engineering Building to provide what value I could to the teams taking part in the UQIES’s Weekend of Startups!

The schedule was running a bit late but that worked out for me as I got the opportunity to listen to the founder of Cool Beans Underwear, which aims to boost male fertility. I had read that male fertility was dropping and yes, that does mean opportunity for innovation. So it was good to see an Aussie startup working in this space.

I spoke to almost all teams and there were some interesting ideas in the mix. The one that stood out to be me was a team trying to improve substance abuse education through games. I think they had a compelling issue to address and their proposed solution can certainly work.

Another team was tackling sleep issues in university students, this team also featured Felix - whose team PEAM were the winner of the KMW Transform Law challenge. Felix was also one of the UQIES organisers and the one I liaised with around my mentorship. So it was great to get to chat with him a bit more.

The teams should be wrapping up and preparing for final pitches as this blog goes live. Good luck to all the teams and they are all winners for having had a go at entrepreneurship, even if for just a weekend. May the best team win!

Finally, I was thanked for my time with Rum from Milton Distillery, which made me feel like a pirate! Of course, I don’t drink. So it’s going to become Kyco’s office rum next week. I hope the Kyco crew will like it!

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Back to UQ: Judging the #TransformLaw KWM Prize!

On Tuesday I had the pleasure to be on the judging panel for the #TransformLaw KWM Prize! The event featured six teams made up of UQ students who scored the best in the written portion of the competition.

The 2-4 person teams needed at least one Law student and one non-law students and were looking at the role of technology in addressing the a law and justice issue. Of the six teams that pitched, three pitched an issue and solution that was a bit “generic” in the sense I could see these startups feature in any startup event. These three teams were addressing what I would consider “sticky” problems because the underlying issue lies with human psychology and behaviour. That’s not to say their ideas couldn’t work, just that the go-to-market case would be more difficult.

The other three teams did address problems that required insider knowledge of the justice system. Two of the teams overlapped in that they were trying to improve access to legal access by improving the intake and assessment process of the not-for-profit legal sector.

The clear winner was Team PEAM addressed issues around mediation where the emotions of one or more parties can hinder the mediation process. It was clear that they had done a lot of research into the problem. They also had customers ready to take up their product. They had run trials with their prototype and while their solution will probably need a few more iterations to perfect, what they had accomplished in eight weeks was truly impressive.

They won by a huge margin and apparently, were a bit of a Cinderella story as they barely made it into the final pitch based on their performance in the written portion of the competition. I am glad they did make the cut and won on the night. I can see them being successful with this idea if they stick with it and get the right guidance, connections and mentoring along the way.

Anyway, it was a fun event and I am glad to have been invited. This was my first role as a judge and I got a gift of a Tirtyl starter pack to go with my evening of pitches!

I am back at UQ this weekend as a mentor for the weekend of startups. So watch this space for more on that!