Startup Weekend Brisbane | Creative Tech

Last weekend, I took part in the QUT organised Startup Weekend for Creative Tech. Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has a large stake in the creative industries space. They host the Coterie, a co-working space geared towards creatives. QUT also has a Creative Enterprise department that runs accelerators for creative people. So I had high expectations going into the weekend. But it did not go well. My team slowly disintegrated, I got food poisoning and missed all of Sunday. But I did manage to make one contact at the event that might lead to something. So that's something!

Reflecting on the weekend, the first red flag was when the organisers couldn't quite define what they meant by "creative startups" and fell back on the old gem "no banking".  To be fair, no one looks at banking and thinks "creative", and if they do, it usually starts and stops with "creative accounting" which is illegal and has tanked the world economy enough times - thank you very much! But I still expected a bit of a better definition from the organisers of the creative tech startup weekend.

The next thing that didn't quite work as intended was that in their zeal, the organisers got everybody present to pitch. So there were 90 participants. About 40 to 50 were already pitching, but the organiser encouraged everyone to pitch. It was a great idea on paper, but a terrible idea when the dinner and free networking finished at 7 PM and the venue was going to close at 10 PM. We didn't start voting on the pitches until 9:30 PM and that wasn't a lot of time to mingle and form groups.

Despite this, I left Friday night thinking I was in a good group with a clear idea to spend the weekend working on a startup for a medical IoT device. I came back on Saturday to find that no, apparently the team wasn't on the same page and we were going to build a fashion IoT device. That wouldn't be too bad except that fashion IoT device was something that sounds cool, but no one would buy. I demonstrated clearly to my group that the idea wasn't viable, but I fell into a circular argument because one of my teammates was completely married to his idea and just wouldn't accept reality. I should have heeded the red flag and left the team. But I perversely tried to make the best of the situation. But, there is a reason why the wisdom in the startup space is to bail when you think you should bail.

Anyway, I didn't get a lot of out of the weekend, and after I got food poisoning, I pretty much left what remained of my team in the lurch on Sunday. All and all, I think I'll sit out for the other weekend-long commitments for awhile.

Techstars Startup Weekend Brisbane 2018

This weekend, around the world, TechStars Startup Weekend is back on. This weekend was targeted towards women, although it is not exclusive to women. Men could come along and join if they wanted. I am not taking part, but I did turn up for Friday night initial pitches. I also gave a pitch, but I didn't do any recruiting for canvased for votes obviously. I mostly enjoyed listening to the pitches.

So where the pitches different from the Startup Weekend in November? Not as much as I thought they would be. There were three extremely similar pitches for fashion related startups that centered around customisation and ethical fashion. There were a few start-up ideas around caregiving, including ideas about making elderly parents more comfortable with technology. However, what surprised me were how many startup ideas centred around financial education and financial freedom. There were, however, no obvious winning ideas among the pitches.

What I mean is that during the November Startup Weekend, it was pretty obvious that the Pegasus Equine Management was a slam dunk unless something went wrong. The idea got the most votes, was the biggest team and it was obvious the lady who pitched already knew going in that there was a market for it. Most importantly, she already had the contacts to break into the market if she could just get a product together. The only idea that approached Pegasus, in terms of known gap in the market and industry connection, this time around was "Florist Connect", but it just didn't have the traction among those who were attending.

Anyway, I handed my card to a few people who I thought I could collaborate with in the future but I am not sure if anything will come of it. It probably would have been better if I could stick around and taken part but between travelling for much of January and a recent bout of illness, I didn't feel I would have the energy to contribute effectively. But I have already signed up for the March Startup Weekend, which has a focus on creativity, including IoT. So I think it might be a good venue to pitch some of my wearable ideas.

Nura Headphones: Personalised Sound!

Back in July 2016, I backed Nura Headphones on Kickstarter. I finally got my headphones and I love it! I have never been much of an audiophile and strangely, that's why I was attracted to these headphones. I mean, the best pair of headphones I had before Nura were SoundMAGIC E30 in-ear headphone. They were great but I always wondered if I was getting the best sound possible out of them because I suck at equalization. I usually just go with presets but I also don't bother changing the presets. Finally, I was concerned about hearing degradation as I aged. Nura seemed to be a great answer to all my concerns.

Nura uses a frequency based test to map my ear and then provides me with a personalised hearing profile that is designed to help me hear as much of the music as possible. So I don't have to worry about equalization and in theory, if I run the test annually, I can keep hearing well even as my ears change with age. So for me, it was a good buy at the Kickstarter price. Especially since I didn't already have expansive high-end Headphones. The SoundMAGIC E30, while highly rated, ultimately a pair of budget headphones that come in under $50.

However, the professional reviews for Nura have been more mixed. A lot of people prefer the build in equalization of other high-end headphones to Nura's personal profile. Some people also prefered other people's profiles to their own. I can understand to an extent. I tried listening using my mom's hearing profile and the music was louder. I know that when I couldn't decide what sounded best, I just went with whichever equalization setting sounded louder. My brother also got a pair of Nura and I would be keen to see how music sounds with his and my sister-in-law's sound profile.

As for the sound profiles, I ran the test on my phone ears three times and while the colouring changed, the overall shape of my hearing graph was consistent. It was also different from those of my mom, brother and sister-in-law. Other Nura owners have posted their profiles on Twitter. The variety of profiles is quite something.

Overall, I love the headphones and they were the right buy for me. For others, the price might not be worth it. Alternatively, they might already have high-end headphones that they already like. But I am glad I backed Nura Headphones!

Scanning my foot!

I don't talk a lot about projects I back on Kickstarter here. That's probably a mistake, and I should review some of the technology projects I back. Of course, my Kickstarter backer profile is much more diverse than just technology. For example, I backed Antonia Saint heels, which fall under design. However, there was a strong technological element to the project, because the shoes are supposed to be tailored to your feet, with an app being used to scan and measure your feet.

Essentially, it is a high-tech return to the days when cobblers fitted your shoe to the exact dimensions of your feet. Until I get the shoes, I won't know for sure, how good the app is but I have to admit, it was somewhat difficult to use the app. Especially the socked photo section of the app because I couldn't work out how to take the photo per the instruction. Also, they asked a few questions about my heels and ankles that I found a bit confusing to answer. But it did force me to look at my feet very closely. I never realised that my heels wore down the way they do because of the shape of my foot. I always thought I walked weird.

Overall, I am looking forward to the shoes. I just wish I could have gotten them in red instead of "nude". But you can't have everything.

Getting into the Internet of Things

I am a big fan of Kickstarter and crowdfunding in general. Indeed, I am interested in exploring the idea of crowdfunding as a source of research funding. Especially given the rise of research crowdfunding platforms such as Experiment. Although at the moment, Kickstarter is the only crowdsourcing platform I regularly use.

I have backed a diverse range of projects through the site. Even flirted with the idea of launching my own project. The majority of the projects I backed in the technology field have been related to the Pebble Smartwatch, which is something I am obviously interested in given AWEAR.

However, lately, I have become interested in the Internet of Things (IoT). Living in Australia, I know that the IoT future still has a while to go. Internet infrastructure is just not there for many people. Including myself, and I live in a major Australian city, in a well-established suburb. Yet even my internet connectivity can be patchy. There is also the fact that sometimes, IoT solutions seems to be seeking problems to solve.

A good example of this is Knocki. Which at the time of writing is just four days away from being successfully funded on Kickstarter. Knocki is undoubtedly a cool idea. However, the actual practical utility of it I am not entirely sold on. I can see it being of great use to my grandparents, who face great mobility challenges. But they also live in Bangladesh and are at that stage where introducing anything new in their routine is a problem.

My mum is also getting on in years. But she's not yet too old for new tech. So Knocki could be for her. Except that every suggested example of what Knocki can do can also be achieved with a smartwatch. Indeed, the smartwatch has the advantage of being on your wrist already and you don't have to remember how many taps to dim the light. The "remembering" part may not seem like a big deal to someone young and carefree. But older adults or even overworked adults would rather stick to an old-fashioned remote for the simple reason that they can always look down and read what the buttons do. You just hit the dim the light button. But again, I get why Knocki appeals to some people. It is, as I said, undoubtedly cool. If I had more smart gadgets around my house, I too might be keen to get a Knocki.

As it is, I decided to jump into the IoT Kickstarter scene in a more DIY basis by backing MbientLab Inc's Metawear. I got two since they can also work as custom wearables. I am thinking of building something like a baby monitor. I babysit my niece from time to time, and she's becoming more mobile by the day! So, even as my mother and grandparents might benefit from items that do not require them to move much. My niece needs things that help us track her as she begins to explore the world around her. I can also look into using Metawear to device something elder-friendly for my grandparents. But for now, I will focus on my niece and perhaps come up with something cool for myself.

So that's my action plan for July. Build something cool with Metawear. Also, to keep my research credentials up, I will be working on a "State of the art" paper on IoT. I am looking forward to it.