Recovery Camp and Verbotics

Universities are fertile ground for new ideas and, when combined with the acumen of business incubators such as iAccelerate, these ideas can spring to life. 

This is what happened in the case of Recovery Camp and Verbotics, two very different companies that had similar starts. Each began with a University of Wollongong (UOW) staff member recognising a gap in the research or in the market, and then using the rich knowledge base of the university and the powerful insight of iAccelerate to grow their idea.

Recovery Camp, co-founded by Professor Lorna Moxham and Dr Christopher Patterson, was spurred by the desire to do things differently when it came to supporting people with mental health needs. Professor Moxham and Dr Patterson, who both have extensive backgrounds in mental health nursing, saw the need for a strengths-based approach, underpinned by empirical research, to helping people with mental illness. Working together, in UOW’s School of Nursing, Professor Moxham and Dr Patterson started the week-long Recovery Camp. Deliberately harnessing the power of nature by holding it in the Australian bush, the program is such that participants take part in a strengths-based, recovery-orientated experience.

From that first week of camp, in 2013, Recovery Camp has evolved into the best-practice, nationwide program that is as beneficial for participants as it is for students.

Research was fundamental to the evidence base and continues to contribute greatly to the success of Recovery Camp; Dr Patterson and Professor Moxham believe one cannot exist without each other, with evidence proving efficacy and helping to keep the program contemporary. The team have published extensively, with more than 35 research papers since 2013. The graduation and ongoing inclusion of PhD and Honours students also means that Recovery Camp is helping to foster the next generation of academic talent.

iAccelerate was fundamental to bringing Recovery Camp to scale. Dr Patterson and Professor Moxham both took part in the iAccelerate Activate Program, to provide them with the tools to make their initiative financially viable as well as sustainable into the future. It was an invaluable step in helping the Recovery Camp team to navigate the next level of their business.

The result is a social enterprise that has gone from strength to strength since it began. From that first camp in Western Sydney, the team now oversee the implementation of multiple camps throughout the year, held across the country. Recovery Camp has provided more than 80,000 hours of clinical placement to more than 1000 students from 12 universities as well as hosting international visitors from Taiwan, India, Canada and the US. And, most importantly, it has had a profound impact on the lives of countless individuals, and their families, who are living with mental illness.

Research has always been fundamental to the team behind Verbotics, who also began their company while they were staff members at UOW. When they met, the three founders, Nathan Larkin, Dr Andrew Short, and Dr Zengxi Pan, worked together at the University of Wollongong, across the fields of engineering, research, and commercialisation. It was an area they were familiar with, and before long, they realised that instead of finding new ideas among the rich tapestry of the University, they would be better served bringing their own idea to life.

Verbotics was born, a company that focuses on developing automatic robot programming software for welding.

“When were at the University, we were all looking at ways to commercialise technology and research, and join with industry partners,” said Nathan Larkin.

“We started having conversations about starting our own company. We were all working in the same research group, the Welding and Engineering Research Group, but we had different strengths. I was looking at commercialisation, Andrew was undertaking his PhD in robotics and motion planning, and Zengxi was a research professor working on research strategy.”

The leap into working on Verbotics full-time was daunting, but Nathan said the trio found their time slowly being subsumed by their fledgling company. By the end of 2019, they took a staggered approach, with each leaving their positions at UOW at different times.

Their relationship with iAccelerate had developed two years earlier, in 2017, but it was not in a way that was expected. At first, they were simply looking for a mailbox, an address they could use for their company, however, once they realised everything that iAccelerate had to offer their business, they became part of the startup. The iAccelerate offices became their business office, and they have since taken part in the Activate program.

“The courses have been so invaluable to us,” Nathan said. “It would have been beneficial for us to go through it before we launched Verbotics, so in a way we feel we have been doing things backwards. We have had access to the right people in iAccelerate to help us with any issues that have come up. And there have been a few!”

“When we founded our company, we didn’t know much about the startup scene, or iAccelerate. But for anyone who has an idea for a business, it would be very helpful to come through to program, to get all the tools they need and find out if the business is going to be viable.” Nathan Larkin, Verbotics.