Another day, another rip-off: #StopTheRipOff

The Great Australian Rip-off campaign is in full swing as we at Kyco work to bring more attention to the problem with comparison sites. As if to validate our problem statement, Trivago was fined $44 million for misleading customers coming to their site looking for the best price.

My CEO, Trond Smith, appeared on Sky News to explain how this goes beyond travel. Highlighting that outside of comparison tools from consumer groups who compare the whole market, these websites are largely sales engines that will highlight the more profitable deals for them. Not to mention they aren’t always upfront about who owns them and sometimes they are owned by the people they are promoting.

It’s all very shady and very late-stage capitalism to a certain extent. 30% of people are switching, so the 70% who are not switching are in a way bearing the cost of the switchers. But also, the switchers are paying with their time and effort to keep switching. Wouldn’t it be better if we all just save as a collective?

Kyco is trying to be that collective and I am proud to do what I can to make that happen!

Finally attended a Silicon Beach Australia Virtual Pitch Night!

Silicon Beach is Australia’s largest network of startup communities and it is a community I have wanted to stay connected to for some time. Yesterday, I was finally able to attend one of their pitch nights!

There were some great pitches from people trying to solve some real, pressing problems. The one I related to the most was Wirl App. Just because I often use food to keep myself functioning. Not great for the waist line but beats not being able to get out of bed! Wirl was one of the winners from the night.

The other winners were Diana’s Closet, which is a curated online clothing store. I loved her personality and her style is great too! I can see myself buying from her.

The other big winner was GoMicro which allows you to assess food quality using your mobile. As someone who struggles to judge fresh food lifespan, this is something I would buy if it were to become a consumer item. Although right now GoMicro seems to be focused more on large scale businesses.

Of the other pitchers, I noted MyAxis as someone who appeared to be post-revenue, which is always a strong selling point for a startup. Also, Terran Industries is trying to tackle climate change and currently raising capital. While Coat’d startup is trying to market a long-term disinfectant.

Other pitches were delivered from:

• Gowell

• Nutribe

• Harpoon Analysis

• Query Law

• Silfresh

• Real Fringe Hair Bands

I have definitely missed a few and my apologies to the ones I missed. My notes were not exhaustive. Anyway, a good time was had by all and I look forward to the next pitch!

The Great Australian Rip-off: What we are doing to #StopTheRipOff

I can’t believe that it’s already the end of March! I didn’t even do a New Years post! Have I been that busy? Yes, yes I have!

It’s been incredibly rewarding and challenging working full-time as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Kyco Australia. As much as I would like to say that it’s been smooth sailing with nothing but wins but that has not been the case. We have suffered many setbacks and even forward steps often resulted in us going backwards. That is, however, the reality of startup life with the journey being more of a zigzag then a straight line.

Onwards with new partners and a new plan! On Thursday the 24th of March we launched The Great Australian Rip Off campaign to expose the secret payments and incentives many Australians don’t realise are driving up their cost of living for services including electricity and the internet. 

 Insurers have admitted secret commissions paid to commercial comparison websites – some as high as 40 to 60 per cent – end up being passed on to most Australians through higher premiums. Our startup was created to address the market inefficiency born from this rip-off. So it makes sense for us to shine a light on the problem. So join us to #StopTheRipOff, your wallet will thank you!

UQ Ventures Entrepreneurship Bootcamp - MVP Development + Kalvitree

A new experience for December and Thursday, I got to have a nice “fireside chat” style session with Marvin Fox for the MVP Development Workshop as part of the UQ Ventures Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Business Bootcamp for Australian alumni and ex-pats in Mumbai. The BootCamp is delivered in partnership with the Australian Consulate-General in Mumbai.

The session went for two and half hours, during which I discussed my experience developing MVPs, pitfalls when developing and releasing MVPs, finally engaging in the philosophical discussion of what even is an MVP!

It was a great experience and I hope to do more of these types of sessions and give back to the university and startup communities in 2022.

Another thing I am looking forward to in 2022 is continuing to assist in the growth and development of Kalvitree as their tech advisor on their brain trust. Subha Chari and the Kalvitree team had a big win recently by being chosen as one of the recipients of the Techvista, Catalysr Migrapreneur Activate Grant (MAG). Here’s hoping for more good things for Kalvitree in the new year to come!

Panellist on MIT Bootcamps Graduate Panel

Early morning today, at 1 AM in fact, I stayed awake to take part in the MIT Bootcamps Graduate Panel as a panellist. I spoke on the topic of “How to make the most of the Bootcamp community”. The full agenda was:

10 – 10:10 am ET → Introductions led by MIT Bootcamps team

 10:10 - 10:25 am ET → Helena Franco, MMSc-GHD candidate at Harvard Medical School: how to adopt lessons learnt from the Bootcamp into your professional and personal life

 10:25 - 10:40 am ET → Sharmin (Tinni) Choudhury, CTO of Kyco Australia: how to make the most of the Bootcamp community

10:40 - 10:55 am ET → Gareth Hewlett, Digital, Data & Network Convergence Director, Consumer CTIO at BT: how to think like a start-up for people used to working in a corporate environment

10:55 - 11:10 am ET → Giannina Gambini, Growth Manager Country at Tuxpas - Workplace from Facebook Partner: how to work with people from very different from yourself – whether it’s background, culture or personality

11:10 – 11:30 am ET → General Q&A (moderated by Bootcamps team)

I wasn’t as fluid with my speaking as I wanted to be and I feel I went for a bit too long. But I did cover the ground I wanted and encouraged the new MIT Bootcamp graduates to continue to say yes to opportunities to interact and participate with MIT Bootcamp community activities.

I truly believe that the power of “yes” is the way to get the most out of the MIT Bootcamp community. Whether that means saying yes to events, panels like the one this morning or just yes to organising something yourself, thus putting yourself out there and opening yourself to interaction and opportunities is the way to get the maximum benefit from the Bootcamp community.

To be fair, that’s the way to get the most out of any community but especially true of startup and research land I feel just because networking is so much more important within both. So go say yes to good, interesting opportunities from trusted sources. I have to qualify because I don’t want people to be so open that their brains fall out. There are way too many scams out there for me to encourage people to say yes without adding a word of caution. But still, do not doubt the power of yes!