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Wine Stash, a wine storage solution which is generating several
million in revenue; Tekuma, which is a controller to fly drones
more intuitively; Sprout Kitchens, a platform to lease commercial
kitchens when they're not in use; Fixit, an app to simplify reporting
maintenance issues; and MyInterview, a video interview platform.
You can see that the ideas and the startups that come through
the program are very diverse, and we encourage that. Combined,
the teams that have actually been through the program have raised
several million in investment, so they're doing quite well.
In terms of mentors, again it’s very diverse. We take mentors
both from the industry and the entrepreneur ecosystem. We have
a number of people that have gone through and run their own
startups and exited, through to venture capitalists who are coming
from the investment side, to people that are experienced in the
particular industries that we have the teams operating in.
When you're starting a new business, there
are myriad legal documents that you need in
place to reduce the risks of doing business.
You've signed a partnership with international law firm King & Wood
Mallesons. Are you able to explain why it's important to partner with
a law firm, and what they bring to the Hatchery?
INDUSTRY & RESEARCH
you would have somebody try and create some kind of web or
tech solution, but it doesn't have to be that way.
Working in teams, you pitch your idea to a panel of judges to win
prizes at the end of the two days. There's been a few good success
stories from hackathons around the world where startups have
begun from that point.
What does KWM get out of the partnership?
KWM is in an industry that I guess is facing some challenges of its
own. I think some people may be aware of the share prices of law
firms around the world starting to fall as innovations in the space put
pressure on traditional legal services. Partnering with the Hatchery or
with UTS as well gives them the opportunity to access really innovative
thinkers. Whether or not they're coming from a legal background,
they're able to utilise some of those innovative minds.
KWM is looking to develop its own innovative solutions as well,
so they're developing a tech platform to try and create customised
templates or standardised templates for startups. This partnership
will allow them to trial those templates with the startups that we're
working with at Hatchery+.
Late last year University of New South Wales announced a big new
incubator for their entrepreneurs on campus. How important is it to
have these dedicated spaces for the brightest young minds?
The partnership with King & Wood Mallesons is really exciting for
us at Hatchery+, and UTS as a whole. One of the key challenges
for any startup is getting access to affordable legal support.
When you're starting a new business, there are myriad legal
documents that you need in place in order to reduce the risks of
doing business. This can be an exceptionally expensive process;
something that will cause some startups to fail.
For us, this partnership enables our startups to get free access
to some of the best legal minds and resources in Australia. That's
something we can't really put a price on.
It's also an exciting partnership because it's building upon a strong
existing relationship between UTS and King & Wood Mallesons (KWM).
Earlier this year KWM partnered with the UTS Faculty of Law, and we
ran a two-day hackathon called Breaking Law, which enabled students
from across UTS to develop technology-driven solutions to real-life
legal problems.
For us at a university, where our budgets can be fairly limited,
support from corporate partners like King & Wood Mallesons is
invaluable in making sure we're providing the best experiences for
our students. I think it's exceptionally important for universities to be providing
incubator and accelerator programs. I previously worked at UNSW and
was part of the program over there as well, and I think it's important for
any university in Australia to be providing this type of service.
For me, the nature of work is changing very rapidly. I think the
students at university need to be equipped with the skills and
mindsets to be able to adapt to that. Students or graduates will find
that they'll have multiple jobs, and they'll potentially be in multiple
industries throughout their career. Having an entrepreneurial
mindset will be able to help them adapt to those changes.
We're really looking at trying to create an entrepreneurial
perspective for the students going through the program. Whether
they choose to go down a corporate career path or start their own
business, they're equipped with what they need to be successful
and to add value to those organisations.
In terms of positioning for a university, it's really important to try
and add more than just the educational experience. Students are
looking for that more and more. We've found that having programs
like the Hatchery at UTS is a very good driver to attracting future
students to the campus. In fact, we've had students tell us that they
chose to study at UTS because of the program itself. From that
perspective, it’s very important.
For anyone out there that might be scratching their heads, what
exactly happens at a hackathon? Do you think government is also doing its bit to engage and
encourage innovation?
It's a pretty intense two-day experience. They normally kick off on
a Friday evening where challenges are often presented to potential
participants – for example KWM provided some examples of
challenges in the law space. Teams can also come up with ideas
themselves to be developed in that two-day process.
It’s about trying to look at building a solution to a problem in a
very short space of time. Rather than the traditional way of building
a business, which was perhaps to write a 30 or 40-page business
plan and go to the bank and ask for money, at a hackathon you're
trying to develop an idea or a solution very quickly; and hopefully There was a lot of talk late last year around innovation. I think it
was really exciting to see startups and innovation at the forefront of
Australian politics and to see what changes could happen. That has
since died down in the media, but I think there's still quite a bit of
support happening in the background from both state and federal
governments. Obviously there's always room for more support
and reduction of red tape to help the startup ecosystem flourish,
but there are opportunities both for incubators and accelerators
to access funding from the government while startups can access
grants and support from government as well. ■
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