Accelerator Program

ADAM JACOBY

Hi everyone. Shall we get going? I think there's still a few that may pop in but we'll get started.

I'm going to try and condense a whole lot of information into an hour. I don't know how we'll go. What you'll see is I'm breaking every presentation rule you can imagine. You're going to see very busy slides with lots of writing. I'm not going to go through everything. Before I begin a couple of things. This will be available on the website soon in the next few days and the video that we're taking of this presentation will also be there. So if you want to watch it again, catch up on bits if you're not clear about things you think you missed stuff you'll be able to watch that again as well.

Just as a show of hand. So we know - how many people here are staff at Swinburne? students? and alumni? Any other? Oh that's good. Excellent. This is a really good mix. Okay what we're going to do is - this is what we are going to do tonight.

So who are we? What's the Swinburne innovation precinct? We're going to talk a little bit about the program itself. How it works? What we expect of you? What you get from us? Specifically, what you'll be learning and what you'll be doing? and then what you need to be able to apply? So what that application process is going to be like and the expectation we have around it and then we'll run through some FAQs and then open up for you guys to ask specific questions if you want. What you'll find is FAQs in your information pack. They're on the website and they will be in this presentation again later. Any questions before we get going? No, all right. Let's do it!
So who are we? The Swinburne Innovation Precinct is basically the front door of innovation at the university. So we are meant to be the conduit between the industry pieces the faculty pieces and the research insofar as innovation goes. So specifically, what we do here is find that marriage between great IP that's been created in the university and the way to commercialize it and enable academics and staff members to then create businesses from the work that they do here or alternatively work with industries to create new opportunity and berth businesses.

So last year we ran our first accelerator program. We had a number of teams, some were more academic team, some were student, some were Alumni teams. A number of those teams are doing exceptionally well now. All have moved out of the building which is nice. In fact, the last one leaves tomorrow I believe. Moving to new digs and has just landed a two-million-dollar investment. So things are going well and really what we do here is help you birth and learn how to birth a business as distinct from working on your specific domain expertise. So a number of you are probably experts in an area which has led you to get to this place where you think there's a business opportunity. What we help you do is fill in the business gaps where there may be some and surround you with experts who can help you get that business off the ground.
So you know - I'm not going to read everything that's on the screen it would take way too long.

So the accelerator program. It's a 12-week program and the expectation is that you will attend all 12 weeks and I'll explain how that works shortly and specifically it is for founders of businesses who are looking to scale. Ok. So what that means is, if you do not have a member of your founding team that are part of Swinburne family - staff, student, alumni - this program is not for you. We don't offer it for you. So you have to be part of the community and then if you are part of the community and you are a founder of your business we welcome you with open arms. And specifically, I want you to think about the word scale because that becomes really important. We are not working at a ideation stage. There are a lot of university accelerators that will basically say if you have an idea come in here and we'll help you. We expect a little bit more and we expect you to have gone a little bit further than that before we take you on. So that's a really significant difference between what we offer here and what the others offer.

So the program goals. We do this for a number of different reasons they're all there but effectively what you need to be able to do is validate your market, understand your business models, understand how you're going to generate income, how you build a team, how you work against the competitors in your space, find key partnerships, become investable and be able to articulate what your idea is.

One of the greatest challenges of the teams who came through last year - how many people here went to demo day last year? Did anyone go to demo day? That was part of the video that you saw earlier running. One. So that was an opportunity for all of those founders and all those teams who went through the 12 weeks to stand up in front of a group of strangers and say this is our business, this is what we do, this is how we make money, this is where we're headed, and this is why the market needs us. When we started this program not one of those businesses could clearly articulate why they existed, who they existed for and how they were going to be businesses. And that's okay because that's what the program is for its to help you work through those things. So what will be interesting for those of you who make it through is the difference between your application pitch and your pitch on demo day and they'll be light years difference between those things and because you will have a really fully formed idea you'll understand the kind of business model that you're employing, you'll understand what your market looks like, what kind of targeting you're going to do in your coms, how you're going to build a structure for growth, and our interest is helping you find growth.

So I'm going to make this as clear as I can make it. A lot of accelerator programs and a lot of founders who are interested in accelerator programs do it so they can get investment. Whilst that's a nice milestone I would argue - whilst that's a nice milestone it actually is largely irrelevant. If you're a founder of a business - I've had eight businesses on four continents - the thing you want to be able to do is grow customers and grow revenues. Having somebody say to you I'll give you a million dollars that a three-million-dollar valuation is nice but it does not mean your business will be successful. It does not guarantee you growth it does not mean you can be sustainable. What we're interested in teaching you is how to run a sustainable business. One that makes money and grows. So that means customers and it means revenues.

So this is the program structure. Twelve weeks, two days a week every Monday and every Wednesday there will be a morning session for two hours and an afternoon session for 90 minutes. Those sessions are mandatory they're not mandatory for every part of your team but at least one founder must attend each session. Okay. So you can mix it up as you wish you don't have to be there all the time but somebody from your group needs to be there all the time. We do that for two reasons. There is a sequence and a logic to the way the content is provided over the 12 weeks and it is important that you don't miss parts of the content.

But equally - this year in particular - we have an extraordinary list of high-profile business leaders and speakers and presenters and you don't want to miss the opportunities. These are really significant people who have done incredible things in the business community. It will be highly advantageous for your business to be part of it. But more than, that it's also important that from a collaboration perspective which is one of the great advantages of an accelerator. So it's one thing what you learn, it's the other thing the business that you build but to work with other founders in close proximity for 12 weeks where you can share ideas and help each other and bounce and say look like I'm having trouble with this oh that's where we were a couple of months ago and we did X. Really important. And to know the content sessions and go through those content sessions adds real value in that collaborative experience as well.

So there are mentoring sessions which are critically important early on in the piece very early on in fact in week 1 you will meet a whole series of potential mentors and what will happen is you'll get to explain what your business is what the business idea is and those mentors will explain their background and what they've done - most of them in multiple parts around the world and then they will select the teams that they think they can add the most value - this is private - and you will select the mentor that you think you would most like to work with and then we match the teams up and you'll get two to three mentors who will work with you throughout the 12 weeks. You'll then meet with those mentors one-on-one every week if it means up to you but certainly at least every couple of weeks at a time that is convenient for both your team and them and they will really become a key sounding board. What we found is through all the mentors last year at least one mentor effectively became a board member for every one of those businesses going forward and they added great value - introductions to investors, introductions to customers, introductions to core service providers like lawyers and accountants, and. So forth.

Induction day. May 5. So we're going to get you to come in. The successful teams will come in for one day. We're going to sign contracts, we're going to walk you through the space, we're going explain how the building works, we're going to tell you how all the fun stuff happens and then you're going to go home for a week and prepare for what will be your first accelerator experience for most of you and then you'll go through the 12 weeks and the demo day showcase is on July 29. So this is the day - it won't be in this building, we'll have it off site - it will be a big big day, lots of food, lots of drink, hundreds of people in the room and you're going to show what you've learnt in the 12 weeks and you're going to officially birth that business of yours.

Everybody excited about that? Nobody too nervous about it? Feeling good? Alright.

So what we expect from you. The first thing as I said is attendance at all planned content sessions for at least one founder. You will work from the fire station, from this building, for the 12 weeks. We will give you disk space, it will be for free, but your business effectively starts here. So you can use interns and we'll have a separate conversation about that down the line. All the teams used interns last year. They are students they worked really hard. They added enormous value for those businesses and it's best to do it on-site because they're here and you have proximity. They can go to class etc. After the program finishes there is a period of time where you will be allowed to continue running your business from this office but only for about another two or three months and at that point either you'll start paying below market rent here and then once we start the next accelerator program you'll have to find the next place to go. But it does give you many, many months to start your business rent free which is really a huge advantage in a start-up space.

We ask you to respect the space and the other people in it. Whilst it is a lovely space it is not enormous and so what you'll find is you'll be in close proximity to other people who are also trying to run businesses and learn things and have conversations and have meetings. We have a digitized process where you can book a meeting room. There are lots of meeting rooms around the building and obviously there are lots of places around the campus where you can work. But you'll be working like this. You're very close with people and we need everybody to be respectful.

There are legal and contractual obligations with us. So how you invoice us? How we pay you? What the expectations are about your attendance? What our expectations are about what we have to give you and the way that we provide those services? It's all there and we expect you to uphold the contract that we'll sign. It's a very basic contract you don't need to be nervous about it. And then we need you to bring an open and collaborative mind to the experience.

So one of the things about being a start-up entrepreneur is that there is no single pathway. No two businesses are the same. No two entrepreneurs are the same. So everybody is going to add a different flavour to the experience. Everybody's challenges and everybody's excitements and everybody's opportunities will be a learning experience for the person sitting next to them. We will bring in people who have done it over and over and over again but that should be informative rather than instructive. So we want you to gain some sense of excitement and learn something from their journey, but it doesn't mean their journey is going to be the same as your journey. What it does mean however is we're going to arm you with people who can help you through your particular journey as it goes along, whether they be mentors, whether they're the entrepreneurs in residence here, whether it's the faculty of the Swinburne Innovation Precinct themselves.

So what you get. This is the greatest prize purse in the history of university accelerator programs in Australia. No it is it's really good. So $30,000 cash no equity. That's paid in - it's one tranche now? - or two tranches? - one tranche week 4 I think 3 or 4. So you will send us an invoice in week 3 we will then pay you the $30,000 in one lump sum. We need to see that you've turned up. So that you know there was a team last year who did not turn up they were removed from the program. They received zero dollars.

So we expect things from you. We're putting world class people here to teach you and we expect a commitment in return for $30,000 given. We're taking no equity. The second thing you're going to get is free rent on campus which I've mentioned you're going to have an opportunity to get ten thousand dollars of free accounting services for each business. That doesn't mean you have to use it in one lump sum but we will introduce you to a major accounting and financial services firm, one of the biggest in the country and they are there to help you when you need help. That is invaluable as you are structuring and setting up your business because the last thing you want to do is set your business up in a way that does not allow you to grow in the way that you hope to grow. Structurally, I'm talking about.

The other thing is this year we've done a deal with Corrs which we hadn't done before. Corrs will enable - that deal will enable - you as founders to access hundreds of different contract templates that have been written by one of the best law firms in the country. Everything from your employment contracts to your terms and conditions on your website through to major partnership deals, MOU deals and all of that is free for you to use as part of the program. You will save hundreds of thousands of dollars using that program.

15,000 free cloud services from Swinburne's partner AWS. So as you start building your digital businesses that will allow you to have some fun in the cloud and you can start that business without worrying about the bills starting on day one.

This year we also have signed Airwallex which we didn't have last year. So Airwallex - for those - does anybody know? does anybody not know who Airwallex is? Okay a few. So start up, amazing startup company. They deal in foreign exchange transactions which means that if you are selling products overseas, transacting overseas, have customers or suppliers, they will enable you to have one hundred and fifty thousand dollars’ worth of free transactions fee free which means normally when you do those things the bank charges you to make those transactions and they're saying for the first hundred and fifty thousand of transactions it will cost you nothing.
We have world-class mentors and presenters and 24-hour entrepreneurs in residence on-site. So what that effectively means is, and believe me I know because I was one last year and I got calls at all time of the day and night and every day on the weekends and non-stop, is that there are people here to help you through anything that you're going through within the context of the 12 weeks. So if you're looking at you know if you're having trouble with your business plan, if you can't quite get the narrative right, if you're doing a customer deal and you need help on figuring out how to do it, if you're looking at pricing models, whatever it might be, looking at a contract, there are people here to help you. It doesn't cost you anything, you just make an appointment and literally they are in the building with you the whole time. It's also worth saying the day, that you're available here and not just the days that we do content. So although content days are Monday and Wednesday you are more than free to work from here all day every day. So this can be your office full-time for 12 weeks plus, but those two days Monday Wednesday there'll be some content time with us. Everybody clear on that?

Okay we're going faster than I thought. We're going to get through it in an hour. Miracle!

This is the content. This is best content in any accelerator in a university in this country I guarantee you. Completely revamped this year. So what you're going to find is we've got three modules this year, very very different to the way that we did it last year and they are designed with a specific purpose in mind.

So we start with the foundational months. These are just your basic start-up. What do you need to get going? What are the things you need to understand from the storytelling, founder resilience which was a program we ran last year and was one of the most popular programs we ran content wise. It was all the way at the end of the session last year and all of the teams said to us that would have been amazing if we'd done it early. We're going to do it super early this time around. Viral pathways, values and ethics, understanding your customer base, your market, business model, social impact. If you cannot do those things if you do not understand where you are here there is no way you can build a business. They are the foundational blocks of understanding who you are and why you exist. It's going to be a very intense first month.

The second month, module 2 structure month is really about legals, financials etc etc. So now we're getting the contracts right, we're getting a structure of the business right, you're going to hear from major accounting firms, major law firms major investment houses, VCs people who do this for a living all day every day and they're going to teach you about the different options that are available to you as you structure that business. So you come out of first month with real clarity about what your business is, who you're trying to attract and how you're going to grow and then this month is going to be about how you create the structure to enable that to happen.
And then finally we go into module 3, the growth month, and this is about PR and marketing and telling your story and channels to market and how you're going to build sales kits and how you're going to win business. Yeah. So there's a there's a very natural flow. It looks like a lot of content. These literally represent - every one of these - represents either a two or a one-and-a-half-hour session that you're going to do. So these are not five minutes sitting in a room where we're going to brush over marketing. Not one of them is less than an hour and a half. There are big names and I'm not going to tell you who they are, but there's a big name attached to almost every one of those. It's going to be a lot of fun. Actually. This is going to be a lot of fun.

So this is what we're looking for. We're looking for Swinburne family, alum, students or staff. We want you to be able to present a clear business idea. Okay it doesn't mean everything needs to be perfect. It doesn't mean we want you to tell us what percentage of the market you'll have in three years’ time, but the idea needs to be crystal clear. This is the problem, and this is how we're solving it. Yeah.

JOHN MORRISON

Can I just touch on something? Last year we had real problem with one of the teams. Not only did they not turn up, but they actually committed fraud saying one of their founders was a student here. We are going to look very closely at your claims. We just need one founder to be Swinburne family but we will look closely at that and validate that okay. So please we've already had one team be very casual about bringing in a founder to suit you know when it's clearly not a founder. Just to, you know, hit that that criteria. Please if you don't get the criteria don't okay yeah just don't do it.

ADAM JACOBY

So clear business idea, we want a well-articulated market opportunity. So again understanding your market and doing the analysis of market is a bit of a skill and we are going to teach you how to do it through the program but what we want now, what that first step is - and I answer you're looking at me with a puzzled look as we did this through Venture Cup [inaudible] - well you shouldn't be doing that either.
A well-articulated market position is you being able to say categorically these are our future customers, or our current customers. This is who we are going after and this is why we think it can grow. I'll give an example. If you are in the space of soccer which we had a group last year do not say there are six billion people who play soccer and therefore my market is six billion people. That is not your market. Your market are the people in this country that you can attract with the services that can afford them using the digital platform that you're offering. Okay. Be able to articulate clearly, sensibly, this is our market, this is how we're going after it. Okay. All of this macro, American, elevator pitch - we're going to be the biggest thing since Google. We don't believe it. We're not going to buy it and you won't get in. Ok. We want real numbers. We want you to have thought about what it means to go after your market.

We want a product MVP or prototype ideally. So that doesn't mean you have to have product on the shelf it means that you have to have at least started to build this thing and can show us roughly what it's going to do or it does what it's meant to do at the very base basic level. Not all the bells and whistles. Not as perfect as it's going to be in the future. But it has to work, ok.

And then ideally a customer or a user. This does not have to be a paying customer. So even if you've got any group a community group, a local group, a family group, a church group, a sporting group, it doesn't matter, somebody who is actually testing it for you and can give you feedback and if you have that that is going to go a long way with us because you are now in market. Any questions about that?

AUDIENCE

What does MVP stand for?

ADAM JACOBY

Minimum viable product. Ask as many questions as you like.

AUDIENCE

In terms of the customer, if you had for example partnered with someone, and were getting their feedback?

ADAM JACOBY

That's fine. If it is a partner who is testing it for you, that's fine.

AUDIENCE

Sorry, can it be testing the prototype itself. So say the MVP is no ready to go to market.

ADAM JACOBY

Testing the prototype is fine. Yep, all good.

AUDIENCE

Can we apply for two programs at Swinburne at the same time?

ADAM JACOBY

Ah accelerator programs? Only if the schedules allow. So what we wouldn't want is for you to be missing our program to be at their program. The commitments that we expect here have to be met and as long as you can make the commitments then that'll be okay.

JOHN MORRISON

I'm fine with you applying, but I don't think you can be in two programs at the same time.

ADAM JACOBY

Are you in a program now or you're thinking of applying to two?

AUDIENCE

Thinking of applying to two programs at the same time.

ADAM JACOBY

You can apply, you can apply to a hundred programs. Apply to as many as you can and then let's deal with the spoils of either the outcomes afterwards.

AUDIENCE

This comment about testing the prototype, if the pitch is that you want to test commercial or technical feasibility of an MVP or a prototype that is something you would look favourably on.

ADAM JACOBY

Very much so. Any market feedback you can get is going to significantly enhance the quality of what you put out in the space and it will give you a market understanding that you wouldn't otherwise have. A lot of what start-ups do is have assumptions about what the market wants to be able to be in market, where people are saying actually we'd prefer if it did this, or it needs to do that, or it's too expensive, or it's too big all right you know I can't plug it into that. That's the kind of stuff that will bring it to life and that testing can come in you know depending on what the product is a million different ways.

Tell us your progress today. Okay. So when you are pitching, when you're applying and you're doing is three to four minute video tell us anything related to this. How many customers do you have? What does the MVP look like? How long have you been in market? How brilliant an idea is it? How big is the space? How many people have told you they'll use it? etc etc. We don't know unless you tell us and if you tell us it is going to serve you well. A lot of people afterwards will not get in and then they'll go but I have, you know, two and a half thousand customers. Well that would have been good to know that. Let us know okay.

So this is the application. Three to four-minute video. Consider this your winning pitch because this needs to be a good one because it's worth hundreds of thousands in value and thirty thousand in cash. So tell us your start-up story. Who would have founders? Who were the co-founders? Why did you get it started? And what's the relationship with Swinburne.

Again, don't feel the need to write everything down. This will be up there and it's in your information pack anyway.

And why you and why this team? This is a big part of a start-up pitch night is to explain why your team is going to be able to solve the problem that nobody else has been able to solve. Okay. That doesn't mean you need to be a world expert at it, it doesn't mean that you need to have had years and years of experience, simply I am the customer and I know what exists doesn't work and so I am building something that does work and here is why it's going to work, is a very good starting point. People who have lived the problem are usually well served in trying to solve the problem. What's your business? Why are you unique? How will it scale? Who is the target audience? Who are you going after? How are you going to get them.

And what stage is your start-up? This is really important. Please don't forget this in your pitch video. What stage are you at? We've just finished the MVP. We're testing. We've just signed our first partner. We have 200 products in the market. You know. We are in 16 states of the United States. Tell us where you're at. Give us a sense of your scale. What's the most important thing that you need to take your company to the next level. This is what this accelerator is about. It's about growth. It's about scale. We need to know that if you get the $30,000 and the free accounting and the legal contracts and the AWS etc etc you are clear about how you're going to use it and what you're going to do with it to take your business to the next level. And then explain that market again. Not telling me at six billion soccer players.

Your video pitch. Practice it before you do it. Don't send us the first one. Do it a few times. You've got three to four minutes. Know you're what, you're why, and your how - the most important things for any start-up entrepreneur. What are you doing? Why are you doing it. And how are you going to get it done? If you do not know those three things do not bother pitching. And try and get that as concise and clear as possible. Okay. You've got four minutes don't spend three- and-a-half minutes on that. Super concise. Prepare a script early and iterate iterate iterate. Okay. Keep working on it, keep practising it. If you find you don't fit into the four minutes find out bits that you can move around and fit in. Make sure that you hit the dot points that we said earlier. So all those things we want to hear from you make sure they're all in those four minutes which is why you need to write the script and write a speech. Personally, I like to do videos - I do a lot of public videos - I don't write things down. I don't write speeches. It makes me more nervous if I have a speech I just like to do this, but when you have a list of 22 things you need to hit not writing a speech is actually a bit of a problem because you invariably miss things. We don't want you to miss anything.

And then finally answer the major questions. Don't leave us hanging okay. So if we get to a point where it's between you and another team for the final spot and they have been able to articulate some key things about their market size and their channels to market and etc etc and you have left those things off you're going to miss out okay. We can only go off the information that is presented to us independent of how fantastic we think your idea might be. Makes sense. That's the only fair way to do this.

The interview schedule. So this is how it's going to work you're going to do the four minute video. We're going to come in and have a look at those videos we are then going to make a determination about who we think is worthy of interviews and it's not whether you'll as an individual whether the business is ready. So the first one interviews 16th April. 20-minute interview. That's kind of a preliminary, we're going to test some of the stuff you sent us. We're going to ask you a few probing questions about some of the assertions you've made. We're going to try and understand - Do you understand your business? Do you understand that what, that how and that why.

JOHN MORRISON

And we will do due diligence on that day. Which is really important. If you have got IP, intellectual property, we need to understand you actually have the right to it.

ADAM JACOBY

All the, yep, the legal stuff. If you get through this stage you may be invited to this stage. This is where we're going to make the final cull and decide who is going to be in the program. We're going to be testing you more on the business itself, channels to market your ability to grow, the quality of the team, how many people are in it, your commitment to the program. So for example that's where we're going to be asking you things like okay you live in Bendigo that's fabulous are you going to be able to come here every day and at the very least a Monday in a Wednesday all day? Okay. What we don't want to do is get to the place where we were last year where a team who lived rurally said yes they'll make the commitment and then for four weeks didn't make any commitment. We will be probing those questions.

JOHN MORRISON

We will be bringing venture capitalists in at that point and let me tell you, their bullshit meter is very sensitive. [laughter] So there is no hiding.

ADAM JACOBY

All final applicants will be notified on the 24th of April and it remember on the 5th of May is your first day here, is induction day. So about two weeks later and a week after induction day, week 1 starts ok.
So it's going to move pretty quickly, you'll learn the space you meet your neighbours, you'll get a sense pretty quickly of what you have to do you'll have to do that will do the due diligence with you you'll sign a contract you're going to have to get a working with children check. Everybody who works on campus has to have that. So be prepared for that. That's the only cost of the program and it's not our cost, it's the cost of getting a license. I had to get it when I got a job. Everybody has to do it. Sharon how much is it? [inaudible] So it's about 120 something dollars. You'll have to get it you can start without it although we don't advise that you do but within two weeks HR will make you show them.

JOHN MORRISON

We can't give you access to the building after hours.

ADAM JACOBY

After hours unless you don't have it, yeah. And you actually won't get paid until we see it either.

AUDIENCE

Just a quick question, looking at the interview it says look at your business plan is there a particular structure you want to see that business plan.

ADAM JACOBY

No, and in fact the advantage is in us being able to see how you structure a business plan. If we just gave you the plan it would be yeah there wouldn't be a lot of favour and we wouldn't be able to see the difference the grey between each of you. There is no right or wrong way to do a business plan. How you write it is less important than covering the bits that we've articulated earlier we need to see and again we're not looking for 150-page plan we just want you to be able to lean canvas style, explain what your business is.

AUDIENCE

Does that get submitted after interviews?

ADAM JACOBY

It'll be part of the application process.

Some frequently asked questions. I'm not going to run through all of them. So I'm going to ask you for four minutes to look at the board. These are the things that we're asked most about. If there are any other questions after this I will welcome them, but these are the things that I usually asked and you might find an answer on the board. Again you have it in your information packs anyway. This presentation will be available on the website shortly, as will this video. So you'll be able to look at it again.

AUDIENCE

How many teams are you expecting?

ADAM JACOBY

At this stage we are sort of saying about six might be one more might be one less but around six is what we're looking at and again there are a lot of programs that bring on 20 30 40 50, we are less interested in having a lot of throughput what we are looking for is real quality business with the potential to scale and we would rather work with fewer founders and take businesses further then just have more bodies in the building for the sake of having bodies. It's a pretty intensive program and it's a lot of contact hours. So to have 40 or 50 people on those contact hours you know we'd need to watch the number of staff to do it.
Okay I'm going to move on from here but I can come back to what afterwards.

Here are the key dates these are the things is really important. So applications are open right now you could go to a website and apply tonight if you are feeling daring. I strongly advise against it. On the 10th of April at midnight applications will close. Ok. We will not take any applications after midnight if you miss out by one minute you've missed out until next year you know we change the date. [indistinct]. We changed the dates. These are are the correct dates. 16th of April, 1st round interviews, 23rd are our a second round, 4th of May induction week, 11th of May week 1 commences, every week for 12 weeks demo day in the final week on the 29th of July and then you're free into the business wilderness to run fantastically successful business and talked fondly of Swinburne and how we launched you into the world. Are there any other questions? There are.

AUDIENCE

Who needs to be present for the interviews? Can you bring another founder in?

ADAM JACOBY

We would like to meet as many founders as are available, yes.

AUDIENCE

What if there are people that are contracting with your business you're not entirely sure if you're going to absorb them in?

ADAM JACOBY

Do not bring anybody who is not critical for us to meet. People will come and go in terms of staff and interns and that's up to you that will evolve that will change it'll change over the 12 weeks. So if you look at the teams that went through last year all of them put on some of them put on their first staff and all of them put on staff except for one team. All of them significantly grew their customer base in fact two of them doubled their customer base. 2 of them doubled their revenue base in the 12 weeks that they're with us. So we want you to focus on the things that matter and we just need to know the people in the business that we are going to have to deal with every day and the people that we need to help work on for those 12 weeks. Your staff for your business has nothing to do with us. Any other questions.

AUDIENCE

Just double-check, one founder is okay right?

ADAM JACOBY

One founder is fine. 100 percent fine as long as one founder you can attend all of the sessions. The only advantage that multi founder teams have is that they can sort of tag-team who is in and who is out. And I say that because we had a sole founder last year and often he would have business meetings on days where meetings were scheduled, and I had to be the badass who said sorry you're going to have to miss your business meetings. So what we want you to know in advance is that the dates and those times are not going to change. So Mondays and Wednesdays if you're a sole founder who makes it through you are going to be here and you are going to be working in between your morning and afternoon sessions you can do as many meetings as you want but 9:00 to 11:00 and 4:30 to 6:00 your ours.

JOHN MORRISON

Can I say, while we had one very successful team last year that was a sole founder, we prefer teams. We feel that it brings diversity. It brings a more rounded approach. No one person can have all the skill sets.

ADAM JACOBY

But it doesn't mean you won't get in if you apply as a sole founder.

AUDIENCE

I am a sole founder but I've got three early employees that are heavily invested, but they are not founders.

ADAM JACOBY

What do you mean heavily invested?

AUDIENCE

Well, they work for equity, they have been on board for at least 12 months.

ADAM JACOBY

Well that if that's worth articulating for us so we understand that.

AUDIENCE

Have you ever taken a start-up that is not Australian?

ADAM JACOBY

In the program? I don't believe we have.

JOHN MORRISON

We haven't but we have been asked that question before and we are totally open to it.

AUDIENCE

What are you looking for there?

ADAM JACOBY

Exactly the same stuff. They have to be here for the program and as long as they are here program and they are Swinburne family then where they're operating is largely irrelevant to us.

AUDIENCE

Seems one of the goals is to have start-ups graduate outside of Swinburne and start a business - grow a business - and that doesn't necessarily have to be in Australia, or in Melbourne.

ADAM JACOBY

And in fact we had, one of the groups for example not through the accelerator but through the Venture Cup last year had the vast majority of their customers - they had hundreds of thousands of members to their program and the vast majority were not in Australia. Doesn't make any difference to us

AUDIENCE

Is there some sort of preferences to things like, for example, if the business is in [indistinct]

ADAM JACOBY

No difference whatsoever for us. So there are some examples of accelerators and in fact we're talking about running one in partnership with United Nations, we have just done a deal with them, where we would run specifically in an industry or in a market sector this particular accelerator can be anything it doesn't make any difference.

AUDIENCE

What do you want from the start-ups. I suppose it might be a proof that you're able to generate successful start-ups.

ADAM JACOBY

What, you mean, how do we measure success? All right. So good question. So there are a few things. From our point of view this is the way that the university gives back to its community and it enables a pathway other than a traditionally professional pathway where you get a degree at a university and then you go and you work somewhere there are lots of people who don't want to do that or who have tried that and want to do something else this is an opportunity to provide the expertise to enable our community to be the best arm they can be when they go into the business world. What does success look like? Sustainable businesses that come out of our program. So not the ones that necessarily get the biggest investment, not the ones that have the greatest valuation after a year, but ones that are growing genuinely organically growing - customers, staff, revenues - successful sustainable businesses that will go on for a long period of time and ideally founders who will then commit back to this Swinburne community and after they reach success and find some success can come back and then help the next generation of entrepreneurs out.

One of the, you know, as somebody who I started my first business at 17 straight out of high school and the most valuable thing that I had was having people around me who were entrepreneurs who were prepared to help me and teach me things. I made a million mistakes. I would have made too many mistakes if I didn't have those people and making mistakes is part of good entrepreneurship, it's part of your founder journey anyway, but what we do want is a really robust Swinburne community of entrepreneurs who just continue to generate the next series of entrepreneurs and continue to birth great businesses that contribute to the economy in society. And the other thing that's worth saying is if you have a not-for-profit as opposed to a for-profit business that's 100 percent fine as well.

AUDIENCE

So basically you already need to be a business. So just one question. Is it a company or sole trader?

ADAM JACOBY

It doesn't make a difference to us. So you could be a not-for-profit. So company limited by liability there are you know any which way that you are a registered entity trading and you can answer those questions is fine with us yeah.

JOHN MORRISON

Although I think a sole trader is really structured to scale.

ADAM JACOBY

Yeah, you'll struggle to be able to make an argument about scale with a sole trader business.

JOHN MORRISON

It doesn't mean you can't convert.

ADAM JACOBY

But if you're starting here as a sole trader and you say this is where I am now the intention is to transition to and this is how we're going to grow. That's fine. That's perfectly fine.

AUDIENCE

That is what I wanted to know - if you had a category in terms of business. So we already need to have customers already?

ADAM JACOBY

You don't have to have some customers, but at the very least we expect you to have somebody who's testing the product. If you have customers that's a bonus. Well that will be looked on very favourably. It doesn't mean that you're definitely getting if you have customers, but it will be very good if you if you have them. But if you have people who are working or your prototype of your MVP that will go a long way with us. Any other questions?

AUDIENCE

Are the videos for last year's demo showcase day available on website.

ADAM JACOBY

That's currently on the website yep. And the other thing is - are we going to do a day where we're going to bring some of the last year's cohort through to talk to people yeah? So at the induction week you'll meet some of the groups who went through last year and they'll be able to talk to you about their experiences and kind of what was easy? what was hard? what to focus on? how to hit the ground running. You'll be able to ask lots of questions. So people who were in exactly the same position that you were in a year before. Don't apologize that's what we're here for.

AUDIENCE

Do we have the chance to meet the VCs here?

ADAM JACOBY

Yes. So. So not every day and what you'll find is. So if I go back to that. So here in these content sessions you're going to find a group of people who are business leaders in that space. So you know they're genuine market experts in marketing or PR or investment or whatever the case may be and as a result of their expertise in their longevity many of them are investors themselves. In addition to that on demo day we invite a fairly significant cohort of VCs to meet and hear what happens and then this year, which we didn't do last year, after the demo day that evening we'll have an opportunity for you to meet sort of in a more intimate setting with a number of those VCs. Any other questions. Yes.

AUDIENCE

The co-founders of my innovation they are really busy people. If I wanted to grab someone who had a certain set of skills which would be useful to my evaluation can I consider him or her as a co-founder?

ADAM JACOBY

So unless they own a decent chunk of equity and they created the business with you they're not going to be a co-founder. Outside of the founders who you bring in is your business to amplify the skills that you need and that's fine and we would encourage you to fill the bits that you don't have. We would like to meet the founders even if, for example, you said look there are three of us, two of us won't be here every week but one of us will always be here we'd still like to meet the three and then work with the one. But at minimum we need to know who the founders are independent of how busy they are.

JOHN MORRISON

Especially if you get through to the final interview. I would strongly recommend bringing all the founders in.

AUDIENCE

Okay the thirty thousand dollars equity free funding, where does that come from?

ADAM JACOBY

It comes from the University. Swinburne pays you to help you start your business as a commitment that we make to the start-up community that is separate from going and getting a job somewhere.

AUDIENCE

How many participants are there roughly?

ADAM JACOBY

There will be six teams. We expect there'll be six maybe minus plus one.

AUDIENCE

[indistinct]

ADAM JACOBY

So we're not asking for the secret sauce we're just asking you to tell us what the problem is and how you're intending to fix it if you have specific IP concerns you can certainly address them with us and if you want us to sign something. Are you staff member? Are you a staff member or alumni? How are you connected to the University? How are you connected to Swinburne?

AUDIENCE

[indistinct]

ADAM JACOBY

Okay. So that is that is a possibility, but that example is one where we will have to work with you and how that gets set up to make sure that you meet the criteria appropriately. That's not a no you could absolutely do it but we would need to know that those people are genuine cofounders of the business and they are part of Swinburne family. We have people who come here and spend and invest a lot of money and time and energy in getting their degrees. Not all of those people want to go out and get jobs some of them develop IP and ideas here when they work for us some of them do it outside afterwards, some of them do it as this as they're students. What we've done is identify that some of those people don't want to get jobs they want to start businesses, and this is our ability to invest back in our own community. So that they can do that.

So I'll give you an example of some of the teams that came through last year. So you'll see the diversity. So one of the teams that came through which was an academic team has a digital algorithm effectively that they have built which enables them to work on social network analysis. They are both experts in that space they are genuine global experts and they have worked out how to map in a way digitally that hasn't been done before.
We had another team - an incredibly successful team - that runs now the most awarded circular economy business in Australia. So they have a piece of technology that they took they licensed and now own from CSIRO and they are in the market enabling businesses to trade materials with each other.

We have another team that has facial recognition for pharmaceutical deployment. So you go into a chemist they scan your face it tells the chemist this is the drugs I meant to have yes it's actually me and they deploy.
They're all fundamentally different businesses. All of them articulated the problem that they were trying to solve and how they were going to solve it and that was good enough to get a place in the program. Any other questions. All right. Well, thank you very much. Again, this video will be up online. This presentation will be up online. You have an information pack. Just to remind you of the dates again until April 10 at midnight to get your three to four-minute video in plus the other things that we asked for in the application process okay.

AUDIENCE

If one has a question later on who do we contact?

ADAM JACOBY

The emails on the website and will come through to the appropriate person Sharon will decide who can best answer that question for you.
Thank you very much. Have a good night