Best Experience Ever #SharksDen - A Reflection


Aliza Wajih

Yes we didn’t win, but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t one of my greatest team experiences ever! Shark’s Den gave me the opportunity to meet amazing people and taught me valuable start-up business lessons such as marketing, management, innovation and the most important of them all, the value of teamwork.

I had the opportunity to work with dedicated teams every Wednesday in July and it was inspiring to see such good work being done. Every team in every session had come up with innovative and unique ideas. Their passion and dedication was truly reflected in all of their work and despite being in a competition everyone mantained a supportive and creative environment.

At the end of every session I would usually have a chat with members of other teams and we would share our thoughts on our projects. Their constructive and positive feedback did not only help me understand different points of view but also helped me make better decisions.

Working with my own team, Team Next-Gen Phone Cover, was itself an excellent learning experience. The support, encouragement and passion of my team allowed me to get through times when, even as a CEO, I began to doubt our decisions. Chris, Guna, Ali and Katie put their heart and soul into finding the idea we were passionate about and bringing it to life. I could not have been prouder nor could I have wished for a better team. I would like to thank you all for all your efforts.

In addition I would like to thank Research Platforms, David Flanders, Paul Mignone and Vincent Khau for giving me the opportunity to participate in this challenge and all the other teams for being friendly and supportive. I would also like to Congratulate Team Fit n’ Click for winning. It was an honour to work with everyone.

Shark’s Dens Day 4

By Aliza Wajih

The final day of shark’s den before the big pitch is finally here!  

On day four of the sharks den challenge the teams were fortunate enough to meet Wen Xi who is an Associate at ‪@MAPUniMelb! 

For the first half of the session, Wen gave an excellent crash courses on ‘how to pitch’: helping students tailor their presentations to make a compelling business case and answering some interesting questions in the follow up. Wen gave the team some handy tips on how to create a business model and taught us that contrary to popular belief having competition in the market is a good thing!

  During the rest of the session teams shared their first prototype 3D printed objects and amended designs to build their final product supported by research and further investigation in the market.

The teams also took Wen’s recommendations on board and worked on their final presentation - due to happen on the 29th of July next week!!

Vincent talks #SharksDen: Day 3

by Vincent Khau

Day 3 of Shark’s Den meant we were already at the halfway mark of this exciting innovation challenge yet it only seemed like yesterday that we had met our fellow team members. We were now rapidly approaching the pointy end of things and ideas were flying out left right and centre as teams worked together to produce a marketable product.

The first hour flew by as each team quickly discussed the prototype designs that they were going to 3D print, before the CTOs were whisked away by Paul and given a tour of UniMelb’s 3D printing facilities, along with a demonstration of how they worked. Everyone was palpably excited as they learnt about both the advantages and (present) limitations of this fascinating additive manufacturing process. During this time, the remaining team pooled their minds together and increased their efforts to further refine and reiterate on their existing product, now calculating and ironing out the technical details of design, trying to bring the product to life; out from the confines of their minds and into the real world.

The teams were fortunate enough to have the expertise of Gil who came along to give advice to each team on their product, getting them started on not only thinking about the current design, but future considerations of the growth and development of their product.

As the end of the session approached, the teams rushed to get their models off to the 3D printers. This acted merely a starting point from which they need to produce rapid reiterations to get their product ready for their pitch on the 29th of July.

Sharks Den Day 2

By Aliza Wajih 

Hi everyone! This is an update to our Shark’s Den event, which is the first attempt to support start-up business and bring people of different qualities together in one room to come with ideas that will change the world.

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This week we started by a crash course to TinkerCAD by Vincent Khau. The lesson soon transformed into a game of start-up charades! It challenged our abilities to communicate ideas, work collaboratively and most of all test our patience. The idea of the first challenge was to bring together two member of the team the CEO and CMO and have them look at a picture, they then had to describe the model in front of them to their CTO who would have to design it using Tinker CAD. The idea on this exercise was to demonstrate the importance of good communication in a team, as well as the difficulty of conveying your ideas to another person.

For the next hour the teams worked on an ideas they are passionate about, or as Paul puts it their “Gazillion Dollar Idea” . With such a diverse crowd we had teams looking at ergonomic issues where a design for customised mouse for gamers was introduced. The idea of the fancy doors that was carried from last week were made better. Environmental issues were also tackled by proposing indoor compactor bins!

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Team #1 presenting the indoor compactor bin

All ideas were brilliant and were pitched at the end of the day in a presentation by the CEO and a draft using TinkerCAD . This session was the followed by the “pivot” where CEO’s went against each other to defend their ideas and design. In the end it was established that as a start-up business most businesses have to pivot their idea meaning they have to take a different look at their business model and really evaluate if their product is viable and will survive in the market. So, sad face, no one won the gazillion dollar this time because the teams have to rethink their designs and ideas, but they are all as determined as ever to really go out there and bring home the prize!

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Stay tuned till next week!

Vincent talks #SharksDen: Day 1

by Vincent Khau

Hey everyone!

My name is Vincent Khau, the newest recruit to join the ranks of Research Bazaar! I will be coming on board with the rest of the team as a Research Community Coordinator, working primarily with TinkerCAD and 3D printing, although some of you may recognise me during your #CADventures as one of Aliza’s minions for the Inventor 3D modelling course. I’ve completed my Bachelor of Science just last year, and am currently studying a Master of Engineering (Mechanical) at the University of Melbourne (so I’ll definitely be seen around campus a great deal!). Feelings about joining the community? EXCITED!

Recently I participated in the exciting Shark’s Den Challenge hosted by Research Platforms. If you are, like I was prior to the event, slightly afraid that this might be a gambling den populated by card sharks, let me reassure you by explaining what this event actually is. The Shark’s Den Challenge is an opportunity for technical enthusiasts, entrepreneurs-in-the-making, and innovators to meet new people, form teams, and get creative by designing a product (over consecutive Wednesdays) that they will be pitch to a panel on the 29th of July. Successful teams may have the opportunity to pursue their design with the Melbourne Accelerated Program (MAP)!

My aforementioned premonitions quickly dissipated with David and Paul’s warm hospitality, and with so many interesting and affable people to meet and talk to, the first event on the night was a quick 2 minute ‘speed dating’ of the 20+ crowd where we discussed our strengths and whether we saw ourselves fitting into CEO, CTO, CFO, or CMO roles. The participants who gave the best first impressions were then nominated as CEOs and the teams were picked for the upcoming weeks.

In these teams, we were confronted with the challenge of innovating on an invention which has been around since… well since forever really; the door. After coming up with prototype designs (a foam door with key-less entry and a 'quarantine zone’ that cleans you? What’s not to like!), we immediately started working on a pitch to present our design to the other teams (with CFOs taking frivolous notes as to who were our main competitors).

With an event that was so enjoyable, with so many fascinating ideas being shared, some teams even stayed well beyond the end of the event to continue discussing the next steps to their designs! It was truly an amazing experience to see the power of idea sharing at work, and I am really looking forward to next session on Wednesday 8th July. Can’t wait!

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