iAccelerate for scaleups

Michael Burton: We live on a cow farm in Dunmore where there's more cows than humans. Like there's no networking, you know, social interaction. And we didn't know anyone like in the business scene, like we just had very limited connections.

John Kerr: They had the technical skills, they had the, the partnership, but they needed to solve this home brewing thing because it affected him. He had a connection to the problem.

Dr Tamantha Stutchbury: How do you evolve him to a leader of an organization and a company? And that's something that you learn from watching and seeing and getting advice from other people that have done it.

Michael Burton: Every week we would have a new mentor for a different aspect of the business that we needed, whether it was legals or uh, marketing or how to, uh, talk to investors.

Ellie Lezcano: What it meant to get investment, different types of investment and how to negotiate things were really valuable. He worked on his public speaking skills to get more comfortable in front of the crowd, to water his thoughts and be able to share the story.

Michael Burton: My wife and I had left our day jobs and committed everything to this journey, and we had then quickly expended all of our savings.

Ellie Lezcano: This Is how you can pitch the idea to get people on board with your journey. Get pre-sales.

Michael Burton: We did some pitching to the investors and we got that $150,000 in the bank and I just remember thinking, wow, this is so epic. I screenshotted it and sent it to my wife saying, you know, holy expletives, you know, this is all happening.

Dr Tamantha Stutchbury: They've involved students to really develop and test their products.

Michael Burton: Testing that, research, that connectivity in the real world.

Ellie Lezcano: Through the uni, through projects, through talking in the halls. We've met wonderful people who have over time joined our team to grow.

Dr Tamantha Stutchbury: They came in with one idea, they pivoted to another idea. Covid hit and changed that idea.

Speaker 4: It's your first idea. Most times doesn't succeed, but third and fourth time, you've gone through two or three heartaches and you know what to do and what not to do. Really quickly.

Michael Burton: I believe that what you do should have impact if you are doing something brilliant, but it only helps a few people. Whereas you could do that same brilliant thing and help a whole lot of people. That's kind of your duty to do that.

Dr Tamantha Stutchbury: We've challenged some of their founders to stand up and talk at events and build their own profiles and networks in ways that we're really uncomfortable for them to start off with and now they're role models. So it's about opportunities.

Michael Burton: Working with a team that builds those projects alongside me has always been a dream of mine ever since I was young. Working in a solar car team at high school or something. Not just creating it on my own in a quiet lab, but having excited people who are in the journey as well. With me, I'm running a startup and people who have been through that journey, they say, oh, okay, that's like drowning for 10 years, not knowing if you're gonna get another gasp of air, isn't it?

Ellie Lezcano: You'll create something. You'll feel that satisfaction. You've changed how people do things in the world, and that's really exciting.

Michael Burton: When you look back and say, would I rather be at my old job? No, you know, that was comfortable and, and I was working on good projects, but I know that what I'm doing now is more important to me and, and the future.