Transcript
Christine Doan 0:01
Hi, everyone. I’m Christine Doan. I am a co-founder and the honorary chair of Startup and Innovation Tablelands, better known as ST. ST is the first rural regional innovation hub that I know of that’s really taken on transformative technology in a big way. We partner with Trans Tech Australasia with the goal of promoting technologies, which do something quite different to what technologies have done up to now, which is support wellbeing, mental balance, true productivity and creativity, and overall thriving. TT Australasia has used a federal grant to bring Anuraj Gambhir to us as part of the expert in residence programme. And I’m going to let Anuraj tell you all about our ST-TT partnership, to create a pitch fest on Wednesday, the 25th of August at 6 pm PST, you’ll find the details somewhere on this page of how to register. So Anuraj, take it away.
Anuraj Gambhir 1:10
Right.
Christine Doan 1:11
I have a question. First question, which is what’s a pitch fest?
Anuraj Gambhir 1:15
Sure. So I mean, in very simple terms, the PitchFest is where, you know, the startups and the organisations or the ideas really get told through compelling story forms. And it’s really about revealing how innovative and, you know, impactful, your idea is through telling a story in a structured manner. And that’s really where the pitch sort of separates into something which is meaningful and of value to everybody.
Christine Doan 1:44
Yeah. So it’s telling a very short story about your idea or your programme or your process or your product. Is that it?
Anuraj Gambhir 1:53
Yeah, so I mean, you know, people are at different stages. So we’ve got startups that are in the incubation stage, you’ve got people with seed ideas, but obviously, it’s about how quickly can you mature that idea into something of more tangible value. And that’s what we try to reveal through the coaching that we’ve been doing as part of building up for this pitch Fest, with some of the startups obviously being a bit more mature. to others. Yeah, so.
Christine Doan 2:20
So I’m beginning to get the idea of why you would have a PitchFest, but you just say that in a few words, why? Why would you have Why would you actually bother to hold this? I guess you could call it a competition.
Anuraj Gambhir 2:33
Yeah, I mean, it can be a bit of a degree of competition. But I think it’s really about a juncture or it’s a milestone, where, you know, everybody’s been through some initial coaching, they’ve come together with a standardised understanding through a template and a pull together of their story. And it’s about how do you present that to the world of investors, partners, collaborators, and the ecosystem as a whole, who can really then escalate you and help you with your journey. So it’s, it’s a tremendous value to bring in as part of coming to that stage.
Christine Doan 3:05
So you hold the PitchFest because you want to attract investors for the mature, more mature startups, but so that you want to help other startups along their way in maturing so that they get their ideas really straight. And look, who are the people? Why attend a pitch fest if you’re not pitching? What’s the point of all this?
Anuraj Gambhir 3:29
I think everybody has ideas coming in and out. I mean, we have always working with something to try solving some problem, right? And it’s when you find that, okay, there’s a problem which is worth solving for many others? And how can you sort of grow that and scale it up to something more meaningful for the greater humanity, and that’s what transformative tech is, is enabling through some of the startups that will come on board. And I think it’s how do you bring that together to something which is properly structured, and hold it to the in the form of a pitch, which, you know, it can range from an elevator pitch right through to a lot more details through something at the other end, which is called the IM, or investor memorandum, which is a lot more detailed where you really get a deeper relationship – start building with the investor community.
Christine Doan 4:19
So if I’ve understood you correctly, this mastermind group that you’ve been leading as expert-in-residence for TransTech Australasia is actually trying to develop people who have an idea or a product or a process or a programme that will help increase our mental balance, our happiness, our well being. It might even be our physical health, our ability to be deeply creative and, and stress-free productive, and what you’re trying to do is make the whole runway of taking these products to market a simpler and easier and more logical flow. And the pitchfest is part of the flow of that is that right.
Anuraj Gambhir 5:07
Spot on? I think exactly as we know, with transformative tech, you know, it’s really about how do we bring that holistic approach of physical, mental, spiritual, all sort of coming together. And it’s the convergence of all of that, to build something, as I said, more meaningful, and these startups, they’re all ranging from hardware-enabled solutions, right through to services and content, compelling content being pulled together through platforms. So there’s a whole range of, you know, ideas that we’ve had, and of course, pitching of solutions, which range quite a bit from people who are developing very sophisticated hardware to, you know, do frequency healing, for example, or we’ve got other platforms, which are going to enable psychologists coming together, you’ve got something around, you know, positively priming ourselves with really scientifically bright neuroscience enabled services. So yeah, there’s quite a good, amazing range of ideas out there, which are of great value, I think, to humanity at large.
Christine Doan 6:09
And you’re trying to develop entrepreneurs who want to help humanity, but also want to start up a successful business. And you’re trying, you’re focusing on just Queenslanders or all of Australia. Do you have students from? Where are they from your students?
Anuraj Gambhir 6:27
Right? Yeah, so I mean, it is a both Queensland has been, you know, growing very rapidly with innovation. And I’m so glad that they’ve been backing up amazing programmes like this one. But this one has been open to anybody globally. We’ve got, you know, a startup from India called sense play, we’ve got light rhythms from the US. And we’ve got folks from New South Wales from other parts of Australia, from country New South Wales, from, of course, from many from Queensland. So yeah, it’s very diverse. And I think it’s, it’s a great bunch of people at different levels of considerations that they’re at, and stages that they’re at in terms of maturity, of go to market. And, of course, they are all there to create a business of success. And, and definitely do a great, great, very positive impact.
Christine Doan 7:16
So as I take it, you don’t just want entrepreneurs to come to this PitchFest, you’d like to see students turn up who might be, in the future, interested in a business that benefits humanity, young people who might need a little bit of inspiration, entrepreneurs, of course, but there might also be some interest from people who are just interested in what does transformative tech have to offer for me, how can I achieve more calm, more tranquillity, more mental balance in my business, because stress is a problem for all of us? Would that be right, that you’re really, you’re pitching your pitch fest? That just about everybody?
Anuraj Gambhir 7:55
Yeah, I think that’s very true because we are looking at being very inclusive and open to, you know, everybody at different stages. And, of course, I think we’re all lifelong learners. So we’re all students, for sure. Right? And I think it’s, it’s definitely for sure, you know, and people who want to come together that, you know, who’ve either been in a corporate world or you know, there’s everybody’s at different stages in their life. And I think, yeah, it is for sure, bringing together something which will be of much greater good than just for themselves. So it’s a problem that they’re solving maybe for themselves, but then they see that it can be tweaked, and it can be adapted for a much broader community. And it’s about finding that segment and then trying to really target more carefully. How do you build that market proposition?
Christine Doan 8:43
That’s a beautiful combination of idealism and economic good sense. And I just love it. So I’m hoping and of course, it makes economic good sense to come along. This is a free programme, Anuraj is being well-reimbursed by the federal government, but we need people like Anuraj who’ve been in this kind of business forever, who have a great deal of experience a huge number of contacts. And I hope a lot of you will come along and enjoy the whole team of judges, all the people who are giving a pitch I think they’re about 10 of them. And Anuraj, and Troy Haines’ expert guidance along the way during the pitch fest. So we hope Anuraj, to see a lot of folks there. And thanks very much for this quick interview.
Anuraj Gambhir 9:29
So, Christine. It’s a real pleasure. Thank you.
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