Edtech founders: nail your first investor meeting!
Small Steps Vol. 96: Why the graduate skills gap is widening 🎓; medical devices exacerbating heathcare bias 🩺; and the future of meat... in a grain? 🐮
Kick start
🎓 Seems the Australian education system might need a refresh. The skills gap between what students learn and what employers need is growing wider, and more students than ever are ditching their degrees before finishing. Even year twelve completion rates are dropping, with only 79% of students crossing that finish line – that's down from 83.3% just a few years ago. Time to rethink how we're teaching the next generation of Aussie innovators!
We think the real question is – how can edtech startups solve these problems?
In our last edition, we shared our blog on Lessons for Edtech Founders from Aaron Tait, and this edition we are sharing Giant Leap’s guide to standing out when meeting edtech investors! This resource has distilled our team’s collective insights from considering over 300 edtech businesses in the last 4 years alone.
Edtech businesses face many common challenges, and this guide is designed to help you think through the kinds of questions you will need to answer when you’re meeting investors.
Read it here and send it to your edtech founder friends!
What we’re thinking about
🍚 The future of meat... is a grain? Imagine getting your protein fix from a bowl of rice. Well, South Korean scientists are now cooking up something revolutionary: beef rice. This isn't just your grandma's side dish — researchers have grown beef cells inside rice grains, creating a food source with more protein and fat than regular rice. They say it's eco-friendly and affordable, with a smaller carbon footprint than raising cattle.
The big question — does it taste like beef? Early reviews are mixed, but some see promise. This could be a game-changer for sustainable protein, but convincing people to switch from a juicy steak to a pink rice grain might be a challenge.
👩🏽⚕️ Bias in healthcare: a double whammy for women. Not getting the care you’re entitled to is deeply problematic, and a recent survey revealed a shocking truth (but one that many of us may not be surprised by): 2 out of 3 women have experienced gender bias in healthcare. This means they were dismissed, disbelieved, or treated differently by a medical professional because of their gender.
On top of that, research shows that medical tools themselves can be biased, putting women at further risk. This is an intersectional problem — for example, some AI diagnostic tools might miss heart problems in women, and pulse oximeters used to measure oxygen levels can be less accurate for people with darker skin tones, potentially leading to delayed diagnoses and worse health outcomes.
The good news? Experts are calling for action. There's a push for more diverse research participants and for developers to consider in more depth how their tools work for everyone. This is a huge one to consider for any healthtech starts when building out their product.
New paths
🌏 WORK180 is hiring a Global Content Editor and Writer (Australia).
🌿 Trace is hiring an Intern to help with sustainability & carbon accounting (Sydney).
💻 Amber is hiring a Senior Software Engineer (Melbourne).
🔥 Want to work for an impact company? Fill out our expression of interest form for roles across our portfolio. There’s even more jobs at ethical companies on the global B-Work job board.
For the road
🌀 Brace for a hot autumn and tropical cyclones. Summer weather is bleeding into Autumn this year, and as a result water temperatures are three degrees higher than normal. The Bureau of Meteorology is bracing for unusual weather patterns, including tropical cyclones as far south as Sydney. Eek.
👦🏽 Children’s health will benefit from the EV transition. A new University of Colombia study links increased rates of Asthma and Autism Spectrum Disorder to increased CO2 levels, and suggests the transition to electric vehicles could save the health system as much as $USD82 million.
💸 Changing how we approach women-led entrepreneurship. Businesses run by solo women founders only receive 4% of all venture capital in Australia — and when they are backed, they receive significantly less than their male counterparts. That’s the key finding of a new report from Innovation NSW, containing a blueprint for how state governments can better support women-led companies. One of its key ideas: separating programs that back women-led business from government co-investment schemes. If you’re a woman looking for more support in your career, you can join Ladymates - Startmate’s new initiative to give women the best chance at success.
📨 Pitch perfect. Treat your pitch deck as an invitation for a meeting, if it's over 14 slides it’s likely too long. That’s the advice from Sahil from The Venture Crew Substack -- who also has put together a 12 page template on this LinkedIn Post. Struggling to cut it down? Get a relative or a friend to go through it and point out what they don’t understand.
🚗 Overcoming EV’s latest speed bump. Investment in EVs from carmakers has stalled as stubbornly high battery prices have forced many to hedge their bets. However, that’s about to change, according to a new report from Goldman Sachs. They predict that declining mineral prices — reducing the cost of producing batteries — will further incentivise auto makers to reconsider their exposure to the EV market.
🌎 A US man has been charged for smuggling greenhouse gases. Yes, you read that correctly. An American man smuggled refrigerant gases from Mexico into California and sold them for a profit, contravening the Clean Air Act. The lawsuit aims to set an example for other would-be smugglers who aim to import pollutants.
✨ Devin is here to develop your apps. Cognition Labs has just launched what it says is the world’s first AI-powered software engineer. It’s capable of taking coding tasks from Upwork and executing on them. It also solved 14% of real open-source problems on GitHub. It could be a watershed moment for the startup ecosystem with many founders struggling to find, hold onto and effectively deploy tech talent.
🛫 Hydrogen tech dominates TIME’s top GreenTech company list. Winner ZeroAvia is aiming to convert all air travel to hydro-electric engines to cut down on greenhouse emissions. Runner-up Ohmium is driving innovation in green hydrogen production.
☔ The world’s best raincoats will soon be illegal. We’re waving goodbye to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — the “forever chemical” that makes fabric stainproof and waterproof, among other things. They’ve been linked to both liver and thyroid cancer, and, scarily enough, can also be found in plenty of innocuous items such as dental floss. Scientists and regulators are closing in, with bans on products using these substances to take effect within years.
Save the date
📅 March 22 - 24: Techstars Sydney Startup Weekend! Do you want to build your innovation toolkit and learn how to think more creatively? Do you want to upskill so you’re better positioned to solve problems and make a difference? If so, Techstars Startup Weekend is the place for you! Join us for a fun weekend in March!
📅 March 26: The StartUp Network’s Women Founder Pitch Night is on! Four incredible women-led early stage startups will pitch on the night at The Commons in Collingwood, Melbourne. Tickets available online.
📅 April 5: Applications close for the Cicada x Tech 23 pitch event. Held on August 7, the event provides a platform for 23 promising deep-tech startups to pitch to a room full of investors, policy makers and influencers.
📅 May 2: Applications will close for Press Play Ventures’ second cohort of their 12-week pre-accelerator program, specifically aimed at aspiring female founders and women-led business teams based in Victoria. Thanks to LaunchVic, 25 women can access the program valued at $4,700 through a scholarship. Participants will gain access to a $50,000 Alumni Cash Pool, the community of past and current Press Play founders, and a comprehensive program focused on mindset, startup fundamentals, and networking.