How do Entrepreneurs find opportunity? They take a look in the trash can

This blogpost courtesy of Niklas Olsson, UNSW exchange student from Sweden and founder of The Entreprenuerial Chase - Sydney.

Passing security leaving all but pen, notepad and business card in security and finally taking a seat at the U.S. Consulate General felt like preparing for an Obama speech. America is known for high security and just moments after sitting down another notorious reputation was confirmed: they foster high-calibre entrepreneurs. The way I look at trash cans will never be the same after meeting Jim Poss, CTO and Founder at BigBelly Solar.

Jim describes innovators and entrepreneurs as people who connect two, for others, totally unrelated things. There are no new inventions, just new ways of combining the already existing. BigBelly Solar uses solar power to run a smart grid for waste and recycling. The grid is made up of trash cans with a five times greater capacity compared to today’s everyday collectors. But the compacting system isn’t the only innovation that underpins this game changer. The “BigBellies” communicate wirelessly with a command centre enabling the waste collectors to measure the exact level of each and every trash can in real time. The city of Philadelphia has for example utilized this information to get the number of weekly collections down to 2.5 as compared to 17 when it introduced the system.

Entrepreneurs are curious by nature and opportunities often spring from their own experiences. If Jim got his revelation when falling on banana peel remains a rumour, but when you are to see an opportunity, make sure to go for the lowest hanging fruit and one that benefits the most people by using your product/service. The reason is simple; as a far-from-complete start-up, you want to give early adopters a benefit big enough that they will stay with yout through the inevitable mistakes along the way. All are however not as forgiving. Prepare to have your idea struck down by a lot of people, as Jim puts it: “One must almost be a bit delusional to make it through.”

An entrepreneur is someone that challenges the status quo, someone who, unlike companies, are not there to protect their revenues. The difference is quite obvious to Jim. “While Toyota develops a hybrid car, the entrepreneur invents a ride sharing service. Frankly they wouldn’t launch it even if they could. It is against the profitable status quo.” But when they start to notice you, when you start turning things upside down, that is when you know you are on to something.

I have been struck by the same enthusiasm in every true entrepreneur I have met. They are game changers, they are in it for the vision and they all dare to take the risk. So how do they find opportunity? Take a look at something you don’t like, form a vision and answer the following question: “Are you afraid to look stupid?” Did people laugh at Jim Poss when he was to introduce a solar powered, digitalized, multi-compressing trash can? I am not sure, and Jim says he’s looked stupid many a time. But I am sure that it wouldn’t have stopped him from trying again. It is better to have a fair intellect that is well-used than a powerful one that is idle.


We are pleased to confirm Ernst & Young and RosesOnly as sponsors of the CIE. We would like to thank the Farrell Family Foundation and Gary Zamel for their generous donations. We also acknowlege the continuing support of the Australian School of Business. All of our sponsors help provide the means to host networking events, award prizes, and reimburse our suppliers and service providers. In exchange, these donors receive good karma and public recognition as supporters of innovation and entrepreneurship. To become a sponsor of CIE and support our community engagement activity, please contact us at cie@unsw.edu.au.

Announcing the Peter Farrell Cup competition FINALISTS!!

 After a (ahem) slight delay, we are pleased to announced the finalists in the Peter Farrell Cup Entrepreneurship Competition. 

Of the 17 entrants, EVERY team was picked by at least one judge as a being worthy of further interest.  However, the following eight had the highest and most scores, earning them the right to pitch LIVE to the judging team.

These eight teams will be presenting their ideas and enterprises to our five judges on Wednesday evening, 26 October, in the Ritchie Theatre (Scientia Bldg) on the UNSW Kensington campus, beginning at 6 PM.

Come along to hear the newest and best of UNSW innovation and entrepreneurship!  (If you haven't already done so, please register here so we can get the catering numbers right.)

Abracadaver
BetaMed
Biomark
Future Surgical Solutions
Munchable
NMT
Pluvision
RevoSen

Many thanks to our judges for their hard work in reading, evaluating and scoring the business plans.  We look forward to your assessment and feedback on the live pitches!

Bryce Summerell - CEO at The Entourage, founder of DateRate.com.au, founder at Meet Bryce, and president at ACESUTS
Anne-Marie Birkell - General Partner in OneVentures and non-executive director for RedFlow Technologies Ltd
Simon Pinson – co-founder of BSF Group
Kevin Cullen - CEO NewSouth Innovations Pty Limited
Paul Levins - President Australia and New Zealand, Intellectual Ventures
Peter Davison - founder, Fishburners

For more information, please don't hesitate to contact the CIE (cie@unsw.edu.au)

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We are pleased to confirm Ernst & Young and RosesOnly as sponsors of the CIE. We would like to thank the Farrell Family Foundation and Gary Zamel for their generous donations. We also acknowlege the continuing support of the Australian School of Business. All of our sponsors help provide the means to host networking events, award prizes, and reimburse our suppliers and service providers. In exchange, these donors receive good karma and public recognition as supporters of innovation and entrepreneurship. To become a sponsor of CIE and support our community engagement activity, please contact us at cie@unsw.edu.au.

TiEcon Sydney - Pitch Event

The TiEcon Pitching contest was a fast-paced event with over 15 contestants vying for the chance to pitch to Sydney Angels to win funding for their endeavour.

The event was MC'ed by talented young industrial designer and winner last year's TiEcon Pitching event, Eric Chau. Judging was conducted by an impressive panel featuring Dilip Rao, President & Director of Mentoring at TiE Sydney, Mathias Kopp, Co-Founder of Sydney Angels and Simon Raik-Allen CTO at MYOB.

Due to the overwhelming number of entrants, the planned 2-minute question time following the pitch had to be cut out. Additionally, pitchers were not allowed to read from notes, nor were they allowed any presentation materials. Death by Powerpoint avoided!

There was a really interesting array of pitches including Waterline Foundation (nationwide fitness charity event), Shop2 (social recommendation engine for clothes), CEO hire business,  3d games animation company, Teebii (textbook rentals) and Locongo (community marketplace where people can buy and sell local experiences).

The event attracted entrants from a range of backgrounds, ages and industries. It was interesting to see the energy and passion in these entrepreneurs and how they responded to questions from a discerning panel of judges. The fact that they only had three minutes challenged contestants to be concise and connect with the audience quickly. After 15 rapid-fire pitches, the judges were sent out to deliberate while the audience voted for the people’s choice winner.

Entrants were judged on clarity, the size of the problem, the compelling nature of the pitch and the judge’s belief in the team. Before the winners were announced, the judges gave their thoughts on the pitches and how they chose the winners.

Mathias Kopp from Sydney Angels mentioned that angel investors not only back the idea but the person and team behind the idea. They were looking for a start-up with high growth potential and a strong team.  Similarly, Simon Raik-Allen said that investors don’t just invest in the business, they invest in the person. As such he was looking for passion and drive along with business viability.

The winner of the people’s choice award were UNSW students Zhiyi Tan and Eric Hercog from Teebi.com, student textbook rentals. They also went on to win second prize, two hours of Mentoring by Bill Bartee of Southern Cross Venture Partners.

As for first place, the judges said that the winner had spotted a significant and easily understandable problem, and announced that first prize went to Kevin Truong, also a UNSW student, from Locongo. Locongo is a website where real people can offer local experiences direct to travellers and other locals.

Kevin stated “This is a great way to bring authentic experiences to the masses and is going to solve the problem of what to do when you arrive in a new city and how to truly engage with the local culture.”  Kevin now has just over a month to prepare a pitch to Sydney Angels for funding.  Kevin is also looking for anyone that could provide experiences that others enjoy, anything from small bar crawls to lessons in for just about anything. Check out locongo.com for more information.

We are pleased to confirm Ernst & Young and RosesOnly as sponsors of the CIE. We would like to thank the Farrell Family Foundation and Gary Zamel for their generous donations. We also acknowlege the continuing support of the Australian School of Business. All of our sponsors help provide the means to host networking events, award prizes, and reimburse our suppliers and service providers. In exchange, these donors receive good karma and public recognition as supporters of innovation and entrepreneurship. To become a sponsor of CIE and support our community engagement activity, please contact us at cie@unsw.edu.au.

Fear of failure or failure to start?

There have been recent critiques about What's Killing Australian Innovation (see our commentary on a recent talk by ASB Dean Alec Cameron, and related ABC radio interview). At this week's TiECon Australia, TiE Sydney chapter president Dilip Rao commented that Australia is ranked 18th globally for having a 'fear of failure' (first being worst). Based on the GEM Global Report 2010, Australia actually shows up worse, ranked 16th out of 59 countries.While that sounds quite bad, the spread of the scores shows that Australia is nonetheless close to the average, and not that much different to, say, Germany (see figure below). The classic benchmark is the US, which is ranked 47, and still not close to being statistically significantly away from average (assuming a normal distribution).

Fear of Failure: Percentage of 18–64 age group with positive perceived opportunities who indicate that fear of failure would prevent them from setting up a business

Wait a second, but what's this other variable, called "Entrepreneurial Intention"? Well, it's defined as the "percentage of 18–64 age group (individuals involved in any stage of entrepreneurial activity excluded) who intend to start a business within three years" (p. 63 in the 2010 GEM report). Australia ranks poorly on this one as well (39/59) if you take the rankings at face value. Interestingly, the US ranks even lower than Australia here (44/59).

What the heck is going on?

My best guess, is that in some countries, entrepreneurship is not a choice, but a way of life. Almost everyone there has to hustle and bustle to feed their family. Meanwhile in the "Innovation-Driven Economies" it's an optional career choice. So, focusing on the latter, what do we see?

Well, Australia ranks 6/23 on the fear of failure measure, but still very close to average for the group (US ranks 20/23 in this group). Australia also ranks 7/23 on the entrepreneurial intention measure, again still very close to average for the group (US ranks 11 in this group, worse than Australia!).

=> Claims that Australia has a fear of failure are NOT supported by THIS data

So, what IS killing Australian Innovation? Come join the debate at the next Meet the Entrepreneur to find out!

Meet the Entrepreneur is our semi-annual speaker series which is co-sponsored and hosted by Ernst & Young at their Sydney CBD office. This professional networking event features a moderated panel discussion between industry experts on a chosen topic.  After the discussion, a Q&A session winds up the formal part of the evening. Hosted networking occurs both before and after the discussion.

This event's theme will be State of Play - What are the myths and realities about the VC industry in Australia, how does it compare to the rest of the world, and does the quality of entrepreneurship and innovation in Australia "stack up"? 

Does Australia have enough critical mass to be a world leader in innovation? Are we creative enough, do we have a big enough appetite for risk, or are we just gamblers? Come hear our panel of venture capitalists, innovators, and entrepreneurs discuss this topic guided by the expert moderation of noted journalist Valerie Khoo.

Yours truly,
The Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship


We are pleased to confirm Ernst & Young and RosesOnly as sponsors of the CIE. We would like to thank the Farrell Family Foundation and Gary Zamel for their generous donations. We also acknowlege the continuing support of the Australian School of Business. Their continued support helps provide the means to host networking events, award prizes, and reimburse our suppliers and service providers. In exchange, our sponsors receive good karma and public recognition as supporters of innovation and entrepreneurship. To become a sponsor of CIE and support our community engagement activity, please contact us at cie@unsw.edu.au.

What's Killing Australian Innovation?

(Post courtesy of Niklas Olsson. Olsson is a study-abroad study at UNSW, hailing from Sweden and bringing The Entrepreneurial Chase to Sydney.  Olsson placed in the CIE's annual PitchFe$t competition, winning tickets to The Festival of Dangerous Ideas.  He has generously contributed this blogpost from his attendance at the "What's Killing Australian Innovation?" session held on October 1 at the Sydney Opera House. 

In addition to his participation as a panellist at this session, the Dean of the Australian School of Business, Professor Alec Cameron, was interviewed on ABC's Saturday Extra radio program: listen, download, or read the transcript here.)


One hour of dangerous ideas; conclusion? It’s all about people

In the auditorium the buzz amongst the spectators was energetic. Innovation is a most current topic amongst Australians especially considering the increasing prosperity of the Australian economy. It was evident that attendees of the sold-out event were curious to find out how innovation, as such a critical part of the economy, would be able to sustain the future.

A varied set of panellists representing the academic, biomedical and IT sectors unanimously stated the number one killer of innovation in Australia is market size.

“There is not as much room for a narrow market,” as Alec Cameron, Dean of the Australian School of Business at UNSW, described it. A niche is often the start of any innovation and to have a set of customers the size to keep an early cash flow going might be the difference of failure and success.

The moderator opened up the floor with asking: “Can Australia breed the next Mark Zuckerberg?” Alan Noble, serial entrepreneur and current Engineering Director at Google Australia, was quick to point out that the factor of distance is essentially gone. In IT and tech Australia has produced several successes such as Google Maps and most recently Atlassian. It has seen and will see a steady growth, it is just a matter of getting the ecosystem right. What’s killing Australian innovation right now is that there are too few Australian successes willing to send the elevator back down, a system that is driving high-calibre Australian people away to America and Silicon Valley.

As they say, a jack-of-all-trades is a master of none. Martin Rogers, CEO at Prima Biomed, further emphasized how specialisation breeds quality and recognition. For example, in the field of biotech Germany has pursued and reached their ambition to be number one in manufacturing. Rogers also answered the question: Is regulation a hinder of innovation? Regulation in biotechnology is essential, providing a safety net and assuring the market need for any new drug. However at the same time it is the reason why Gardasil sells at more than 240 times its manufacturing cost. Ultimately cost has to be carried by the consumer and we have to ask ourselves, is that a trade-off we are willing to make? Government can regulate all prospects of failure but is that a reasonable burden for society?

But what’s really killing innovation in Australia is not market size, scarcity of mentors or even regulations. It is the Australian culture. Failure is not a good thing; in fact it is not even acceptable. I fully agree with Alan Noble, who said, “Failure is a good thing. You cannot truly innovate without taking risks and you cannot take risks without the prospect of failure.” Australia has great human capital and a set of entrepreneurial people that have the ambition, but why would they bother trying if a failure carries such massive social and professional risk? The panellists described it as almost being tainted, and the agility needed to meet today’s complex and ever-changing market needs comes from failing, and failing quickly.

As much as the panellists talked about the Australian context, the discussion very early on failed to set the frame for innovation. Personally, I believe that in the 21st century it is no longer a game of capital gain; too little was discussed around the importance of a three-folded innovation model. Social and environmental gain is as important, and a more multifaceted discussion including innovation in media (Murdoch), information transparency (Assange), and embracing the aboriginal culture could have created a richer conversation.

So can Australia produce the next Zuckerberg? What’s killing that possibility is nothing but ourselves - embrace failure and let that next Zuckerberg try a couple of times before getting it right.

Failure is neither permanent nor fatal; and Australia: “Failure is an event, not a person”.

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We are pleased to confirm Ernst & Young and RosesOnly as sponsors of the CIE. We would like to thank the Farrell Family Foundation and Gary Zamel for their generous donations. We also acknowlege the continuing support of the Australian School of Business.  Their continued support helps provide the means to host networking events, award prizes, and reimburse our suppliers and service providers. In exchange, our sponsors receive good karma and public recognition as supporters of innovation and entrepreneurship.  To become a sponsor of CIE and support our community engagement activity, please contact us at cie@unsw.edu.au.

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Thanks to our Sponsors

We are pleased to confirm Ernst & Young and RosesOnly as sponsors of the CIE.  We would like to thank the Farrell Family Foundation and Gary Zamel for their generous donations.  We also acknowlege the continuing support of the Australian School of Business.

Their continued support helps provide the means to host networking events, award prizes, and reimburse our suppliers and service providers. In exchange, our sponsors receive good karma and public recognition as supporters of innovation and entrepreneurship.

To become a sponsor of CIE and support our community engagement activity, please contact us at cie@unsw.edu.au.