#pollenizer

I recently wrote an article inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians to attend a 2-day workshop that could teach them about entrepreneurship and I just wanted to follow that up with a highlights package of things that made me say "ah ah!" and admittedly "hey, which way?".

BACKGROUND

The workshop was hosted at the Indigenous Digital Excellence (IDX) Hub, which is a space you can hire out in one of the heritage listed buildings on the grounds of the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence (NCIE) here in Redfern.

It was held over the weekend of the 25th and 26th of July and went for two full days, so it was quite an effort for us all to attend, especially the people who flew in from far away places like Perth, Broome, Jabiru and Cairns. Thank you guys!

MURU-D AND POLLENIZER

The workshop was led by the smart, genuine and patient people from both Muru-D and Pollenizer and I would like to say a big shout out and thank you to you guys for pushing me to learn. It was totally worth it and I am glad to have been a student to your teachings. You guys rock.

So. Five things I have learnt.

DIVERSITY, DIVERSITY, DIVERSITY

I have learnt that diversity is an advantage. It is with diversity that we have the ability to look at problems we are trying to solve through many different perspectives.

To really highlight this, I reflect on the people attending the workshop. We had a range of ages with roughly an equal gender, all from different parts of Australia, all with different types of skills, from art and film, to legal services, to design and technology (sorry if I missed anyone). Thank you guys for helping me see the world a little differently.

FLEARNINGS

I have learnt a new word. Flearning. It means to embrace your failures positively and to learn from them. All too often we can get caught up with the negativity that hovers around the word failure and having new words like this helps to make it okay if something does not turn out right.

I will also mention that part way through the workshop Natalie Walker from Inside Policy was kind enough to share a few of her tips and this was one of them. Natalie quoting the words like a mantra "I am completely okay with being wrong" really hit home with me.

DISCOVERY NOT RESEARCH

I have learnt that the earlier you learn your idea is not viable the less money and time is wasted. And to do that you have to get out of research mode and into discovery mode.

Accompanied with the workshop came a book called "Startup Focus" written by Mick Liubinskas and Phil Morle. In this book the guys explain that discovery is about creating value and strength of want or need and you should start asking yourself the questions "can I create something of value" and "how much does someone want this thing". They also talk about research too, and research is about gathering data and interpreting it, which is all still relevant, but it is just not needed right now.

Traditionally, I have been a research guy and have always been happy with looking at information that made me feel like I could justify what I was doing was right. I think that discovery is a real breakthrough for me and I will definitely be applying it to new projects.

LEAN CANVAS

This one is big and it probably needs a blog post of its own. But in short, I have learnt that business plans are good for the bottom drawer of my work desk and not much else right now. So do not do one. Yet.

A significant part of the workshop was spent learning about the lean canvas and in a way it is your business plan. It is a one-pager that I can reference to connect the dots about what problem I am solving, who my customer is, and what I think my solution is. It is not meant to be a substitute for your business plan, it is your business plan for right now.

PITCHING

I have learnt that it is important to pitch regularly and to anyone who cares to listen. Pitching is a way to refine and internalise your vision and to understand the different audiences you need to frame your pitch for, for example, the way I would pitch my idea to a customer would be completely different to the way I would pitch to an investor.

On the last day of the workshop, we were all asked to pitch our ideas and I enjoyed listening and watching everyone play out pitches. I must admit, some of us got into it more than others, but overall I think everyone learnt something.

TAKING IT HOME

And lastly, I think an important part of this journey for me is sharing this new information with my family, relatives and community. You never know, there might be someone out there who needed a little nudge, just like I did.

Well, haven’t I been slack in keeping these rolling the past few weeks! A few things to report back on as a result…

We’re excited to be supporting Indigenous entrepreneurs from outside the wider Sydney metropolitan region in attending the up-coming muru-D Indigenous entrepreneurship workshop. We’re offering financial support for eligible candidates to attend the first, of what we hope will be many, such workshops with two of the leading exponents of “lean startup” methodology in Australia (muru-D and Pollenizer). Details on the offer and how to apply are available in the Opportunities section of the IDX website.

We have also been in the throws of final preparations with Liam Ridgeway for the second robotics workshop, to be held this Friday. Based on the success of the last workshop we’ve expanded to include participants from three local schools. Liam’s also developed up a number of new modules for the kids from Glebe Primary for whom this will be their second workshop.

We’re also close to finalising dates for some up-coming schools workshops on 3D printing, which we’re expecting to occur late-July/early-August.

Preparations for the Broadband for the Bush Forum, and linked Indigenous focus day, are in full swing in the lead-up to the event July 14–16. Tickets are still available, and the draft program should be up by the end of the week.

Last week, I also had the pleasure of connecting with a whole bunch of folks at the State Library of Queensland’s Digital Literacy Forum. As is so often the case at these sorts of events, it was so inspiring to see what people are up to across the state, and there were a number of points of connection to work being done by, with and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. In particular it was great to re-connect (albeit too briefly!) with Amanda Hayman from kuril dhagun, the crews at Infoxchange and Hitnet, among many others. Tim O’Leary from Telstra also presented, talking more broadly about their work on digital inclusion.

Lastly, Zoe, myself and a few other folks who responded to our callout, had the opportunity to attend the Vivid Ideas Future of Work conference, hosted by Google. All but one of the sessions I attended were really insightful—lots of great stats and ideas. It was great to see how the concepts and approaches we’re taking with (and advocating through) the IDX Initiative connect with the broader movement towards new and innovative ways of working globally.

Do you have a burning desire to turn one of those ideas in the back of your brain into a working app and start your own business?

Sometimes you need a little help - we get that. We're soon to be running Lifehack Labs for 20 bright minds from around the country to help them go deep into the problems we face as a nation, generate tools and solutions, and prototype them to bring them to life.

Not everyone can take 5 weeks out of their life, so we've teamed up with the world-class Startup Scientists & Coaches at Pollenizer in Australia to make their 60 Day Online Course available to our Lifehack Community.

This course is perfect to help you take an idea from inception to confidence in sixty days so you can decide what to do next. Quit your job, find a co-founder, start speaking to investors, or go back to work on your next big idea.

Features:

Developing strong ideas

Develop hypotheses

Testing your idea manually

Learning to Pivot an idea

Developing an MVP

Identifying Metrics that matter

Finding a co-founder

Working out what next

It's a complete kit set to help you get your startup off the ground with great advice and support along the way from 3 kickass coaches.

Want to take the plunge?

We've negotiated you a 10% discount, so just use the code "lifehack10" and you'll be heading in the right direction with your startup in no time! They even offer you a money back guarantee - what good folks :)

Wow, time is flying by for our first Lifehack Labs Online cohort! We set them a challenge at the beginning of the year; go from "I have an idea", to "I have a version of my tech that I can trial with people"... in 3 weeks.

So far, our Lifehackers have got some great ideas on the boil:

How might we acknowledge the increasing amount of male youth suicides by utilizing positivity through technology and music?

How might we use technology to help education, corporate and community sectors work together to achieve coherent civil society?

How might we use technology to address depression in individuals and empower their support networks?

We've been delivering our first online Labs cohort with two emails a week containing some of the best knowledge we've built up from our experience of social ventures & tech startups, as well as some great curated resources from around the web. We're also hooking them up with some great tools (like LeanStack who've made us an official accelerator!) and mentors. 

3 weeks is a huge challenge to pack in a great amount of learning and still work on your idea, but it's the kind of energy and cadence which we know you need in the early days of crossing the chasm from Idea to World Changing Tech. You'll hear some more from us next week about other ways we're going to help people bridge the chasm - in the meantime here's some great advice from startup founders.

Finally, here's a great resource from Pollenizer on the importance of Focus for Entrepreneurs.

Phil Morle returns to conduct the first Launchgarage workshop for the next batch of garageheads with Lean Startup 101.

The exclusive 2-day workshop to be held on July 22 & 23, 2013 kicks off MISSION 02 activities and will introduce garageheads to the essential methodologies to run lean during the course of the 5-month program. The Lean Canvas and the Lean Dashboard will be introduced as essential tools that will help guide the founders and measure the progress of their respective startups.

ARE YOU AN ENTREPRENEUR LOOKING FOR A NEW VENTURE?

Pollenizer @ Kickstart is looking for skilled engineers, business people and product managers to spearhead experimental endeavours in different businesses. They offer full support from the researched problem to a structured incubation process. Be a co-founder and receive an equity stake in the business!