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3 Years, 20 Startups, 500 Hours and unlimited Dad jokes!

Team Remarkable
Team Remarkable

Ben Reid, Entrepreneur in Residence for Remarkable for the past three years, shares his reflections on his time with Remarkable and what’s next.

I was lucky enough to be involved in the early formation of Remarkable, and straight away knew that the intersection of tech startups and social impact was something I wanted to be involved in. In a big way.

In 2016 Pete Horsley and I met for coffee – maybe two – and he gave me an invitation I couldn’t resist: how about you come on board as EIR of Remarkable to:

1. Help design a world leading disability tech accelerator program;

2. Work on something with the potential to impact the lives of 1 in 5 people globally;

3. Work deep in the trenches with early stage founders to bring their visions to life, and do product stuff … A LOT;

4. Promote inclusive and universal design more broadly in the ecosystem.

It was an incredibly hard decision but after about … TWO SIPS of Campos the answer was: I’m in!

Three programs, 20 startups, 500 hours+ mentoring, and 1,500+ hours of program execution later and Remarkable has grown from strength to strength and I believe it is truly the world class program we set out for it to be. It’s also helped make disability tech an area where Australia is leading the way globally.

It’s still a startup, we run on a small team, fuelled at times entirely by willpower and caffeine alone. We’re scrappy and try to save costs everywhere, we try lots of things and some of it doesn’t work! (mostly Pete’s ideas of course!!)

But we’ve remained true to our north star of “accelerating disability tech” and more broadly “empowering inclusive entrepreneurship”. We pride ourselves on being founder first, and I believe have built a community which has something special going for it. Passion meets purpose.

While I’m not going anywhere (Remarkable is Hotel California … you never leave), after three cohorts as EIR I’m off for some new adventures and feel it’s time for someone new to step in as EIR with fresh ideas and energy to take Remarkable to the next level again.

Thanks to Pete Horsley for being a truly exceptional accelerator director and partner in crime, to Margaret, Kate, Kathy, Sean, Lydia, Alyssa, Amanda for being such wonderful team mates along the way, and to Rob White for supporting this at the CEO level down at CPA. Remarkable is truly the most Remarkable thing I’ve been a part of in my career to date.

If you or someone you know, is interested in the Entrepreneur in Residence role, please get in touch with Pete Horsley on hello@remarkable.org.au

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