Welcome 2025!

Wow! It’s already 2025, and I only made two posts in 2024! One of them was the New Year post, which would give the impression that nothing happened in 2024, but in truth, a lot happened in 2024. Mostly not positive.

I would have still posted about the negative things. I am, if nothing else, a natural diary keeper, and I do see this blog more as a record for me to reflect on later down the track. Although being public, it is also here for those who want to know more about what I have been up to and what I am doing. So, let’s reflect on everything that happened in 2024 and what that means for 2025.

For much of 2024, I was quite sick. The underlying cause is Uterine fibroids that manifest in multiple debilitating symptoms, including extreme exhaustion due to anaemia. However, after much trial and error, I was put on Ryeqo, which is an extremely new and expensive medication designed specifically for uterine fibroids. It’s helped me get many of the symptoms addressed. But I was still extremely exhausted all the time.

I also had bouts of unexplained fevers and a whole bunch of other things. So my GP ordered a whole range of tests, echocardiograms, breath tests and a whole bunch of other things. But it all came back normal EXCEPT my glucose. I have diabetes. A diagnosis so anticlimactic after everything that I went through that I am frankly a bit annoyed.

I was never pre-diabetic. I think my anaemia masked the symptoms of diabetes as they are similar. So, I have no idea how long I have had diabetes. But since October, my diabetes has been managed. Unfortunately, Ryeqo increases the chances of blood clots in people with diabetes. However, the tablets have been such a game-changer that I am happy to risk the increased chance of blood clots.

So that was the big thing on a personal front, but since it's health-related, it affected everything, including my work, which did not go well in 2024 because Kyco Australia has been liquidated. I finished up my last duties as the Chief Technology Officer on the 5th of December 2024 when I shut down the last of our IT infrastructure. So that book is closed.

At some point, I will probably write another post reflecting on my time at Kyco. But it got messy and litigious by the time everything was said and done. So, I am unsure how much I could or couldn’t make public. But I will reflect and put something together that will hopefully not get me sued!

With Kyco closed, I am looking for my next adventure. To that end, I decided to do two further short courses with RMIT University to consolidate my project management knowledge. I already talked about doing Project Management for Professionals during the first half of last year. Then, during the second half, I took the digital project management bundle with Digital Delivery with Agile. After that, Agile Project Management.

I am not sure how I got through Digital Delivery with Agile because I was so unwell during it. I thought I could power through Agile Project Management, but I actually had to take a medical deferment. So I literally ended up finishing the Agile Project Management course in December, getting my badge on the 2nd of January this year!

I have previously included the videos I produced for these courses as part of these posts. However, I was so out of it for Digital Delivery with Agile and so stressed to get everything done for Agile Project Management that these were not my best work. Still, the courses did what I wanted. I was able to verify my experience and knowledge. I also learned a few things I hadn’t had to use yet. All in all, I feel like I updated my knowledge base and closed some skill gaps.

Presenting for PontiNet at Catalysr Accelerator Demo Day

So what’s next? Well, even before Kyco was put into liquidation, I started to work with Dr Jonathan Chernilo on Pontinet. Pontinet is a social enterprise that aims to improve access to Specialists in underserved communities.

It’s a cause I am invested in, given I have seen how underserved folks in places like Bangladesh are outside of the capital. But the venture is in very early stages.

That’s why it was a great honour to be included in the 2024 cohort for the Catalysr accelerator for migrants and refugees. I have previously worked with Catalysr as a chapter lead for their pre-accelerator program and as an IT mentor. But this time, I was on the other side as a participant. My co-founder Jonathan had to take the lead in relation to the accelerator program as a lot of it overlapped when I was at my lowest healthwise. But I ended up presenting on my own at Demo Day in Melbourne in December as Jonathan had to be in Europe.

It was a great day, and I am glad I could finish such a challenging year on a somewhat high note as I look forward to the future and what 2025 brings!

StartMIT & MIT Fuse: Plus mini MIT Bootcamp Reunion

In my last post, I mentioned that I was glad to have said yes in 2019 to the MIT Bootcamp. I couldn’t remember at the time if MIT Bootcamp took place in some form in 2020. Last week, I was reminded that the MIT Bootcamp was not slated to come to Brisbane in 2020 nor 2021. Instead, the QUT and MIT collaboration is now taking place through StartMIT & MIT Fuse - two other MIT programs.

My understanding is that StartMIT is a lighter introduction to entrepreneurship then MIT Bootcamp. While MIT Fuse is for established startups looking for a more tailored framework through which to analysis and contextualise their experience and journey. They both have their own niche and place but I think the in-person Bootcamp was probably the best for me. So while I could have done something had I said no in 2019 to the Bootcamp, I am still glad I said yes when I did.

Of course, a perk of being a Bootcamp alumnus is that I was invited by Professor Rowena Barrett to a meet and mingle with this year’s participants of the StartMIT and MIT Fuse programs. The event took place last Wednesday. I got to meet some new nodes in the MIT network. As well as reconnect with some old ones like my Bootcamp mate Justin George, along with Bootcampers from other years, so a good way to February!

Women's Entrepreneurship Day

Yesterday, I spent an inspirational hour listening to a panel of women discuss the issues, challenges and the wins women entrepreneurs have faced and overcome. But also how much further we have to go. The panel consisted of:

• Anne-Marie Birkill, Director and Venture Partner at OneVentures;

• Sabrina Chakori, Founder of Brisbane Tool Library;

• Rachael Dagge, UQ's Chief Student Entrepreneur; and

• Holly Tattersall, Founder and CEO of Women in Digital.

So it was a good mix of diverse leaders that Sam Jockel, UQ Ventures' Entrepreneur in Residence, facilitated expertly. I haven't been as good at attending online events. But the panel reminded me why it's important to take the time to join and listen. But I am looking forward to more in-person events now that Australia is doing well in the fight against COVID.

SheEO Australia Simulcast, If the Shoe Fits, Big Ideas Competition & Small Business Expo

Last week ended in a flurry of activities! I started Thursday early with the SheEO Australia Simulcast, where I got to listen to how SheEO has progressed in Australia since I attended the launch event last year. It was an inspirational way to start the morning, where I also put myself forward by asking for people to contact me if they need my services as a consultant CTO.

During the morning I found out about the “If the Shoe Fits”, a pop-up shop from The World’s Biggest Garage Sale. I ended up buying two shoes, both of which turned out to be Shoes of Prey shoes! I was thinking that they had unusual looks. But I didn’t realise that they were unusual because they were custom made! Shoes of Prey was a very successful startup that died trying to scale-up. As a startup enthusiast, I am glad I got a chance to get a hold of a pair of this part of Australian startup history.

Thursday ended with my regular meeting with Josari at the QUT Foundry, which is when I discovered that the Foundry was hosting the Big Ideas competition. I stuck around for two pitches. I wish I could have heard all of them but I had to get going. But the two ideas I got to hear were pretty cool. One was a robot that can be a companion to stressed university students. The other was about a shampoo bar with minimum packaging that can be sold by the homeless. I think both ideas are worth exploring further.

Finally, on Friday I checked out the Small Business Expo. I heard mixed reviews for the expo. So I wanted to check it out at least once. There was a good mix of businesses there, including some MLM traps! I didn’t have a game plan for promoting myself to the people there. But I was happy to take the scene in and hang out with Anne-Marie Walton of Kids Wantu, and Paul Buckwell of Josari. I’ll have a better game plan the next time I visit. But for now, I am glad to be enjoying my weekend. Also, Happy Diwali for those celebrating!

Another RCL Pitch Afternoon!

Team Josari took advantage of the River City Labs open day to work from RCL last Friday. Naturally, that meant we ended the day taking in some pitches while eating chips! Okay, the rest of the team was drinking. But I, of course, don’t drink anything harder than coffee and even that is usually drowned in milk and sugar! But I digress.

I am not going to go pitch by pitch. But I am going to highlight two pitches. Firstly, it was great to hear once more from Anne-Marie Walton of Kids Wantu. She’s in the middle of a crowdfunding campaign. I have already pledged, which acts as a pre-order for her family activity app Kids Wantu.

I cannot wait to get the app, so I can use it to do activities with my niece and nephew. My niece is 4 and spends at least 3 days with me. But at the moment she spends way too much time watching movies and tablets when she’s over. My nephew is under 2, and it would be great to be able to be prepared to entertain him as he grows older!

The other pitch I wanted to highlight was from Joshua Savage about his two cannabis-related businesses. I have noticed an absolute explosion of cannabis-related startups. I like Joshua’s approach to the explosion because he’s on the support side. His two companies are helping growers and consumers, grow and consume good quality cannabis. I think that’s a smart approach. His two businesses are 1) Australia Cannabis, and 2) Disruptive Industries.

Finally, there was a pitch on the night that was for a consumer-facing app. The pitch made me realise that we need to stop thinking of users as the product. We live in a post-Cambridge Analytica world that’s already drowning in data. I don’t believe this is an environment into which we should be launching another app that tries to make money by monetising user data.

Especially as there are movements afoot to force companies to share the revenue generated by selling user data with said users, I don’t think selling data is a viable business model for new ventures. For long term success, I think it’s time we moved beyond treating our user as the product. Maybe I am wrong in this. Only time will tell!