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Remarkable Accelerator 2025 | Ask Me Anything Session | Australia+

April 15, 2025

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S1: 00:10 [music] We live in a world where technology makes things easier faster, and more accessible. And many of these tech advances are created by and for people with disability. At Remarkable, we know disability drives innovation. With this approach, when you empower one, you empower many. What began as an initiative of the Cerebral Palsy Alliance has grown into an unstoppable force, empowering disability tech startups by providing the training, capital, and community they need to accelerate and grow into successful businesses. So if you're searching to invest in tech, invest in something truly remarkable. Remarkable, accelerating disability tech.
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S2: 01:06 Hello, everyone. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the lands on which we're all gathered today. And for me, that's the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I pay my respects to elders past, present, and emerging, and we acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and contributions. At Remarkable, we believe we are better together. So welcome, everybody, to the Remarkable Australia Plus Accelerator 2025 Ask Me Anything session. My name is Emma Earley, and I'm the Global Head of Programs here at Remarkable. A couple of notes on accessibility for today. We have two Oslan interpreters joining us. There are closed captions and a live transcript available in your Zoom toolbar. And after this session, a recording will be available with human-generated captions and a transcript. So today, we'll share a bit about Remarkable with our founder, Pete. I'll go through our accelerator program structure and inclusions. We'll share what startups we are looking for and how you can craft a successful application to stand out. I'll share a couple of our commonly asked questions and then give you the opportunity to either type in the chat or come off mute to ask some questions of us. All right. So let's start off welcoming our founder of remarkable, Pete Horsley.

S3: 02:28 Hi, everybody. Really good to be with you. Wherever you're calling from, whatever time of the day or night it might be. It's really, really great that you've expressed some interest in our accelerator program. Really, our mission is that we're accelerating tech startups innovating in disability aging and health. We know that technology can have a really big impact in this space. And yet what we haven't seen up until when Remarkable started was lots of pathways of support for tech innovators, entrepreneurs who are creating new startups and technologies in this space. So we've got a cracking team. These are some of the people in our team, and you'll get to meet some of them on the call today. And also, if you're successful getting into the Remarkable program, the accelerator program, these are more people that you'll be working with throughout that time as well. Just to note, we do run parallel programs, one here in Australia and one in the US as well. For the Australian-based one, we call it Australia Plus. It is kind of Australia plus other parts of the world. US is just for companies headquartered in the US. So we really wanted to create these pathways of support. And so some of you on this call right now have been involved in our launcher program, our early-stage pre-accelerator program. Typically, for startups that just have either an early-stage product, could be an idea, could be a research project. The accelerator really has then around that commercialization journey, around the go-to-market. But then we also have our co-investment initiative as well where we invest in seed to series A stage companies as well. So these are pathways of support, but it doesn't mean that if you're not in one of those that you can't get some support from Remarkable.

S3: 04:26 We're really here to grow this entire ecosystem. And so we want to hear from you. We want to work with you. We want to welcome you into this community as well. So over the time that we've been running Remarkable, we've worked now with over 378 founders, 164 startups. Through our accelerator programs, we've run 11 of those now across different parts of the world and worked, specifically through the accelerator program, with 195 founders. Those startups have gone on to have massive impact, raising over $100 million in capital, serving over 1 million customers, creating a bunch of jobs, 773 jobs, 90 of those for people with disability, either as founders or core key members of the team. And they're selling products in about 30-plus different countries as well. But our accelerator program, we are supporting these seven different horizons of possibility. What are they? They're really these areas that as we've continued to listen to the disability community, as we've listened to people in this sector as well about what are the needs, where are there places where perhaps there are some solutions but not many of them or they might not be kind of great solutions in market already around those things or it needs some innovation, it needs some new thinking to it. So these areas around independent living, around enhancing personal mobility, recreation and inclusive play, communication and sensory augmentation, employment, and community participation, education and learning, and also promoting health and well-being.

S3: 06:12 So these seven horizons we see as kind of real opportunities for the market for you to develop solutions in. And we'll ask kind of people as they apply for the program to see if there are one or more of these that they actually track to. But yeah, over that time, we've supported now over 70 startups that have come through the accelerator program. And we're now looking for that next crop of amazing innovations, amazing startups. So I'm going to hand back to Emma, who's going to take us through a little bit more about the accelerator program itself. But it's really great to be with you today.

S2: 06:47 Thank you so much, Pete. I hear those impact stats all the time, but they don't get boring to me because it really aligns with my why and our whole team's purpose. And we're really lucky to get to work with any of you that will join us for this next program. So as Pete mentioned, this is the ask me anything for the Australia-plus program. And to reiterate, that is for startups that are registered and operating globally but outside the US. So if you are registered and operating in the United States, you can attend or watch the recording of the AMA for the US program. That will be available on our website next week or it is 1:00 PM Eastern Time tomorrow. Okay. So I'll share some of our accelerator commitments that help guide how Molly, my counterpart in the US, and I and the rest of the team design the experience across both programs. So starting with accelerate, I guess the hint is in the name. We will accelerate you, and we do expect you to accelerate across the 16 weeks as well. We commit to adding value, and we'll respect your time while doing that. So we do that by creating a tailored and bespoke programming for your startup. So we'll meet with you in advance to figure out exactly what your startup needs and what your objectives are so that we can create just-in-time content and just-in-time connections for you. And the fourth one here is community. It really is the heart of what we do. We will build in and with the community, and that can include people with disabilities within your cohort, as well as within your startup team itself. And our operating principles for our accelerator here. So we build our programming around your startups' objectives, and then we also evaluate our success on our ability to support you to accelerate in those areas.

S2: 08:41 Really key to remarkable across all of our programs and experiences is we will also develop your startup's understanding of accessibility and inclusion. And we'll also support your leadership and team development and dynamics through a lens of inclusion. All right. So why should you apply to our accelerator? What's in it for you? Well, our cohorts are small so that we can tailor the experience to your startups' needs and goals. We're looking at about five startups for the Australia Plus program, so you can get an indication of just how bespoke we're able to be with those intimate cohorts. You'll benefit from weekly tailored programming, and there's more on this on the next slide, weekly one-on-one coaching with a coach that is handpicked just for your startup, mentoring and connections within our extensive network to help your startup grow. You'll access a suite of perks, credits, and discounts, and secure valuable seed funding to grow your startup. And of course, you'll get to end the program pitching in-person to investors and industry. Okay. So what does our sort of tailored and bespoke programming entail? I hear you ask. Well, it's weekly just-in-time content, and a note here that it is delivered in Australian Eastern Standard Time. So the weekly programming for group sessions could be workshops and masterclasses. It could be a mastermind on a particular topic. It could be a founder Q&A with an alumni or other experienced startup founder. It could be peer-to-peer learning that one of you actually leads within the cohort based on your experience and expertise. We'll connect you with an investor panel. There could be some roundtables with mentors or people with lived experience of disability.

S2: 10:24 Of course, there'll be some pitch practice sessions. And this year as well, on a Monday and a Friday, we'll sort of top and tail the week with a check-in and a retro just to make sure that we're all sort of helping you stay focused and aligned with your objectives. We've got a great suite of in-person events that will be held in Sydney, Australia. And for those of you that are located outside of Australia, you'll be supported to attend with a nominal travel and accommodation bursary, and all other programming will be virtual on Zoom. So let's start off with Kickstart. So in week one from 4th to 7th of August, we run Kickstart, which is an immersive event designed to set your objectives, collaborate with your cohort, your startup, and your coach. And that's sort of an overnight. We organize the accommodation, catering, all of those sessions, and some networking opportunities too. Ideally, if possible, plan for your core team to attend that one. Then at the end of that week, on the Friday and Saturday, the 8th and 9th of August, you'll have the opportunity to exhibit at the remarkable stall at the Sydney Disability Expo so you can get your product in front of potential customers, potential partners, and other supporters. Then in the middle of the program, end of September till start of October, we have our mid-program catch up. And that's another immersive session to help you fast track your progress, gain more support and networking opportunities, as well as some community-building opportunities within your cohort because they are the founders that will support you along the rest of your startup journey, both within and after the program.

S2: 12:06 And then to round out the program in the final week, from the 1st to the 4th of December, we have another immersive in Sydney that we refer to as Finisher, and that's designed to help you reflect on the program, get prepared for demo day, and set goals for post-program, and how we can continue our relationship and supporting you after the accelerator finishes. On either the 2nd or 3rd of December, watch this space will be our demo day, which will be at our remarkable disability tech summit. Okay. So we mentioned before, you'll also get coaching and mentoring. So each week, you'll have the opportunity to work with a dedicated one-on-one coach that our wonderful Head of Community and Partnerships, Kate Jenkins, that you can see in the chat here. She will work with you to be able to match within our community a startup coach that can help guide you across the 16 weeks. As well as that, you'll have access to another coach that can specifically help you with sort of leadership and executive coaching, as well as working with you and your team on team dynamics. So we've gotten really great feedback over that in the last cohort. So it's something we're definitely incorporating this year. Now, in addition to your dedicated one-on-one coach, you'll have access to mentorship from a network of global mentors. And that could be key strategic areas, depending on your needs, anything from branding, to legals, to sales, business development, capital raising, and disability sector expertise as well. So all of this timing is at a time that you can schedule between you and your coach or you and a potential mentor. So it's quite flexible there.

S2: 13:51 And as I said before, community really is at the heart of what we do. And the great part about our accelerator program is that we have an extensive and already engaged network who are primed to support you on your next stage of growth. They understand the disability sector. They understand the startup ecosystem. So you're really fast-tracking that mentorship that you wouldn't necessarily get in some other more general programs. So you could have access to our remarkable team, our coaches, mentor, and alumni, Cerebral Palsy Alliance, our remarkable user feedback community, our partners, the disability sector, and the wider startup ecosystem, including investors, if that's the right fit for you. Okay. The Australia Plus Accelerator Program, it does offer funding too, which I know is a really exciting component for a lot of you. So what we are able to offer you is 100,000 Australian dollars for 5% equity. You can see there is an asterisk on this slide here, and I will pop up what that means. So in certain circumstances and some people have asked us this question in advance. So I want to share that. In certain circumstances, we are able to match valuation, and that is in the event that you have closed a priced round with sophisticated investors within the last 12 months. So if you had any more questions on that, feel free to ask at the end of this. And another note here that the funding is also tied to your program participation. So what are those participation commitments? So we do want to make sure that it is tailored to you and adding value. So it's not just a matter of ticking off participation. That's not the point of this. It's about us crafting an experience that does add value. But in return, we do expect you to show up to participate, be part of an engaged cohort as well.

S2: 15:45 So the weekly virtual programming is typically on a Tuesday or Thursday in Australian Eastern Standard Time, but there does need to be some flexibility there for different speaker availabilities as well as we try to accommodate cohort availability as well. So that's typically on a Tuesday or Thursday. It could be anywhere from an hour to a few hours, depending on the nature of the session. On a Monday and a Friday, just for half an hour, we'll have a cohort check-in and a cohort retro. Then at a time to be scheduled between you and your coach, you'll have one or two hours, depending on whether you meet with your startup coach or your leadership and team dynamics coach, and then additional mentoring on a needs basis. You can figure out what you need and what works best there. So we estimate that a weekly virtual commitment is around seven hours, but those in-person weeks will require more than that, and they're likely to be full days. But we'll provide you with lots of notice and all of the times and dates so you can get prepared and get the most out of your participation. We do expect, though, that at least one person from each startup attends each session. Okay. A note on accessibility, so as a baseline, we do endeavor to provide an accessible and inclusive experience, and that goes for all of our programs and events. Wherever possible, we'll also make additional adjustments to meet the needs of founders and everyone else involved in the accelerator. So in the application form, we will ask you if you are able to provide some more detail on how you can participate wholly in the program, and we'll contact you and let you know what we're already accommodating, what additional adjustments we may be able to make. But we'll also be transparent where we're still developing in areas of accessibility as well because we are on a journey, and we are aiming to improve that as we go.

S2: 17:38 And a little note here again that it is Australian Eastern Standard Time. So if you are based outside of time zone, you absolutely still can apply and participate, but just keep that in mind as we let you know about programming and your ability to participate. Everything will be recorded as well. Another note that programming is delivered in English, and if it's required, we will provide sign interpretation as well. But don't take my word for it. On screen here is the wonderful Kaly Ryan from Capella Design from last year's 2024 accelerator program. And she said that Remarkable places lived experience, user testing, and the disability community at the center of everything they do, and it sets Remarkable apart from other impact-focused accelerators because they truly understand startup goals and know the challenges and opportunities in the disability tech space. And I'll share one more from Josh Byron at SpendAble, part of the same cohort in 2024. Kaly I should mention was based in Canada, and Josh is based in Australia. He loved that Remarkable especially focuses on technology in the disability space and was so much more applied to their business and goals. So they were surrounded by people that understood the nuance of their industry in the disability space. And that allowed them to make inroads instead of spending hours explaining what they do to people outside of the industry. So really pleased that I had the great privilege to work with them, and that was some of the feedback that they shared.

S2: 19:12 Okay. So what startups are we searching for? So here is the eligibility for accelerator. So first and foremost, disability tech. So you need to demonstrate that you are clearly benefiting people with disabilities directly or indirectly, and that could include disability, including neurodivergence, health, or aging innovations. Now, the stage we are optimising for is post-product and post-revenue. But if you're an earlier-stage med-tech startup, we still encourage you to apply because we acknowledge often the longer path to market for med-tech startups. Your solution needs to be scalable. So we're looking for scalable technology solutions to help more people. And for accelerators specifically, the business structure needs to be a for-profit business. Everyone needs to be for purpose, but for Accelerator, we're not currently accepting not-for-profit business structures. Australia Plus. So our focus is on the Australian market, and that is also where our networks are sort of broadest and ready. We do have a global network, though, and we do welcome startups from anywhere around the globe, with the exception for the Australia Plus program of startups that are registered in the United States. And then finally, the innovations should be remarkable. So we're seeking positive impact, growth-focused innovations that we believe to be remarkable, and we give you the opportunity to tell us why you believe your innovations are remarkable in the application too. So as you're crafting your application, sort of generally four areas that we're looking for you to demonstrate. And that is, firstly, that you have a solid problem and the problem space and opportunity has been validated.

S2: 21:03 The second is your solution. It is a scalable and remarkable technology solution. And then team, the humans behind it. You are the right team. Tell us why and that you are growth-ready. And then finally, a program fit. So we want to make sure there's alignment not only with your startup, not only with the people in your team, but within the cohort because it's such an important thing to craft a whole cohort experience together. So we really are looking for people that are committed to be engaged within the program and within the cohort. Okay. Some tips here to help you craft a successful application. I just want to-- before I share them, I want to let you know that we have a lot of judges who are reviewing your applications, and we do it with a lot of care. We take it very seriously because we know how much work goes into the time, the energy, and the effort that you're putting into building your startups, and then the time, energy, and effort that you put into crafting these applications. So we do take it seriously, and we do review every single one. So first and foremost, make sure you're reading all of the frequently asked questions that are on the remarkable.org website. And you can download all of the applications in a document before you even get to the application form, if that helps you to prepare. So we're asking each question for a reason. So make sure you actually read them and have a think about how you might answer each question carefully. Please use plain English. Explain things to us simply and clearly. Don't assume that we know everything about anything because we don't. Tell us, but use plain English simply and clearly. So there'll be a diverse pool of judges as well as a selection panel.

S2: 22:54 And all of the judges come from different backgrounds, and that can be lived experience, ethnicity, sector expertise, different genders, different neurotypes. Number three is don't skim over anything, but remember that long answers don't necessarily mean better answers. So if you are concise, that can sometimes demonstrate a clearer understanding of whatever the question is that we're asking. So please keep that in mind. And a note that we do score each category numerically. So make sure you share the love across your application form. And don't just focus on one area because we do score each section numerically before bringing it together and discussing all of them holistically. And the fourth is honesty and authenticity. Just be yourself. Explain things in a way that are authentic to you. You don't need to inflate any of your validation statistics or anything about your team because we're going to meet with you anyway. So we want open, honest, transparency. And that could also mean for some of you, it might be an opportunity for you to call out an area that you want to work on, and it is a growth opportunity for you. So try not to be too worried if you feel like you might have a gap in one area. Call it out, maybe, if that's an area that you're wanting to work on across the program, but do it in a way that's honest and authentic. I do know that we utilize AI to support some of our copywriting. That's okay too. Just make sure you're applying your own individual human lens over that if you are using AI to support you to write these because we want to get to know the real you and the people behind your startup.

S2: 24:35 And a short note here that you will also need to submit a short pitch video. It's up to you how you'd like to do that, but we would like you to demonstrate what your product is so that we don't need to make any sort of guesses as we're reviewing your application. But the format is quite open to how you'd like to do that. All right. Not long to go for me talking at you, and then you'll have the opportunity to ask questions. So a note on the application process. So once you submit your applications, which close on Thursday, the 15th of May, we go into the first round of screening, and that's purely for eligibility. So we just want to make sure that you are disability tech and sort of at the right enough stage. And then it moves to a pool of judges, external and internal to Remarkable and Cerebral Palsy Alliance. So those are sort of judged numerically as well as the opportunity for more comments there. And we do our best to make sure that every application is reviewed by a diversity of genders, lived experience, and backgrounds, as well in terms of sector expertise. The next stage after that, so once those applications are judged, we will shortlist to a first round of interviews, and that interview will be with our selection panel, and from that, we will have a second round of interviews. Really, really fun but really challenging experience for us on the other side of the table, so try not to be too nervous about that because we are all here to support you and learn about how wonderful your startups are. And then after that selection panel, we will be sending offers to the startups.

S2: 26:25 So on this slide are some of those dates. A reminder: 15th of May, applications close. The interviews are 27th of May through till the 4th of June, and then 11th of June is when we'll start notifying people of outcomes there. For those that are offered a place in the accelerator, the next stage after that is pro bono legal sessions. So Remarkable will be covering the cost of you to work with a lawyer so that you can get legal advice on your behalf, not on our behalf. So it's free legal advice on your behalf so that you really understand the contracts and all of the paperwork, and you get legal guidance before you commit to participating in the accelerator. And then we move to a period of deep dives with some of the Remarkable team and your coaches when available so we can really understand your needs and objectives of the program, and then that helps me and the rest of the programming team make sure we've got the right speakers and the right programming ready to go for you. And then we have onboarding from the 22nd of July onwards and an opportunity to meet the cohort before it starts. All right. That's pretty much it for me. Onto some common questions, and then I'll open to the floor here. So one of the most common questions I get is, "What cohort am I eligible for, and can I apply for the US Accelerator program instead?" So eligibility is based on where your startup is registered and operating. For the Australia Plus program, that is everywhere except registered in the US.

S2: 27:58 And I will add a layer of detail to that question because another common question I get is, "I might prefer to join the US program because I'm based closer to the US, or maybe the investment terms are different. Can I apply for that?" If you are registered in the United States and operating in the United States, you would be eligible for the US program. But if not, you wouldn't be eligible if you just sort of applied for the US because you want to be part of the US program. So I hope that sort of answers that one enough. But if not, pop a question in the chat and I can qualify that. So is the startup a full-time commitment, and do I need to be working full-time on my startup? So it's a part-time commitment, but we do expect that at least one person in the startup is working full-time on the startup. We accept that sometimes other team members or other co-founders might be working in a part-time capacity, but at the very least, one founder needs to be full-time on your startup. And another question that popped up last year that I'll call out here is, "Can I participate in another accelerator or other startup program at the same time?" We do ask that you are committed to and focused on the Remarkable Accelerator Program. It is quite intense. There is a lot happening, not just the face-to-face programming, but your implementation with your coach, with your team. So, we do ask that you are committed to only participating in the Remarkable Accelerator Program throughout the 16 weeks.

S2: 29:28 Okay. If you have more questions, please pop them into the chat, put up a digital or physical hand, and come off mute. I'll leave that to you. But remember that more details are on remarkable.org, and you can navigate to the Australia+ Accelerator and read all of the other frequently asked questions there. But I will pause here and open to the floor for any questions. No question is silly, so keep that in mind as well. Swati?

S4: 30:00 Yeah. Hello, Emma. Thanks for the update. I'm calling from India. So I work for the disability tech. I'm working on assistive technologies in India. And in India, it hasn't grown or evolved. This segment hasn't evolved that much. So I am developing some product which has already been developed in some other country, but it is not affordable in this country. So will it be considered? I'm developing it in my own way. So I'm trying to make it available and affordable for Indians. So will it be considered?

S2: 30:45 Absolutely yes, is the short answer. I think innovations can be seemingly small. They can be slight twists. They can be market differences. It can be making it more affordable, or it can be making it more accessible in other ways. So yes is the short answer. But Pete, did you have anything you might want to add to that?

S3: 31:05 Not only that, we've got-- Swati, we've got very good friends in India who are also running accelerator programs there. So ATF over there, Pratik Madhav and the whole team at ATF, AssisTech Foundation, are doing some really, really incredible work there and are really embedded within both the startup and the disability communities over there as well. So certainly, you're more than welcome to apply to as many programs as you would like. But definitely, if you haven't come across them, definitely check them out as well.

S4: 31:44 Pete, thanks for that update. But can I get some more information on the work being done in India? Because till now, I didn't get as much support. So I would really like to have some support on this in India.

S3: 32:00 I'll pop something in the chat for you.

S4: 32:02 Okay. Thank Pete. Thanks, Emma.

S2: 32:05 Thank you. Owa, great to see you here. Thanks for being here. So the question in the chat is, "For earlier-stage MedTech startups, is there a minimum technology readiness level you're specifically looking for?" Great question, and it's sort of a, "Not necessarily," type of an answer. Pete, what are your thoughts on that one?

S3: 32:25 Sorry, I was trying to multitask then. So, "MedTech startups, is there a minimum technology readiness level that you're looking for?" I guess, I don't know the actual kind of levels kind of within that kind of definition. But certainly, I think the learnings that we're doing through this program is really around that go-to-market stage. So we don't want it to be too abstract for you. We want it to be as practical and as applicable as you possibly can. So we realize that some of the medical devices and other technologies, hardware, in particular, does take a long period of time to develop. And also, it's not very well-funded as well. So we make that exception for hardware startups and for MedTech just because we know that it's really, really hard to get that support. And we want to support technologies that are in that space. So certainly, we can have a chat afterward and see kind of specifically where you're up to and what kind of support you're looking to have.

S5: 33:32 Okay. Thank you, Pete. Thank you, Emma.

S2: 33:41 Any other questions from the audience? I'm just checking the chat. Aaron, go for it.

S6: 33:49 Hey, Emma. I just wanted to ask because I've just done the [launcher?]. I wanted to ask about-- when you say, "There's revenue," are we talking a specific amount of revenue, or does that have to-- is there a certain criteria around that?

S2: 34:05 We don't have a certain criteria there. Essentially, it is one of the many component parts into us having a look at joining the cohort and an investment. So it's an indication of validation in market. It's not the be-all and end-all. There's no minimum revenue amount. But particularly, if you are not a MedTech startup, the expectation is that there is some revenue. If you can demonstrate monthly recurring, annual recurring, that's wonderful as well. But not all business models are aligned with monthly recurring revenue. So we have sort of modified the question to demonstrate any revenue there. But there's no minimum. It is just but one of the sort of metrics that we would look that support your validation. But as you know, there are lots of other ways to demonstrate your validation as well.

S6: 34:57 [Easy?]. Thank you.

S2: 35:01 [Swati?], did you have your hand up again in the chat, sorry, in the digital hand up, or maybe that was a remnant from before? Okay. I might go to Jay in the chat box, where similar to MedTech, we're building robots for the disability space, and they take a bit of time and money to launch. There's funding behind the startup to build the product, but we haven't received revenue from an actual customer yet because it's still being built and trialed with customers. Do you have any thoughts on that, Pete, from an eligibility perspective?

S3: 35:40 Yeah. I was just typing a short response in there. I think absolutely. It's totally understandable, Jay. And there's different ways that we also look at how do you apply this understanding around commercialization as well. And some of that can be around kind of pre-commitments. It can be around getting commitments around testing and trialing technologies, agreeing to when it's ready, being able to do pilots and trials. So those sorts of things are definitely very applicable and would love to have more applications in that space as well. So definitely apply.

S2: 36:21 Tony, in the chat, how important is the estimation of market size to eligibility? I would say an understanding of your market. Being able to demonstrate that there is demand in it and that it is a growing space would definitely lend itself towards maybe a more successful application. If there is a lack of understanding of the market size, I might suggest that that would not necessarily score as highly as a startup. That can demonstrate a deep understanding access to in a growing market. Would you say the same Pete?

S3: 37:00 I would, yeah. And I guess we get to see lots of applications that are for a particular part of the disability community, and then they say, "There's a one billion kind of size kind of TAM," and I don't think that that's very helpful for anyone. Yes, the disability market is very large, but we also know that it's very nuanced as well. And so we just want you to be realistic around that. And we also understand that some of these kind of breakthrough technologies are for actually a smaller cohort as well. And so we acknowledge that. That's where you probably rank a little bit higher on the remarkable scale of you know it's a remarkable technology. So I hope that makes sense, Tony.

S2: 37:45 The only thing I might add to that as well, Pete, is we also love to see how you came up with that calculation to just give us a bit more background and context to how you might calculate it. Something that has been shown in past applications as well, and Pete mentioned it there as well, is you might currently, for example, be focused on the aging market, but you might have identified through exploration and some validation experiments or just speaking to potential users and customers, that actually a broader disability space is the next market you'd like to unlock. A geographical market could be a next market you'd like to unlock as well. So have a think about it in a number of different ways that may be relevant to you.

S3: 38:37 Any other questions? Probably what we would also say is that if you kind of all of a sudden think of a question that you haven't asked and you kind of really wish you could ask, please just reach out to us. We're more than happy to answer any questions between now and when applications do close. So yeah.

S2: 39:01 Chris, do you get any other common questions coming through your inbox?

S7: 39:08 Not really. I mean, I don't want to pat ourselves on the shoulder, but I would just direct everyone, I guess I would say definitely check out those FAQs because there is some more content in there and some more of those nuances. So yeah, definitely take a look at that content. And of course, if there are any other questions as well, we're available at hello@remarkable.org, and you can also reach out to us personally as well.

S2: 39:35 Thanks, Chris. Gita or Gita, I'm sorry, I'm not sure the correct pronunciation. Do we have a minimum number of personnel within the team? No. So solo founders are welcome to apply as well. I will, though, note that there is a part of the application form that asks you to tell us why you are the right team for it. So absolutely, you are eligible to apply, but perhaps demonstrate how all of the different skill sets required in your team will be able to be sort of serviced and supported where you might want to be bringing on another co-founder or whether you might be supplementing with outsourcing some of the startup functions as well. Daniel, feel free to come off mute.

S8: 40:20 Thanks, Emma. I've got a question around sort of the product or what you guys sort of do. So I've got a service that's more education-based. So it's more around capacity-building. Is that something you consider, or do you prefer tangible, actual products for the disability sort of market?

S2: 40:42 That's a hard one to answer without enough detail there, but if I can add that it needs to have a scalable technology solution element to it. So if it is a service sort of one-to-one education offering, I would say that that's not eligible because it's not a scalable business model. But if you're able to utilize technology to create a scalable solution in that capability capacity-building space, then that would be eligible. [inaudible] enough? Okay, great.

S8: 41:09 [inaudible] so that's great. Thank you.

S2: 41:16 Lisa, Cynthia, or Kate, if you're still here, do you get any other common questions? If not, no worries.

S9: 41:25 I think questions are often more whether it doesn't have to be about cerebral palsy. We're part of Cerebral Palsy Alliance. We can be developing technology for any kind of disability, but we obviously do have connections in with the disability sector, not just within Cerebral Palsy Alliance. And the user feedback community is new. We're growing that. But we do have people with all different sorts of disabilities in our community that we can try and connect you with during the program, and we'll be aiming to grow that as well to make sure we've got plenty of diversity in that. But yeah, they're probably the main ones that I hear.

S2: 42:06 Pam in the chat, what capacity do you have to support global expansion? So depending on needs, timing, and that sort of thing, we can absolutely connect you to our network of mentors, partners, and supporters. That's actually something that came up from the last cohort of Accelerator 2024. And we're sort of looking at how can we even, post-program, connect them and other alumni to-- if we run a masterclass or another session on expanding to the United States because we do have a US office there. And lots of people that can support US is not necessarily the market you're after. But we do also have our +N Innovation Network. And Pete, did you want to-- you've mentioned it before, but maybe it's an opportunity to go into a bit more detail.

S3: 42:53 Yeah. Sam, one of the things that we've found is, obviously, the Australian Government loves trade and people like that are trying to support through kind of where it makes sense, Australian companies exporting out to different countries. What we have found--- we love the work that they're doing, but what we have found is that there sometimes isn't the understanding necessarily of kind of the nuance of the disability sector. And so certainly, what we've tried to do with the +N network, the Inclusive Innovation Network, is to start to build that kind of global market intelligence of kind of this market in different countries. So we have currently representatives in places like Africa, the UK, India, China, New Zealand, Canada, as well as the US as well. And then we've got other partners that we're currently kind of about to go through kind of a bit of a growth journey with that as well. So we do have partners in other parts of the world there as well. And later on this year, as Emma mentioned, we'll be holding another one of our global tech summits as well. So we've held two of those so far, both in the States, in San Diego, and San Francisco. This year, it's going to be in Australia. So, we'll be bringing a lot of those kind of connections globally to come to Australia as well, which will be really fantastic.

S10: 44:16 Fantastic, Pete. Thank you so much.

S3: 44:21 And we'd love to know if you've got-- I know you've just been kind of-- I'm travelling as well. So, we'd love to know if there's people you think we should be connecting with as well. It'd be great to expand that network.

S10: 44:31 Are you guys aware of or involved with the Xero project at all? Because they're very interested in us and--

S3: 44:38 Yeah. Definitely--

S10: 44:39 --there were already synergies there.

S3: 44:41 A few of the Plus N network were there. They were presenting. And yeah, we know the team over there fairly well as well. And then doing some work as well outside of that with OECD, with AT scale, with the Global Innovation Disability Innovation Hub, Global Impact Investment Hub as well. There's, yeah, quite a few. And quite a few investors as well in the states that are specific to this space as well.

S10: 45:15 Can I ask a further question, Emma?

S3: 45:18 Yeah.

S10: 45:19 I'm just curious, too, because our product is actually really simple. It's really very basic. Some of you already know about it. And I'm always just sort of-- I don't know how that fits in because when I always hear about these sorts of programs, it's always these very technical, very high-level kind of things. And what we're offering is something really, really simple. So, I don't quite know how that would fit in with the way you guys operate and work.

S3: 45:50 Yeah. I mean, I actually think it takes a genius to make kind of a very complex thing simple. And actually, better usability is always a better driver of innovation than really complex sometimes solutions. So, I think it all comes down to kind of the nature of the impact, kind of the competitive landscape that you've got for your particular product, and what impact it's going to make. So, I think for us, yeah, a level of tech, I think actually all technology is assistive technology. It helps us to do things better and faster and more efficiently. So it really does come down to that kind of impact of that technology.

S10: 46:40 Terrific. Thanks, Pete.

S2: 46:42 For the recording, I might just share Dwayne in the comments here. Simple is scalable. I agree with that one as well. And just to give you an example, the testimonial I shared from Kaylee at Capella Design, they're making assistive furniture beautiful so that your home doesn't feel like a hospital. So, the simplicity of a beautiful shower stool and a coffee mug that has greater stability and it's lighter. So, simple is great as well. Please do apply. I think Lisa said here, your product is relevant, can have great impact. So, yeah. I might just leave a bit of an awkward silence for any other opportunities in the chat with the digital or physical hand up for additional questions. No? Okay. Well, I hope that you have found that useful in some way. I hope that if you are on the fence and umming and ahhing as to whether you should apply or I don't know if I'm far enough along, either please reach out to us at hello@remarkable.org or submit your application so that we do have the wonderful privilege to review your applications and potentially be part of Remarkable Accelerator Australia Plus. But if you did find that the US program is a better fit for you because you are registered and operating in the US, we'll share a link in the chat, or you can register on Humanatics for the USAMA. That is on Wednesday, the 16th of April, 1:00 PM Eastern Time, which is 3:00 AM Australian Eastern Standard Time. So, yeah, depending on what's relevant for you.

S2: 48:30 But thank you so much for being here. We appreciate you, and we look forward to reading more about your incredible innovations. Irrespective of where our journey meets next, please make sure you are continuing to build these incredible, impactful innovations to make a more accessible, inclusive world. See you around. Have a great rest of the day. Thank you so much for being here. Bye, everyone.

S10: 48:55 Thanks, all. Much appreciated.

S4: 48:57 Thank.

Remarkable Accelerator 2025 | Ask Me Anything Session | US

April 17, 2025

Access Transcript

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S1: 00:02 Hello, hello. Welcome, everybody. You are welcome to pop on your video. It's always nice to see your face if you like, but no pressure, whatever feels most comfortable for you. Excited you all are here today. I'll give it maybe a minute or so more so that we can have everybody join and get started at the same time. But I am really excited you're all here and excited to hear all the questions that you have about Remarkable and all the fun that we can have together this year through the accelerator.

S2: 00:47 And, Molly, if you want to spotlight yourself, then you're going to be in the video with me. Otherwise, I think I'm the only one in the video.

S1: 00:53 I mean, you look great. I'm good with that. [laughter]

S3: 01:04 Molly, I'm very glad to see that everybody is not in a suit and tie or a button-down or something like that. I was like trying to figure out like, "What am I supposed to wear to this?" I just showed up, so.

S1: 01:17 I mean, I would say come as you are, but that's kind of how we roll here. Definitely not more like Boston, New York. We're a little more casual here. All right. So I am going to share my screen quickly. And we will start off today just showing you a video of Remarkable and kind of the work that we do. And then I will hop into a quick presentation about what the accelerator is about. Apologies for the pausing. I am also letting people in from the waiting rooms. And then we'll jump into your questions at the end. So let's get going. And if there is anything you can't hear, see, any accessibility things, let me know. This should share.

S4: 02:28 Various scenes of disabled people--

S1: 02:30 Supposed to share with captions. Let's try that again.

S4: 02:48 Various scenes of disabled people in day-to-day activities.

S5: 02:51 Many of the greatest technological advances enabling the world right now.

S4: 02:55 A girl brushes her teeth.

S5: 02:57 We're originally created by.

S4: 02:59 A workshop.

S5: 03:00 And four people with disabilities.

S4: 03:01 A family has a sign language video call. Rapid views of deaf and disabled people with disabilities, utilizing various technologies enhancing their aptitude.

S5: 03:09 Remarkable exists to amplify those innovators.

S4: 03:12 A man in an electric wheelchair.

S5: 03:13 To help transform their ideas into revolutionary tools whose benefits are felt universally.

S4: 03:19 A high-tech diagram. Men in wheelchairs in the gym. A man and woman walk with prosthetic legs. A mechanical hand is activated.

S5: 03:25 Because technology can not only drive inclusion and equity for people with disabilities.

S4: 03:30 People apply technology.

S5: 03:31 It can do it for everyone.

S4: 03:33 Scenes of the disabled, empowered by technology. A girl plays a keyboard. A man with a prosthetic leg dives into a swimming pool. A man weight trains. Another man joyfully finishes a race. A senior woman looks through virtual reality goggles. A blind man walks down a street. A girl embraces a gymnast. A woman types on a screen. A man in a wheelchair waves to a cheering audience. A little girl tries on glasses.

S5: 03:53 Remarkable disability tech, amplifying every human's potential.

S4: 03:57 Made possible by Cerebral Palsy Alliance and Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation. Various scenes--

S1: 04:09 Okay. So that was just a preview. And I know some of you all came in while we were sharing that. So that was just kind of an overview of what we've done in Remarkable and who supports us. So now we're going to get into the programming. But before we start, I just wanted to take a minute. And I got all your accessibility requests, but I wanted to pause and see if anybody was having any accessibility issues, anything that you might need support on immediately, feel free to drop that in the chat or come off mute at any point if you are not able to access that. So without further ado, let's get into what Remarkable is about. Everyone see my screen okay? Yeah? Okay, so.

S4: 05:15 Various scenes--

S1: 05:17 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

S4: 05:18 Various scenes of disabled people and--

S1: 05:25 Okay. So today, what we're going to talk about is about Remarkable, about our Accelerator program specifically, what the startups are looking for, what startups we're looking for in this year's cohort, how to craft a successful application, and any questions that you might have. I will audio describe slides as they come on for all relevant information. And as you can see, we also have an ASL interpreter who is on with us today. So Remarkable was founded in Sydney, Australia in 2014. We're one of the longest-running assistive technology accelerators in the world. We started through an organization called the Cerebral Palsy Alliance, which is one of the largest direct service providers for people with disabilities in Australia. Three and a half years ago, they tapped their sister organization in New York, the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation, to bring Remarkable to America. So they brought me on four years ago to look at the American market to think about how we can get assistive technology into the hands of the people who need it. So we have supported across both programs around 120 startups that are all building products for people with disabilities. You may have heard me say that we are funded by a Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation. It means that we look at all disabilities because CP is co-occurring with so many different disabilities. And so we've had companies that focus on blindness, mobility, health-related devices, things like that. We really look across the spectrum of disability. And so if you are building anything in the disability or aging space, we could be a good home for you.

S1: 07:22 Remarkable itself has a variety of different programs that we offer, and these are global programs. So we have opportunities. We have our insights podcast. We have research, and we have designathons that really started the beginning around the problem statements in the disability space. We just concluded our launcher program, which is for earlier stage, kind of just getting out an idea, getting out a prototype, really at that beginning stage, testing your market. That just wrapped up. We'll run another one next year. You're here for the Accelerator Program. This is two programs. So there's a US program, and then there is what we call an Australia Plus program. The Australia Plus program and the US program run at the same time. We have overlapping resources, but the US one specifically is focused on US companies. And we are hitting that kind of product-market fit stage. So generally, we're looking for companies that are post-product, post-revenue, if you are kind of a consumer or a B2B company and if you are a med device, we realize that those things can take much longer. So we understand that you can come in a little earlier. Oh, I apologize. There's one last part, which is Scaler. So Scaler is a fund that we started about a year ago. It is kind of follow-on funding. So companies that are past accelerator stage that kind of need that funding to get to the next stage, we offer some additional funding that can be deployed kind of on a rolling basis.

S1: 09:14 So at Remarkable, we set out to accelerate groundbreaking startups that can have life-changing impact on disabled people while also proving the space has economic opportunity. I think that's really important. I've said that we are a nonprofit, but that does not mean that the impact that we believe is the most effective is charity, right? I think the charity model of disability is something that we all understand is not really the way forward. And we know that so many of the innovations that we use today had a genesis in accommodation, had a genesis in disability. And so we are looking for companies that both are making an incredible impact on the disabled space as well as companies that have the opportunity to grow in the more traditional startup sense of things. It does not mean that there isn't space for all kinds of companies, but these are the companies that we're looking at most specifically for the accelerator. And I think an important proof point for the market that this is a really investable space. So just to give you some stats on our US program, we've been running for three years. This will be our fourth year. We've accelerated 13 startups. So our cohorts are really small. They're really personalized. We'll talk more about that. Those 13 startups have gone on to raise $49 million in funding. They're serving 130,000 and growing customers. I say and growing because some of our startups serve a whole university, and that counts as one. So I'm guessing the number is much larger than this data set shows, but still a good impact, just the same.

S1: 11:05 They've secured 32 patents. They're exporting to seven countries. And 25% of the team members have disabilities. And that's really at the start. We do have really great data that says many of our companies go on to hire also people with disabilities. And so that number increases even after they leave the program. This is a slide that just has images of some of the startups that we've supported. So there's two men at the top walking with a cane. That is Wearworks. They help people navigate via haptics. So if you're blind, you're able to access your map via vibration. Participant makes low-cost wheelchairs for people in lower to middle-income countries that are really customizable. At the bottom, you'll see a woman wearing a bra that's spring rose. The founder of that company makes an adaptive bra that can be put on with one hand. Next to that, there's a man holding up a medical device. That's ORI. They make a reusable no-touch catheter that helps decrease the incidence of UTI versus people with spinal cord injury or people who need catheterization. Next to that is a man controlling his device with his face, and that is Cephalable. And they create a more accessible and effective way to interact with any device in the way that your body moves. These are just some examples. Two years ago, I could put all our startups pictures on this slide, and I could talk about them. But now we have many. And so I'm not going to tell you, go through every one of them. But I brought these up just to show you the range of the types of things that we invest in. It's across the board, really.

S1: 12:56 So what makes our accelerator unique? So I like to think about our accelerator in terms of our commitments to you because I know that the two most valuable resources a founder has are their equity and their time and an accelerator asks for both. And so I think it's really important for us to tell you what we will do. I've been a founder myself. I went through Y Combinator. I've been through multiple accelerators. I know a lot of accelerators are decelerators. And that is my worst nightmare, to run a decelerator for founders, but especially founders in this community that are doing such important work that needs to happen. So we really focus on accelerating. So our accelerator commitments are accelerate. We will accelerate you. We take the companies that we accept, and we do deep dives before the program starts. And our goal is really to get under the hood of what is happening. I say to our founders, "You've been accepted. Now you have to show us all your dirty laundry because otherwise we are going to be wildly unhelpful to you." And so we expect you to accelerate. And part of that acceleration process is being able to commit to it, right? Really being able to say, "I'm going to show you what's going on. I'm diving into this program with you. I believe in the capacity to accelerate through this program, and I'm in." So we'll accelerate you, but it's a two-way street.

S1: 14:33 Commitment number two, we will add value. We will add value while respecting your time because, again, I know your time is a premium, and we don't want to use it unless we believe that the time we're using is worthwhile to your company, which is why our accelerator's super personalized. I've never run it the same. It's been different every single year because every company is different every single year. And so it is very much built around who we have. Tailored, my point exactly. We will tailor the program to your startup. We'll make just-in-time content, just-in-time connections. We don't have a curriculum in the traditional sense. So we're not going to say like, "All our startups start out doing sales 101," and then by the end, they've done X, Y, or Z. That is not how I believe that you will accelerate. And so we really try to tailor who's coming, who's speaking, who you're meeting, what coaches you're working with, what mentors you're working with, right to the things you need that week. We won't always get it right because we'll have a medical device, and we'll have someone who's selling it somewhere else, right? So it won't always be perfect, but it will be really personalized. And then community. We have incredible community. I'll talk more about all the networks we're a part of. But we have the Head of Accessibility at Google, the Head of Accessibility at Intuit. We're connected to a 30 hospital network that includes Johns Hopkins and a whole bunch of the ones that you would know. We are connected to a ton of people in the community, disabled people who want to get feedback, who want to be a part of the companies that we support because they see the impact that they can have on their lives.

S1: 16:24 So you'll have that community. But I think even more importantly, you'll have the community of other founders that are going through this with you. I think being a founder is lonely. I think that being a founder in the disability space can be exceptionally lonely. It can be exceptionally hard. Fundraising is hard. We know that. So I think having this extended community, really close-knit community-- it's only 13 companies that have been through the US program so far, so they all know each other and they all support each other. I think there's a lot of value in that. Okay. So accelerator operating principles. We build programming around each startup's objectives and evaluate our success on our ability to accelerate them in those areas. So we have-- come in. We understand what's under the hood. We create OKRs with you. We have program objectives that you will meet. And then our collective goal, the accelerator team, the coaches, and you, is to say, "Okay, now we know where you need to be. Let's get you there." And we assess our success on if you get there. It's not just, "Did you do it? You came through the program." We look at that as a milestone for us. We really focus on developing the startup's understanding of accessibility and inclusion. It's a big part of this accelerator, something that I think you don't get in a lot of your more traditional accelerators. But you may be building for one part of the population, but that does not mean that you know everything about accessibility or you know everything about disability, and we want to support you in being able to be even more inclusive than you potentially already are.

S1: 18:20 And another focus that's kind of unique to us is we support leadership and team development. I think a good, functioning, healthy team is probably one of the make or break aspects of a startup. And I don't meet a lot of them, which isn't to say that all of our teams are wonderful, but I think every team can grow in this area if you want to be really successful. So we have an incredible leadership coach who really dives in with all of our teams. You meet every other week. She comes to all of our in-person events. She's done this now for three years, and she's changed the trajectory of some teams who really dive in with her. So that's kind of a special value-add that we are able to bring. Coaching and mentoring, the way that we'll do things, the way that we did things last year is you will meet with me every single Monday, and we'll go over what your goals are. Then I will find the correct coach, the correct mentor, to work with you on those specific things. So we have people who are unbelievable manufacturing, unbelievable hardware and software, unbelievable at fundraising. We have people in a lot of different areas who are paid coaches and are ready to hop in with you for whatever many hours you need that week. And so that's kind of how we use it as like, "I'll be your air traffic controller to figure out what you need," and then we'll make sure that you get the support that you need from our coaches and mentors every single week. [inaudible] connections. Cover that again on another slide.

S1: 20:06 So the programming is 16 weeks. This year, it runs from September 7th to January 7th. We will meet in person three times throughout the accelerator. And outside of that, it will be virtual programming every week. This year, the three in-person events will be-- the first week, our kickstart is in Massachusetts, really great time to come together, get started, set your goals, meet the other teams. Then we'll go to the Fort Lauderdale Abilities Expo where you'll really get to meet five, six thousand people with disabilities, people who serve them, get to know the community. Usually, we go to Chicago, but the timing is in Fort Lauderdale there this year. And my husband is very excited to go to Disney after, so should you want to make an extended trip. [laughter] And then we're really excited because we're going to go and do some version of a demo day at CES in Vegas in January. CES is really becoming a disability and accessibility place. It's where a ton of investors will be. And so for the first time, we're going to be able to bring our founders to that in January. And I think it'll be great. The investment we give is $50,000, and that is in the form of a safe note. I'm sorry, I haven't been looking at the chat well. I'm going to loop back to that question you just asked, John.

S1: 21:44 But the investment is a 50K safe note. If you look up the YC safe note, we're pretty much mirror that pretty closely. We try to come in with really fair terms. We will often match the terms of your current round. And our goal is not to take your equity in a big way that it makes your company difficult to move forward with. But the nice part about how we take equity is that it's kind of regenerative. So if you are wildly successful, which we all hope that you will be, and your company sells, your equity will then go back into our nonprofit and will go towards future founders that are building for people with disabilities. So it feels slightly less bad than just filling someone's pockets with money. You're kind of creating a ripple effect in the space. Okay. Coaching and mentoring, like I said, one-on-one coaching, mentors with subject matter expertise, and just-in-time connections. Okay. So community, this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of our community, but it's like some of the more formal community that we have. So there's two cohorts that will be running mostly at the same time. You will have access to both cohorts. You'll have access to both the remarkable team here in the US and the remarkable team in Australia. You'll have access to the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation, which is the nonprofit in New York that is funding Remarkable here.

S1: 23:34 I see a few of my colleagues popped in. And then you'll have access to the Cerebral Palsy Alliance, which is the nonprofit in Australia that is funding the Australia Plus program. We have a 100, a 150 coaches, mentors, alumni, lots of people that you'll be able to have access to through the work. We have partners. We have industry folks. Like I said, we have people at a lot of the big companies. We have people at a lot of the big hospitals. Every week, we will run-- almost every week, we will run what's called a remarkable roundtable. So remarkable roundtables are essentially networking events where you will get to meet either specifically people with disability who can give you feedback on your product or people in industry that can maybe accelerate your product in a certain way. And so instead of just giving you a mentor directory, which we will also give you, we find it really helpful to just do weekly speed dating and weekly feedback sessions with our community. And so over the course of the program, you will meet a ton of people and have a one-on-one conversation with all of them. We are part of what's called the +N Network. We started that, and that is a consortium of 11 disability tech accelerators around the world, Canada, China, Africa, India. We have connections with all these organizations, and we meet with them quarterly. And so should you decide you want to expand to certain countries, we are able to connect you to folks who kind of understand that market better.

S1: 25:25 And then through our work at CPARF, which is the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation, not to be confused with me saying, "Barf, it's CPARF." And I'm going to use that going forward. We also work with CPRN, which is the CP Research Network. And they work with many hospitals and many practitioners that focus on people with CP. So that could be an additional avenue of introductions that we could make. I've shared most of this. We'll do deep dives if you're accepted. Those will happen over the course of two weeks. Then the accelerator will run for 16 weeks. And then we'll do one to two group sessions per week for virtual weeks. One to two because we'll definitely be doing a roundtable every week. And then I will add in just-in-time content as I see folks needing it. So if we're starting to hear a lot of people need manufacturing support, maybe we'll pull somebody in for that. We do founder Q&As, where we bring in alumni or people who have created much bigger companies, and you get to ask them whatever you want. We have a variety of different types of programming that we might sub in. So that's what that menu of programming is. And then, of course, we'll take you to the events that I mentioned. These are the dates for the in-person events. So Kickstart September 8th to the 12th in Grotonwood, Mass. Normally, we get a big Airbnb and everyone stays there. But this year, I've rented a summer camp for people with disabilities. So it should be fun.

S1: 27:09 And then October 16th to the 19th is the Fort Lauderdale Abilities Expo, and then January 4th to the 8th is Demoday at CES. The way we cover travel, we usually cover travel for one founder and lodging for one founder with the exception of the Abilities Expo. We also give you the $50,000. So our assumption is that it would be great to have your whole team there if they can be there. But unfortunately, we cannot cover it ourselves, but we've given the money, and most companies don't have an issue paying for it because between what we cover and the investment, most people are able to get there. I'm going to skip that. So this is the weekly average commitment for a virtual week. So one to two times a week, cohort programming for about an hour and 15 minutes each. We expect that you'll do at least two hours of coaching. That would be a meeting with me and then a meeting with one of our coaches. That would be a just-in-time support for that week. And then bi-weekly. So every other week, you'll work with our leadership coach. And so when we're not in person, you can expect your commitment to be about six to eight hours a week. But hopefully, again, that's not like going to class. Hopefully, it's supporting your startup and actually working alongside the things that you need. For program accessibility, we will ensure that program meets the accessibility needs of the participants. Certainly, some programming is designed for in-person. If you cannot travel, we will figure out how to make accommodations for that. Although if you are able to be in person, we do find high value in having everyone together. But we will certainly make accommodations as needed.

S1: 29:09 And the programming is delivered in English, and sign interpretation is available if required. Let me see if I have it. Okay. So the investment, like I said, 50,000 in the form of the safe. I know there's some specific questions about the safe. Again, if you find the YC safe and download it, that is the safe. So you can kind of dig through that and probably get all your questions answered. They have that available on their website. You will need to be registered as a US corporation. So we cannot accept nonprofits, and we cannot accept LLCs. And we cannot accept companies that are not based in the US. If you're not based in the US, you can apply for the Australia Plus program. We have had situations where people are switching all their operations to the US, and they move their status to be registered as a Delaware corporation in the US. That's okay, but we will have to have that conversation when it happens. We've also had LLCs that needed to shift to being corporations after acceptance. Again, don't shift your company until you're accepted unless you want to. But we have had situations where people were not the correct entity, and where we shifted that. Nonprofits, unfortunately, I don't know how to untangle a nonprofit into a for-profit, and we can't make an investment in any entity that is not registered as some form of a corporation.

S1: 31:01 The SAFE, which, again, is like the YC Safe downloadable from their website. We'll share it. We're just kind of getting the final touches on ours from our lawyer, which is why I'm not immediately sharing it here. The safe and the side letter, which kind of spells out your commitments to the program, will need to be signed and reviewed by our deadline. And funding is dependent on program participation. You will get a portion of your money at the beginning and then the rest at the end of the program. We haven't determined how much at the beginning and how much at the end, but we will determine that within the next couple of weeks. And so I will let folks know as you go through the application process what that is looking like. What are we looking for in startups? So disability tech. Does your startup benefit people with disabilities, whether directly or indirectly? It could be disability, it could be health, it could be aging. Ideally, post-product, post-revenue. Again, earlier stage MedTech products are okay, for-profit, for purpose, business structure. And we're really looking for tech that is able to scale. So there's a lot of amazing service-based industries out there, and I'm very glad that they exist. But we are looking for companies that have the ability to scale quickly. And I think when you think about a consulting firm or something like that, your man hours are tied to your output. And that's a great business model, but it's not necessarily the business model that we are investing in.

S1: 32:52 And so if you are a service-based business, this may not be the right fit for you. And I'm happy to have that conversation with you separately, or later today, if that is something that you have questions about.

S3: 33:05 Hey, Molly. I just had a quick question for you real quick. Just following up on the bullet point number two startup page. Are you amenable to companies that are not yet in the market, but will be in the market before the accelerator starts? And the same with them, from an incorporation perspective. We just started getting our-- well, I just finalized our founding team, and we're ready to make moves quicker, basically.

S1: 33:38 Yeah. So the short answer is apply. It may end up being that this year is not right, but next year will be. But I would say, certainly, we make exceptions for remarkable technology. So things that we haven't seen before, things that we think are super impactful. We sometimes take earlier products, and we have done that before. But I would say on average, you are most successful in our accelerator if you are in that growth stage, not in that build stage. And so that's kind of the-- that would be kind of the question we would ask for companies that may not fit that, is like, "Actually, is this year the right year?"

S3: 34:21 Can you actually gain value out of the program?

S1: 34:24 Exactly, exactly.

S3: 34:26 And so, for me, we're building an education technology. And of course, that space just got hammered because of some of the recent regulations that were passed down. So that threw up our go-to-market strategy, I mean, honestly, literally tore it to smithereens. So we basically had to go back to the drawing board, recollect, and we're focusing more on evidence-based and having a stronger case for pilots and other institutions. Because you really can't accelerate sales cycles for education markets.

S1: 35:01 No. And I've worked in that space, so we could talk offline for a long time about that. But yes, I would say apply. And if you are accepted, we would ask you to switch your status, whatever your company is. That's not a problem unless it's a nonprofit, and then maybe it's a problem, but.

S3: 35:23 We're not even incorporated at the moment.

S1: 35:25 Okay. Then I would say you probably want to start as a Delaware C corp if you're just getting started.

S3: 35:31 Yeah. I was trying to line up whether I want to be a C corp or something like that in my own state, or whether I would want to do something in Delaware. I don't really know. I don't know the legal side very well.

S1: 35:46 Yeah, yeah. We can talk offline about this. I will just say Delaware C corp is usually considered the friendliest to investment. And so that's kind of why it's become the gold standard of that. But people make different decisions for a variety of things. So we can talk a little more offline if it's helpful for specifics.

S3: 36:08 That sounds good. I don't want to interrupt everybody, but I just [crosstalk].

S1: 36:10 Yeah, no worries. Well, I'm trying to run through this so I can answer any questions at the end. So I think I've covered most of this, but let me make sure I haven't. So application, we have an FAQ on our website, worth reading through that. That will cover a lot of things. Use simple and clear language. We have a variety of reviewers. Every application will be reviewed by at least five people, usually more. Everyone will be reviewed by somebody who has lived experience with the disability that you are primarily serving, somebody who has industry experience with the disability that you're primarily serving, and then a variety of different reviewers. You have some sort of impact in the disability space, whether it's corporate or nonprofit or hospital or whatever it is. We try to align because we're so broad in what we will accept. We try to align as best that we can with the industry. We try to bring people in that industry to be able to give us feedback on what exists. But that being said, use as simple and clear language as you can. I think that is one of the hardest things for a startup to do to get themselves out of the thick of it in the way that they talk about their product and make it simple because we're reading a lot of applications. And if you're kind of letting us get stuck in the weeds in your application, it makes it more challenging. And more clear and simple language is more accessible language. Don't skip things, but long answers don't mean better answers. And be honest and authentic.

S1: 38:01 So you can preview the questions ahead of time online. You can also, this year, for the first time, which is amazing, save your application halfway through and come back to it. So applications can be found on our website, remarkable.org\accelerator, and our applications close May 15th. Like I said, judging, we have diverse judging team based on gender, ethnicity, lived experience, [sexual?] experience. If you get an interview, you will be notified, and those will take place between June 1st and June 15th. And then we're going to be accepting startups kind of on a rolling basis. And so those acceptances will go out between June 23rd and July 23rd. And that would be when we would have negotiations around terms and where your fundraising is and that kind of thing. It's a collaborative process. It's not a process you have with me. It's a process you have with the executive director of the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation. But we're pretty fair and pretty amenable if you've gotten that far in the process. Okay. I said a lot, covered a lot. I see there's been some questions in the chat, so maybe I will start there. If I'm not answering the question you asked in the chat, please feel free to pop off mute and let me know. And then with whatever time is left, I'm happy to just talk through whatever people have questions about. Okay. Does Remarkable have a platform to match co-founders together? If the question is will you meet co-founders from other companies? Will you meet the founders from other companies? Yes.

S6: 39:54 Yeah. So my question is, being in this space, it's hard to find people who have the same interests that you have. So some kind of imagining [inaudible].

S1: 40:14 Yeah. You cut out a little bit. But yes, the answer is you'll be connected to many, many startups that are serving similar things. That kickstart, where we all come together, ends up being one of the more powerful ways our startups have connected and really found people that are in a similar space as them. If you're asking, "Do you find your own co-founders?" Like, do we have co-founder matching? We don't, but that doesn't mean that we can't introduce you to folks that could be good helps. But we don't formally do any co-founder matching. And safe with no cap. I will have to look it up, but I can't remember off the top of my head. Again, I don't do those negotiations, so I know less about our legal document, but it is the YC document. So I can get back to you on that. Is it possible for US applicants to join the Australia cohort? No. But you can be connected to them. And you can always go visit them. They always welcome visitors. Travel and accommodation. Again, one person will be covered for most things. And then beyond that, we will give you the investment, which can be put in that direction. I think I answered that question. I think I answered that question. If you have additional questions, I will put my email in the chat. You also should have gotten a confirmation email from me about an hour ago. That is my email. So feel free to just reply. We tend to accept-- so the question is, how many applicants get accepted every year? We accept around five companies a year, which tends to be around 7% of applicants.

S1: 42:13 So it is competitive. That being said, I really want to encourage people to apply again because sometimes, we don't accept you, not because we don't think you're great, but because we don't think we're at the right stage to help you. And I think that's important for people to understand, is just because you didn't get in this year doesn't mean that it's about you. It very well could be about us and our capacity to say, "This is the year that we think we can help you make an impact based on where you are." So again, apply again if you have. I don't know if folks are on here that have already applied, but we always welcome people to apply again. There's no flag there. Average word count of applications. I want to say 1,000 characters, but I may be guessing. It should be listed after every question.

S3: 43:17 Yeah. Well, yeah. So some of the questions have 1,000 characters as a word count. I don't know if that's a min or a max, and also how that translates because I know-- so it's not word count. It's listed as character count, so, not work count. So that's why I was like, "Can--" that's why I just wanted to [crosstalk].

S1: 43:36 It is a max.

S3: 43:39 Max.

S1: 43:40 Yeah, it's a max.

S3: 43:41 [inaudible] and sweet, not 20-page pitch then.

S1: 43:43 Exactly. Exactly. Is there a minimum amount of revenue for growth? No. Technically, revenue indicates to us that you've found some market fit. So some revenue is helpful, but there's no necessarily minimum-- I mean, if you know your mom is the only one who bought it, maybe that's a problem. But if that's how you get your revenue, that's great. So, okay. I recently shut down my startup, provided tech for people with disabilities, but I'm interested in the space. I'm wondering if remarkable has any need. Yes. To Brett, yes, we would love to have you support. Send me an email, and I can get you more information on that. For Kim, we are post-product for a different population, autism. We were looking at adapting CP.

S3: 44:45 Right. You're adding all of my back and forth. Now, you're reading all my back and forth. That's all good. We're targeting a similar population. Forgive me, guys. I'm spreading my dirty laundry everywhere.

S1: 45:02 For Karen, is there a preference for consumer or B2B? There is not. Is patenting required or encouraged for physical products or devices? Not necessarily. Certainly, IP is great, but not necessarily. Do you have mentors for EdTech sales and technical leadership? Well, I built my company in education and have worked at some of the bigger education companies in different capacities. So we certainly have network for that. Technical leadership, yes, we do. How does the Scaler program work with the Accelerator Program? Yes. So the Scaler Program, they have invested in many-- not many, but they've invested in a couple of our US startups after they've left the accelerator. Anyone can apply to Scaler at any point. You probably have some favorability if you've been through the accelerator just because they do most of their backchannel with me if you're going through Scaler. And so I'm able to kind of give more direct feedback on growth. But it's not a requirement. You could certainly apply to Scaler. Scalar looks more specifically at your impact on CP. It's the fund that comes through our Australia program. And so you'd be invested in on behalf of the Cerebral Palsy Alliance. That would be the investment that would go in. But it has to be CP related. They're a little bit more strict than remarkable as more traditionally.

S3: 46:53 This question was not in the chat. Great questions, everybody. I feel like you probably took all the questions I already had in my head and just put them right there. My question for you next is-- of course I forgot the question.

S1: 47:11 And if folks want to pop off mute, why don't you just raise your hand so I can make sure I'm going through everybody in equal time? Do I lose.

S3: 47:25 Oh, okay. I got the question, finally. So the question is, do you prefer first-time founders, or do you prefer second-time and founders that have already had an exit or anything like that? Because I know speaking with different VC communities, I've had a lot of people tell me, "Oh, well, you're a first-time founder. Let me know when you've done it once already."

S1: 47:49 I mean, VCs are very good at volleying any excuse for not investing, and I've definitely heard that one. We have no preference. We just want remarkable technology that makes an impact on people with disabilities. If you've done it before, great. If you haven't, we'll help you figure it out. Any other questions? I don't see any hands. Oh, well--

S7: 48:15 Hey. This is a specific question. But as a med tech company that's been in the market for just under a year and hoping to apply for this program that has some growth aspect to it, but also being an Australian program, a lot of med tech companies kind of follow through looking at other countries and by both being Australian and knowing about the Australian and New Zealand market. Is there kind of some aspects of working with potential Australian distributors that saying, "Hey, we might have a pathway of going through, say, insurance in the US," but going through this pathway takes a lot longer? Australia and New Zealand might have a different pathway. So we have connections because there is-- okay.

S1: 49:12 We share all of our mentors. So if you're a mentor for the Australia program, you're also a mentor for the US program, and so you will have access to everybody. We also have somebody on our Australian team that job is to look at getting technology from Remarkable into CPA. So they serve most of New South Wales in terms of what we call group homes, what they call care homes, OT, PT, all sorts of things. And so they look at that. And if we have med tech companies, we will offer a session on the NDIS, which is the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which is how people in Australia with disabilities pay for assistive technology. And so we'll have somebody from there run a nighttime session. It'll be probably at like 7:00 PM Eastern on what that looks like.

S7: 50:14 Awesome. Thank you.

S1: 50:15 Yeah. Any other questions?

S8: 50:22 Excuse me. Hi, Molly.

S1: 50:24 Hi.

S8: 50:24 I'm Ken During in Seattle, but soon to be in your neighborhood. In September, we're moving to Boston. So yeah. Scary too.

S1: 50:34 Yeah. Well, I have to admit, I moved to Rhode Island, so.

S8: 50:38 Okay. Yeah. So that's what I saw. And so, yeah, we may come down that far. We just made the decision about seven weeks ago that we were going to uproot ourselves and come out there primarily because of the ecosystem that's being developed there. And Seattle's just no value to me after 20 years. In any case, I'm sorry. I didn't read the application form yet. Is it one and done, or we submit it, there's a chance to have a discussion of whether I've done it well enough or-- some have this. Once you submit it, it's locked and loaded. So I guess that's my question.

S1: 51:12 Once you submit it, it's locked and loaded. I'm always open to talk about applicants that didn't get through this year. I've talked to folks who didn't get in last year about their application, and I give feedback on that for next year. But it is locked and loaded just because our timeline is so quick.

S8: 51:32 Yeah. It's like 90% of them, so thanks.

S1: 51:35 But it's a good idea. I like it.

S3: 51:37 So just popping this question out. Since you said 1,000 characters, I'm just going to roughly equate that to 250 words for those questions. Is that a realistic guideline?

S1: 51:48 I think so. I mean, unless you use really long words.

S3: 51:53 That's going to be tight.

S1: 51:54 How many times are you writing anti-disestablishmentarianism? And I would see that the interpreters signed that.

S3: 52:00 Very, very few times. I was just wondering because, yeah, I'm going to probably have to trim what I have at this point, but that's okay. It's going to be a tight window. So I just wanted to understand.

S8: 52:19 CS, is it done in conjunction with the CTA Foundation, or how are you expecting to do that?

S1: 52:26 So we have worked with CTA previously. They were a funder of last year's Demo Day. This year, I think we're just working together as partners. But our hope is to get a booth, and then a small one, but a booth, which is the same thing we do for the Abilities Expo. We get everybody a booth. And then we are going to figure out how to do some sort of presentation. Ideally, I would love for that to be some sort of programming at CES because booking a venue at CES is very, very expensive. But at least we will have a booth, and at least we will have specific introductions for you all. For folks that we know are coming, we'll make sure that they're visiting the booth and getting to know what you do. So it might be like Demo Day, slightly different than usual, but the goal is, again, it's like how do I create the greatest impact for you? Sometimes standing on a stage, pitching your product isn't that. And so we're hoping we can figure out a good way to do that with CES.

S8: 53:38 So it's Venetian, the basement?

S1: 53:40 Oh, yeah.

S8: 53:41 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, but yeah. Okay.

S1: 53:44 We are not the AARP [inaudible].

S9: 53:47 Molly, do you want me to check in a little bit more on CTA's [inaudible]?

S1: 53:50 Sure. Yeah.

S9: 53:52 Hello, everyone. I'm Elizabeth Boyt. I'm the Director of Development for CPARF. So we are working to strengthen our partnership with CTA Foundation and then by way of CES. So that is going to look like a couple of things that we're working through, which is a feeder to their pitch competition, potentially sitting on roundtables or other sort of thought leadership discussions around this. The goal for both of our organizations is to amplify the awareness of this technology. So we're positioned really well to leverage each other in this in a multitude of different ways beyond CES as well.

S1: 54:35 Awesome. Thank you, Elizabeth. You said that way better than I could have. Okay. Last call for questions. This has been a lively discussion so far. Grateful you all spent the hour with us. Would love to see your applications come in. Make sure you get them in before May 15th. Yes. Lizzie? Are you signing?

S10: 55:06 Check the chat for my question.

S1: 55:08 Okay. Background to my question, I've seen accelerators looking for disability tech founders, Passover founders with lived experience doing the same thing as other fully able-bodied founders because, of course, they had moderate traction and experience. Not dealing with bias like the disabled founder who had a much lower trajectory, it creates an inequitable situation when VCs are not prioritizing founders with disabilities over able-bodied founders. Where does remarkable stand with this value and ethic? Yeah. I totally understand this question and where it's coming from. We are absolutely interested in someone creating a product from their lived experience. I think that that is one of the more valuable ways to create a product because you know deeply what is needed. And so there's absolutely no preference for one type of entrepreneur over another. I think lived experience is certainly a plus in our book. Let me know if that answered your question. I can look in the chat for the answer, too.

S11: 56:28 Can I toss in one last question? This is Karen [inaudible].

S1: 56:31 Yeah.

S11: 56:31 I know a lot of accelerators have non-disability accelerators. Sometimes they're very focused on fundraising and pitching and your story and your business model. And I was getting the impression from your presentation that, depending on the company and the year, that may be a smaller or larger part of what you're focused on. But I just wanted to clarify how much of the time you're spending in the accelerator is working on the core elements of your business versus your fundraising pitch and things like that.

S1: 57:12 Yeah. Good question. So the answer is, if nobody needs that, we spend zero time on it. But if people need it, we have an incredible coach that can walk you through everything from crafting your story, making your data room, how to do all those things. The pitch is like this much of fundraising, right? What we actually dive into more than anything, if it is needed, is understanding the investment memo, which is kind of a flip on how you would do that. It's not writing a pitch. It's saying, "Actually, what is the investor going to go back and write on behalf of this company so you can get in the mind of the investor, which kind of helps you speak to that community better, as well as the data room because the data room is the thing that the investor is going to dig through after your pitch. And I don't know any accelerators that really spend time on the data room, and often, that is such a crucial next step to actually closing fundraising. So if founders need that support, we have an incredible coach who will work with you one-on-one to do that. If you don't need that support, we're not worried about it.

S11: 58:26 Okay. Great. Sounds very individualized. Awesome.

S1: 58:28 Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. Well, we are at time. My email is molly.lazarus@remarkable.org. You also got an email from me, but I'm going to put this in the chat anyway. Feel free to reach out with questions. Applications are at remarkable.org. Apply for the US program unless you're not in the US, then you can apply for the Australia+ program. But excited you're all here and really grateful for you being here and for all the work that I know that you're doing on behalf of the disabled community. All right. Have a good afternoon.

S3: 59:13 Thank you.

S8: 59:15 Thanks, Molly.

S1: 59:16 Thanks. Bye.

S7: 59:16 Thank you. Bye.

S3: 59:17 Thanks, everybody. Bye.

S8: 59:19 Yeah. Good to meet everybody.

Remarkable Launcher 2025 | Showcase

April 8, 2025

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[00:00:35.066] Voice Over:
We live in a world where technology makes things easier, faster, and more accessible. And many of these tech advances are created by and for people with disability. At Remarkable, we know disability drives innovation. With this approach, when you empower one, you empower many. What began as an initiative of the Cerebral Palsy Alliance has grown into an unstoppable force, empowering disability tech startups by providing [inaudible] and community they need to accelerate and grow into successful businesses. So if you're searching to invest in tech, invest in something truly remarkable. Remarkable, accelerating disability tech.

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[00:01:32.059] Emma Earley:
I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the lands on which we're all gathered today. And for me, that's a Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I pay my respects to elders past, present, and emerging, and we acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and contributions. And at Remarkable, we believe we are better together. Hello, everyone. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Launcher Showcase 2025. Thank you so much for joining us. My name is Emma Earley, and I'm the Global Head of Programs here at Remarkable. Today, we have two Auslan interpreters joining us. There are closed captions and a live transcript available in your Zoom toolbar. And after this, we'll have a recording available with human-generated captions and transcripts. Today, our speakers will be using a combination of person-first and identity-first language, and some have chosen to share a visual description. So for our third ever launcher cohort, we had 32 teams participate, and you'll have the opportunity to hear 90-second pictures from 27 of them. And this is a world map showing the seven operating countries of the teams: Australia, New Zealand, United States, Canada, Ecuador, Portugal, and Germany. Feel free to share where you're dialing in from in the chat today.

I'm also proud to share that 58% of teams have at least one person with disability and/or neurodivergence, and 45% of teams have at least one woman or non-binary person. And we are committed to continual progress to ensure a more diverse, inclusive, and accessible program and wider ecosystem.

So a bit about Launcher for those unacquainted. So Launcher supports ideas to early-stage startups making impact in the lives of people with disabilities. In just eight weeks part-time, our teams focused on validation of their problem space, of their solution or product, depending on the stage of their journey. They had access to weekly masterclasses, one-on-one coaching sessions, and a community of early-stage founders, as well as access to perks from our partners. And if you'd like to get started with your own innovation in disability health and aging and receive all of this support, you can register your interest for Launcher 2026 at remarkable.org/launcher. Now, we always say it takes a village to raise a startup, and we are incredibly grateful to these wonderful, remarkable coaches that you can see on the screen here for sharing their time, energy, and expertise with each team. Thank you so, so much to our coaches. And, of course, to my wonderful colleagues, Team Remarkable, thank you so much for tirelessly supporting our launcher teams. We could not do it without each of you.

So we've listened to the disability community, and we've identified seven horizons of possibility that help guide our mission. And these horizons are a way to identify and categorise areas that we believe currently need more attention and innovation. And today, you'll hear 90-second pictures grouped by Horizon that start to address some of these challenges and opportunities. And after the elevator pitches, I have two really exciting announcements, so make sure you stick around to the end. Now, for a lot of these startups, this is their first-ever time pitching, and we encourage you to celebrate them in whatever way is available to you. And that could include clapping, silent applause by raising your hands and twisting them slightly, typing in the chat, or using emoji reactions, or however you're able to send your encouragement their way through the screen. Okay, so let's get started. In this first section, I'm so proud to welcome seven teams focused on promoting health and well-being.

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[00:05:26.943] Dr. M Tasdik Hasan
Hello, everyone. My name is Dr. M Tasdik Hasan. I welcome you all to Mind Science, a startup which is addressing mental health of deaf communities. Globally, deaf individuals, despite being one of the largest disability groups, face significant challenges to mental health support due to societal exclusion and limited accessibility resources. Whereas the World Health Organization estimates that around 430 million people experience hearing loss globally, yet mental health services have been largely inaccessible to them. Mind Science co-designed with deaf people, their caregivers, healthcare providers, and sign language interpreters and developed a series of mental health electronic flyers and mental health video contents to empower deaf people on different mental health symptoms, self-care tips, and also this project revealed that there is a limited understanding of mental health-related terminologies which led us to develop the first Bangla Mental Health Sign Language Bank in Bangladesh, where we piloted this project. We truly believe that this project has the potential to create access and to allow the deaf communities to precisely and accurately express their emotion like Abdullah said, working on this project showed me how vital mental health is for everyone. He also mentioned that previously, they expressed emotions with just four words, sadness, joy, pain, and liking, and this project is now allowing them to express more and accurately. If you want to adapt these tools in your context, please reach out to us. Thank you very much.

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[00:07:09.061] Amanda
Hi, I'm Amanda.

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[00:07:10.699] Elise
Hi, I'm Elise.

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[00:07:12.062] Amanda
And we're the founders of Baby Moves VIEW. Did you know that 500 babies per year in Australia, or 350,000 babies worldwide, are born with cerebral palsy each year. Cerebral palsy is a physical disability that affects a person's movements, sometimes making it difficult to walk and talk. But if we detect it early enough when babies are only a few months old, we can help with early play and goal-based therapy and parent coaching with a physiotherapist, just like myself, to improve their function.

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[00:07:42.930] Elise
But the problem is only 20% of babies are identified early. That's 350 babies in Australia, or almost 300,000 worldwide, that are missing out on this opportunity for early therapy. We have created Baby Moves VIEW, an app that allows parents to film their baby's movement at home and send these videos to health professionals so they can visually review them.

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[00:08:10.474] Amanda
And we know it works. Baby Moves has been used in over 20 studies worldwide and downloaded over 10,000 times.

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[00:08:18.492] Elise
But now's the time to make it available to every baby born in Australia and the world. As a biomedical engineer, I'm harnessing artificial intelligence to supercharge our app so we can automatically assess the baby's movement videos. By doing this, we can detect more babies earlier with cerebral palsy and improve their outcomes.

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[0:08:48.799] Ed Sorich
Hi, I'm Ed Sorich, GLIA Diagnostics. Millions suffer a traumatic brain injury annually, often unnoticed, especially in vulnerable groups. These injuries may not appear on scans, go untreated, and are frequently ignored. Why so, you ask? The image tells it all. White coat, strange environment, and lots of questions with no right answers. Add to this going into a scary machine that doesn't tell you whether you've had a concussion or not. At GLIA, we believe every brain deserves clarity. Our portable device detects brain injury quickly and objectively using validated biomarkers, eliminating the need for subjectivity. In just 20 minutes, we can empower those affected by silent injuries, such as older individuals with memory loss, disabled patients, and young athletes prioritizing safety. Our technology brings diagnostic certainty to the bedside, the sideline, and to communities that have been left behind because when you can see the injury, you can treat it. You can validate it, and you can help someone reclaim their future. Thank you.

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[00:10:16.667] Abby Bloom
My name is Abby Bloom, and I'm the founder of My Caring Life. I was inspired by watching my sister and her family struggle for years with a child markedly different by the age of three, diagnosed with ADHD by the age of five and ASD later on. They were floundering. They were overwhelmed, struggling to find the information [crosstalk] coordinate everything. They were just like over 500,000 families in Australia today and many more overseas.

So what is My Caring Life? It's a fully functional interactive portal, not just another app, and our early customers call it a one-stop shop, a humanly curated AI-enabled tool that organises, reduces stress, eases communication, and always meets you where you are, wherever you are in your caring life. Once you register, you will have access to a personalised homepage, tailored resources, and guided support like a Swiss Army knife for navigating the complexities of caring.

Allison is a single mother who struggled to manage appointments for her six-year-old with ASD level three, until My Caring Life. Now she has convenient access to her contacts to arrange the appointment and can schedule it within the calendar, which will notify her on the day. Then she can stay organized by updating her to-do list. My Caring Life puts you in control, so you never have to feel overwhelmed again.

Here's our ask of all of you.

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[00:11:52.550] Dylan
Ever since I was five, I've dreamed of being a mad inventor, a white-headed, bushy eyebrowed grandpa tinkering on my latest creation Hi. I'm Dylan, a white man in his 40s with red hair wearing a black shirt. Traditional learning tools don't work for me. I learn by doing, not by trawling through textbooks or the internet. By the time I find what I'm looking for, I'm too drained to build what I wanted to make. So I jot down ideas on post-it notes in notebooks or across countless note and task apps. But when I go back to find them, I never can. And I'm not alone. Many people, especially neurodivergent thinkers like me, struggle to keep track of their thoughts and manage tasks effectively. That's why I'm creating Thought Path, an AI-powered cross-platform web app, not just a tool, but a system that manages our knowledge. It adapts to how we think, organizing info without enforcing a rigid structure. Whether it's an idea, task, note, or bookmark, Thought Path resurfaces the right info at the right time. So you never lose track of what matters. Thought Path is like a second brain, one that thinks the way you do. Help me bring Thought Path to life and ensure no ideas remain lost in the maze.

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[00:13:25.569] Fiona Arrowsmith.
Meet Ellie. She's 16 years old, loves hanging out with friends, taking part in school musicals, and doing her best at school. Ellie has cerebral palsy. One of the ways this affects her is that she can't safely eat or drink enough on her own, so she uses a feeding tube to get the rest of her nutrition. Ellie sees a dietitian to ensure she continues to thrive.

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[00:13:48.894] Charity Spaulding
And that's where we come in. We're two of the six and a half thousand clinical dietitians working across Australia and New Zealand.

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[00:13:56.126] Fiona Arrowsmith
I'm Fiona Arrowsmith

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[00:13:58.017] Charity Spaulding
And I'm Charity Spaulding. Together, we've been supporting children and adolescents with disabilities for a combined 40 years.

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[00:14:06.082] Fiona Arrowsmith
A critical part of our work is using nutrient analysis software to assess our clients' diets and provide personalised nutrition recommendations.

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[00:14:15.778] Charity Spaulding
But there's a major problem. The software available today just isn't good enough.

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[00:14:20.977] Fiona Arrowsmith
It lacks key product data, the information is outdated, it's frustrating to use, and to top it all off, it's expensive.

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[00:14:28.724] Charity Spaulding
Dietitians need better tools.

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[00:14:31.312] Fiona Arrowsmith
That's why we're building NutriCalc, a nutrient analysis platform designed by dietitians for dietitians.

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[00:14:38.593] Charity Spaulding
Now we need a technical co-founder to help bring this vision to life.

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[00:14:43.073] Fiona Arrowsmith
If you're interested in building accurate, reliable, and intuitive software to support clinical dietitians and improve patient care, we would love to hear from you.

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[00:14:52.698] Charity Spaulding
Let's work together to make NutriCalc a reality.

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[00:15:02.372] Kuldeep
Imagine starting your day already depleted. For many neurodivergent individuals, everyday activities like team meetings or grocery shopping can quickly become overwhelming. Each interaction decision and sensory experience depletes precious cognitive reserves, often leading to burnout and decision-making overwhelm. Our research within the community revealed a critical insight. While physical health tracking is common, there's a significant gap in tools that help manage cognitive energy, the essential resource that powers our daily functioning. This is where Neuwo steps in. Initially focused on reducing commute-related stress, we have evolved to address a broader mission, empowering users to understand and optimize their cognitive energy across all daily activities. Neuwo serves as your intelligent companion using advanced AI to track energy patterns, predict potential overwhelm, and suggest personalized recovery strategies. Our visual interface makes complex energy management intuitive and actionable. With ABTA launch approaching and support from Launch Week and Start Space, we are co-founders of Neuwo Saumya and Kuldeep committed to transforming how neurodivergent individuals manage their cognitive energy, enabling them to thrive in all aspects of life and focus on what truly matters. We are seeking trial participants, connections to relevant organisations and funding partners. Join us in building a future where cognitive overwhelm no longer limits potential.

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[00:16:36.408] Emma Earley
Wow. What an inspiring start, right? So get comfy, settle in. This next section has three teams that are enhancing personal mobility, one that's innovating in recreation and inclusive play, followed by two startups focused on communication and sensory augmentation.

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[00:17:03.603]
Bath time! Time for bubbles, giggles, bonding and cries of, "Five more minutes please, mom." The kids don't want to get out. But some kids can't get out because of mobility issues, and sometimes it's not the child. It can be the adult who simply can't lift in or out of the bath safely anymore. Now let's look at the standard options, awkward, chunky, heavy devices, some of them not even for a bath, but some of them with eye-watering price tags. No wonder parents and carers are at their wit's end. So what now? Do we just put up with it, [inaudible] in dad every time, knock out a wall and redo the bathroom? Meet Leggera Lift. The push button bath buddy you never knew you needed. No lifting in or out, just an automatic lower and lift and you're laughing. It's affordable, safe, lightweight, and did I say portable? Take it with you. Set it up in seconds. Press a button. You're done. And the Aussie and world markets are huge. So what are we after? We are after people who can help us bring this game changer to the families who need it most. Let's make bath time easy again for everyone.

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[00:18:37.427] Speaker
Most prosthetics today are still handmade because they are customized items, making them costly and inefficient. On the other hand, 3D printing has clear advantages in all these areas. So, if 3D printing is so great, why is it not widely used? Catherine is a prosthetist working for NPT Clinic in Sydney. To start using 3D printed prosthetics, she's got to go through this entire process. So let me show you how Dexora can help make this transition more efficiently. We are building an automated design platform, essentially a no-cut tool. Prosthetists only need to input patient data, then multiple adjustable prosthetics models will be automatically generated. Then, they can either choose the printing service through our platform with our partner manufacturers or print through Dexora 3D printers. The whole process only takes 4 to 10 minutes, significantly increase the efficiency. My co-founder is from the industry, so he always knew the problems are real. But we also conducted user interviews and surveys with 30 potential customers. We nearly finished our MAP, and we reached out to 10 potential users, and 5 of them registered to try our product. We need support in funding resources, OMP clinician resources, and sales and brand strategy. Thank you.

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[00:20:17.653] Roberto Solamanca
Hello, I'm Roberto Solamanca, and I'm the CEO of Phantasi AI. At Phantasi AI, we are creating an electronic AI companion to restore lower limb mobility. And we have called our first product, VITA. VITA is inspired on the testimony of several of our partner patients like Julie, Doris, and Lori F, that have helped us to make evident a big problem in rehabilitation, the fact that it is insufficient, because it is based on an idea of a one-size-fits-all solution that is really ineffective, it's really costly, and the gains are really, really marginal for those that need it. Therefore, we have created VITA as an AI system that is capable of generating near-simulation, analyzing data from the patient, and suggesting good care practices. But how does this look nowadays? Well, our first prototype is composed by a simulator, a sensor, and an AI embedded within this circuit that is going to take muscle activation and then is going to adapt the non-invasive stimulation according to what the AI has processed. This has led us to our first feasibility study in pediatric patients in which we're testing our device to enhance gait stability. So if this is something of your interest, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We're a big group composed of different professionals and community partners that really want to make a change for those that are in need. Thank you.

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[00:22:14.746] Speaker
Imagine being one of the world's most talented guitarists at the age of 20. You're about to tour with David Lee Roth when you're suddenly diagnosed with ALS. Well, this is what happened to my friend Jason Becker. His father created a communication board using eye movements. I connected with this family, and I proposed digitizing this system. Now, unlike traditional eye gaze keyboards, Vocalize keeps everything centered, letters selected through simple glances with predictive text right where you need it.

This technology has changed how I connect with the world around me.

Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide with mobility-limiting conditions struggled to communicate. The speech-generating device market is estimated at $280 million US dollars in 2024 and is set to double by 2034, highlighting the growing demand for technologies like ours. Beyond communication, we're expanding Vocalize to connect with games like Wordle and AI assistants like ChatGPT. To validate this concept and make it a reality, I reached out to Dr. Jordan Nguyen. As a renowned biomedical engineer, he helped get Vocalize off the ground in its initial stages. If you want to keep up with our progress and join us in making the digital world accessible to everyone, follow the links below to support our mission.

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[00:23:44.591] Daniel
Did you know that the average person, including me right now, talks at around 150 words per minute? But for people with speech disabilities, they often just get 5 to 10. Try to imagine what that's like for a second. Your conversations tend to become much more transactional and they lose a lot of depth. Well, that's where we come in. Hi, I'm Daniel, one of the co-founders of Alek. Alek is an app that uses AI to help people with speech disabilities talk faster with less effort. With Alek, we learn about you as the user, and then we follow your conversations in real time. Then, based on a few keywords that you type, Alek will suggest full responses tailored to you and the conversation that you're having. This doesn't just speed up communication. It also helps to restore depth, flow, and personality to everyday conversation. Alek is actually available right now as a web app or on the iOS app store, and we already have a few daily users. We are looking for more users, speech pathologists, partner organisations to try Alek, give us feedback, and help us shape the future of assisted communication. And if you're just someone who believes in what we're doing, please share our website or our social media. Every little bit helps. Thanks, and have a good day.

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[00:25:13.516]
Imagine not being able to access what you need, where you need it, when you need it. That's what happened when our daughter Aria needed a speech and language assessment. Right now, children are waiting 6 to 18 months in remote communities years to access speech pathology services. This problem is growing, and Aria isn't the only one. One in five children experience speech and language delays. So how do we empower the parent and bridge the gap between home care and professional care? With Little Chatterbox, the parents simply record their child's speech, and within seconds, the AI identifies key issues and recommends tailored play-based learning activities. And it doesn't stop there with a key feature being adaptive learning and real-life progress tracking. We validated, tested our assumptions, involved the user, and substantiated our commercial model. We're now seeking support to develop our idea, build and bring Little Chatterbox to every child and parent. If you're ready to be part of the future of speech support, we'd love to connect. Let's close the gap and give every child a voice.

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[00:26:43.919] Pete Horsley
Fantastic to see all of these innovations so far. Congratulations to all the Launcher participants and also their coaches. I think just watching this actually kind of gives me great hope for kind of what the future is going to look like. Don't you agree? Certainly, it's been great hearing the progress that each of the projects and startups have been making over the last two months. When we first started Remarkable in 2016, we wanted to provide support for accelerating different technologies. And Launcher is part of the pathway of support that we provide to different startups. So we have our Launcher Program here, our pre-accelerator program really about validating those solutions. Next, we have our Accelerator, which is around commercialisation. And then we have Scaler that's really about how do we scale the impact of these technologies. But what I want to alert you to is actually some of the gaps in between some of those programs. And I think that that is equally as important as the programs themselves. And so as Launcher participants right now, you get to tap into the community and the ecosystem of support that we've started to introduce you to. Now, since 2016, we've been able to have a bit of impact. We've been able to support now with this cohort 164 startups and early-stage projects. That equates to 378 founders, innovators, entrepreneurs. And just through Launcher in the last couple of years, we've been able to support 92 startups.

And really, what we're trying to do here is to see the pipeline of innovation happening. We weren't seeing enough innovation happening through impactful technology in the disability space, and we really wanted to kind of see that cadence, that number of new innovations, really try and lift and pick up, but as you can see now, 194 people just through the Launcher program have been supported, but when it comes to the actual impact of all of those things, that's where it really goes off the chart. We've been able to see these startups impact now over a million customers. They've been able to attract over $100 million in investment and other capital. Just the small little drop in the ocean that we're able to kind of provide has been able to turn into a much, much larger impact. We've seen those also create jobs, and most importantly, we've seen them create jobs that are inclusive of people with disability, either as founders or as key early team members as well, and now we're up over 100 people with disabilities that have been employed through these startups.

So these startups are just getting going, and I believe that the best of their impact is still to come, but we couldn't do what we do through Launcher and through our other programs without our amazing partners, and I just want to briefly just say thank you to TPG Telecom Foundation. Also, LaunchVic have been amazing in getting behind us and also Toyota, particularly for the Launcher program. And right now, we're going to hear from just a couple of our supporters. But thank you.

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[00:30:08.885] Jacqueline Brewer
Hello, Launcher Cohort. It's Jacqueline Brewer here, head of TPG Telecom Foundation. I was just popping in to say a huge congratulations to all 32 of our startups who have worked through the eight-week Launcher program. You should all be so proud of what you've achieved in this time. The fact that you have come up with an idea and worked through it is a very brave and courageous move, and it's hard, so well done on getting through the program. We're all so proud of you here at TPG Telecom, and we're so happy to have supported you through this process. Please keep us up to date with what you're doing and how you're going, and you can be really proud of this showcase. Thank you so much, and congratulations.

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[00:30:59.558] Ellie Phillips
Hi, everyone. My name's Ellie Phillips, and I'm the head of Startup Development here at LaunchVic. On behalf of the whole team, I just wanted to say a huge congratulations on participating in the Launcher program and making it to the showcase here today. It's no easy feat taking that first step into the startup world and launching and scaling your own business. Pre-accelerator programs like Launcher play such a critical role in helping us to support and grow the startup community here in Victoria while supporting founders like yourselves to kickstart your ideas.

So I want to also take a moment to say thank you to the remarkable team for the hard work that you do behind the scenes. And for you, the founders, as you look to take the next steps post-program, make sure that you lean on the incredible support and community from that remarkable programming team, and if you're not sure where to go next or have questions about the ecosystem, my door is always open, so feel free to reach out through LinkedIn or through our Office Hours program that you can find on our website. Congratulations again for making it this far, and I look forward to seeing what's ahead for all of you.

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[00:32:01.292] Emma Earley
Thank you so much, Pete and Jacqueline and Ellie. We are so grateful to be partnering with you. Okay. So we are halfway. Please welcome four startups improving employment and community participation, followed by three teams focused on education and learning.

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[00:32:24.179]
Are you open to new experiences? Do you like to explore, travel, try new things? Don't worry, it's not a pyramid scheme, and I don't want any money, but I do want a bit of your attention. The thing is, people with disabilities, they also like to explore, travel, try new things. But it can be pretty challenging, and it's probably not for the reason that you expect. The biggest barrier is not that places aren't accessible. The biggest barrier is actually that we just don't know whether places are accessible or not. So yeah, kind of shocking that, in 2025, the biggest barrier to people with disabilities living their best life is simply information. Include Me is working to pull together vital inclusivity information to help people with disabilities. And I'd love for you to be part of the journey. So right now, you can get out your phone and save this link. Yeah, now. Next time you're out and about, pay attention to your surroundings, then go to the link, fill in the form, and send me the information. I'll do the rest. Just to recap, don't send any money. Save the link. Fill in the form. I can promise that if everyone watching this just sends one bit of information, we can make a real-world difference to the life of somebody who's living with disability.

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[00:33:58.878] Sabrina
Hi, everyone. My name is Sabrina. And whenever my partner and I travel, we often expect places not to be wheelchair-accessible. But recently, we've discovered some pretty cool hidden gems like this old building right here, which actually has an accessible bathroom and shower and an elevator to the rooftop bar. We just wish there was an easy way to find and share great accessible places like that, which is why I created EnAccess Maps, a platform to find venues that work for you. So you start with just selecting the type of place that you want to find, the access features you need, and where you want to go. You'll get results with information from other visitors or the venue itself that matches the things you're looking for. We also hire people with disabilities to verify the accuracy of the venue listings. So once confirmed, those venues earn a verified badge so you can trust that information before you go. So are you someone who knows a venue or council that values access? Please connect them with us. Or are you someone who loves to do Google reviews? Start reviewing with us instead to make an impact. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram or Facebook to be part of our growing community. Thank you.

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[00:35:34.350]
We all use our brains at work, yet we don't talk about them. We talk about the weather, our coffee orders, and the shows we're binging. But when it comes to how we think and collaborate, silence. I'm Kim, and for 12-plus years, I climbed the corporate ladder. And on paper, I was thriving, but behind the scenes, I was struggling with masking, people-pleasing, and perfectionism, and then my body gave out, leaving me bedridden for nearly a year. And that's when I realized that I wasn't failing. The system was. Every brain works differently, but workplaces are still one-size-fits-all. 91% of neurodivergent employees feel pressured to hide their differences, even though 82% believe that their differences make them better at their jobs. And that's so much wasted potential. Introducing impact thinkers. Think of it like a bespoke user manual that helps teams understand those differences and support each other better. It takes a strength-based framework and removes the stigma. It personalizes neurotype profiles so all of us can do our best work. It steps out an action plan for making inclusive teamwork your everyday reality. We've secured funding and are rolling this out to 120 energy sector employees in Perth, setting the stage for broader adoption. I'm asking for five progressive teams to book a free 15-minute future skills booster with me. You'll get practical, bite-sized neuro inclusion insights and fresh ideas. Email me now to claim your spot. The workplace wasn't built for us, but together we can change that so we can all reach our full potential. We are what unites.

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[00:37:08.201] Rachelle
Hi, I'm Rachelle. I'm the founder of Unitely, and I currently appear in the bottom left-hand corner in a circle, and I have dark long blonde hair. Imagine your career is on fire. You're smashing out goals, meetings, deadlines. You are crushing it, but then you start to experience fatigue, brain fog, endless doctor's appointments. Your body has turned on you. You're pushing through, hiding the struggle, but your team doesn't get it, and you aren't sure how to support yourself. I get it because that was me. I was an executive at the height of my career when I faced end-stage kidney failure and an ADHD diagnosis. My workplace did not know how to support me, but I didn't even know how to support myself. And I'm not alone. One in three workers with a chronic condition will leave their job due to stress or inflexible policies. Introducing Unitely. Unitely brings fun, engaging team workshops tailored for different brains and bodies. Then we hand teams an app that's like having an inclusion expert and career coach right in their pocket. And we're also able to connect individuals with one-on-one human coaching and our AI support. We've done 100 interviews. Our app backend is ready. Content is in progress. We've got 10 paid coaching clients and meetings booked with some large corporates and startups. What we want from you, we want you to trial our platform or do a workshop with your team or let us know of an expert coach or facilitator for our content or test our app. Scan the QR code to find out more.

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[00:38:43.419]
Imagine traveling to an unfamiliar place, not knowing what to expect. Exciting for some, but for autistic children like my daughter, it's a source of stress and anxiety. For her 9th birthday, a beach trip turned into a meltdown on a busy boardwalk. I felt helpless and responsible for not having prepared her for the situation. Determined to help, I co-founded Ella, an app that creates personalized explainers for kids. With Ella, parents instantly engage their kids by making them the main character of a story, visual schedule, or set of picture cards. Whether preparing for trips, exploring social skills, or answering questions, Elle enables parents to explain anything to their kids in seconds. No more frantically searching the web for help or overwhelming your child with too much information. Simply explore Ella's curated expert explainers or create your own in seconds. Join us in spreading the word to parents who want to help their kiddos prepare for new experiences and overcome everyday challenges. Ella is free to try at ella.kids/parents. Thank you.

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[00:40:02.277] Paul Almeida
Hi, Hi. I am Paul Almeida from Quinde Lab in Ecuador. [music] Did you know that globally around 15 to 20 percent of children suffer from a learning disability? The lack of an early diagnosis has a direct impact on their self-confidence and motivation to study, and generates emotional distress. For that reason, we are creating Quinde Lab, a neuroeducational platform to offer a personalized therapy process for children with learning disabilities. Currently, we are finalizing our MVP to be presented to two psychological centers that have an agreement with us to test a product and give us feedback to enhance it for our customers. We invite you to follow Quinde Lab. We are looking for partners to expand our project into Australia and other countries in the future. Thanks for your support.

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[00:41:16.868] Viviana
Hi, everyone. My name is Viviana Moda and I'm responsible for partnerships at Virtuleap, a company working at the intersection of virtual reality and neuroscience to improve cognitive function. We focus specifically on cognitive disorders such as ADHD, such as autism, among others. Traditional brain training solutions are widely used and has shown some potential, but they seem to have limited effects. VR is the first embodied digital format that transcends these limitations to offer a more engaging experience that involves full body. Taking into account the advantages of virtual reality, we have created our brain training solution that is called Enhanced VR that consists of a series of science-based games such as the one you're seeing here. Currently, the app contains 15 games across seven different cognitive abilities that provide engaging and fun cognitive workouts, quite like a gym for your mind. So far, we have secured $1.5 million in revenues with two highly awarded products in the markets and several partnerships that will enable certification as a medical device, which is our long-term goal. We are interested in bringing our products to Australia, and we are seeking partnerships for clinical validation, collaborations for grants, applications, as well as clients and distributors. So reach out to us if you're interested.

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[00:42:51.553] Emma Earley
Now, this is the final section of some seriously impressive elevator pitches. And to bring us home, literally and figuratively, our seven startups building solutions for independent living.

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[00:43:07.787] Joseph
Hi, I'm Joseph from ZeroTag, Zero Distraction Reorder Tags. For many, grocery shopping is a mental maze. James and Connor, who are visually impaired and dyslexic, rely on a $60 per hour support worker just to choose what to eat. Emma, a mom with ADHD, is pulled towards different directions by ads in-store and online, leaving her with a full basket with only half of what she needed. Overseas, brands spent $4 billion a year on smart packaging to engage and retain customers. Australia's Smart Packaging is still a Blue Ocean market, we believe to be worth at least $20 million per annum. Among smart packaging tech, NFCs are favored by blind and neurodivergent users for being tactile and seamless, benefits that brands also love. Our designed and engineered, affordable, locally made NFCs, and already sold 150 at a profit. Introducing ZeroTag smart reorder tags. Tap to reorder products right where they're stored. These bespoke NFCs double as giftware, enhancing unboxing and keeping brands visible at home beyond the packaging and away from the competition. And unlike typical NFCs, brands can update them and track user engagement. So cut the noise, keep the connection with ZeroTag.

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[00:44:43.567] Serena
As an occupational therapy student and support worker, I've seen how beauty routines are fundamental to dignity and quality of life. Our research revealed an unfortunate reality: 93% of people with disabilities struggled to find beauty products that they could use. They spent months frustratingly searching for something they could simply open, apply, and enjoy. A-Beauty is the first online database of accessible beauty products. Our mission: to take the guesswork out of finding products so you can be your most confident self.

One woman we interviewed put it perfectly: accessibility meant dignity. Dignity in providing her own self-care when she already couldn't do so many things herself. From women with cerebral palsy who struggle to twist open lipstick to visually impaired men who can't distinguish between shampoo and conditioner bottles, there's a product out there for you. The A-Beauty team is driven by deep empathy. We hold lived experience of neurodivergence and chronic illness.

So far, we've heard from over 50 people and occupational therapists. We hope A-Beauty can also be the first clinical tool of its kind. 94% of people with disabilities said that they were likely to use the website. We built wireframes and are approaching 100 products in our database. So if you're a person with a disability and OT or have connections to A-Beauty brand, we'd love to hear from you. Join the community where beauty is truly for everyone. Thank you.

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[00:46:19.155]
Have you ever watched your child constantly fail at something that is so simple and mundane? I see my eight-year-old struggle and lose confidence with dressing himself every day, and that breaks my heart. As a mom to a child with cerebral palsy, I know the struggle of dressing a child with disabilities: tricky buttons, uncomfortable fabrics, and tight necklines that turn a simple daily task into a challenge. That's why I created Braveheart clothing for my son and kids like him to feel comfortable, confident, and independent in what they wear. Our adaptive clothing is designed with kids at heart and parents in mind, featuring soft, sensory-friendly fabrics, easy closures, and styles that accommodate medical needs.

No more wrestling with clothes, no more sacrificing style for function, just fun, inclusive fashion that your little one will love to wear. At Braveheart clothing, we are not just creating clothes. We give kids confidence, independence, and choice. And we give parents one less battle to fight every day. We have designed our first collection and currently looking for manufacturing partners. To all parents, mentors, and investors, please join our community and help us launch and grow. Together, let's make fashion truly inclusive for our little warriors.

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[00:47:54.958] Fraser
Hello, I'm Fraser. I moved from the UK to New Zealand six years ago, and my 84-year-old mother lives alone back home. She's partially sighted, hard of hearing, and struggles to recognize people. She feels anxious about unexpected visitors. She also worries about scams. Being almost 20,000 kilometers away, I share that worry.

Unfortunately, her situation is not unusual. Many people, older adults and otherwise, either cannot or prefer not to deal with visitors at their doorstep, leading to anxiety and potential loss of independence. That's why we created SOTAR, our AI Guardian. Unlike current video doorbells, SOTAR autonomously handles callers at the door, shielding the occupants and only alerting them or trusted contacts when needed.

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[00:48:41.181] Lyra
Hi, I'm Lyra. I'm here to see my grandmother.

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[00:48:44.106] Sotar AI
Hello, Lyra. Welcome back. I've recognised you and alerted your grandmother that you're here. Please wait a moment. Notification from SOTAR. Your granddaughter Lyra is here to see you. Shall I unlock the door?

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[00:48:56.551] Fraser
SOTAR provides comprehensive records of visits for family and trusted contacts. We are currently running pilots and raising capital to fund the next step of our journey. SOTAR is more than just a product. It's a mission to help people globally maintain their independence, safety and dignity as they age or navigate disabilities. We're excited about the future. Visit intermentous.com to register your interest and be the first to know when SOTAR becomes available.

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[00:49:29.666]
Preventable disease is a global crisis, and people with a disability are hitting it the hardest. Everyday actions like how we sleep, move, eat and socialize, influence our health. Yet, the medical system ignores this until it's often too late. I left this model three years ago and started to redesign what effective healthcare looked like in my OT clinic. And what I saw was simple. Real change happens when strategies fit real life, and people are supported to act on those strategies between sessions. So I started to do things differently, which led me to create LifeSetGo, a therapist co-pilot, allowing me to go from complex assessment into a clear treatment plan in a single session, and automating SMS follow-ups to increase accountability without me having to chase up. I've tested this in my clinic from complex disability to early intervention, and it works, improving sleep, eating, movement, and much more. And when I spoke to other occupational therapists, from juniors to seniors, everyone wanted to work in this space. And in fact, some already were, but unpaid, so they were burning out. They wanted to work in this field, but there was no feasible model to do so. Until now, we have a model, and we have a market, and the time is now. I'm looking for a technical co-founder who shares this vision and would like to build LifeSetGo together.

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[00:51:01.311]
Our baby, Garnier, was born in 2017. The process was traumatic and left her with intellectual disability. As new immigrants, we discover how confusing and stressful finding support can be, and less phone calls, unclear options, feeling isolated, and you just wondered why, and this why became Volitio. Simple person-centered hub designed to take the stress out of finding the right supports, like transactional and complicated platforms. If you love hiking, swimming, Volitio instantly matches you with nearby support who can share the same interest as you do. Volitio keeps everyone involved, as many people as you want involved in your care, families, providers, support coordinators. And we are already live. NDI is registered, available on Android and IOS as well. We've been privileged through remarkable to access a community of amazing people living with disability and their support as well. And the response was overwhelmingly, yes, they're all ready to come aboard. It's not just an idea. We're changing lives. We're empowering families, simplifying cares in real life and practical ways. And now, we're seeking support to grow, improving user experience by making Volition accessible to every family in Australia and beyond. In Volition, we have a saying, it's a social responsibility to take care of each other. Join us.

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[00:52:44.081]
This is Sam. Funny, outgoing, and a huge movie buff. She loves movie nights, laughing loudly at bad jokes, and sharing popcorn with friends. But every evening, Sam returns to a home filled with silence or worse, tension or abuse from her housemates that she didn't choose. Homes should feel welcoming, safe for Sam. It just doesn't. When your home isn't right, life loses its joy. Marco Polo changes this by empowering real choice. Our platform puts the decision back into the hands of people like Sam, letting them pick housemates who share their interests and match them on a personal level. Marco Polo is a web-based platform designed by and for people with a disability. From the comfort of your couch, you can sign up, search, filter, chat, and match with ideal housemates. Think eHarmony combined with flatmates.com for people with a disability. I'm Aaron, pharmacist, neurodivergent, and co-founder. My partner, Amy, is an Aboriginal woman and an experienced local area coordinator. We've both seen the realities of the SIL landscape firsthand. Together, we're making shared living safe and meaningful. Join us at Marco Polo and help us rewrite the story for Sam and countless others.

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[00:54:13.708] Emma Earley
Ooh, fantastic. How great were they? Please join me in congratulating all of our 2025 launcher teams. I hope you're all feeling really, really proud. And thank you so much to each of you for trusting remarkable on your startup journey. So that's it for our elevator pitches. But as I mentioned at the start, I've got a really exciting announcement to share with you all. For the first time, we introduced Launcher Microgrants to our cohort, and that gave them the opportunity to pitch for grant funding to support their next stage of startup growth. It was an incredibly difficult process to select from 25 impactful projects, pitching for a pool of 12,000 Australian dollars.

And I'm really thrilled to announce three recipients of the inaugural launcher microgrants. Drum roll. [music] Wink Hand-free Innovation, Like Set Go, and Mind Signs. Huge congratulations, and we can't wait to see how this accelerates your progress. Really well done to everyone. So please continue to support our launcher teams throughout their next stage of growth by connecting them to your network. Next week, we'll be sharing a blog post with recordings and handy links to each of the teams alongside their ask for support. So we've made it really simple for you to connect with them and support them. But that's it for launch to showcase, but don't let this be the end of our time together.

Are you working on an innovation in disability, health, or aging, or know a friend, family member, or colleague? Well, depending on the stage of the startup journey, you can express your interest in Launcher 2026 or apply to our accelerator programme, which opens tomorrow, Wednesday, the 9th of April. You can head to remarkable.org for all of the information. Thank you so much for joining us today. Goodbye.

2025 Launcher Ask Me Anything Session

December 10, 2024

Access Transcript

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Emma Earley (00:56 - 01:23): Yeah, let's get started. Hello everyone Welcome, okay, we'll get started

Video - Speaker 1 (01:23 - 01:26): Launcher is a place for founders who want to make an impact

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Video - Speaker 2 (01:29 - 01:35): It is a place for anyone who has the wildest ideas that they want to bring into the disability space

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Video - Speaker 3 (01:46 - 01:59): What I found with Launcher is that I learned a lot about customer interviewing. As someone with ASD, I can find going out of my way to have conversations a little bit challenging but I was able to get support from my mentor in how to structure those conversations

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Video - Speaker 4 (02:00 - 02:15): Our idea was very much just an idea around the time we joined Launcher. We were able to gain some insights from people with lived experience with disability. We were always able to reach out to the Remarkable team. They were always really resourceful and linked us to any useful connections.

Video - Speaker 5 (02:31 - 02:43): Being part of a community is key to succeeding in whatever part of life, but even more amazing when you're part of a community that has that same passion for bettering the world that we live in and having a genuine impact.

Emma (02:59 - 03:32): Hello everyone. Welcome I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the lands on which we are gathered today and for a lot of the Remarkable team that is Gadigal Land of the Eora Nation, so we pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging acknowledging their continuing cultures and traditions and the contribution they are making and we believe we are better together. If you would like, feel free to pop in the chat wherever you are joining us from and if you happen to know the traditional place names feel free to add them as well.

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Emma (03:33 - 04:06): My name's Emma Earley, I'm the Global Head of Programs at Remarkable and hosting our Ask Me Anything alongside me today is Chris Palin, our Program and Events Coordinator. A previous version of this deck actually said the Head of Fun, so maybe you can choose whichever title makes the most sense for you but if you can have a look in some of the other videos in Zoom I'll just point out a bunch of the other Remarkable team joining us today. We have the wonderful Kate Jenkins who is our Head of Community and Partnerships.

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Emma (04:08 - 04:25): Liza Maclean, our Head of Technology Implementation. Our digital comms extraordinaire, Kirilly Conroy. Another extraordinaire, but on the operation side of town is Cinthya Zurita. Just clicking along who am I missing?

Emma (04:25 - 04:56): Our fearless leader and founder of Remarkable, Pete Horsley in his special holiday shirt today. And have I missed anyone Chris? But I can't say no, fantastic. So the two of us will be your main points of contact for those of you that do join us on the Launcher journey. So I want to start by saying that you belong here, all of you, the full you and I invite you to participate today, however works best for you.

Emma (04:56 - 05:26): It's lovely to see a lot of you with the camera on. Feel free to eat your lunch or whatever you need to do. Look after your kids, pets, whatever. Please participate in a way that works for you and I would like to acknowledge that we are committed to inclusive practices and experiences. But we won't get it right every time although we're doing our best at that. So please do share any feedback you have with us as we are all on a learning journey. Today we have two wonderful Auslan interpreters joining us, they are in the spotlight on Zoom.

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Emma (05:26 - 05:58): And for those of you joining on the recording, hopefully you'll be able to view them there as well. And just a quick note on inclusive language, you may hear a blend of person first and identity first language today. So today we'll go through a little bit about Remarkable, some detail about the Launcher program and the support that you'll benefit from. The application process and how to make your application stand out and what makes for a good one. We'll share a couple of frequently asked questions and then we'll open the floor to you.

Emma (05:58 - 06:28): You're most welcome to add to the chat your question as we go, or you'll have an opportunity at the end you can come off mute and share your questions verbally whatever works for you. So welcome to Remarkable. How many of you just this week alone or even today have used speech to text? Yep I can see some hands up. What about typed on a keyboard?

Emma (06:29 - 06:55): I mean I'm doing it right now. And video with captions? You all just did it then actually, you experienced it on our Launcher hype reel. So all of these innovations you may or may not know have been designed for people with disability in mind but they're ones that we, everyone benefits from. So if we can design a more inclusive and accessible world, the whole world will benefit. But why does this matter for Remarkable?

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Emma (06:55 - 08:00): So our mission is to accelerate disability tech innovators. And we do that through providing capital, networks and information and programming because we want to create a future that's accessible, equitable and inclusive for everyone. So 16% of the world's population live with disability and over one billion people need assistive technology though some stats are pushing that closer to two billion. But only 10% of them have access, and that's just not good enough. So if you would like to join us on that journey of improving those numbers, we hope that your incredible ideas and the work that you're doing already for your startup, can really improve the lives of people with disabilities. But it's not just a nice thing to do, you know. Exclusion of people with disability represents almost up to $2 trillion in missed GDP. So it is not only impact-driven, it is commercially viable for these innovations to get out there in the world. But a few of our remarkable pathways

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Emma (08:00 - 08:34): So Launcher is why you're joining us today. So that's for ideas to early stage startups in an eight-week pre-accelerator program. We do also have our accelerator program for startups that are a little bit further along on the journey, we have that accelerator program for post-product post-revenue startups, with the exception of some medtech hardware due to the longer path to market. And our newer initiative is called Scaler and that's for Seed to Series A stage startups. And that's a co-investment initiative.

Emma (08:34 - 09:04): But that just sort of gives you an indication of the different pathways available at Remarkable. Okay, so a note about our impact. So today we have served 130 startups, and we're going to add up to 30 to that number with this next cohort of Launcher, which is really exciting. And of those Remarkable startups, they have created 773 jobs in the world and served over 820,000 customers, which is incredible.

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Emma (09:05 - 09:34): And we're not shy from a hundred million dollars in capital that has been invested in these startups and that number is growing every sort of month and year really, and they export to 32 countries. Some of you may have experienced or may sometime in the future our global tech summits that Remarkable has hosted In the US and here, we've hosted three of them. You're in good company. All right, over to who is Launcher for?

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Emma (09:37 - 10:12): So let's start with disability tech. Hopefully you are already familiar with the fact that Remarkable is about disability tech, but for you to be eligible for Launcher, your startup idea must benefit people with disability directly or indirectly. And the way we see disability at the moment is traversing disability Including neurodivergence, health and aging. I've got a couple of examples here to sort of paint a picture of what that could look like. These three incredible entrepreneurs on the screen here are from our Launcher 2024 alumni.

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Emma (10:12 - 10:46): So the cohort that was in February and March of this year. So Alexander is the founder of ReviMo, which is a robotic lift and transfer device that helps people with independent toileting and transfers. So life after Launcher for Alex looked like receiving $120,000 US investment in an accelerator program and he's going from strength to strength. So feel free to reach out to him on LinkedIn and find out more about ReviMo. In the center of this slide is the incredible Storm Menzies with ByStorm Beauty.

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Emma (10:46 - 11:21): She's creating inclusive beauty and makeup accessories for everyone. And she's recently been through the I2N Accelerator in Newcastle in Australia. And excitingly on the right of the screen here, Seymour Events. So you may have seen on LinkedIn that Seymour Events launched on Product Hunt maybe one or two weeks ago their app for real-time live event captioning that audience members can access through their own device. So they were pre-product when they joined Launcher and towards the end of this year they've launched to market with their app.

Emma (11:23 - 11:47): On the screen here is our 7 Horizons of Possibility. Now these have been developed in conversation with people with disability and they do evolve over time. So in the application form we'll actually ask you to choose one of these seven that you feel your solution most aligns with and I'll just go through them quickly to give you a few examples of other disability tech startups.

Emma (11:48 - 12:21): We have Promoting Health and Wellbeing. Recreation and Inclusive Play and an example here is Big Karma, that develops video games and online experiences where the heroes are people with disabilities and they have to actually leverage their disability to sort of win the level or whatever it is. We have Communication and Sensory Augmentation and an example of that is CareWindow, which is the world's simplest video phone that even people with dementia can use. Another horizon is Enhancing Personal Mobility, Economic and Community Participation.

Emma (12:21 - 12:53): Education and Learning and Independent Living. And an example that I'll share is Umps Health, which is a wearable smart alarm device for independent living at home. So hopefully you can see some of these examples that may align with your innovations, but even better if they don't because disability tech really represents a diverse cross-section of innovation. Okay, so we've been through the disability tech side of things, but now the focus of Launcher is validation.

Emma (12:53 - 13:23): So this program is for people that are really committed to testing, experimenting, getting feedback to grow your idea. And that validation can be in the problem space, so for those of you that are in the really early ideas stage the focus will be on validating that problem space with your users. Then for those of you that may be a little bit further along, validating the solution or validating the product that you're building, but this really is focused on validation.

Emma (13:23 - 13:54): So it may not be the right fit If you're not willing to sort of get out there and have conversations and maybe send out a survey, interview people but have that curious experimental mindset to make sure that you're designing with and not for. And the start-up stage anywhere from idea to prototype to early revenue. There are some people that I've spoken with that are sort of feeling a little bit apprehensive about what if I'm too early stage?

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Emma (13:54 - 14:25): Please apply. Ideas are welcome. If you are much more advanced and you're in market with revenue and you're unsure if you might be too advanced, again, please apply or feel free to reach out to me and we can have a conversation just to make sure you're going to get benefit from it. Global access. So really excitingly, all countries in the world are welcome to join Launcher, but I will acknowledge that it's probably best suited to any teams that can participate in Australian Eastern daylight time

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Emma (14:25 - 15:07): Which is sort of Sydney or Gadigal time zone where we are Tuesdays 12 p.m. Australian Eastern daylight time which is where we are right now is when the sessions will be run live. So we will be recording them but that sort of real time interaction and implementation and networking with each other, It's going to be best suited for that but we're not excluding anyone that's outside of the time zone, but please do keep it in mind. Lived experience. We also get asked if you can participate if you don't have a disability yourself. So for participants behind the start-up, it's open to anyone with and without this disability. Over to you Chris.

Chris Palin (15:08 - 15:39): Awesome. Thanks Emma. So as Emma said, Launcher is our pre-accelerator. It's an eight-week part-time online pre-accelerator program for disability tech innovators. So what's included? So we have three main pillars. The first is our masterclasses led by experts to build your knowledge and skills. The second is one-on-one coaching to provide personalised guidance and keep you on track. And number three is networks and perks, which will connect you with a powerful community and give you access to tools and resources that will support your journey.

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Chris (15:40 - 16:11): So from here, let's dive into each of these pillars starting with the masterclasses. So the backbone of our Launcher program is our weekly masterclasses. These are taught by experts who really know their stuff and are here to help you validate your start-up ideas. Each session will be live over Zoom and they'll run for approximately 60 minutes. The great thing here is if there's a session that you can't make there's no stress, everything will be recorded so you or a team member can catch up at a later time if that works for you.

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Chris (16:11 - 16:43): On top of that, we've got a special treat. We'll have a few founder Q&As with some of our awesome Remarkable Alumni. These will be pre-recorded, so you can dive into their stories and advice whenever you like on the Remarkable Hub. It'll be a fantastic way to get a bit of inspiration and learn directly from those people who have been in your shoes before. Additionally, we'll also have some supplementary resources and templates that you'll be able to access on our platform once joining the program that'll also accompany our masterclasses and content. Now to run you through our current eight-week program journey.

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Chris (16:43 - 17:17): So we'll kick things off in week zero with a chance to meet the cohort. This will be all about introduction, setting the vibe and starting to build those important connections before we dive into the formal eight weeks. Noting that this week is actually optional, however, we definitely encourage it. It's great to meet the cohort. So then from week one, we'll dive straight into the mindset, understanding your customer or user and introduction to validation. It's a solid foundation for everything else that we'll cover across the next eight weeks.

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Chris (17:17 - 17:55): Then in week two, you'll get a hands-on with our validation tool kit. So think experiments and tools to test out your ideas in a meaningful way. Week three will be all about accessible user feedback. So we'll show you how to connect with real users, especially in the disability space and make sure that you're designing solutions that truly work and are influenced through real feedback from users, particularly in your problem space. Then in week four, we'll focus on marketing and storytelling. We'll talk about how to craft your message and create inclusive digital comms so that your story really resonates with the right people and your target audience. As well as how to design your marketing to be inclusive in all facets, such as your website.

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Chris (17:55 - 18:33): Just noting again that sessions will also run live on Zoom every Tuesday from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Australia and Eastern daylight times. So moving into the second half of the program, things get more exciting and week five will dive into prototyping AI, this is where we'll help to start to bring some of your ideas to life. So we'll try and leverage some cutting edge tools and techniques and also understand how AI can have a strong place within rapid prototyping and this stage of startup development. Week six will focus on commercialisation, navigating the disability landscape. It's all about understanding how to position your product or solution to the market, whilst also staying true to the needs of the disability community.

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Chris (18:34 - 19:41): Then in week seven we’ll shift gears, and so this is where it gets really fun. And we'll shift to pitching and storytelling. So this is where you'll refine how to present your vision in a way that truly resonates. So that might be to investors, partners or even potential users in the future. And then week eight will be all about looking ahead. We'll cover funding pathways, building and accessing an ecosystem of support and then what comes next for you as a founder and then your startup as a whole. And then finally we get to wrap everything up with a showcase. So this is kind of your moment to shine. It's an opportunity to deliver a small elevator pitch that shows off everything that you've worked on during the program. This will be optional but again it's really highly encouraged and you definitely get a lot out of it. And then as with the first half, all sessions will also run on Zoom on Tuesdays. Alrighty, on to coaching. So one of the best parts of the Launcher program is that each startup will be matched with a dedicated one-on-one coach for the full eight weeks.

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Chris (19:41 - 20:21): So we take a lot of care in making these matches, and we base them on your stage, the expertise and experience that you need and even your location to make sure that we're getting the best fit for a coach. Your coach will be there to help you and take what you learn in the masterclasses and I'll help you actually put that into practice and start leveraging that. They'll also help keep you accountable, help you stay on track and they're pretty much there to help you make sure that you're moving towards your goals. These will be weekly 60-minute sessions and the timings flexible. So you'll work out and reach out to your coach directly and so this is really an awesome opportunity to get personalized guidance throughout our program.

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Chris (20:21 - 20:44): Alrighty, networking and perks. So, there will be a variety of times for networking throughout the program. We kick things off in week zero as I said, with a Meet the Cohort call. It's a really nice way to break the ice, get to know each other and start building those connections. Then in week four we'll have a Cohort Catch up call to share some progress and keep those relationships growing.

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Chris (20:44 - 21:17): You'll also have the opportunity to get introduced to our +N Inclusive Innovation Network, which spans across Australia and New Zealand, India, Hong Kong, Canada, Kenya and more. It's an incredible community that's all about advancing inclusive innovation. And then we'll also stay connected throughout the program using the Remarkable Slack workspace. This is where you can share updates, ask questions and support one another throughout the program. You'll also be invited to Remarkable community events and that's where you'll be able to meet even more incredible people within our network and the disability tech space.

Chris (21:18 - 21:45): And then of course there's also partner perks, so exclusive credits and discounts and tools and services that you can use to help your startup and so they're there to help give you a boost and make the journey a little bit easier to start off with. Okay, so what makes Launcher unique and what sets us apart from other programs out there? Firstly, our focus is on validating your startup. We're all about testing and experimenting and getting feedback directly from your target audience.

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Chris (21:46 - 22:23): So whether it's your problem space, your solution or your products, we're really going to help you dig deep to figure out what works and what doesn't. Beyond that, and I think this is really important, our program isn't just about what you're building, It's also about who you're becoming. So we'll help you develop both the entrepreneurial mindset and also the practical skills that you'll need to grow both yourself and your startup going forward. Another big part of what makes Launcher special is our really strong focus on accessibility. So we make sure that the program's accessible for all participants and support you in embedding accessibility into your startup from day one.

Chris (22:24 - 22:46): And finally, the benefits don't stop at the end of week eight. So by participating in our program, you're actually joining the Remarkable network, and so this is a powerful network that will connect you to both the broader startup ecosystem as well as the disability sector. So this is really important as these connections might be able to open up doors long after our program's finished.

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Chris (22:46 - 23:18): Moving on to program accessibility. So we want everyone to feel welcome and supported in Launcher and that's why our programs are designed to be as accessible and inclusive as possible and this is something that we're constantly working towards throughout all our programs. So we work really hard to create a safe and supportive space where everyone can thrive. So before the program begins, we'll connect with anyone who has specific accessibility needs or anyone that raises these within the application form to make sure that everything's in place so that you can fully participate in the way that best suits you.

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Chris (23:19 - 23:41): Our sessions are also as I've said designed for online attendance and they'll be recorded in case you can't make it live. So if you have any other questions about accessibility or you need any other help with the program application process, don't hesitate to reach out. So you'll be able to email us at any time at hello@remarkable.org. So we're here to help.

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Chris (23:41 - 24:23): Now we'll run through some key dates. So super exciting, applications are currently open so you're able to apply now until the 21st of January. Applications will be open, so they'll close on the 21st of January. Then it's quite a quick turnaround, so offers will be sent out from the 22nd of January onwards. Onboarding will then begin early February with the program starting around mid Feb and then finally wrapping up with the showcase and program ending on the 8th of April 2025. I'll pass it back to Emma, and she can help run us through some of that application process.

Emma (24:25 - 25:26): Thanks Chris. So what are the stages? So first of all visit our website if you haven't already at remarkable.org/launcher. So there is a frequently asked questions page there with all of the details, maybe even more than what will be shared with you today. And maybe worthy of calling out as some applications other applications do require it but you don't need to record a pitch video or submit a slide deck to apply for Launcher. So we've tried to keep it as simple as possible with an application form. So on that FAQs page you can actually download the questions as a Word or Google Doc format so you can sort of draft it before you head to the Airtable form to plug in your answers If that is easier for you. But please do bear in mind that 5pm January 21st 2025 in Australia and eastern daylight time Is the deadline to submit your application

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Emma (25:27 - 26:11): So what happens then. Once we receive your application, our wonderful Cinthya, Senior Ops Manager has created an AI screening tool to check for eligibility and then Chris and I will also double check to make sure that that has accurately determined your eligibility. So you'll get an email notification of whether your application is eligible or not within a week or two of submitting it. And just bear in mind that from next week we'll be breaking for holidays, so there will be a period of no communications from us until we come back from the 6th of January. But you should get a notification after you submit that says your application has been submitted.

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Emma (26:11 - 27:10): After that first screening for eligibility, the Remarkable staff team will go through and review in great detail all of your fantastic applications. We do unfortunately have the very difficult job, very exciting but very difficult, of choosing up to 30 start-ups. And just because your start-up may not be within that 30, doesn't mean it's not an incredible, remarkable innovation and absolutely doesn't mean you shouldn't work on it. It just means that we're selecting a cohort based on a number of factors and we can only take up to 30 on this occasion. So please ensure you're checking your email inbox in January as from the 22nd of January offers will be sent and then two days later on the 24th of January, we'll be asking those that have been sent offers to formally accept or decline their place in the program

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Emma (27:11 - 28:37): So how might you craft a successful application? Well first and foremost please read the application questions. That is a very great start to make sure you understand the types of questions that we're asking and you can prepare your responses. Be clear and concise and use plain language. Don't assume that we know everything just because we're in the disability space and we get to hear and read and experience lots of different start-ups. Don't assume that we know everything about all of the text so please keep the language simple and plain. We also ask you for a sort of one sentence, so a one-liner of your start-up and we've shared a format that can work but you can use your own. That's also in the descriptive text in the application form so you don't need to sort of write this down now and remember it, but we help target audience achieve whatever the benefit is through this unique solution. Demonstrate your understanding of the problem and target audience. That's one of the key application questions in there and let us know that you are committed to validation through gaining feedback, testing and experimenting. But most of all, share your passion! You know, we're doing this because we want to make an impact in a world and we've seen a need and we're excited to build and connect and create a better world for everyone. So share your passion with us

and why you'd really like to be part of Remarkable Launcher program

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Emma (28:37 - 29:58): Okay, we're at the end of us speaking at you, but a couple of frequently asked questions that we get a lot is how much time is needed to participate. So because there is weekly one-on-one coaching, some of the programming plus the time to implement, we suggest that at least five hours a week across the eight weeks is required to participate. Now look, I get it a lot of you will have full-time jobs, you may be caring for a child, a family member, a four-legged family member or whatever you have in life. Whether it is health-related fatigue, whatever it is. We acknowledge that, but we also acknowledge that adding on top of that a few hours a week can be a short period throughout the year, but of higher capacity required. So have a think about whether you're able to commit that time, because we want to make sure that people that are part of Launcher are able to participate. We'll also support you through it. We don't want it to be this sort of scary hustle culture which in certain parts of the startup world that can be an assumption. At Remarkable, we don't believe in sort of hustle and working all hours at all costs but we do acknowledge that adding on sort of five hours a week for a couple of months can be higher than normal capacity and sometimes stress.

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Emma (29:58 - 31:34): Another question that we get is do all team members need to come to all sessions. So simple answer is no but we do ask that at least one member of your team

is able to participate in each of the masterclasses or at the very least make sure you are taking part in the recording as well. And similarly at least one person in your team needs to be able to attend those coaching sessions. As Chris mentioned earlier, the Meet the Cohort and Cohort Catch up calls in week zero and week four are optional but highly recommended. And another question is does everyone need to participate in the Launcher Showcase? Again, the simple answer is no. It's optional participation for you to do your sort of 60 to 90 second elevator pitch but we really recommend it. The last cohort I spoke with a couple of founders who were feeling really nervous and weren't sure maybe had a little bit of that imposter syndrome, and were a little bit scared and we supported them through it. And every single one of those people were so glad that they did. It's a great opportunity to work towards a milestone. To help refine your ideas and then because it's online and we're recording it, you get a really lovely digital asset that you can then utilise to share with customers, users, friends, family. Maybe even investors if that's the stage you're at. I think that's it. So over to you wonderful people who have joined us today. No question is too small, too big. Okay someone from Fingerprints Learning Collective, feel free to come off mute.

Speaker 1 (31:35 - 31:48): Hi, thank you so much for this information session. So I have two questions. One is do we get any kind of financial support as part of this program? And then I'll go to the next after you answer.

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Emma (31:48 - 32:09): Thank you. So Launcher doesn't come with funding, but it is free to participate and part of the sort of knowledge and support is how we you can help fund your startup. So one of the sessions we'll be talking about how you can, whether it's through bootstrapping, whether it's through grants, whether it's through investment and other funding pathways. But the program itself doesn't provide funding to participants

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Speaker 1 (32:11 - 32:20): Great. If I have specific questions about where my venture is right now, would it be possible to set up a one-on-one appointment to see if you know I'm a right fit for this program?

Emma (32:21 - 32:30): Yes, absolutely. Feel free to send us an email. We'll have the contact details here. You can reach out to me directly as well, happy to have a chat.

Speaker 1 (32:30 - 32:37): Thank you so much and my name is Windia. Forgot to change it's my venture name that's showing up with Fingerprints Learning but my name is Windia.

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Emma (32:37 - 32:45): Great logo. Sort of two fingerprints in a red love heart for those… Lovely. Thank you.

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Speaker 1 (32:45 - 33:01): Thank you. Oh sorry before I go on mute, when I came in so I got a little confused with the India time I came in when you were showing the slide on the eight-week program journey. Would it be possible to share the slides before that did I miss too much?

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Emma (33:02 - 33:21): Yes of course so for this recording we will be doing a human-generated transcript and captions and the aim is for tomorrow or Thursday, Australian Eastern Daytime for it to be on the Remarkable website. So all of this information will be available in the next day or two.

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Speaker 1 (33:22 - 33:24): Oh thank you so much.

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Emma (33:27 - 33:29): Any other questions? Lindsay

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Lindsay (33:31 - 34:03): Hello. So you have other programs in addition to Launcher and Launcher is seed stage. My product is live. It's a website. So it's already live but I haven't done a lot of the other stuff. I haven't tested it. I have not tested it appropriately. I've probably shown it to 50 people but I haven't done the other stuff. Anyway, so is there a summary of what the other programs are? Or how can I assess which of your programs I could fit into?

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Emma (34:05 - 35:01): First of all, it sounds like you would be a great fit for Launcher. Especially if you mention you haven't done all of the other things because you can be validating. Maybe you've already validated the problem space but maybe the solution and product validation is a better fit for you. You can go to the Remarkable website and click on the Accelerator page that will have a little bit more information. But I mentioned before so we try to optimise for post product post revenue startups for Accelerator with the exception of medtech hardware due to the longer path to market. So you may very well be in the middle of those two but that doesn't stop you If you would find benefit from being part of Launcher as well. But you know, happy to have a chat after this but I also encourage you based on the sort of two sentences you shared then Lindsay, it does sound like Launcher could be a good fit for you depending on what support you need. Nicola.

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Nicola (35:02 - 35:33): Just following on from that same question I feel like I'm in that space between two maybe as well. So I have an app that was launched in January this year. So it's already a product available. In terms of validation, I'm an academic. It's been validated as an effective tool for screening. So it's been, and we did user experience validation and research and stuff so I feel like maybe I might be on the cusp of that next stage. But I also wanted to ask like you mentioned if, it's you know, disability tech or to support lives of people with disability? Mine is a screening app to identify brain-based visual issues. So it's helping children with brain-based visual issues because it's identifying them. So without it, they're not getting identified. So is that like does that come into the, you know, does that class as being what you're working with?

Emma (35:54 - 36:01): Absolutely. Screening diagnostic tools absolutely come within the areas that we love to support. Yeah.

Nicola (36:01 - 36:10): Oh, thank you and will you yeah, I think maybe more information on the next If I could yeah, is that on your website I could look at information on the next Is it the accelerator?

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Emma (36:10 - 37:12): Correct. remarkable.org/accelerator or you can just navigate from the homepage. Bear in mind though that we've just wrapped up this year’s accelerator cohort and the 2025 accelerator cohort will start around August of next year. So it might be a while between drinks, shall we say. So have a think about whether, I guess it also depends on the areas you need support. For some people that programming is really what's the most beneficial.

For other people it's that one-on-one coaching and that accountability that is most beneficial. For others, it's being part of a cohort and just not feeling like you're doing this alone at home behind your laptop and feeling that sense of community and camaraderie. And for other people it's that sort of network access, so you don't need to want all of the things. These are just the things that we provide to support you but you can participate however benefits you most

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Nicola (37:13 - 37:18): It would have been brilliant this time last year but I think i’ll benefit from it, so thank you.

Emma (37:24 - 37:27): I'm sorry, I forgot your name. It wasn't Wendy from Fingerprints?

Speaker 1 (37:28 - 37:58): Vineya Vineya. So if we were to apply for this I mean I'm also listening to the other questions. I've also been working on my startup now for a year and a half but this is going to be a specific product that I'm going to start. So in that case if we were to apply for this, would we also be considered if we applied for the Accelerator or do you kind of, if we go through this program would we lose out on being part of the Accelerator program again?

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Emma (37:58 - 39:18): Absolutely not. So anyone is welcome to apply for Accelerator. We do have some Launcher alumni that do apply for Accelerator. We'd love to be able to see that journey. It's not necessarily so straightforward of if you get into Launcher that's sort of a fast track to the next accelerator program. It really does depend on stages and needs. But you can absolutely do Launcher and still then apply for the next Accelerator. Or not do Launcher and still apply for Accelerator. Nothing stops you there. Fiona, there's a question in the chat. On average how many applications do you receive from the Launcher program? So this will be our third Launcher cohort and maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I had a look in our Airtable yesterday and I believe there were 56 or 58 applications for the previous cohort. Does that sort of feel about right Chris or Cinthya? Thank you. Memory is serving me well today. We do already have a bunch of applications that have come through. But you don't get a preference if you apply earlier or sort of just before the deadline. But we'd love to see some more before we break for Christmas. That'd be great. Riana.

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Riana (39:19 - 39:44): Hi I'm not sure if you can hear me? (unintelligible) Do we get like inside into the US market as well if that was what they would want to go as well?

Emma (39:46 - 40:17): Short answer is yes. (Asked to repeat question by Auslan interpreter) So the question was around the Accelerator has two cohorts, one which is US and the other which is global for all countries that are not US. So for Launcher, do we have information and sort of access to US markets or knowledge and how to sort of expand? Does that summarise the question properly Riana? Great, thank you.

Emma (40:17 - 40:53): So yes, definitely. We are most connected in Australia and have the greatest understanding and network of the Australian disability space and funding schemes. But we also will cover US based funding schemes and actually, I don't know if I've confirmed it with you Liza, but Liza will be sharing her insights in one of the sessions as a facilitator. So we mostly cover Australia and the US but there are some mentions of other markets as well. And if we don't have the information we can also connect you with either resources or people that can then help you in those spaces as well.

Emma (41:00 - 41:02): Any other questions? Go for it, Enya.

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Enya (41:04 - 41:19): Sorry. So you said it you know If in that case right now my venture was focused on India, but I would of course like to expand it to international markets. Would that be a good fit? (Emma gestures yes) Ok great thank you.

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Emma (41:20 - 41:55): The other thing I realised we didn't mention in this. But it's in one of our frequently asked questions on the website is for Launcher, your business can be an idea that's not registered as a business in whichever country. It can be for profit and it can be not for profit. I will acknowledge though that for Accelerator, that is for registered businesses that operate in the for profit space. But Launcher is open to all. Simon in the chat.

Emma (41:55 - 42:59): What are the selection criteria and their weightings? That's a great question. We don't necessarily formally weight one field over the other. We try to look holistically at your application, as well as all of the applications that come through. We're no experts and we're certainly not fortune tellers. So we're not here to say whether we believe one particular venture might be more quote-unquote successful than another. It's whether you answer a question of understanding the problem faced by your user. Whether you’re committed to validation. Does your solution Is it sort of technology enabled and has the potential to scale. Are you actually able to participate in the program. Why do you want to be part of Launcher. What support do you have. So I wouldn't say we don't have a rigid sort of weighting of one question over the other, but we look at the whole application as well as the whole cohort to get up to 30 start-ups participating. Lindsay.

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Lindsay (43:00 - 43:31): Um when you when you started this and you showed us some of the previous successful people in your cohort, there was makeup, there was a lift chair thing. Those are physical products. Mine is a technical product. Which is very specific to the disability community but it's also a SaaS product. blah blah blah Okay do you have that kind of experience or those kind of mentors?

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Emma (43:31 - 44:02): Absolutely and in fact, oh is this right Cinthya? Last Launcher cohort majority were software? Yeah, so we definitely do have mentors with expertise in software whether that's B2B SaaS or B2C. There were actually quite a lot of apps in last year's Launcher compared to some of the other types of the other business models for this year but software, hardware, combination all welcome.

Emma (44:02 - 44:58): And we definitely have the support for them. Oh Pete in the chat has typed in here about 60% of startups supported through Remarkable so far since we started have been software. There we go. Another question in the chat. Riana. My start-up is currently nameless, is that okay? Absolutely nothing set in stone. You can do something creative. Chris in our testing of the application portal his start-up was called Chris's Emporium of Wonder. So feel free to have that. Ideally don't put test start-up or, you know because if other people do that it's a bit harder to filter but you can just put your name or anything that is sort of relevant to your start-up. We won't hold you to that. So I missed any other questions in the chat. Riana. Go for it.

Riana (44:58 - 44:59): I'm sorry, I have one more.

Emma (45:00 - 45:02): Don’t apologise. I love it, that's why we're here.

Riana (45:03 - 45:19): So my idea is in the medtech area and would there be like advice and people who will be able to provide advice on like the IP, the TGA approval process and that kind of aspect of it? And potentially FDA as well.

Emma (45:20 - 45:53): In case not everyone could make out the audio, the question was around advice on Intellectual Property, TGA or FDA approval. We might lightly refer to it in the masterclasses, that would probably be something more aligned to a medtech coach that we might match you with that has expertise and can support you in that. But that's not necessarily one of the sort of general full cohort programming elements. But we absolutely can support you with what might be needed there.

Riana (45:53 - 45:54): Thank you.

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Emma (45:59 - 46:41): And Cinthya has popped in the chat here a link to the startups webpage or the landing page on our website with an example of a software startup. And you can go to our website and click on the startups page to see all of the Accelerator startups and Scaler startups that have come through. You can also actually, so we're doing a blog for this, I wonder, sorry to put you on the spot Kirilly, I wonder if we might link to last year's cohort in that blog so people can get an idea of the list of the last cohort of Launcher startups if that would be helpful for some of you.

Emma (46:49 - 46:50): Any other questions?

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Lindsay (46:56 - 47:17): I think I looked at your website and there's something that says Join the community. And I think it said you have to be in Australia. Which I'm not. Is it a virtual community? Do you have to be in Australia to join the community that you offer?

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Emma (47:19 - 47:57): Someone else on Remarkable correct me if this is wrong, but the Join the community content block is about joining the newsletter. But you might have navigated to our user feedback community page. So Liza is actually leading and growing a user feedback community. So that some of our startups including some of you in the Launcher program might be connected with people with lived experience of disability. And for the purposes of that user feedback community specifically, anyone joining that needs to be based in Australia. But any other aspect about sort of community engagement, newsletter sign up, is globally. Does that answer this Liza?

Liza (47:58 - 48:37): Yeah, yeah, that's it and that's just at the moment because we've just started this year. It's around sort of being really confident that we're meeting privacy and data security requirements for people that are located in Australia. We want to expand that in the future but we want to make sure that we are meeting the right privacy legislation for collecting personal and health information in other jurisdictions as well. So our next market will obviously be looking at the US market, that we have with our affiliation with CPARF in the US but we've just started in Australia at the moment. But startups from outside of Australia participating in Launcher we're hoping to be able to still try and connect you as well.

Emma (48:38 - 49:11): Thanks Liza. And Kirilly has just posted a link In the chat as well so you can see a list of the 2024 Launcher cohort as well and be inspired by them. Any other questions in the chat or people coming off mute maybe? I'll throw it to the Remarkable team. Do you receive any common questions that we haven't quite covered here?

Pete (49:13 - 49:55): This one just there from Simon asking about mental health related and if I understand your comment in there correctly, just asking do we consider mental health as disability. And it's a really kind of interesting and a tricky area. I will admit that it’s really one of the things that we really pride ourselves on is having the right people with the right expertise that can help startups. And mental health has been one that we haven't had as many experts in our community that they've been able to field that, so I'd say that it's a little bit on the edge but perhaps something that we can have a discussion with you Simon about that.

Emma (49:59 - 50:11): Thanks Pete. Charity in the chat. I'm wondering if Launcher offers networking with software developers. If we know about the problem and have an idea about the solution, but don't have the technology. Is this something that Launcher can help with?

Emma (50:12 - 51:11): Oh good and interesting question. I would say maybe. That's a partial yes. So to the extent that there may be other software developers within this cohort and then within our wider Remarkable community for any sort of online or in-person events that we facilitate, the answer would be yes. Whether it's a specific software developers meet up, there's nothing sort of on the calendar plans for that right now but you know we're also about trying to create experiences for our program participants and alumni that are valuable and connect people and support you for whatever your next stage of growth is. So short answer is no not specifically, but longer answer is If they're within the cohort you'll have opportunities to network there. As well as within the wider Remarkable network, which all participants will be part of.

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Emma (51:15 - 51:26): Simon I think has a follow up to that question. If our startup focuses on helping children with mental health issues, would we be eligible to apply? Maybe Pete you can continue the response for that one.

Pete (51:26 - 52:24): Yeah I'd give that again a bit of a maybe Simon, would probably have to have a chat with you and understand what's the specific nature of it. And what are you also looking for Remarkable to help with as well. We have had a couple that are somewhat in the disability, mental health, education space like The Care Co a couple of years ago and so we specifically looked at who in our community was going to be best to support that startup. So we'd probably have to have a conversation around that I think Simon. I don't want to over promise that we've got everyone that actually is an expert in the mental health space because it really is a very complex space. And it takes a lot of sensitivity to kind of develop something in that mental health space and I just wouldn't want to over promise that and not steer you down the wrong path so maybe let's have a conversation about that one.

Emma (52:26 - 52:30): Thanks Pete.

Lindsay (52:31 - 52:50): Do you have data on what percentage of those that have been in various Remarkable cohorts, how many of the entrepreneurs that you've served either have a disability or have someone in their family that has a disability?

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Emma (52:51 - 53:03): We definitely do have that data but I don't know it off the top of my head. I don't know if Pete or Cinthya you've looked at that recently? So let's test our systems in real time

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Pete (53:03 - 53:10): We're just having a look right now as we speak. So give me two seconds and I'll come back to you on that one but we do have that data.

Emma (53:10 - 55:17): And I will also point out in the application form because we've tried to make the first piece of information you give us as simple as possible, for anyone that may have applied last year, it's a different and simpler process. But in the first application form we will also be asking the primary contact who'll be completing this form to share any information that you might know about any team members participating If they have any disability, if there are any accessibility requirements and any assistive tech that you or they use. But for those that do come through to the program, every individual participant will have an onboarding form to share individual information. So I acknowledge that not everyone may be comfortable speaking on someone else's behalf. The reason we've asked that is to try to sort of simplify the process for you up front and to give us the information we need. So that we can make sure we're setting up the program as accessibly as we can. Or identifying where we may not be able to. And for example, you know, we're working really hard on improving accessibility but fully accessible for everyone is not necessarily where we are at right now. But certainly we're trying to get as close as we can. So an example that I'll give is the Remarkable Hub is accessible in a lot of ways, but it's not at this moment fully screen reader accessible. So we're certainly working towards that. And that's why we're asking these questions up front so we can have additional questions with those particular startups to make sure we understand accessibility requirements. And can meet them and manage expectations. And we also ask gender, country and other bits of demographical data in the application form as well. Because we do like to track it. We do want to have a diverse cohort. We have a diverse team. And that can be diversity of neurotypes, diversity of genders, ethnicities, countries, lived experience. So we really value that.

Emma (55:18 - 55:30): I might do one last awkward silence to allow anyone else to share a question. Pete, do you want to come off mute and share that?

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Pete (55:32 - 55:56): Yes, so just look at our dashboards around that so of the 315 founders and 130 startups we've supported, 91 have direct experience of living with disability themselves. And we don't yet have the data on someone that has a close family member. That would obviously be a little bit more than the 91 that’s there.

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Emma (55:59 - 55:59): Thanks, Pete

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Pete (56:00 - 56:02): Yes, Lindsay

Lindsay (56:02 - 56:24): Is there like non-profits, support non-profits, B Corp, support B Corp. Is there any community of disabled entrepreneurs or disability entrepreneurs we can all connect to and support each other?

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Pete (56:25 - 57:04): Yeah, it's a really good question and so if you listen to our Remarkable Insights blog, we've just had an episode I think two episodes ago. And I can't remember the exact acronym but it's women, entrepreneurs, disability network I think it is it might be. So Anja Christoffersen has helped to launch that one. And there are I believe there are kind of a couple similar to that around. So definitely something that we want to encourage more and more of as well. But um yeah, definitely check out our Remarkable Insights podcast as well as it shows the way that disabilities driving innovation has done for decades.

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Emma (57:06 - 57:21): I think that's an Australian based one but you can connect globally. We can also have a look to see, I don't know if I'm making assumptions here but judging by your puffer jacket and maybe it's a little bit darker, are you in the northern hemisphere, Lindsay? Because I'm in a t-shirt and I'm really, really hot in Sydney here.

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Lindsay (57:22 - 57:35): Yeah, I’m at Ski Spectacular by Move United, which is the biggest adaptive snow sport event in the U.S.

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Pete (57:34 - 57:35): Where are you?

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Lindsay (57:35 - 57:40): Breckenridge Colorado. And it's negative 2 degree Celsius here.

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Emma (57:42 - 59:34): So yeah, we can definitely chat. So Molly my counterpart for the Accelerator in the U.S. So she’s definitely much more connected with the North American ecosystems there, but we'll try to make sure that we can connect everyone with a little bit more local connections as well as any online global things. Okay, looking at the time now I hope you've found some of that information to be helpful even just seeing or knowing that there are so many other people out there who've joined you today and are willing to come on this journey alongside you. Some of the Remarkable team here who can help support you through that. And I hope that anyone that is feeling any sense of ‘oh, I don't know if I'm the right fit’ or ‘I don't know if I'm ready’, please just give it a go, apply now. So our website remarkable.org/launcher is where you can find more of the program information, frequently asked questions, including the downloadable application questions as well as where to submit your application. So 21st of January 2025 at 5 p.m. Australian eastern daylight time is when applications close. I so look forward to reading all of your wonderful applications with your impactful innovations. And if this is not the right fit for you I hope that you will stay in touch with us, whether that's on our socials, our newsletter, listening to our podcast or just sort of being a part of supporting each other and really cultivating an incredible disability technology ecosystem. Have a great rest of the day and if you need us our details are on the website to contact us. Thank you so much for being here and we'll speak soon. Bye everyone.

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2023 Remarkable Demo Day | Screening 1

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#RA23 Demo Day Transcript [01:10 - 01:16] Filipa Araujo, Remarkable Welcome to Remarkable Demo Day 2023. My name is Filipa and I'm the Head of Programs at Remarkable. [01:16 - 01:30] Molly Levitt, Remarkable And my name is Molly and I'm the Director of Remarkable US. This is our second year running a US program after a successful 2022 pilot and we're thrilled to have a full cohort of US startups in this year's program. [01:30 - 02:07] Filipa Araujo This event celebrates our eighth cohort of startups that have completed a Remarkable accelerator. And this year, our program welcomed founders from across the globe, including companies from Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as Australia. And as Molly mentioned, it also marks the second official cohort out of the United States. From brain-computer interface technology in everyday life to extended reality navigation solutions, in the next hour, you're going to hear from the founders of exciting disability tech startups who are building products designed to positively impact the lives of people with disabilities. [02:07 - 02:39] Molly Levitt This screening includes sign interpretation, closed captions and audio description. We also invite you to join the conversation on social media. We're on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. And please use the hashtag #DisabilityTech. During the pitches, if you love what you're seeing and want to learn more, just go to the buttons at the bottom of the screen. There you will find a few different options for how you can learn more about the pitch you're watching, including accessing the pitch materials or connecting directly with the startup. The startups are online now and would be thrilled to hear from you. [02:39 - 03:14] Filipa Araujo Remarkable is made possible by Cerebral Palsy Alliance and Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation. And we would like to thank the generous support of our partners, Telstra Foundation, icare New South Wales, Vivcourt, TPG Telecom Foundation and The Ian Potter Foundation. The startups will be presented one after the other with a short intermission in the middle. You can see the order of the startups presenting below on your screen. Without further ado, I am excited to now pass the screen over to our first group of startups. [03:32 - 04:56] Pete Beckett, Indii This is Sofii, the adaptable switch for your home. And this is Sophie, my youngest sister. Sophie is a genuine ray of sunshine who finds her joy in good food and singing Christmas songs all year round. In 2001, Sophie experienced a severe brain trauma, and as a result, now requires one-to-one care on a daily basis. Sophie's experience is what inspires our vision. Hi. I'm Pete Beckett, the founder of Indii, and we're developing technology to enable the tens of millions of people with motor disabilities who stand to benefit from integrating smart-home technology into their homes. Currently, home tech is limited by its input devices. In a world ruled by phone apps, quick and universal control is not a given. Voice assistants have been a great step in the right direction, but there are many scenarios where users cannot or do not want to use their voice as a primary input method. Meanwhile, companies operating in the assistive tech space excel in designing solutions with specific user requirements. Unfortunately, to date, most implementations of environmental control have been prohibitively expensive and limited in both scope and capability. That's what led us to develop Sofii, the switch, not the sister. Sofii supports adaptive switches and offers audio-visual feedback and connects directly to the smart home without the need for a mobile device. [04:56 - 05:04] Sofii This button controls your bedroom lights. Press the button again to toggle on and off. [05:04 - 05:57] Pete Beckett Sofii can act as a Bluetooth switch for iPads, phones and computers, and at just $350, is more capable than its nearest Bluetooth-only rivals, and for a lower price. Over the past 18 months, we've developed the hardware and software, and tested with new potential users. We're now really close to delivering on our mission of providing new and improved ways to enable independence at home. But the next 18 months is set to be even more exciting. This spring, we're welcoming interested parties to evaluate our hardware and explore commercial partnerships as we move towards a launch, selling into the NDIS early next year. And this is just the beginning. In the future, we want to take our tech out of the home and into public spaces, providing more convenient ways for our customers to interact with the world around them. And all this thanks to Sofii, the switch and the sister. [06:14 - 09:35] Brianna MacDonald, The Care Co I'd like you to imagine a primary school class. This might be your child's class or a child you know and there could be about 30 kids. If it's a classroom of 30 kids, we expect about one in five of those children to have already experienced a traumatic event. We expect one in seven of those kids to already or soon to be struggling with their mental health. And on average, about one in ten of those young people is disabled. I'm sure you can imagine, in a classroom of 30 children, that's a lot of need. And unfortunately, it doesn't stop there. We know that one in three adults struggles with their mental health. We're losing about $5 trillion in the workplace and one in five sick days for the same reason. Depression, anxiety and substance abuse disorder are three of the world's leading disabilities. And it's expected that almost all people will face at least one significantly traumatic event in their lifetime. The problem isn't just our declining level of mental health and wellbeing. The problem is that we're not learning the skills needed to manage these challenges and we simply don't have enough supply to meet the need. My name is Brianna and I'm the founder of The Care Co. I'm a Canadian First Nations woman studying a Masters in Psychology with Harvard. I've worked in the trauma-informed education space, am a two-time entrepreneur, and 20 years ago, I was a Care Co kid. Now a flourishing, healthy adult, I'm just one example of what can be achieved with early intervention. And I spend a lot of time looking for where the opportunities are. Chances are you or someone you know is a parent or guardian and you're probably pretty busy. While you may not feel like a mental health expert, you've got one silver lining. Chances are you send your child to school. If you're an educator, you might feel plagued with questions like, "How do I teach mental health in the classroom?" Again, an opportunity. You're teaching fundamental life skills every day. Psychologists are a fantastic, effective model, and while they're hard to scale in their current form, the psychology community gives us an evidence-based best-practice way to work with kids. And this brings us to The Care Co. The Care Co is an in-classroom software that teaches kids between the ages of five and 12 mental health habits. A self-paced learning tool, we offer easy lesson planning, agency, and a unique way to build mental health habits from day one. One of the features we're super proud of include our ability-based, evidence-based model,support for school disability funding reports, and activities that are mapped to health subject teaching needs. So where do we go from here? We're beta testing our app with five schools and 1,500 students. Next we're partnering with the Cerebral Palsy Alliance and positioning The Care Co in front of about 1,200 schools in September 2023, and officially launch in October. Our future plans include the psychology, disability and social work communities, as well as an app for parents and guardians at home. And we have one really audacious goal - "every child, every school." To get there, we offer subscriptions priced per student per month. Schools can choose a six-month or 12-month licence. And considering the two billion kids worldwide, we're just getting started. First targeting one million students, we'll be grossing $60 million in annual recurring revenue if we reach that goal. For those ready to see mental health skills taught in every school, I ask that you scan this QR code to view a product demo, visit our website, or join our product updates and investment opportunity newsletters. And if you're onboard with our North star, join our mission. We would love to have you along. [09:54 - 12:51] Ricardo Garcia-Rosas, Virtetic If you were to get a leg or an arm amputated, you'd need to wait over four months to get access to a prosthesis. While you wait, you lose function in the affected limb and become more at risk of suffering phantom limb pain throughout your life. This time delay costs healthcare systems around the world over $5 billion every year. I'm Ricardo, co-founder and CEO of Virtetic, a digital health company enabling people to kick-start their journey with a prosthesis through the power of games and immersive technologies. By practising with a virtual prosthesis, people can start functional rehabilitation and learn to use a prosthesis as soon as they can start with therapy. We co-design our gamified clinical interventions with the community to ensure they are evidence-based and representative of living with a prosthesis. Ultimately, our products help people to be able to fully use their prosthesis from day one. Our first product, Myo-Hand XP, allows people to learn to use a prosthetic hand through guided practice in VR. Our second product helps people manage their phantom limb pain through active limb visualisations in VR. Our products can be used in the clinic or at home as prescribed by a qualified clinician, which can be covered by disability insurance, like the NDIS, TAC and iCare. Virtetic provides all the hardware, software, training and support that both clinicians and their patients need to use our products. We partner with prosthesis manufacturers to feature their products within our system, helping them reach potential customers at an earlier stage. That is why for the past two years, the number one prosthesis manufacturer, Ottobock, has been collaborating with us to incorporate their products into our system. We have submitted the regulatory application in Australia for our first product, and we plan to submit the application for the second product in the first quarter of next year. We work with two clinics in Melbourne who are ready to pilot our products to validate their clinical effectiveness and the business model of our offering. These pilots will inform our commercial roll-out throughout Australia and how we can work with Ottobock to bring our offerings to the world. We are a diverse and passionate team with a wealth of experience in the development and research of virtual reality and prosthetic devices, complemented by expertise in finance and management consulting. Our clinical advisors are expert clinical practitioners and world-leading researchers in prosthetics, rehabilitation and pain science. Our commercialisation advisors are global leaders in the commercialisation of medical devices. But most importantly, we share a passion about making a positive impact in the lives of people living with limb loss. Following regulatory approval, we will launch our first product with partner clinics. To help drive revenues and growth, we'll be seeking further capital in the next six months to scale our product offerings in Australia. If you are interested in joining us, please reach out. [13:09 - 16:34] Kyle Cortesi, MEMORehab Hi, everyone. We are MEMORehab and our mission is to enhance the experience of cognitive rehabilitation so we can make it more accessible, supportive and data-driven. We are a post-revenue company looking for partners to help us increase our outreach and grow our platform. Globally, one in six people will live with a neurological condition, resulting from things like stroke, epilepsy, traumatic brain injury and more. Sadly, many patients cannot access cognitive rehab due to the inability to travel independently, their distance from the clinic, or the lack of clinicians available with the time or space to run interventions. Even when interventions are available, patients often lack the tools to practise newly-learned skills or establish new habits. And clinicians are often unable to monitor how their patients are engaging with the program outside the clinic, leaving them unable to provide support when it's needed most. At MEMORehab, we support both clinicians and patients through the rehabilitation journey. For clinicians, we allow them to reach patients from anywhere using telehealth and track their patients' progress with data analytics. For patients, we help them better understand their condition by providing educational resources and reinforce newly-learned skills using computerised training and automatic reminders. Imagine the efficiency. Weekly, group-based telehealth sessions, practice with digital tools, and consistent feedback. We have begun our journey by adapting a well-established, group-based memory intervention to our platform with over ten years of clinical research backing its efficacy. And in the future, we aim to expand our services by adapting additional well-established interventions to our delivery model. Right now, we are working on several projects to support MEMORehab, like building a dedicated research platform to test our materials, training and education programs for clinicians via accredited workshops and seminars, and a clinician registry to help patients find the right professional. Since our incorporation in 2021, we have worked with organisations, universities and hospitals. For example, we have partnered with both local and international organisations in the neurological injury space. We have teamed up with universities such as Monash to conduct clinical research, showing that patients using our platform increased in several key areas related to memory. And we are proud to say that major hospitals, health districts and clinics across the country have purchased our annual licences, with dozens of patients successfully using MEMORehab. Our team brings a wealth of passion and experience, including Laurie Miller, a clinical neuropsychologist with 30 years of experience. Kyle Cortesi, that's me, with experience in program management, and Pranshu Midha, a skilled front-end developer. Today, we're seeking partners who believe in our vision. So if you can help us reach more clinicians, link them with patients, or add interventions to our platform, we would love to hear from you. So if you are interested in joining us to revolutionise cognitive rehabilitation, use the QR code to visit our website and let's schedule a call. With MEMORehab, we're not just imagining the future of cognitive rehabilitation, we're building it. [16:52 - 20:52] Dion Kelly, Possibility Neurotechnologies I'm Dion Kelly, Co-Founder and CEO of Possibility Neurotechnologies, the company that's empowering the future of inclusion with our assistive technology solutions that convert thought to action. This is Claire. Claire is a six-year-old girl with quadriplegic cerebral palsy. She can't speak or move, which hinders her ability to use current assistive technologies. Though she's very smart and capable, her physical limitations often make it difficult for her to communicate and express her abilities. Around the world, there are millions of children like Claire who face similar challenges. Their access to basic human rights, including self-expression, play and independence, is often restricted. Brain-Computer Interfaces, or BCIs, allow users to control devices using their brainwaves, including household appliances and power mobility chairs. However, BCIs and their applications are not yet readily available to the end-users like Claire because the middle component enabling control of these external devices has been confined to research environments. Our proprietary technology, the Think2Switch, fills this gap in providing a bridge between BCIs and the devices that they can control. Using a BCI headset, a user can think about a desired intention and use that thought to control a switch-adapted device through translation of the thought to action by the Think2Switch. We're packaging our Think2Switch with a commercial BCI headset and environmental control device to provide a ready-to-use, plug-and-play solution for children to immediately access their environments and participate in life activities. We've innovatively filled a significant gap in the market with our user-friendly, portable Think2Switch system. Unlike existing middleware solutions that are typically restricted to lab environments, our unique system is portable and ready for immediate plug-and-play application. Our initial target market is children with quadriplegia, of which there are 36,000 resulting from CP in developed countries alone. Our entry into this market will leverage specialised healthcare networks, therapeutic communities and targeted marketing strategies. Subsequently, we plan to expand our reach to adults with quadriplegia, a demographic of more than nine million individuals in developed countries. This will involve partnerships with rehabilitation centres, adult care facilities and relevant healthcare providers. Our long-term strategy involves penetrating the mass market of able-bodied children, a demographic of approximately 80 million in North America. In this phase, we'll leverage mainstream retail channels and broad-based marketing strategies. With our Think2Switch technology, Claire is actively participating in activities that were once impossible, from baking cookies with her little brothers, to blending her own meals, making lemonade, and even participating in their family tradition of pickling. Claire's mom said, "It's a light at the end of the tunnel. The possibilities are endless." As one of the few teams globally focused on researching BCIs for children, our multidisciplinary group of clinicians, engineers and business development specialists are leading the way in this untapped market. With a shared passion for making a difference, we're driving forward the development of integrated BCI solutions. We believe that everyone deserves equal opportunities and our vision is to foster an inclusive society where this is possible. Our next goal is to significantly expand access to our product to better serve our primary target market of children with quadriplegia. In order to achieve this, we're planning to raise a $2 million funding round later this year. If you're a passionate investor who shares our vision of an inclusive society, we'd love to start a conversation. We're also interested in connecting with potential partners and customers who could benefit from our technology. With your support, we can bring BCI to the millions of individuals who need it most. Let's work together to create a future where everyone, regardless of their physical abilities, has the chance to express themselves, to play, to create and to live independently. Are you ready to join us on this journey? [21:10 - 23:59] Jeremy Nagel, Focus Bear Hey, I'm Jeremy, the founder of Focus Bear. I've got ADHD and autism, which is my superpower. My brain constantly fires out creative ideas and I can concentrate on my ideas for hours on end. I've started multiple businesses, I sold my last one, and have had a pretty good career. However, it didn't start that way. I got fired from my first five jobs, which was both financially destabilising and a massive hit to my self esteem. I turned my career around, but many neurodivergent people never experience stable employment. Unemployment rates amongst people with autism are eight times higher than for neurotypical folks, and it's also an issue for people with ADHD. With more and more people getting diagnosed, this issue is only getting worse. We need a way to tap into the creativity and problem-solving skills that neurodivergent people can offer. I've been working on an app called Focus Bear that can help neurodivergent people channel their hyperfocus and not get distracted. Speaking of channels, I found an awesome competitive axe-throwing channel on Youtube. It's so good that I just have to show you it right now. Oh, this pop-up is saying that axe-throwing might not be relevant to delivering the pitch. It's probably right. Did I mention I have ADHD? I should probably go back to telling you about the app. It uses AI to determine whether a website is relevant to the work you're doing. If it's not, it lets you save the page to view after work or you can block it completely. Distraction blocking isn't a new concept. Many other apps do part of what Focus Bear does. What's different about us is our focus on neurodiversity, our holistic approach, which includes daily habits and rituals, and our support of all platforms, desktop and mobile, because blocking on one device isn't enough. If I start focusing on my computer, I want my phone to be free of distractions, too. The app also prepares the brain for productivity through a unique approach to habit formation. It guides you through a morning routine one habit at a time, reducing overwhelm. The app is live in the market and we've had rave reviews from the community. We've got paying customers with excellent retention. Our business model is a monthly subscription starting at $5 US per month for consumers. I've got an outstanding team building the app with me. I'm an experienced founder with a successful exit. Manish, our lead developer, has 20 years of experience. And most of our other team members are neurodivergent and can thus empathise with our customers. We're opening a $750k fundraising round to bring Focus Bear to B2B. We've had some promising initial conversations with businesses and will be refining the product with features like a Slack and Microsoft Teams integration, hiring a B2B sales specialist and investing in marketing. The round will allow us to grow to 10,000 paying customers. To learn more, visit focusbear.io/invest. Together we can help neurodivergent people thrive in the workplace. [24:04 - 24:18] Filipa Araujo, Remarkable I would like to introduce Jackie Coates from Telstra Foundation, who has been one of our longest ongoing supporters. Jackie will be announcing the winner of this year's Telstra People's Choice Award, a cash prize to one of the cohort from this year. [24:18 - 24:46] Jackie Coates, Telstra Foundation Hi, everyone. It's great to be part of Remarkable Demo Day again this year. Thought I'd cut straight to it and announce that the Telstra People's Choice Award this year goes to Focus Bear! Congratulations, Focus Bear. You'll receive a $5,000 donation from the Telstra Foundation. And congratulations to the whole Remarkable team and all the amazing startups. We think you do an incredible job making the world more inclusive for everyone. Have a great Demo Day. Bye! [24:46 - 24:54] Molly Levitt, Remarkable We're excited to welcome you back. Now to enjoy the second half of Demo Day, featuring an amazing group of RA23 startup pitches. [25:09 - 28:26] Souvik Paul, Aurie Nine years ago, my sister-in-law Carina sustained a spinal cord injury in a car accident. As she began her rehab, I learned that people with SCI would rather improve their bladder function than be able to walk again. That's why I started Aurie. My name is Souvik Paul and our mission at Aurie is to prevent life-threatening infections for intermittent catheter users. Carina is one of 600,000 people in the US who need to use six to eight single-use intermittent catheters a day. These catheters are basically plastic straws with holes on either end. To use them, users go into the bathroom, insert the catheter into the urethra and leave it in until urine stops flowing from the bladder. Afterwards, these catheters are removed and thrown away. And altogether, over $2 billion worth of catheters are purchased in the US every year. The problem is that urinary tract infections are a leading cause of death for people with spinal cord injuries and other intermittent catheter users. There is a 50% annual chance of a severe complicated UTI due to the use of standard catheters. The average user experiences one to two UTIs a year, and an annual supply of these catheters is about $5,000. There are safer no-touch catheters that reduce infections by over 30% because of their insertion sleeves and introducer tips that reduce contact contamination. Because they cost almost $20,000 for an annual supply, they are covered for less than 7% of Medicare patients. Aurie uses a tech-enabled approach to make intermittent catheterisation safer, more convenient and more sustainable. Our reusable no-touch catheters have the same features that help reduce UTIs, but are designed to be reused 100 times with our patented portable smart catheter case, which completely automates the cleaning, disinfection and lubrication of catheters with tap water and pre-packaged supplies. When we surveyed catheter users, 81% wanted to switch to our system. Why? Because our system allows us to provide infection-reducing features of no-touch catheters at the same price point as standard catheters. We provide a cost-effective means to reduce urinary tract infections for our users. We've demonstrated repeatable and robust disinfection efficacy with early prototypes at the University of Notre Dame. We've further developed the prototypes and are preparing for FDA submission in early 2024. We have four issued patents, one pending patent, and additional planned submissions. We have FDA sign-off on our testing strategy and the FDA has even granted us the Safer Technologies Designation after reviewing our early test data. We're expecting expedited review once we do submit. The team at Aurie has over 75 years of experience in healthcare, has commercialised 17 medical devices, and has sold over $50 million in durable medical equipment. We have a broad coalition of support from investors like Lakehouse Ventures and grant-funders like the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Disabilities, all of whom believe in our mission. We're always looking to connect with like-minded investors & innovators. Join us in making infections and preventable death a thing of the past for catheter users. [28:44 - 30:15] Thane Hunt, Hominid X There's probably an object next to you right now. Pick it up, but without squeezing your fingers. It's impossible. I'm Thane Hunt, founder and CEO of Hominid X. We build wearable tools that help people to reclaim the use of their hands. Why? Because there are over 200 million people who can't use their hands, making everyday tasks difficult or impossible. Physical therapy can help, but often takes years and won't result in a full recovery. And in the meantime, the adaptive solutions are either specialised to one task or too expensive. So we designed Fiber, our easy-to-use, adaptive grasping tool that empowers its user with a secure and versatile grip around almost any object. A user can put it on in under 30 seconds and wear it comfortably all day to help them complete any task that requires grip strength. Our design guides the hand into a variety of different grasps, and it does this without any cumbersome motors or batteries. That's right, our solution is entirely mechanical. There is no other product like it and we're patent-protected. Our early testers have held thousands of different objects and the results are clear. People with hand disabilities are riding bicycles, preparing food and getting back to doing what they love. Let's take an example, Megan, who loves to bake. Megan suffered a stroke when she was younger and lost the ability to use her left hand. When we met, she was using just one hand for her baking projects. Now with Fiber, she's using both hands. She's been able to focus more on her recipes and less on her grasp. She recently opened a bakery and summed up the magic of her experience with Fiber to her followers on TikTok. [30:15 - 30:22] Megan Dude, it works! I did it! Easy-peasy. Oh, this makes me so happy! I haven't been able to do this for years. [30:22 - 31:20] Thane Hunt Stories like Megan's are everywhere. Millions of people needed help with grasping and holding and they haven't been served until now. We sell our products directly to the users or through their occupational therapists. Since launching Fiber last year, we've worked with clinicians and users all across the United States. Once someone wears Fiber, they understand. We have a strong team. With my background in prosthetics and hardware development, I invented Fiber.My co-founder, Soniya, did the marketing for a $200 million revenue business. And our manufacturing leader, Junior, brings 20 years of experience in scaling new products to mass production. Try to imagine someone you care about being unable to pick up the phone when you call or giving up on their hobby because they lack the grip strength to do it. With Fiber, we've already been able to put the most fulfilling moments of people's lives back into their own hands. So visit us online at HominidX.com to purchase Fiber or to schedule a demo. And together, we'll create a world where no hand is left behind. Thank you. [31:39 - 35:35] Kara Allanach, SpineX Imagine if you or someone you love was unable to move their body as they pleased or control bladder function on their own. For millions of people in the US living with neurological conditions, this is their reality. Here at SpineX, we are developing incredible new technology to treat these conditions by using electrical impulses to retrain the spinal cord. Our technology is built on groundbreaking research from the top scientists in the field of neuromodulation and is done non-invasively, without needles or surgery. Although our technology has many potential applications, we have chosen to focus our first two commercial products on conditions with huge unmet clinical needs, movement disorder in children with cerebral palsy, or CP, and incontinence in adults with neurogenic bladder. These conditions together affect more than 2.5 million Americans. Existing treatments are simply not good enough because they don't fix the problems, they only reduce symptoms. At best, they're short-term solutions, like drugs that cover up symptoms but have unmanageable side effects. And at worst, they're invasive treatments, like Botox injections or nerve-severing surgery, causing irreversible long-term reductions in function. With SpineX, now there is hope for these patients and their families. This is a three-year-old child with CP. Before SpineX, he was unable to take steps on his own. But when we provided SpineX therapy, within five minutes, he was able to take steps. We have seen similar results, in line with their functional level, with nearly all of the more than 40 children who have undergone treatment with SpineX therapy so far. The really exciting part? We see durable improvements that last for several months beyond the final SpineX therapy treatment. Nothing else on the market can do this. Neurogenic bladder, or NB, is common in spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis and stroke. NB often involves incontinence, frequent urinary tract infections, loss of sleep from night-time voids, and use of catheters to empty the bladder. For some people, catheterisation can take 20 minutes each time and must be done anywhere from four to more than ten times per day, including several times through the night. With SpineX therapy, we're able to reduce incontinence episodes by 70%. And if leaks do happen, they're smaller. Patients report feeling more in control, they don't need as many catheters and they can finally sleep through the night. How does it work? The common thread between all of these conditions is that messages between the brain and the spinal cord don't get through clearly. SpineX technology acts like a hearing aid for the spinal cord, amplifying the signals that need to get through while cutting out background noise. We deliver special electrical pulses through the skin to rewire brain patterns and encourage neuroplasticity, producing long-term results. What's next? Our team of highly-experienced medtech professionals is excited to bring these technologies to market. We expect to receive FDA approval for and launch the first of our products in late 2024. We will reach our target customers by working directly with our collaborators in the hospitals, rehabilitation centres and physical therapy clinics where they are already being treated so that we can make sure that we reach as many potential users as possible. We've been told by our patients and their families that the impact of our technology is magical, and we agree. Join us in our quest to bring this amazing technology to market. We're launching a financing round, recruiting for clinical trials, and interested in talking to people with lived experience with any of these conditions. Please reach out to us. We would love to talk to you. [35:53 - 38:40] Nicole Cuervo, Springrose My grandmother Rose was an unstoppable woman but she had chronic pain and arthritis that made it challenging to get dressed in the morning. And she's not alone. In the US, one in three adult women has some form of limited mobility. That's because there are 50 different injuries, illnesses and disabilities that affect women of all ages and impact their ability to get dressed painlessly and independently. Everything from a temporary broken bone or frozen shoulder to more permanent things like arthritis, MS, stroke and cerebral palsy. Bras are a particularly acute problem. That's because traditional bras require two hands, high dexterity to connect the hooks, and the ability to move your shoulders behind you. Hi, I'm Nicole Cuervo, founder and CEO of Springrose. We design adaptive intimate apparel to improve quality of life for women with limited mobility. We've designed an adaptive bra that gives women back their time, their dignity and their independence. It can be put on multiple different ways, including with one hand, or with limited dexterity or two bad shoulders by putting it overhead or stepping into it. Adaptive apparel is expected to reach $400 billion by 2026 worldwide. North America is responsible for 46% of that, so the opportunity is there. And we know women want this because on ad tests, we had ten times the click-through rate at one fifth of the cost of industry averages. And that's because there's no good solution on the market right now. Currently, women must compromise. They have to compromise on functionality, comfort, attractiveness, sizing, or safety with pacemakers and other health implants. With us, there is no compromise. And here are some comments from women who tried our product. Pamela mentions how she loved having something easy to take off at the end of the day when she had a flare up from a multiple sclerosis. Suzanne enjoyed the flexibility and the design, because with her chronic pain, she doesn't know how she's gonna wake up some days. And Libby mentioned how comfortable the bra was, which is what customers care the most about in our survey tests. As such, our go-to-market strategy is threefold. First, we're investing in search and digital ads, which we have already done really well in, and there are specific long-tail keywords that people are looking for, such as "bra for women with arthritic hands" and "bra for stroke survivors" that apply to us. We're also partnering with physical and occupational therapists across the country so they can recommend our product to their patients. And we are doing pop-ups around senior living and retirement communities because we know that 84% of apparel purchases still happen through a combination of online and in-person. We launched with pre-orders in May and already have sales. And we're launching fully in market at the end of summer. I hope you'll join us in improving quality of life for millions of people. You can buy our bra for yourself or a loved one, and if you're a clinician, you can email me to set up a demo and get your free samples, or you can connect with me and we can figure out how else we can partner. Thank you so much. [38:58 - 39:50] Brandon Biggs, XR Navigation Hello, my name is Brandon Biggs and I am the CEO of XR Navigation. Both my cofounder, Chris, and I are blind, which means we've never had access to digital geographic information. But most geographic information is presented exclusively in the digital format. This means that we, along with the 285 million blind individuals in the world, have never had access to information on weather maps, voting maps, or more crucially, evacuation maps. Last year, during the wildfires in California, I had no idea where the fire was to know if I should evacuate, and if so, where to, because I couldn't see the map. The Americans with Disabilities Act says every public website needs to be accessible. But here is my experience with the 99% of maps on the web today with my screen-reader. [39:50 - 39:58] Computer Clickable show street map radio menu item check submenu. Out of menu bar nav clickable. Blank. Blank. Blank. [39:58 - 40:46] Brandon Biggs The other 1% of maps use a text alternative, such as tables or turn-by-turn directions, that completely remove the geographic information that makes a map a map. Can you imagine looking at a map and only seeing turn-by-turn directions? We couldn't. So we invented Audiom, the world's most inclusive digital, visual, auditory and tactile map viewer and editor. Audiom can either supplement or completely replace existing mapping solutions with only a few lines of code. Our patented auditory and tactile solution allows blind users to freely access geographic information by moving a character around the map with their arrow keys or other controller, very similar to a game. [40:46 - 40:49] Computer Blank space, 27 44. [40:49 - 42:02] Brandon Biggs This allows users to understand the spatial relationships between locations. Whether you're trying to find the bathroom at a football stadium or wanting to know COVID cases in nearby states, Audiom allows blind and sighted users to fully access geographic information. We currently have three paying customers that represent our initial customer segment of businesses, governments, universities and colleges with a blind population and who lack the infrastructure to allow them to navigate their campus. Legislation and legal action are at an all-time high around digital accessibility, costing businesses and governments billions of dollars each year. We are proud to be the first inclusive map viewer on the market, and thankfully for our customers, onboarding to Audiom only requires an initial implementation and yearly licensing fee. Our team is mostly blind and has decades of experience in the blindness and assistive technology-related startup space. I am getting my PhD on non-visual mapping with one of the most renowned sonification researchers in the world. If you would like to learn more, we would love to talk with you about making the world more inclusive. Thank you. [42:20 - 43:54] Alex Dunn, Enabled Play Hi, I'm Alex Dunn, the founder of Enabled Play, the platform that integrates personalised and accessible controls to help brands reach and support more customers of all abilities. We got started building AI-augmented controls because in 2020, my brother Bryan was trying to keep up with his friends while playing video games, but he was getting left behind. And as an AI engineer and former founder, I knew there had to be a simple fix for this, a new way to communicate with devices and software that adapt to the individual rather than pushing them to depend on hardware that isn't accessible or equitable to them. And it got us thinking. Because the truth is that over 600 million people globally cannot access technology because simple software is not designed for their accessibility needs. Here in the US, that's nearly one in five Americans. And as 91% of businesses now expect their customers to engage with their business in a software-first platform, it means they're leaving behind 600 million potential customers. As an example, for one of our customers, a Fortune 50 bank, they estimate that there is more than 12 million unbanked or underbanked prospect customers in the US alone who cannot become their customer because their applications are not accessible. That's money that they, and anyone else who is trying to reach more customers, is leaving on the table. In fact, we estimate that enterprise businesses are leaving on average $33 billion in revenue by not building for accessibility. So we built Enabled Play, a personalised set of controls for users that let them augment and automate their technology with voice controls, face expressions, body gestures, motion controls, virtual buttons and more. [43:54 - 43:57] Computer New slide. Type this is my new title. [43:57 - 46:21] Alex Dunn It's a platform that adapts to each user's abilities using the latest innovations in AI and machine learning. Even more importantly, it can also operate entirely offline, so your voice and video is never recorded, it's never streamed and it's never shared beyond the device you're using. Finally, it allows each user to bring their personalised profiles and preferences to each app, game and service they want to control, which means businesses don't have to find the right way to support each unique user's needs and preferences. They've already been empowered to do that for themselves and can bring those preferences and controls directly to your apps, games, websites and services. It also provides a new surface for your business's services to be discovered, too. We recently finished raising our seed investment round and are not looking for additional investors at this point, but we're eager to meet with heads of accessibility, DE&I and technology working at companies that are eager to discover how, through a simple software integration with our platform, they can gain access to hundreds of millions of new users, too. [44:56 - 45:13] Filipa Araujo, Remarkable What a spectacular group of startups we've had present today. I'm sure you'll agree, they did an incredible job and are having a massive impact on our world. But today is not just about passively watching. We can all help support and amplify the work of these entrepreneurs. [45:13 - 45:39] Molly Levitt, Remarkable That's right, so don't be afraid to reach out to the founders you heard from today. Now, before we wrap things up, a number of you watching tonight may have your own startup brewing. If you're ready to take the next step in solving a problem in the disability and aging space, we'd love to support your journey. You can sign up for updates on application launch or book a meeting with one of the Remarkable team members to start this conversation. More info will be shared on this with you tomorrow, so make sure to check your inbox. [45:40 - 46:06] Filipa Araujo Before we go, on behalf of Remarkable, Cerebral Palsy Alliance and Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation, I would like to thank our incredible partners, Telstra Foundation, icare New South Wales, Vivcourt, TPG Telecom Foundation and The Ian Potter Foundation, for making this event possible. And to you for joining us today for your support to create a more accessible and inclusive future.

2023 Remarkable Demo Day | Screening 2

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#RA23 Demo Day Transcript [01:10 - 01:16] Filipa Araujo, Remarkable Welcome to Remarkable Demo Day 2023. My name is Filipa and I'm the Head of Programs at Remarkable. [01:16 - 01:30] Molly Levitt, Remarkable And my name is Molly and I'm the Director of Remarkable US. This is our second year running a US program after a successful 2022 pilot and we're thrilled to have a full cohort of US startups in this year's program. [01:30 - 02:07] Filipa Araujo This event celebrates our eighth cohort of startups that have completed a Remarkable accelerator. And this year, our program welcomed founders from across the globe, including companies from Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as Australia. And as Molly mentioned, it also marks the second official cohort out of the United States. From brain-computer interface technology in everyday life to extended reality navigation solutions, in the next hour, you're going to hear from the founders of exciting disability tech startups who are building products designed to positively impact the lives of people with disabilities. [02:07 - 02:39] Molly Levitt This screening includes sign interpretation, closed captions and audio description. We also invite you to join the conversation on social media. We're on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. And please use the hashtag #DisabilityTech. During the pitches, if you love what you're seeing and want to learn more, just go to the buttons at the bottom of the screen. There you will find a few different options for how you can learn more about the pitch you're watching, including accessing the pitch materials or connecting directly with the startup. The startups are online now and would be thrilled to hear from you. [02:39 - 03:14] Filipa Araujo Remarkable is made possible by Cerebral Palsy Alliance and Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation. And we would like to thank the generous support of our partners, Telstra Foundation, icare New South Wales, Vivcourt, TPG Telecom Foundation and The Ian Potter Foundation. The startups will be presented one after the other with a short intermission in the middle. You can see the order of the startups presenting below on your screen. Without further ado, I am excited to now pass the screen over to our first group of startups. [3:16 - 6:40] Souvik Paul, Aurie Nine years ago, my sister-in-law Carina sustained a spinal cord injury in a car accident. As she began her rehab, I learned that people with SCI would rather improve their bladder function than be able to walk again. That's why I started Aurie. My name is Souvik Paul and our mission at Aurie is to prevent life-threatening infections for intermittent catheter users. Carina is one of 600,000 people in the US who need to use six to eight single-use intermittent catheters a day. These catheters are basically plastic straws with holes on either end. To use them, users go into the bathroom, insert the catheter into the urethra and leave it in until urine stops flowing from the bladder. Afterwards, these catheters are removed and thrown away. And altogether, over $2 billion worth of catheters are purchased in the US every year. The problem is that urinary tract infections are a leading cause of death for people with spinal cord injuries and other intermittent catheter users. There is a 50% annual chance of a severe complicated UTI due to the use of standard catheters. The average user experiences one to two UTIs a year, and an annual supply of these catheters is about $5,000. There are safer no-touch catheters that reduce infections by over 30% because of their insertion sleeves and introducer tips that reduce contact contamination. Because they cost almost $20,000 for an annual supply, they are covered for less than 7% of Medicare patients. Aurie uses a tech-enabled approach to make intermittent catheterisation safer, more convenient and more sustainable. Our reusable no-touch catheters have the same features that help reduce UTIs, but are designed to be reused 100 times with our patented portable smart catheter case, which completely automates the cleaning, disinfection and lubrication of catheters with tap water and pre-packaged supplies. When we surveyed catheter users, 81% wanted to switch to our system. Why? Because our system allows us to provide infection-reducing features of no-touch catheters at the same price point as standard catheters. We provide a cost-effective means to reduce urinary tract infections for our users. We've demonstrated repeatable and robust disinfection efficacy with early prototypes at the University of Notre Dame. We've further developed the prototypes and are preparing for FDA submission in early 2024. We have four issued patents, one pending patent, and additional planned submissions. We have FDA sign-off on our testing strategy and the FDA has even granted us the Safer Technologies Designation after reviewing our early test data. We're expecting expedited review once we do submit. The team at Aurie has over 75 years of experience in healthcare, has commercialised 17 medical devices, and has sold over $50 million in durable medical equipment. We have a broad coalition of support from investors like Lakehouse Ventures and grant-funders like the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Disabilities, all of whom believe in our mission. We're always looking to connect with like-minded investors & innovators. Join us in making infections and preventable death a thing of the past for catheter users. [6:43 - 8:27] Thane Hunt, Hominid X There's probably an object next to you right now. Pick it up, but without squeezing your fingers. It's impossible. I'm Thane Hunt, founder and CEO of Hominid X. We build wearable tools that help people to reclaim the use of their hands. Why? Because there are over 200 million people who can't use their hands, making everyday tasks difficult or impossible. Physical therapy can help, but often takes years and won't result in a full recovery. And in the meantime, the adaptive solutions are either specialised to one task or too expensive. So we designed Fiber, our easy-to-use, adaptive grasping tool that empowers its user with a secure and versatile grip around almost any object. A user can put it on in under 30 seconds and wear it comfortably all day to help them complete any task that requires grip strength. Our design guides the hand into a variety of different grasps, and it does this without any cumbersome motors or batteries. That's right, our solution is entirely mechanical. There is no other product like it and we're patent-protected. Our early testers have held thousands of different objects and the results are clear. People with hand disabilities are riding bicycles, preparing food and getting back to doing what they love. Let's take an example, Megan, who loves to bake. Megan suffered a stroke when she was younger and lost the ability to use her left hand. When we met, she was using just one hand for her baking projects. Now with Fiber, she's using both hands. She's been able to focus more on her recipes and less on her grasp. She recently opened a bakery and summed up the magic of her experience with Fiber to her followers on TikTok. [8:27 - 8:35] Megan Dude, it works! I did it! Easy-peasy. Oh, this makes me so happy! I haven't been able to do this for years. [8:35 - 9:33] Thane Hunt Stories like Megan's are everywhere. Millions of people needed help with grasping and holding and they haven't been served until now. We sell our products directly to the users or through their occupational therapists. Since launching Fiber last year, we've worked with clinicians and users all across the United States. Once someone wears Fiber, they understand. We have a strong team. With my background in prosthetics and hardware development, I invented Fiber.My co-founder, Soniya, did the marketing for a $200 million revenue business. And our manufacturing leader, Junior, brings 20 years of experience in scaling new products to mass production. Try to imagine someone you care about being unable to pick up the phone when you call or giving up on their hobby because they lack the grip strength to do it. With Fiber, we've already been able to put the most fulfilling moments of people's lives back into their own hands. So visit us online at HominidX.com to purchase Fiber or to schedule a demo. And together, we'll create a world where no hand is left behind. Thank you. [9:50 - 13:48] Kara Allanach, SpineX Imagine if you or someone you love was unable to move their body as they pleased or control bladder function on their own. For millions of people in the US living with neurological conditions, this is their reality. Here at SpineX, we are developing incredible new technology to treat these conditions by using electrical impulses to retrain the spinal cord. Our technology is built on groundbreaking research from the top scientists in the field of neuromodulation and is done non-invasively, without needles or surgery. Although our technology has many potential applications, we have chosen to focus our first two commercial products on conditions with huge unmet clinical needs, movement disorder in children with cerebral palsy, or CP, and incontinence in adults with neurogenic bladder. These conditions together affect more than 2.5 million Americans. Existing treatments are simply not good enough because they don't fix the problems, they only reduce symptoms. At best, they're short-term solutions, like drugs that cover up symptoms but have unmanageable side effects. And at worst, they're invasive treatments, like Botox injections or nerve-severing surgery, causing irreversible long-term reductions in function. With SpineX, now there is hope for these patients and their families. This is a three-year-old child with CP. Before SpineX, he was unable to take steps on his own. But when we provided SpineX therapy, within five minutes, he was able to take steps. We have seen similar results, in line with their functional level, with nearly all of the more than 40 children who have undergone treatment with SpineX therapy so far. The really exciting part? We see durable improvements that last for several months beyond the final SpineX therapy treatment. Nothing else on the market can do this. Neurogenic bladder, or NB, is common in spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis and stroke. NB often involves incontinence, frequent urinary tract infections, loss of sleep from night-time voids, and use of catheters to empty the bladder. For some people, catheterisation can take 20 minutes each time and must be done anywhere from four to more than ten times per day, including several times through the night. With SpineX therapy, we're able to reduce incontinence episodes by 70%. And if leaks do happen, they're smaller. Patients report feeling more in control, they don't need as many catheters and they can finally sleep through the night. How does it work? The common thread between all of these conditions is that messages between the brain and the spinal cord don't get through clearly. SpineX technology acts like a hearing aid for the spinal cord, amplifying the signals that need to get through while cutting out background noise. We deliver special electrical pulses through the skin to rewire brain patterns and encourage neuroplasticity, producing long-term results. What's next? Our team of highly-experienced medtech professionals is excited to bring these technologies to market. We expect to receive FDA approval for and launch the first of our products in late 2024. We will reach our target customers by working directly with our collaborators in the hospitals, rehabilitation centres and physical therapy clinics where they are already being treated so that we can make sure that we reach as many potential users as possible. We've been told by our patients and their families that the impact of our technology is magical, and we agree. Join us in our quest to bring this amazing technology to market. We're launching a financing round, recruiting for clinical trials, and interested in talking to people with lived experience with any of these conditions. Please reach out to us. We would love to talk to you. [13:55 - 16:52] Nicole Cuervo, Springrose My grandmother Rose was an unstoppable woman but she had chronic pain and arthritis that made it challenging to get dressed in the morning. And she's not alone. In the US, one in three adult women has some form of limited mobility. That's because there are 50 different injuries, illnesses and disabilities that affect women of all ages and impact their ability to get dressed painlessly and independently. Everything from a temporary broken bone or frozen shoulder to more permanent things like arthritis, MS, stroke and cerebral palsy. Bras are a particularly acute problem. That's because traditional bras require two hands, high dexterity to connect the hooks, and the ability to move your shoulders behind you. Hi, I'm Nicole Cuervo, founder and CEO of Springrose. We design adaptive intimate apparel to improve quality of life for women with limited mobility. We've designed an adaptive bra that gives women back their time, their dignity and their independence. It can be put on multiple different ways, including with one hand, or with limited dexterity or two bad shoulders by putting it overhead or stepping into it. Adaptive apparel is expected to reach $400 billion by 2026 worldwide. North America is responsible for 46% of that, so the opportunity is there. And we know women want this because on ad tests, we had ten times the click-through rate at one fifth of the cost of industry averages. And that's because there's no good solution on the market right now. Currently, women must compromise. They have to compromise on functionality, comfort, attractiveness, sizing, or safety with pacemakers and other health implants. With us, there is no compromise. And here are some comments from women who tried our product. Pamela mentions how she loved having something easy to take off at the end of the day when she had a flare up from a multiple sclerosis. Suzanne enjoyed the flexibility and the design, because with her chronic pain, she doesn't know how she's gonna wake up some days. And Libby mentioned how comfortable the bra was, which is what customers care the most about in our survey tests. As such, our go-to-market strategy is threefold. First, we're investing in search and digital ads, which we have already done really well in, and there are specific long-tail keywords that people are looking for, such as "bra for women with arthritic hands" and "bra for stroke survivors" that apply to us. We're also partnering with physical and occupational therapists across the country so they can recommend our product to their patients. And we are doing pop-ups around senior living and retirement communities because we know that 84% of apparel purchases still happen through a combination of online and in-person. We launched with pre-orders in May and already have sales. And we're launching fully in market at the end of summer. I hope you'll join us in improving quality of life for millions of people. You can buy our bra for yourself or a loved one, and if you're a clinician, you can email me to set up a demo and get your free samples, or you can connect with me and we can figure out how else we can partner. Thank you so much. [17:05 - 18:02] Brandon Biggs, XR Navigation Hello, my name is Brandon Biggs and I am the CEO of XR Navigation. Both my cofounder, Chris, and I are blind, which means we've never had access to digital geographic information. But most geographic information is presented exclusively in the digital format. This means that we, along with the 285 million blind individuals in the world, have never had access to information on weather maps, voting maps, or more crucially, evacuation maps. Last year, during the wildfires in California, I had no idea where the fire was to know if I should evacuate, and if so, where to, because I couldn't see the map. The Americans with Disabilities Act says every public website needs to be accessible. But here is my experience with the 99% of maps on the web today with my screen-reader. [18:02 - 18:10] Computer Clickable show street map radio menu item check submenu. Out of menu bar nav clickable. Blank. Blank. Blank. [18:10 - 18:57] Brandon Biggs The other 1% of maps use a text alternative, such as tables or turn-by-turn directions, that completely remove the geographic information that makes a map a map. Can you imagine looking at a map and only seeing turn-by-turn directions? We couldn't. So we invented Audiom, the world's most inclusive digital, visual, auditory and tactile map viewer and editor. Audiom can either supplement or completely replace existing mapping solutions with only a few lines of code. Our patented auditory and tactile solution allows blind users to freely access geographic information by moving a character around the map with their arrow keys or other controller, very similar to a game. [18:57 - 19:00] Computer Blank space, 27 44. [19:00 - 20:14] Brandon Biggs This allows users to understand the spatial relationships between locations. Whether you're trying to find the bathroom at a football stadium or wanting to know COVID cases in nearby states, Audiom allows blind and sighted users to fully access geographic information. We currently have three paying customers that represent our initial customer segment of businesses, governments, universities and colleges with a blind population and who lack the infrastructure to allow them to navigate their campus. Legislation and legal action are at an all-time high around digital accessibility, costing businesses and governments billions of dollars each year. We are proud to be the first inclusive map viewer on the market, and thankfully for our customers, onboarding to Audiom only requires an initial implementation and yearly licensing fee. Our team is mostly blind and has decades of experience in the blindness and assistive technology-related startup space. I am getting my PhD on non-visual mapping with one of the most renowned sonification researchers in the world. If you would like to learn more, we would love to talk with you about making the world more inclusive. Thank you. [20:32 - 22:01] Alex Dunn, Enabled Play Hi, I'm Alex Dunn, the founder of Enabled Play, the platform that integrates personalised and accessible controls to help brands reach and support more customers of all abilities. We got started building AI-augmented controls because in 2020, my brother Bryan was trying to keep up with his friends while playing video games, but he was getting left behind. And as an AI engineer and former founder, I knew there had to be a simple fix for this, a new way to communicate with devices and software that adapt to the individual rather than pushing them to depend on hardware that isn't accessible or equitable to them. And it got us thinking. Because the truth is that over 600 million people globally cannot access technology because simple software is not designed for their accessibility needs. Here in the US, that's nearly one in five Americans. And as 91% of businesses now expect their customers to engage with their business in a software-first platform, it means they're leaving behind 600 million potential customers. As an example, for one of our customers, a Fortune 50 bank, they estimate that there is more than 12 million unbanked or underbanked prospect customers in the US alone who cannot become their customer because their applications are not accessible. That's money that they, and anyone else who is trying to reach more customers, is leaving on the table. In fact, we estimate that enterprise businesses are leaving on average $33 billion in revenue by not building for accessibility. So we built Enabled Play, a personalised set of controls for users that let them augment and automate their technology with voice controls, face expressions, body gestures, motion controls, virtual buttons and more. [22:01 - 22:09] Computer New slide. Type this is my new title. [22:09 - 23:00] Alex Dunn It's a platform that adapts to each user's abilities using the latest innovations in AI and machine learning. Even more importantly, it can also operate entirely offline, so your voice and video is never recorded, it's never streamed and it's never shared beyond the device you're using. Finally, it allows each user to bring their personalised profiles and preferences to each app, game and service they want to control, which means businesses don't have to find the right way to support each unique user's needs and preferences. They've already been empowered to do that for themselves and can bring those preferences and controls directly to your apps, games, websites and services. It also provides a new surface for your business's services to be discovered, too. We recently finished raising our seed investment round and are not looking for additional investors at this point, but we're eager to meet with heads of accessibility, DE&I and technology working at companies that are eager to discover how, through a simple software integration with our platform, they can gain access to hundreds of millions of new users, too. [23:08 - 23:22] Filipa Araujo, Remarkable I would like to introduce Jackie Coates from Telstra Foundation, who has been one of our longest ongoing supporters. Jackie will be announcing the winner of this year's Telstra People's Choice Award, a cash prize to one of the cohort from this year. [23:22 - 23:49] Jackie Coates, Telstra Foundation Hi, everyone. It's great to be part of Remarkable Demo Day again this year. Thought I'd cut straight to it and announce that the Telstra People's Choice Award this year goes to Focus Bear! Congratulations, Focus Bear. You'll receive a $5,000 donation from the Telstra Foundation. And congratulations to the whole Remarkable team and all the amazing startups. We think you do an incredible job making the world more inclusive for everyone. Have a great Demo Day. Bye! [23:49 - 23:57] Molly Levitt, Remarkable We're excited to welcome you back. Now to enjoy the second half of Demo Day, featuring an amazing group of RA23 startup pitches. [24:15 - 25:41] Pete Beckett, Indii This is Sofii, the adaptable switch for your home. And this is Sophie, my youngest sister. Sophie is a genuine ray of sunshine who finds her joy in good food and singing Christmas songs all year round. In 2001, Sophie experienced a severe brain trauma, and as a result, now requires one-to-one care on a daily basis. Sophie's experience is what inspires our vision. Hi. I'm Pete Beckett, the founder of Indii, and we're developing technology to enable the tens of millions of people with motor disabilities who stand to benefit from integrating smart-home technology into their homes. Currently, home tech is limited by its input devices. In a world ruled by phone apps, quick and universal control is not a given. Voice assistants have been a great step in the right direction, but there are many scenarios where users cannot or do not want to use their voice as a primary input method. Meanwhile, companies operating in the assistive tech space excel in designing solutions with specific user requirements. Unfortunately, to date, most implementations of environmental control have been prohibitively expensive and limited in both scope and capability. That's what led us to develop Sofii, the switch, not the sister. Sofii supports adaptive switches and offers audio-visual feedback and connects directly to the smart home without the need for a mobile device. [25:41 - 25:48] Sofii This button controls your bedroom lights. Press the button again to toggle on and off. [25:48 - 26:42] Pete Beckett Sofii can act as a Bluetooth switch for iPads, phones and computers, and at just $350, is more capable than its nearest Bluetooth-only rivals, and for a lower price. Over the past 18 months, we've developed the hardware and software, and tested with new potential users. We're now really close to delivering on our mission of providing new and improved ways to enable independence at home. But the next 18 months is set to be even more exciting. This spring, we're welcoming interested parties to evaluate our hardware and explore commercial partnerships as we move towards a launch, selling into the NDIS early next year. And this is just the beginning. In the future, we want to take our tech out of the home and into public spaces, providing more convenient ways for our customers to interact with the world around them. And all this thanks to Sofii, the switch and the sister. [26:49 - 30:20] Brianna MacDonald, The Care Co I'd like you to imagine a primary school class. This might be your child's class or a child you know and there could be about 30 kids. If it's a classroom of 30 kids, we expect about one in five of those children to have already experienced a traumatic event. We expect one in seven of those kids to already or soon to be struggling with their mental health. And on average, about one in ten of those young people is disabled. I'm sure you can imagine, in a classroom of 30 children, that's a lot of need. And unfortunately, it doesn't stop there. We know that one in three adults struggles with their mental health. We're losing about $5 trillion in the workplace and one in five sick days for the same reason. Depression, anxiety and substance abuse disorder are three of the world's leading disabilities. And it's expected that almost all people will face at least one significantly traumatic event in their lifetime. The problem isn't just our declining level of mental health and wellbeing. The problem is that we're not learning the skills needed to manage these challenges and we simply don't have enough supply to meet the need. My name is Brianna and I'm the founder of The Care Co. I'm a Canadian First Nations woman studying a Masters in Psychology with Harvard. I've worked in the trauma-informed education space, am a two-time entrepreneur, and 20 years ago, I was a Care Co kid. Now a flourishing, healthy adult, I'm just one example of what can be achieved with early intervention. And I spend a lot of time looking for where the opportunities are. Chances are you or someone you know is a parent or guardian and you're probably pretty busy. While you may not feel like a mental health expert, you've got one silver lining. Chances are you send your child to school. If you're an educator, you might feel plagued with questions like, "How do I teach mental health in the classroom?" Again, an opportunity. You're teaching fundamental life skills every day. Psychologists are a fantastic, effective model, and while they're hard to scale in their current form, the psychology community gives us an evidence-based best-practice way to work with kids. And this brings us to The Care Co. The Care Co is an in-classroom software that teaches kids between the ages of five and 12 mental health habits. A self-paced learning tool, we offer easy lesson planning, agency, and a unique way to build mental health habits from day one. One of the features we're super proud of include our ability-based, evidence-based model,support for school disability funding reports, and activities that are mapped to health subject teaching needs. So where do we go from here? We're beta testing our app with five schools and 1,500 students. Next we're partnering with the Cerebral Palsy Alliance and positioning The Care Co in front of about 1,200 schools in September 2023, and officially launch in October. Our future plans include the psychology, disability and social work communities, as well as an app for parents and guardians at home. And we have one really audacious goal - "every child, every school." To get there, we offer subscriptions priced per student per month. Schools can choose a six-month or 12-month licence. And considering the two billion kids worldwide, we're just getting started. First targeting one million students, we'll be grossing $60 million in annual recurring revenue if we reach that goal. For those ready to see mental health skills taught in every school, I ask that you scan this QR code to view a product demo, visit our website, or join our product updates and investment opportunity newsletters. And if you're onboard with our North star, join our mission. We would love to have you along. [30:39 - 33:40] Ricardo Garcia-Rosas, Virtetic If you were to get a leg or an arm amputated, you'd need to wait over four months to get access to a prosthesis. While you wait, you lose function in the affected limb and become more at risk of suffering phantom limb pain throughout your life. This time delay costs healthcare systems around the world over $5 billion every year. I'm Ricardo, co-founder and CEO of Virtetic, a digital health company enabling people to kick-start their journey with a prosthesis through the power of games and immersive technologies. By practising with a virtual prosthesis, people can start functional rehabilitation and learn to use a prosthesis as soon as they can start with therapy. We co-design our gamified clinical interventions with the community to ensure they are evidence-based and representative of living with a prosthesis. Ultimately, our products help people to be able to fully use their prosthesis from day one. Our first product, Myo-Hand XP, allows people to learn to use a prosthetic hand through guided practice in VR. Our second product helps people manage their phantom limb pain through active limb visualisations in VR. Our products can be used in the clinic or at home as prescribed by a qualified clinician, which can be covered by disability insurance, like the NDIS, TAC and iCare. Virtetic provides all the hardware, software, training and support that both clinicians and their patients need to use our products. We partner with prosthesis manufacturers to feature their products within our system, helping them reach potential customers at an earlier stage. That is why for the past two years, the number one prosthesis manufacturer, Ottobock, has been collaborating with us to incorporate their products into our system. We have submitted the regulatory application in Australia for our first product, and we plan to submit the application for the second product in the first quarter of next year. We work with two clinics in Melbourne who are ready to pilot our products to validate their clinical effectiveness and the business model of our offering. These pilots will inform our commercial roll-out throughout Australia and how we can work with Ottobock to bring our offerings to the world. We are a diverse and passionate team with a wealth of experience in the development and research of virtual reality and prosthetic devices, complemented by expertise in finance and management consulting. Our clinical advisors are expert clinical practitioners and world-leading researchers in prosthetics, rehabilitation and pain science. Our commercialisation advisors are global leaders in the commercialisation of medical devices. But most importantly, we share a passion about making a positive impact in the lives of people living with limb loss. Following regulatory approval, we will launch our first product with partner clinics. To help drive revenues and growth, we'll be seeking further capital in the next six months to scale our product offerings in Australia. If you are interested in joining us, please reach out. [33:55 - 37:22] Kyle Cortesi, MEMORehab Hi, everyone. We are MEMORehab and our mission is to enhance the experience of cognitive rehabilitation so we can make it more accessible, supportive and data-driven. We are a post-revenue company looking for partners to help us increase our outreach and grow our platform. Globally, one in six people will live with a neurological condition, resulting from things like stroke, epilepsy, traumatic brain injury and more. Sadly, many patients cannot access cognitive rehab due to the inability to travel independently, their distance from the clinic, or the lack of clinicians available with the time or space to run interventions. Even when interventions are available, patients often lack the tools to practise newly-learned skills or establish new habits. And clinicians are often unable to monitor how their patients are engaging with the program outside the clinic, leaving them unable to provide support when it's needed most. At MEMORehab, we support both clinicians and patients through the rehabilitation journey. For clinicians, we allow them to reach patients from anywhere using telehealth and track their patients' progress with data analytics. For patients, we help them better understand their condition by providing educational resources and reinforce newly-learned skills using computerised training and automatic reminders. Imagine the efficiency. Weekly, group-based telehealth sessions, practice with digital tools, and consistent feedback. We have begun our journey by adapting a well-established, group-based memory intervention to our platform with over ten years of clinical research backing its efficacy. And in the future, we aim to expand our services by adapting additional well-established interventions to our delivery model. Right now, we are working on several projects to support MEMORehab, like building a dedicated research platform to test our materials, training and education programs for clinicians via accredited workshops and seminars, and a clinician registry to help patients find the right professional. Since our incorporation in 2021, we have worked with organisations, universities and hospitals. For example, we have partnered with both local and international organisations in the neurological injury space. We have teamed up with universities such as Monash to conduct clinical research, showing that patients using our platform increased in several key areas related to memory. And we are proud to say that major hospitals, health districts and clinics across the country have purchased our annual licences, with dozens of patients successfully using MEMORehab. Our team brings a wealth of passion and experience, including Laurie Miller, a clinical neuropsychologist with 30 years of experience. Kyle Cortesi, that's me, with experience in program management, and Pranshu Midha, a skilled front-end developer. Today, we're seeking partners who believe in our vision. So if you can help us reach more clinicians, link them with patients, or add interventions to our platform, we would love to hear from you. So if you are interested in joining us to revolutionise cognitive rehabilitation, use the QR code to visit our website and let's schedule a call. With MEMORehab, we're not just imagining the future of cognitive rehabilitation, we're building it. [37:36 - 41:38] Dion Kelly, Possibility Neurotechnologies I'm Dion Kelly, Co-Founder and CEO of Possibility Neurotechnologies, the company that's empowering the future of inclusion with our assistive technology solutions that convert thought to action. This is Claire. Claire is a six-year-old girl with quadriplegic cerebral palsy. She can't speak or move, which hinders her ability to use current assistive technologies. Though she's very smart and capable, her physical limitations often make it difficult for her to communicate and express her abilities. Around the world, there are millions of children like Claire who face similar challenges. Their access to basic human rights, including self-expression, play and independence, is often restricted. Brain-Computer Interfaces, or BCIs, allow users to control devices using their brainwaves, including household appliances and power mobility chairs. However, BCIs and their applications are not yet readily available to the end-users like Claire because the middle component enabling control of these external devices has been confined to research environments. Our proprietary technology, the Think2Switch, fills this gap in providing a bridge between BCIs and the devices that they can control. Using a BCI headset, a user can think about a desired intention and use that thought to control a switch-adapted device through translation of the thought to action by the Think2Switch. We're packaging our Think2Switch with a commercial BCI headset and environmental control device to provide a ready-to-use, plug-and-play solution for children to immediately access their environments and participate in life activities. We've innovatively filled a significant gap in the market with our user-friendly, portable Think2Switch system. Unlike existing middleware solutions that are typically restricted to lab environments, our unique system is portable and ready for immediate plug-and-play application. Our initial target market is children with quadriplegia, of which there are 36,000 resulting from CP in developed countries alone. Our entry into this market will leverage specialised healthcare networks, therapeutic communities and targeted marketing strategies. Subsequently, we plan to expand our reach to adults with quadriplegia, a demographic of more than nine million individuals in developed countries. This will involve partnerships with rehabilitation centres, adult care facilities and relevant healthcare providers. Our long-term strategy involves penetrating the mass market of able-bodied children, a demographic of approximately 80 million in North America. In this phase, we'll leverage mainstream retail channels and broad-based marketing strategies. With our Think2Switch technology, Claire is actively participating in activities that were once impossible, from baking cookies with her little brothers, to blending her own meals, making lemonade, and even participating in their family tradition of pickling. Claire's mom said, "It's a light at the end of the tunnel. The possibilities are endless." As one of the few teams globally focused on researching BCIs for children, our multidisciplinary group of clinicians, engineers and business development specialists are leading the way in this untapped market. With a shared passion for making a difference, we're driving forward the development of integrated BCI solutions. We believe that everyone deserves equal opportunities and our vision is to foster an inclusive society where this is possible. Our next goal is to significantly expand access to our product to better serve our primary target market of children with quadriplegia. In order to achieve this, we're planning to raise a $2 million funding round later this year. If you're a passionate investor who shares our vision of an inclusive society, we'd love to start a conversation. We're also interested in connecting with potential partners and customers who could benefit from our technology. With your support, we can bring BCI to the millions of individuals who need it most. Let's work together to create a future where everyone, regardless of their physical abilities, has the chance to express themselves, to play, to create and to live independently. Are you ready to join us on this journey? [41:55 - 44:45] Jeremy Nagel, Focus Bear Hey, I'm Jeremy, the founder of Focus Bear. I've got ADHD and autism, which is my superpower. My brain constantly fires out creative ideas and I can concentrate on my ideas for hours on end. I've started multiple businesses, I sold my last one, and have had a pretty good career. However, it didn't start that way. I got fired from my first five jobs, which was both financially destabilising and a massive hit to my self esteem. I turned my career around, but many neurodivergent people never experience stable employment. Unemployment rates amongst people with autism are eight times higher than for neurotypical folks, and it's also an issue for people with ADHD. With more and more people getting diagnosed, this issue is only getting worse. We need a way to tap into the creativity and problem-solving skills that neurodivergent people can offer. I've been working on an app called Focus Bear that can help neurodivergent people channel their hyperfocus and not get distracted. Speaking of channels, I found an awesome competitive axe-throwing channel on Youtube. It's so good that I just have to show you it right now. Oh, this pop-up is saying that axe-throwing might not be relevant to delivering the pitch. It's probably right. Did I mention I have ADHD? I should probably go back to telling you about the app. It uses AI to determine whether a website is relevant to the work you're doing. If it's not, it lets you save the page to view after work or you can block it completely. Distraction blocking isn't a new concept. Many other apps do part of what Focus Bear does. What's different about us is our focus on neurodiversity, our holistic approach, which includes daily habits and rituals, and our support of all platforms, desktop and mobile, because blocking on one device isn't enough. If I start focusing on my computer, I want my phone to be free of distractions, too. The app also prepares the brain for productivity through a unique approach to habit formation. It guides you through a morning routine one habit at a time, reducing overwhelm. The app is live in the market and we've had rave reviews from the community. We've got paying customers with excellent retention. Our business model is a monthly subscription starting at $5 US per month for consumers. I've got an outstanding team building the app with me. I'm an experienced founder with a successful exit. Manish, our lead developer, has 20 years of experience. And most of our other team members are neurodivergent and can thus empathise with our customers. We're opening a $750k fundraising round to bring Focus Bear to B2B. We've had some promising initial conversations with businesses and will be refining the product with features like a Slack and Microsoft Teams integration, hiring a B2B sales specialist and investing in marketing. The round will allow us to grow to 10,000 paying customers. To learn more, visit focusbear.io/invest. Together we can help neurodivergent people thrive in the workplace. [44:49 - 45:06] Filipa Araujo, Remarkable What a spectacular group of startups we've had present today. I'm sure you'll agree, they did an incredible job and are having a massive impact on our world. But today is not just about passively watching. We can all help support and amplify the work of these entrepreneurs. [45:07 - 45:34] Molly Levitt, Remarkable That's right, so don't be afraid to reach out to the founders you heard from today. Now, before we wrap things up, a number of you watching tonight may have your own startup brewing. If you're ready to take the next step in solving a problem in the disability and aging space, we'd love to support your journey. You can sign up for updates on application launch or book a meeting with one of the Remarkable team members to start this conversation. More info will be shared on this with you tomorrow, so make sure to check your inbox. [45:35 - 46:15] Filipa Araujo Before we go, on behalf of Remarkable, Cerebral Palsy Alliance and Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation, I would like to thank our incredible partners, Telstra Foundation, icare New South Wales, Vivcourt, TPG Telecom Foundation and The Ian Potter Foundation, for making this event possible. And to you for joining us today for your support to create a more accessible and inclusive future.

2022 Remarkable Accelerator Demo Day | Screening 1

July 20, 2022

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Remarkable 2022 Demo Day [03:05 - 03:48] Voice over Remarkable, acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands on which we are gathered today. This is their land, never ceded, always sacred. And we pay respects to the elders past, present and emerging. For they hold the traditions, the culture and the hopes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the nation. We acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and the remarkable contribution they make to Australian life. And we would also like to acknowledge the advocates who have played a role in advancing the rights of people with disability, leading to addressing the inequalities faced by people with disability. They have paved the way for us. We carry a privilege and a responsibility because of that history. We are better together. [04:00 - 05:00] Molly Levitt Did you know that with an estimated population of 1.85 billion people with disabilities are an emerging market larger than China? Their friends and family add another 3.3 billion potential customers. Together, the disability market controls over 13 trillion in disposable income. Did you know that for every dollar invested in assistive technology, there is a $9 return? And did you know that the internet ebooks, your electric toothbrush and so many more of the products and technologies that are most ubiquitous in your life right now were built first for people with disabilities. Today, you're going to hear from founders who are building products designed to positively impact the lives of people with disabilities, which, as you now know, inevitably means positive outcomes for the world at large and the bottom line. We can't wait for you to meet our teams. [05:00 - 07:29] Pete Horsley Welcome to the remarkable demo day 2022. My name is Pete Horsley, founder of Remarkable. I'm so excited to have you join us for this exciting event. Over the next 45 minutes, we'll invite you to join the conversation on social media or on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram. And please use the handle @RemarkableTech and #DisabilityTech. And please use capitals. This screening includes sign interpretation, closed captions and audio description. Throughout this screening, you will see interactive QR codes on screen. These are the quickest way to send direct messages to the founders, no matter what your request is. Scan the code and you're just one click away from being connected. In fact, let's try one now. Scan this QR code to send us an email. There's even a reward waiting on the other side for five lucky attendees. For those unable to interact with QR codes, don't worry. We'll share the URLs in the chat throughout this event too. There's growing momentum globally around diversity, inclusion and now accessibility. Remarkable began in 2014 with one idea. How do we get more innovative and inclusive technology into the hands of people with disabilities faster? We saw a real lack of innovation and development in technology for inclusion, so we sought to bring together entrepreneurs, authentic co-design and capital, to commercialize new technologies, to amplify human potential. And this is now our seventh cohort of startups. This year we've had the absolute privilege to build the geographic reach of Remarkable by working together with our sister organization, Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation, to pilot a US program. This is the start of what will be a full cohort in the US in 2023. And this event would not be possible without the generous support of our partners. icare, Telstra, Microsoft, VivCourt, Smart Job and TPG Foundation. Technology can amplify the potential of people with disability over the next 45 minutes. You will learn more about disability tech startups who have completed our 2022 remarkable accelerator program. As part of tonight's celebrations, you will hear from eight incredible startups. Each will be introduced by their startup coach, who has worked closely with them over the last four months. I'd like to hand over to Molly to introduce WearWorks. The first of four participants in this segment. [07:38 - 08:35] Molly Levitt I'm Molly and I was lucky enough to be the coach for WearWorks. This team is on to something really special. Our senses are how we interact with the world. When you think about tech, that helps us better interact with the world through our senses. We think about audio, which helps us digest information through our ears. Tech that was transformative for people who are blind. You might think about messaging, which helps us receive and communicate information quickly through our eyes. Tech that was transformational for people who are deaf. But what about touch? People who are blind know that touch is inherently an inclusive language. But tech based on touch as a communication tool is an area of untapped potential. The WearWorks team, are haptic experts, whose first product, the way brand helps you navigate the world just through vibration. It has the potential to transform lives and make us all more present to the world around us. [08:54 - 12:36] Keith Kirkland Haptic means touch and touch is a more inclusive way to communicate information. Hi, my name is Keith Kirkland. I'm a 42 year old black American male with shoulder length locs, and I'm the co-founder of Wear Works. Several years ago, we got a call from a marathoner who was blind. He wanted to know if we could help him fulfill his dream of running in the biggest marathon in the world without being tethered to a guide. WearWorks is a haptic platform company. We build products and experiences that use the skin as a communications channel to deliver information in a more intuitive and less obtrusive way. We took on the challenge and just eight months later, he made history as the first person who was blind to run in the New York City Marathon without sighted assistance. And he did it using our very first product, WayBand. And in this video you can see him finishing the race. Navigation is inherently visual and we all use it almost every day. The space is dominated by Google through Maps and Waze, but they, like all mapping applications, rely heavily on visual cues, and visual based navigation is not always safe. Oftentimes it's not practical. And for 285 million people worldwide living with a visual impairment, it's a real problem. So we invented WayBand, a haptic navigation app and an optional wristband that gently guides you to your destination using only vibration. The WayBand app can be used with your smartphone in your hand or it can be paired with our WayBand wristband for a hands free experience. The way it works as you type or say where you want to go, confirm and you'll be guided to your destination using our patented haptic corridor. When you're in the corridor, you feel nothing. Swivel slightly to the left or the right and WayBand will gently nudge you back on the right path using your own natural sense of touch. We've tested with thousands of people and most can figure out the correct way to go within seconds without any instructions, it’s that intuitive. We're initially targeting young, blind and visually impaired students and professionals, and we've already pre sold half of our initial production to partners at Massachusetts Commission for the Blind Lighthouse Guild, Helen Keller, the New York City Department of Education, and several Paralympians. Through these influencers and channel partners, we have access to millions of potential customers that trust us. Our team has the deep expertise in touch. Kevin is an internationally award winning industrial designer, and I worked on a suit that would allow a person to download and learn kung fu using only vibrations. We both have been exploring haptics for over nine years and we're backed by a world class and diverse team. We've done the hard R&D, proven the technology, built the team and made history. In addition to selling WayBands, we see a part of our business model being driven by licensing accessible haptic navigation. We've already been in talks with organizations such as Airbnb, Disney and Google. Haptics are going to change the world for everyone. Navigation is just the beginning of our journey and we'd love to have you along. We're raising a Round. The WayBand app is available right now and this QR code will let you try it out on us for a month for free. Download it now and we're looking for connections. The heads of accessibility and government, university schools, military and enterprise. Thank you very much. And please keep in touch. [12:57 - 13:41] Kate Jenkins Hi, I'm Kate Jenkins and I'm proud to be the start up coach for the amazing Hailey Brown from VacayIt. I've loved working with Hayley throughout the accelerator program and to witness her fearless approach to tackling every challenge that comes her way. Hayley is a natural entrepreneur and leader, and I really admire the way Hayley leads her team and their co-creating design approach VacayIt is a groundbreaking platform that will not only revolutionize travel for people that have low vision and are blind, it will fundamentally change Travel marketing. I'm super excited to see where Hayley and VacayIt take off to next, and I can't wait to start using the audio guides to plan my next holiday. [14:06 -18:00] Hailey Brown Tourism marketing is predominantly visual for the 253 million blind and low vision tourists globally. This means that they have to rely on tools and platforms designed for sighted people to choose where to travel. Put simply, the tourism industry is inaccessible. But what if tourism experiences didn't need to be limited to imagery and instead could be a much more immersive, enriching experience? So instead of using just this photo of the puffing Billy Steam train, you can listen to this. Feel the magic of the steam train travel from the moment you arrive, as you inhale the smoky scent of steam billowing out of the. Vessel's chimney and are greeted by the evocative sound of the train's whistle. And that's exactly what we're doing. Hi, I'm Hayley, the founder of VacayIt. And we have created an audio guide to the world. We’re enabling travelers to make informed and independent decisions about where they want to travel. You'll be able to pick up your phone wherever and whenever and listen to the stories, sounds and history clips of the world around you. The release of VacayIt is timely with the rising popularity of audio such as podcasts and audiobooks, which right now is a largely untapped market within the tourism industry. Our stories are hosted on the VacayIt app, which allows users to navigate according to their desired needs with the use of accessible features like map, text or voice search. Spread across the country, our stories are created in collaboration with the leading destination marketing organizations on a local, regional state and national level. We are growing rapidly, bringing new stories to life every week, and we're not planning on stopping anytime soon. Currently within Australia we generate revenue via two active streams major event providers and destination marketing organizations. We're generating 600,000 annual recurring revenue via these streams and estimate an attainable market of $3 million within Australia to increase our market opportunity and capitalize on first mover advantage, we will expand our services to New Zealand and Fiji first, followed by the US and UK and will add two new revenue streams on platform booking services and user generated content. With our product and market adequate resources, increased market size and additional revenue streams, we see an opportunity to capture $20 million of the market within our first three years. We have built a strategic and dedicated team at VacayIt, hiring experts in the area of accessibility, content curation, partnership management and development. The national and global support we've had for VacayIt so far proves that it's already been a game changer for the tourism industry. Not only are we changing the lives of our users, but we're also revolutionizing the way that tourism organizations market destinations. We're looking for smart investment so that we can hire strategically and build the technology that will enable us to scale rapidly, reach new audiences, and expand into multiple global markets. Join us in creating an accessible future for the tourism industry now. Not in six months because everyone deserves a holiday. [18:02 - 19:58] Warren Bingham Hi, I'm Warren and I've had the wonderful pleasure of being the coach for Nuroflux. Being my first time as a remarkable coach, it has been an honor working alongside the awesome founders, coaches and mentors who are all focused on tackling some of the world's biggest problems. Stroke is the second leading cause of death worldwide. It is a major cause of disability, and with someone suffering a stroke every 2 seconds, there is a serious need to improve the sensitivity and quality of stroke detection and monitoring. The Nuroflux team is a powerhouse of knowledge, passion and grit and their tenacity, focus and innovative execution are driven by the values of saving and enhancing the lives of millions worldwide by improving the monitoring of stroke patients. Sam van Bohemen, co-founder and CEO of Nuroflux is a biomedical engineering PhD student with a neuroscience honors degree of which his research is focused on this life saving technology. Dr. Dr. David Cardoso, co-founder and CBO, has a PhD in medicine and is currently completing his MBA Sam and David's execution during the remarkable 22 program has been outstanding and has seen them complete their safety study, validate the market need and progress significantly towards the efficacy clinical trial. They are well on their way to launching the world's first wearable, affordable, continuous brain monitoring technology that will enable improved clinical monitoring of patients suffering stroke worldwide. Well done, Sam and David. [19:58 - 23:50] Sam van Bohemen Hi, my name is Sam and I am the CEO and co-founder of Nuroflux. When a family member suffered multiple strokes in between CT scans, we were desperate to understand why these strokes were not detected. And now, at Nuroflux, we are developing an innovative device to address this problem. Worldwide, there is a stroke every 2 seconds, and with an aging population, the incidence of stroke is expected to increase. Following a suspected stroke, a patient will come into a hospital where they will have a CT scan to confirm the diagnosis. Now CT scans provide an imaging snapshot in time, but due to radiation exposure are only performed every 24 hours. In this first 24 hour window, patients will receive treatment and are at risk of deterioration, such as having a secondary stroke, which occurs in 10% of all patients. However, there is currently no way to continuously monitor patients' brain activity and brain blood flow, which are key indicators in stroke. Standard care relies upon waiting for the next CT scan and on nurses performing intensive nursing observations. Now, as you can imagine, this is very distressing for patients and is time consuming for nurses. It is the subject of a method and is useless if the patient is unconscious. So now at Nuroflux we are developing a wearable device that will provide real time continuous monitoring of treatment and the detection of patient deterioration, leading to faster detection intervention and improved patient outcome. Our wearable device utilizes a proprietary, multi-modal system that I have developed during my PhD in biomedical engineering to provide real time continuous monitoring of brain activity and brain blood flow simultaneously, the device will be easy to use and will have alert algorithms that indicate the need for clinical action, such as the detection of secondary strokes, the neurological and diagnostic and monitoring equipment market is growing. In fact, the Asia-Pacific region is experiencing the largest growth in the sector. However, we anticipate our device will also disrupt the global diagnostic imaging market, which is valued at 37 billion AUD. Our initial foothold market will be in-hospital monitoring where we will sell devices and offer a subscription service for our software platform. However, there are also a number of exciting expansion opportunities. Our device is scalable to ambulances and at home settings to help detect stroke in the community and due to the low cost and portable nature of the device. We're also interested in rural and remote communities where there is limited access to CT and MRI scanners. Furthermore, our device may also monitor other diseases, including delirium and traumatic brain injury. David and I are the co-founders of Nuroflux. I'm a biomedical engineering Ph.D. student with a neuroscience honors degree. My co-founder, David, is a commercialization and innovation associate and a major medical research institute. He has a PhD in medicine and is completing his MBA. We are also supported by an experienced team of clinical, and strategic advisors. Nuroflux has also formed an exciting strategic partnership with the George Institute for Global Health, a Medical Research Institute to pursue a multicenter clinical efficacy trial that will take place in Sydney and will be supported by three of Australia's leading stroke clinicians. We are seeking $800,000 at a $4.1 million pre money valuation. These funds will help secure our IP position, develop our regulatory strategy and create our next generation device and software platform. We are seeking pre-seed investment and strategic partners. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. We hope that you will join us on our journey to improve stroke patient outcomes in Australia and worldwide. [23:50 - 25:02] Ben Reid Hola, Remarkable family. My name is Ben. I'm the founder of a local venture studio called Digital Creators and I've had the privilege of working with Accessercise. This cohort getting fit is hard, it's personal and you want to feel inspired and supported along the way. Accessercise is building a global platform for people with disability to keep fit in a way which is tailored and customized for them. You can consider it my fitness pal for the disability space today. They've built a mobile app, they've got traction. They're getting strong global recognition for what they're doing And their product today is focused on content tailored for your needs and the ability for you to find fitness locations near you. Over time, they’ll look to evolve that into community offerings, bring in more of that inspiration piece, and break down any barriers that a person with disability might have to get fit. And who knows? Someone using this app might become a Paralympic silver medalist like Ali one day, and if you want to support them, they have a fundraiser open on Seeders. You can go to seeders.com , type in Accessercise and register your interest. So what are you waiting for? Greenlight. [25:23 - 28:23] Ali Jawad This is me. Yes, I was a very cute kid and I was born as a double leg amputee, growing up I was an obsessed gym user, which allowed me to achieve international success and compete at four Paralympic Games winning silver in 2016. However, I always wondered why as a disabled person, There is no fitness tool for me to exercise on my own terms. I had to rely on people to guide me Fast forward 17 years and this is evident, with over 70,000 health and fitness apps globally available. None service the disabled market with 81% of disabled people in the UK alone wanting to be more active. But continue to have limited resources. This is why at Accessercise we built a purpose made fitness app allowing disabled people to exercise on their own terms without relying on other people. Our solution is an integrated fitness app, which has three key features a unique exercise library with bespoke exercises tailored to the user's impairment, a social hub where users get to like love, share and comment and support each other, and an explore section that allows users to rate the accessibility of sporting facilities in the local area. This would have been an incredible tool for me growing up as a disabled person. Our business model is a standard freemium premium with two major revenue streams and a third coming in future versions with e-commerce. Our go to market strategy covers three main avenues. Firstly, directly to consumers. Secondly, through partnerships with organizations within the fitness and disability industry. And finally working with governments as part of their disability support packages at government wide level. The team behind the vision are all high performing people in the areas of sport, disability, law and business. You have myself, a four time Paralympian with a 17 year sporting career. Sam, a world champion sailor who is heavily involved in projects for the London 2012 Olympics. Yulia, a top lawyer, and Shareen, a former managing director of Barclays Bank in just over a year since launch. We've already had incredible traction within the industry, with thousands of downloads, an MVP that's live in the UK market. We've been featured live on CNN Global, gained User Economics, which have been proven to be scalable to the masses and even won the Inclusion Startup of the Year award. We're currently in a funding round seeking £1 million to give us 18 months. Runway to allow us to add more impairments in the app and have 140,000 active users for expansion to America. So if you have a disability, please download the app and give us as much feedback as possible. And if you're an investor, please check out our equity crowdfunding page. So what are you waiting for? Come on the journey with us and help us change access to exercise forever. [28:40 - ] Pete Horsley I'd like to introduce Jackie Coates, head of the Telstra Foundation, who will be awarding this year's Telstra People's Choice Award, a $5,000 cash prize to one of the startups as chosen by staff at Telstra. [28:53 -29:29 ] Jackie Coates Hi everyone. It's great to be part of Remarkable demo day again this year. We like to celebrate it with the Telstra People's Choice Award. Now we've run a poll with Telstra people and I am very pleased to announce that the 2022 Telstra People's Choice Award goes to Homeable. Congratulations, team. You will be taking home a $5,000 cash donation from the Telstra Foundation and congratulations to all the start-ups in Remarkable. We think you're all pretty amazing and you're doing so much great work to make the world more inclusive and accessible for people living with a disability, which is just fantastic. Thanks again and have a great demo day. See ya. [29:30 - 29:45] Pete Horsley Thank you, Jackie. A well-deserved award. I'd like to welcome back our coaches who will be introducing our Final Four founders who are all creating incredible impact. [29:47 - 30:38] Sam Lazarus Hi, my name is Sam Lazarus and I'm delighted to introduce you to the team at Biomotum, a wearable robotics startup that, when successful, will change the health outcomes of almost every single human on the planet. And I hope you recognize that I'm not being brash, but rather appreciate the sheer scope of the problem. Bio modem will solve how to improve people's mobility in order to elicit better physical health. When we talk about how technology designed for inclusion can change the world, we literally see a world where Biomotum has won. And I hope you keep that in mind when learning from Ray about the amazing solution that they've built and how they're planning on getting us all to a place where we can, through movement, have better control of our health. [31:00 - 34:07] Ray Browning Hi, I'm Ray Browning, co-founder and CEO of Biomotum. I'd like to start by saying this is the most exciting and impactful work of my career. At Biomotum, We build wearable robots that help people to walk. Why? Because one in seven individuals have difficulty walking, meaning everyday tasks are hard, if not impossible, and the resulting physical inactivity contributes to poor health and limited productivity. Improving walking involves a combination of physical therapy and assistive devices, but the access to physical therapy is limited. Gait training is not efficient, and assistive devices don't adapt to the changing needs of the individual. Our first product is the spark, an easy to use robotic ankle assistant that can deliver efficient adaptive therapy on demand. Research participants have taken over 1 million steps, and the results are impressive. Children with cerebral palsy improved their walking speeds. 3 to 6 times faster than current approaches. The spark makes it possible to improve mobility anytime, anywhere. Our control algorithms allow the device to be used on stairs, up and down hills and over rough terrain. No other product can do this. I'd like to show you a video of one of our research participants. Pay particular attention to their walking speed and the way they walk.This is an 11 year old child with cerebral palsy. Prior to using the spark, their walking speed was about one mile per hour, which is not fast enough to cross a crosswalk. After only four weeks of using the spark three times a week, their walking speed nearly doubled. The impact of this improvement is best captured by what parents say. This is life changing. We are capitalizing on the electrification of transport and advances in robotics to create wearable personal mobility solutions that are effective and affordable. And given the number of people who have trouble walking. The market opportunity is massive. We'll sell our product to three customer groups researchers conducting groundbreaking studies on new ways to use this type of technology. Physical therapists, the workhorses of medicine who will use it to deliver effective therapy. And patients delivering the ability to do therapy at home while assisting with daily life. We've assembled an amazing team. Zach is a global leader in Rehabilitation Robotics. Phil is a PT and veteran of the exoskeleton industry, and Steve is a wearable device design guru. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss our seed round and connections to health care partners. Please reach out. I'd like to leave you with this. All of us will experience difficulty walking. We can either be inactive and in poor health or we can thrive. A Biomotum. We will help you thrive. Thank you. [34:27 - 35:26] Poppy Rouse Hi, I'm Poppy Rouse, And this is my second time as a startup coach for Remarkable. This year, I'm lucky enough to be coaching the Homeable team who are empowering people with disability to live more independently at home. Using Smart Home technology, Homeable was born out of Remarkables designathon just over six months ago, and as a new team, they've already figured out how to work together in perfect harmony with incredible momentum from onboarding partners to completing that first pilot. I'm truly blown away by how much they've achieved and all while managing busy day jobs, this team lives and breathes customer centric design. They're constantly gathering feedback from users and iterating the services and business model as they go. They're open minded, laser focused and unwavering in their pursuit of excellence. Unsurprisingly, their customers love them, as I'm sure you will, too. So it's my great pleasure to introduce Homeable. [35:46 - 38:53] Liam Highmore Hi, my name is Liam and I'm a co-founder at Homeable. What does home mean to you? If you're anything like me, you love being at home. It's a place that makes us feel safe and in control. But above all else, it's a place we should all feel comfortable in, including our friend Jacob. Now, Jacob uses a wheelchair and lives by himself in his Sydney home. He finds it difficult performing daily tasks like turning on his lights and making it to the front door in time to accept his delivery. Now, Jacob is also unable to reach the cord for his blinds and as a result has been closed permanently, leaving him with no natural light. But did you know smart home technology could help overcome these challenges? For Jacob and the nine out of ten people living with disability who require some form of assistance with daily tasks, that's almost 4 million people in Australia alone. Now we've found that people are often unsure how smart technology could benefit them, and the industry's one size fits all approach often results in technology that just isn't suitable for their needs. We are continuously hearing from occupational therapists that the smart home landscape is incredibly difficult to navigate and no company has managed to make the entire process of creating a smart home truly accessible. That is, until now. Homeable offers an end-to end smart home service that works like this. Jacob can be referred to us by his O.T. and based on his unique independence goals, we are able to design a solution with Jacob that allows him to open his blinds and unlock the front door using just his voice. And now, when Jacob hears the doorbell, he can use his phone to see and talk to whoever is there. Now we offer Jacob installation and educate him on how to get the most out of the technology. But the relationship doesn't end there. We offer ongoing support through an annual subscription that is funded by Jacob's NDIS plan. Now in the last two months, Homeable secured six wholesale agreements with technology suppliers and smashed our target with over 100 people formally registering interest in our service, including 25 OTs, wanting to know if their clients were interested in us. We also launched our pilot program and are working with Guide Dogs Australia to design and install solutions for their community. We are going to market with our service in September and launching our installer program in 2023, allowing us to truly scale. We have a passionate and diverse team driven by people with lived experience and have backgrounds covering product management, allied health user experience and technology sales. We are determined to become the smart home experts for disability and aged care by the end of 2023. But we can't do this alone. Firstly, we are looking to raise funds mid-next year and would love to start conversations with passionate investors who share our vision. And secondly, if you know any occupational therapists or end users, who would benefit from learning about Homeable, please scan the QR code so that together we can make everyone feel safe, independent and comfortable where it matters most. The home. [39:15 - 40:12] Alan Jones Hi, I'm Alan Jones, a tech investor, founder, coach and CEO of Aussie Tech Startup Community Fish Burners. As I've been an angel investor in tech for about 15 years, a very long time, but the technology we're going to hear about next goes way back even further than that. It's 1968. For years I've been hearing and dismissing talk of a real viable commercial application having been found in this area. Virtual Reality or VR. But over the course of the past three months, as I've come to get to know our next startup RecoveryVR, I think I've begun to see what may very well be a very important commercial application for VR. And along the way I've also come to believe in the future of RecoveryVR’s founder and CEO Christian Doran. His background as a producer in film and television means is a skilled communicator, negotiator and team manager. He's come a long way during the remarkable program and recovery VR is making great progress on the sales front. Here to tell you more, is RecoveryVR’s founder and CEO Christian Doran. [40:38 - 43:28] Christian Doran Have you ever had a physio injury? You know how rehab exercise is boring and you really do it. What about if you had a stroke or chronic pain or an injury at work? You had to do 3 hours per day, potentially four years to get back the life that you have right now. 65% of people give up on their rehab and often get worse, or develop other conditions because of it. And I understand why they give up. It's not just the monotony. There's travel time, out-of -pocket expense, physical pain, loss of income, anxiety and depression. Hi my name Christian Doran and at RecoveryVR we help you never give up. RecoveryVR uses virtual reality to deliver gamified rehabilitation that is portable, low cost and always available. But most importantly, it's fun and rewarding and motivates more reps and time in training that are the key metrics for effective rehabilitation. We've built over 80 therapy apps so far, but from listening to our clients, we've unlocked something much bigger. Our remote patient management system allows a clinician to prescribe and track a patient's exercise from anywhere in the world, plus deliver telehealth sessions, do measured assessments and monitor the improvement or decline of the patient. Our clients love it, but it has also opened up much larger market opportunities than just motivating rehab. Since launching in early 2022, we've sold multi-year licenses in some of Australia's leading rehab facilities, international universities, clinics and patients homes reaching a revenue of over $100,000. We've recently partnered with a provider who is developing a VR telehealth business to service the mining and manufacturing industries using our software. We are now in talks with a metaverse company in the US to roll out RecoveryVR with insurers in that territory. VR therapy has been shown to deliver up to 20% improvement in motor function compared with conventional therapy. But I think that's just the beginning. We're covering VR and working with prominent universities and clinicians to Increase that rate. While our team is full of film producers and game developers that make that therapy addictive and not feel like therapy at all. The Future of RecoveryVR is not only based on physical rehab. Version two of the product will be a VR health platform for a range of conditions, increasing our market potential, but also delivering on our mission of providing low cost access to health care for everyone. We're currently raising our seed round of 1.2 million and we already have 250,000. Subscribed will be using the investment to scale marketing, sales and research while also starting a telehealth delivery service of our own. If you are interested in investing or know anyone who might be, I'd love to have a chat. Let's help people never give up. Thanks. [43:51 - 44:44] Laura Andersen I'm Laura Andersen, and I've been supporting Participant as they democratize access to assistive products around the globe. The problem they're trying to solve is complex, and yet the products they've created are beautiful and they meet the moment and the need of the market they're seeking to serve. What I'm most excited about most though, is the team. This team brings the combined expertise and experience required to deliver on the critical mission that they've set out. [44:44 - 47:57] Keoke King So at Participant, we're democratizing quality assistive products, starting with an all-terrain wheelchair for children. Meet Karim from Guaymas, Mexico. Until recently, the best mobility that Karim's family could access was a common baby stroller. It was causing problems in his arms and his posture. Now Karim is user number one for Cub, our award winning tilt and fold all terrain wheelchair. It snuggles into a small car. It loves unpaved roads and it leads the industry in Expandability. So as Karim grows, Cub grows with him. Aline, Karim's mom, reports he's more present in their family's daily life. At school, he can be more together with his classmates. He joins them at the table. And because he can sit up longer, he's more integrated into family meals and daily activities. She says everything has changed a lot. Karim represents the 40 million people in middle income countries who are stuck at home just because they need a wheelchair and don't have one. The World Bank projects that this massive group will double over the next 20 years, and rigorous research shows that $1 invested returns nine to society. Without mobility, there is little access to education, work and friendships. The rwa power of this need makes me ask why are they left behind? The industry offers few mid-price options. Manufacturers opt for cheap, low quality products, or they make sophisticated high margin products for markets with deep insurance funding for the 40 million people in the middle, no products that fit their needs or wallets. Hi, I'm Keoke. CEO of Participant. In my last job, I founded a global wheelchair distributor company and I saw this product gap. To learn more, I called my friend Dave, an occupational therapist and wheelchair user who has trained providers in 20 countries. And I talked with Ryota, who's the CEO of a wheelchair company in California. He has hundreds of designs and a half million people use his chairs today. Our combined skills and networks were fit for the challenge. And we saw a wave building. New government buyers and expanding NGO procurement. So we set out as co-founders. Fast forward to today. Our global team is eight people, four who use wheelchairs and together we have 115 years of industry experience and we speak ten languages. We offer four wheelchair models and a cushion. Our products are good on rough terrain, transportable, durable and clinically sound.We price attractively and sustainably with a gross margin to fuel growth. Our production capacity is 100,000 units per year and we intend to serve a million users by 2030. That wave that I mentioned is here just as our products are shipping, we may have that rarest of things, timing. Large NGOs are jumping in from the sidelines and several established buyers are switching. We have strong forecasts in all five of our products with reputable customers and distributors on both the global and national levels. We're driven by these market signals and the incredible impacts. If you share our vision and values, we're preparing a Round and I would love to meet you. Help us help Kerim and his 40 million friends who deserve mobility, inclusion and participation. [48:12 - 49:21] Pete Horsley What a spectacular group of startups we had. I'm sure you'll agree they did an incredible job and are having a massive impact on our world. And this is not just about passively watching. We can all support and amplify the work of these entrepreneurs. So here's a reminder of the QR codes to reach out directly to the founders. You've heard from. Before we wrap things up, a number of you watching may have your own start up idea brewing. If you're ready to take the next step in solving a problem in the disability and aging space, we'd love to support your journey. More information on this will be shared with you tomorrow. Make sure you check your inbox. Finally, on behalf of Remarkable, Cerebral Palsy Alliance, and the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation, I'd like to thank our incredible partners, icare, Telstra, Microsoft, VivCourt, Smart Job and TPG Foundation for making this event possible.

2022 Remarkable Accelerator Demo Day | Screening 2

July 21, 2022

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2024 Launcher Customer Showcase | Screening 2

March 28, 2024

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[00:00] Voice Over
Many of the greatest technological advances enabling the world right now were originally created by and for people with disabilities. Remarkable exists to amplify those innovators to help transform their ideas into revolutionary tools whose benefits are felt universally. Because technology cannot only drive inclusion and equity for people with disabilities, it can do it for everyone. Remarkable Disability Tech. Amplifying every human’s potential.

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[01:03] Emma Earley from Remarkable
Hello everyone, I’d like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we are gathered today. And for me that’s the Gadigal and Bidjigal peoples. I pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging and acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and contributions. We believe We Are Better Together.

Welcome everyone to the Customer Showcase 2024. Thank you so, so much for joining us. My name is Emma Early and I’m the Head of Acceleration programs at Remarkable. I’m a mid 30s half Filipino woman with long brown hair, proudly wearing my black t-shirt with a white Remarkable logo and some dangly gold earrings to celebrate the occasion today. This event has live closed captions that can be accessed in your Zoom toolbar and all pitch videos will display captions too. We have two ASL interpreters joining us today, Ashley and Lizzy and the recording will be available with a full transcript.

So for this second ever Launcher cohort we had 38 teams participate and you’ll have the privilege to hear 90 second pitches from 32 of them and this is a world map showing seven operating countries of our teams: Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Switzerland and the US. Feel free to share where you’re dialling in from in the chat if you’d like and we’re proud to also share that 13 people in this cohort identify as living with disability and 17 people identify as a woman or non-binary. We are committed to continual progress to ensure a more diverse, inclusive and accessible program and wider ecosystem.

So for those unacquainted, Launcher supports ideas to early stage startups making a difference in the lives of people with disability. And in just 8 weeks time our teams focused on validation of their problem space, solution or product depending on the stage of their journey. They had access to weekly master classes, one-on-one coaching sessions, a community of early stage founders and they received advice from experienced founders just a few steps ahead of them and had access to perks from our partners. And if you’d like to get started with your own Disability Tech idea and receive all of this support you can register your interest for Launcher 2025 at remarkable.org/launcher.

Now we’ve listened to the disability community and identified 7 Horizons of Possibilities so far that currently need more attention and innovation. And today you’ll hear engaging 90 second pitches grouped by Horizon that start to address some of these challenges. For a lot of these teams this is their first time pitching so please bear that in mind and as we go add your support and encouragement to the chat.

Alright let’s get started. There’ll be 3 sections of pitches and in this first section I’m so proud to welcome 8 teams focused on Early Intervention and Adult Disability Support followed by 7 teams building Innovations in Self-directed and Affordable Mobility.

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[04:31] Dr Michelle Wong from Feelings Foundation
Did you know how more and more people are being diagnosed as autistic? Globally it’s 1 in 59. What’s the leading cause of death for people with autism? Suicide. My patients call me Dr Michelle. I’m a clinical psychologist in Australia’s largest paediatric hospital and the very first to specialise in mental health and disability. Why are so many children suffering when research tells us mental health problems are preventable? There is a bottleneck in accessing services and mental health programs are not accessible to all children. We’ve had a Royal Commission
tell us that people with disability need specialised mental health programs. We need to do something now. In my research I developed accessible mental health programs for people that are autistic, non-autistic who might have complex learning communication and motor support needs. Over 2,000 Australian children are using my program and research has demonstrated its effectiveness in improving mental health in over 60 Australian schools. What do I plan for my startup? I plan to digitise and scale mental health programs to help children around the world and today I’m looking for partners in international business development, to help me establish a
sustainable business model.

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[06:06] Casey Pfluger from Cortex Technologies
Hi my name’s Casey and I’m the founder of Cortex Technologies. Have you ever had the experience of walking into a room and wondering why it was that you walked into that room and what it was that you’re doing? Well imagine having that experience all the time. Now when people have a neurocognitive issue, such as ADHD or a brain injury, they can experience those kind of symptoms all the time and that’s what drives Cortex. We’re here to provide neurofeedback therapy to help people with those kind of experiences. Now we’ve built hardware and software that can provide neurofeedback. Neurofeedback involves a headset that develop, that detects improvements in brain activity. The player then learns to consciously control their brain activity and is rewarded for ongoing improvements in their brain activity within the game. This triggers long-term improvements of up to up to 12 months. Now we’ve already made significant progress in our goals and we’re now developing our headset frame and software and hardware and seeking funding from manufacturing, optimization and compliance. We’d love to hear from you and thank you very much.

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[07:47] Tansel Ersavas from RoPets: Companions For Life
RoPet the ultimate furry companion. World’s population aging rapidly. People over the age of 65 is reaching over 1 billion soon, including our grandparents and parents. Many ageing people have chronic conditions, they are lonely and they need care. We could offer a solution to help loneliness and track wellness, a cute and cuddly companion like a pet, a RoPet. An amazingly natural looking interface to a highly sophisticated technological platform, but who can develop such a companion? If you bring an AI expert, a robotics guru, a domain expert and a cyber security and marketing expert this team can. RoPet has an advanced AI system based on dog-like behaviour, a cute and cuddly body with meaningful dialogue ability and sensors that can observe vitals. Meet Frankie the 4th, the ultimate companion already in the prototype stage. RoPet’s competitors are either non-cuddly and looking like a pet terminator or small toys with very little capabilities. RoPet’s B2B strategy targets aged care centres and home care providers. Later we will establish B2C channels. RoPet’s MVP with mobile app sensor technology and licensable AI technology will be ready by August 2024. Now our priority is to partner with the aged care providers. You can support our mission to help ageing population. Connect us with the aged care networks and help the elderly stay connected through RoPets.

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[09:20] Matthew Falcomata from Embodify
Hi I’m Matthew, founder of Embodify. I’m a mid-20s Caucasian male with a black top knot. Globally 80 million people are autistic, with up to 80% experiencing mental health challenges like anxiety and depression. For many communication and self-expression become hurdles especially when the world can fail to understand. My experiences supporting autistic individuals have taught me that each day presents unique challenges and existing solutions often lack accessibility and personalisation. That’s why I created Embodify. An AI powered application offering a unique journey towards self-expression and empowerment. To illustrate Sam a 20-year-old autistic adult faces daily workplace anxiety. Using Embodify Sam identifies their emotions, creates characters representing their current and aspirational cells and integrates them into a story. Helping reframe experiences to visualise a positive outlook. To empower more individuals like Sam we are seeking insights from autistic individuals, parents, caregivers or anyone with a connection to autism. We recognize these challenges extend beyond the autistic community and if this resonates with you or someone you know we welcome your input. Sam is only one of 64 million. Imagine what Embodify could do for the rest?

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[10:56] Alexander Geht from Testa Seat
Hello everyone, my name is Alex, I’m the founder and CEO of Testa Seat. About 12 million children with disabilities struggle to sit independently and need a new special seat every 3 years. 90% can’t afford it. Most of the product of the market are very expensive and providing poor support, affecting the children’s ability to communicate, eat and even breathe, and in the long term can lead to development delays and spinal deformation. Testa Seat are the most affordable and multifunctional product on the market. Thanks to 3D printing and our unique customisation platform we can make any size, disrupting this market. We made $90,000 in revenues, delivered 200 products to families and leading institutions. We received investments, grants and we have great partners as Alphalab Health, and Remarkable helping us reaching more customers. Our team is dedicated to make a difference in this market. Our biggest need is introductions to children’s hospitals and charities, and we are looking for SAFE note investment to expedite the roadmap. Thank you and please join our mission to make sure that every child can sit independently. Thank you.

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[12:29] Rachel Wang from Bliss Flow
Bliss Flow will change the lives of half a billion people worldwide. My name is Rachel, and I will tell you how. 1 in 4 Australian adults have urinary incontinence, and for 17% of them who have moderate to severe urinary incontinence, there’s no cure or effective solutions. After speaking to 82 patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals, we found that the current solution can cause complications, such as dermatitis and urinary tract infections. This could put more weight on the patient and the caregivers. That’s why we are developing a noninvasive smart urine transport system. It has two components, a disposable wearable and a urine transporter. The user simply puts on the wearable just like regular underwear. Then, when there’s urine leakage, it will trigger the transporter to remove the urine from the wearable into a secure and portable container. Bliss Flow provides greater comfort and lower risk of developing complications and is much easier to use than catheters. We will launch in Australia first, targeting adults in the community, then serve care facilities and hospitals. Our diverse expertise in engineering, medical science, marketing, and business makes us well-suited to take this idea to the market. Please introduce us to any experts in urology, geriatrics, or textile design. We are BlissFlow. We empower a healthy, fulfilling, and independent life. Thank you.

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[14:12] Ali Goktogan from [URATech] The KOBE Robot
Acute Flaccid Myelitis, or AFM, is a neurological disease primarily affecting children. It often leads to muscle weakness, paralysis, and respiratory complications. In some cases, children may require mechanical ventilation connected through tracheostomy. Carrying a ventilator manually can restrict both the caregivers and the child’s mobility, potentially limiting their participation in activities and freedom of movement. Our mission is to liberate children from the burden of carrying a ventilator, providing enhanced mobility and independence. Introducing the KOBE robot: Keeps One Breathing Everywhere. The KOBE robot is designed to follow its users at a fixed distance while carrying the mechanical ventilator, freeing them to move around without needing to manually hold it. Featuring a custom-made tether sensor, the KOBE robot tracks the user’s position and establishes a tangible link to foster intimacy and security. Onboard obstacle sensors enable the KOBE robot to navigate around obstacles both indoors and outdoors. The KOBE robot is equipped to traverse various surfaces, ensuring playtime anywhere. Let’s collaborate to ensure every child can breathe freely everywhere. Contact us today to learn more and get involved.

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[15:26] Mackenzie Boundy from The Somal Sponge
Hello everyone, I’m Mackenzie, a stomal therapy nurse and the founder of The Stomal Sponge. Millions worldwide live with the daily stress of having an ostomy, facing the constant threat of disruptive bag leaks. Individuals are robbed of social interactions and their self-esteem, with the added stress of associated health risks. These leaks often lead to individuals exceeding their monthly allowance of essential consumables. How would you feel if you ran out of your essential hygiene products? The Stomal Sponge offers a lifeline—a biodegradable sponge placed externally in the stoma bag to absorb output. The Stomal Sponge addresses key concerns voiced by those with ostomies by minimising leakage while also neutralising odours, aiming to restore the confidence and freedom stolen by their condition. The multi-billion dollar global ostomy care industry underscores a ripe opportunity for innovation. The Stomal Sponge isn’t just a market disruptor; it’s a revolutionary solution aimed to enhance the dignity and quality of life for those living with an ostomy. We are wanting to take the next step towards transforming ostomy care and are seeking expertise in medical device marketing and co-founder collaboration. Together, let’s simplify ostomy management, one sponge at a time.

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[16:53] Tom Cronin from AidMotion
Have you ever seen someone drag the back wheels of a four-wheel walker to move it sideways or struggle to turn it, or just abandon their walker altogether? The current walkers clearly do not fully address user needs. So at AidMotion, we are making a more mobile walker that moves like a shopping trolley and has innovative 3D printed brakes. I’m Tom, the founder of AidMotion. Between Wayne and I, our diverse fields of knowledge in physiotherapy, business, and engineering have allowed us to uniquely understand and fix this problem. 100% of the 50 physiotherapists surveyed have supported the new walker design. We have confirmed our new design meets ISO standards for rollators, completed initial user testing, and are designing our next prototype. Do you or someone you know want a better walker? Do you manage facilities or other groups that would like better walkers? Please contact us on our website, we would love to work with you.

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[18:06] David Ingerson from Tangible Workshop
Like many other families with a child in a wheelchair, a trip to the beach was not for a family activity. I would stay in the park at the top while my wife would take our son down to play in the sand and in the water. Not only do wheelchairs not go on sand as they need special wheels, but some beach chairs can be unsafe, frequently tipping on a slope. No beach chair allowed for the positional supports that many wheelchair users need. Of the 4,000 people with cerebral palsy, 1,000 use a wheelchair with postural supports to help them sit upright and even allow for better breathing. We designed the GetAbout for our family, then started getting asked by others if they could have one. We found that three sizes suit almost anyone, from a young child to an older adult, and it needs very little adjustment. Laterals and other postural supports can be configured easily, making a trip to the beach possible. We even made some floats to turn the GetAbout buggy into a watercraft, and we are now looking at effective marketing to potential clients and for overseas potential partners.

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[19:23] Aleksandr Malashchenko from ReviMo
Hi, I’m Alex, a founder of ReviMo. After my dear grandfather became paralysed after a stroke, many times I saw embarrassment on his face when he asked me to take him to the toilet. I quit my role as a deputy director of an R&D Institute to create the first mobility device that allows people like my grandfather to get back their dignity. In the US, there are 5.2 million people who cannot transfer themselves from a bed, and caregivers are hurting their backs trying to lift people from their beds, with about 70% of caregivers experiencing lower back pain. I believe that many of you have encountered this problem yourself or with your family or friends, no matter where in the world you are. And here, ReviMo comes in. ReviMo is the first mobile transfer device that can be easily used by people, like my grandfather, independently. It has a remote control and an innovative seat that allows a user to easily sit on the device without assistance. It’s very easy, it takes one minute, and then they are free to drive to the toilet or kitchen. We are currently developing a new prototype and would greatly appreciate feedback from people who have faced this problem. Join the waitlist on our website to receive the latest updates on our product developments. Thank you.

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[20:58] Sam Michalka from NaviShare Human Augmentation Lab
Hello everyone, my name is Sam Michalka. I have brown hair and I’m wearing a science-themed scarf. I’m here to introduce a project called NaviShare from the Human Augmentation Lab. We’re collaborating with people who are blind to build better tools for navigating unfamiliar environments. Navigation challenges can be exhausting and even discourage participation in social and professional opportunities. Our solution is two intertwined accessible products to help empower the blind community. The first is an indoor and outdoor navigation app that provides precise localisation and crowdsourced maps. The second is a bag that enables the wearer to use their phone’s camera and control voiceover or another screen reader without needing to devote a hand to holding the phone. We’ve validated these ideas by working with more than a hundred people who are blind. Three ways that you can help are, sign up on our website linked below to get involved, provide introductions to businesses or governments willing to invest in making spaces more accessible, and donate to our research program to support university students working in disability tech. Together, we can make accessible navigation a reality.

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[22:16] Omar Faruk from Acme AI
Hello everyone, I’m Omar Faruk from Acme AI. I’m from Bangladesh, a man in his mid-20s wearing a t-shirt. I’ll be presenting Dris T, a navigation body kit powered by computer vision for people with low and complete blindness. The World Health Organization reports 2.2 billion vision impairments globally, with only 3% having access to assisted technology in low-income countries due to high cost, unavailability, and incompleteness of existing products. Our solution offers navigation and guidance through camera, left-right haptic feedback via wireless vibration via wristbands, and auditory feedback via speaker. Currently, our engineering team has successfully developed and tested the firmware. We also partnered with a global NGO called the Center of Rehabilitation of the Paralysed. We are supported by Remarkable and the NVIDIA Inception program. Our next milestones will be to launch our SAAS-based app that can be used with mobile phones for more scalability, and it will enable us to empower 10,000 visually impaired persons as a midterm objective. So, be part of our journey by connecting us with new partners, helping us secure $50,000 USD, or maybe helping us to apply successfully to the Remarkable Accelerator. You can contact us via email, WhatsApp, or just scan the QR code. Thank you for your attention, we will be waiting for your message.

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[23:37] Monzurul Alam from RehabExo
Hi, we are RehabExo, and we would like to introduce you to our Rehab ExoSuit, a soft exoskeleton for bringing bigger smiles on people’s faces. According to the World Health Organization, over 75 million people are dependent on their wheelchairs because of disabilities resulting from stroke, spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, or other medical conditions. Around 80% of people with disabilities are of working age, yet only 50% of them can afford an assisted device. Additionally, 49% of children with disabilities are more likely to never attend school, and around 51% report feeling unhappy. Hence, developing an assistive device to help them regain functional independence and participate in society is essential. Exoskeleton robots have been developed and tested in recent years, however, these exoskeletons are bulky, heavy, expensive, and cumbersome to use. Furthermore, most of them are not designed for children. With the vision of providing an affordable solution for all age groups to support walking and standing, by combining fabric and soft robotics technology, we have designed a lightweight and comfortable exosuit. Currently, we are looking for health professionals to help us test and validate our design for people with paralysis. For more information, please visit our website at rehabexo.com. Thanks.

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[25:10] Justin Fong from Rehapp
Hi, I’m Justin, and my dad just turned 70. It turns out he doesn’t really want to know he’s getting older, and honestly, neither do I. But there’s a reasonable chance, now one in three, in fact, that he will fall this year, and if he does, it could be one of the 670 people in Australia hospitalised every day as a result of a fall, or unthinkably, one of the 15 that die. The good news is that many falls are preventable. Exercise programs, environmental modifications, changes to medication, or even footwear can help reduce falls by more than 40%. The problem is, it’s really hard for us to know when our risk of falls is increasing, especially as we get older, and so it’s really hard for us to know when to implement these potentially life-saving changes. At Rehapp, we’re solving this problem. We’ve developed a simple device that attaches to a walking stick that measures how we walk. When things start to get a little bit wobbly, we connect with clinicians so that they can help us stay on our feet. We’re currently validating our solution with studies at the University of Melbourne and have two clinics lined up to try the device, once it’s ready. We’ve also received $95,000 worth of funding to help commercialise our solution. We’d love to connect with clinicians working with those at risk of falls. Please reach out to us on social media and join us in our mission to keep our most treasured community members on their feet and protect them from the risk that they can’t see.

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[26:43] Pete Horsley from Remarkable
What incredible pictures we’ve heard so far. Good morning, good evening, good afternoon everyone. My name is Pete Horsley, a 40-something-year-old male wearing a leather hat, a black T-shirt that does have a Remarkable logo on it, and a green jacket. I’m the founder of Remarkable, and it gives me great pleasure to extend my welcome to everyone who’s with us today. Firstly, I want to extend that especially to the founders who have worked so incredibly hard over the last eight weeks to get to this point of pitching to customers and other stakeholders. We can see your passion through your pitches so far, we’ve got lots more to come. But we also see how you are bringing your experience to really important problems, and we’re seeing the ways as well that you’ve been incredible supporters of each other. You all represent some of the best emerging disability tech in the world right now, and we also welcome their supporters, their family, their friends, and potential customers as well. We’re incredibly proud of what you’ve achieved. I also just want to say a massive thank you to Emma Earley, part of the Remarkable team who’s headed up this program. She started with us just 12 weeks ago, can you believe that? And she’s been an incredibly important addition to our team and she’s done such a great job, certainly with the support of Cynthia and George, Kirilly and Viv, Liza, and Kate as well. But you’ve all done an incredible job with this program. I do want to say a special welcome to our coaches as well, we could not run this program without you. We always say that it takes a village to raise a startup, and certainly, that’s the case in this program. These 38 images of people that you can see on your screen are the wonderful coaches that have shared their time, their energy, and expertise to support these startups, to hold them accountable but to also encourage them. It’s a really tough journey to start something from scratch. Each of them are incredibly busy people, and they dedicate their time and energy to help these founders. So, in whatever way is appropriate for you, let’s celebrate these coaches. You can either give them an emoji, give them a round of applause, or just send some positive thoughts their way. They are amazing people. Thanks to all our coaches. Also, Launcher is only possible with the support of our partners, and in particular, TPG Telecom Foundation. Here is Jonathan Kirkham, Head of the TPG Telecom Foundation, with a short message for you

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[29:41] Jonathan Kirkham from TPG Telecom Foundation
Hello everybody, my name’s Jonathan, or you can call me Jonno. I’m the Head of the TPG Telecom Foundation. I’m wearing a black T-shirt, I’ve got a bit of a scraggly beard, and I’ve got a bit of a scratch on my forehead here, which you might not see. That’s from my four-year-old daughter who got a bit carried away playing ‘What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf’ with me only a couple of days ago. I can’t believe we are already here at the end of Launcher, these eight weeks have truly flown by. We are so proud here at TPG Telecom to be funding Launcher. Funding and investing in innovation and technology is absolutely core to our business. The cohort this year, all of you that are part of Launcher, is so diverse. Everything from off-road beach wheelchairs to making events and music events more accessible, through to makeup, through to gaming devices – the list goes on. It really is incredible what you’re all doing to solve some of the challenges that people are facing on your quest to make the world a more accessible place. Thank you to all of you, and I hope it’s been an amazing learning experience for you too. I know that Pete and Emma and the whole team at Remarkable truly put everything into this to make it a great experience for you. Team Remarkable, thank you guys so much. We are so proud here at TPG Telecom, in fact, that we will be funding Launcher again next year. So, I look forward to meeting the new cohort next year as well. Anyway, that’s enough from me. I hope you all have a great session today, tonight, and I’ll see you all next year. Thanks, team.

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[31:33] Pete Horsley from Remarkable
Bye, thanks, Jonno. Certainly, we wanted to be able to support disability tech entrepreneurs from the beginning of their startup journey. We wanted to help them create the right building blocks and validate their ideas, and TPG Telecom Foundation jumped at the opportunity to do just that. They’re an organisation that wants to support impact, their foundation exists to create opportunities to improve health and well-being and education, particularly of Australian communities. They’re really passionate about building meaningful relationships and supporting a vibrant, connected community. So, with thanks to TPG Telecom, we’re excited that they’re going to be supporting this program again next year. We also want to acknowledge a brand-new partnership that we’ve got with Toyota as well. Toyota is going to be supporting early-stage startups with engineering support for hardware startups in particular, and you’ve seen the vast array of hardware startups that we’ve had in the Launcher pitches so far. Through Toyota and the partnership that we’ve got with them, we’ll have access to up to 2,000 engineering hours. Watch this space for some exciting developments with that partnership, but certainly, thanks to Toyota and especially thanks to TPG Telecom Foundation for all your support. Now, I’ll pass back to Emma.

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[33:01] Emma Earley from Remarkable
Now, I have to give it another plug. If you’re feeling inspired or know someone who might be, please register your interest for Launcher 2025 at remarkable.org/launcher. Oh gosh, I don’t know about you watching at home, but I’m just feeling so proud, so privileged. Like a proud auntie, sister, friend, whatever that relationship is. And I hope you are feeling a similar way at home. Get comfy, top up your drink if you need to, and please welcome another 8 incredible founders working on Affordable Assistive Technologies and Effective Real-Time Communication.

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[33:42] Billie Stanley from My Ability Hub
Meet Charlie; he is 13 years old and like most 13-year-olds, Charlie’s biggest concern is the next thing on his social calendar. However, Charlie has an intellectual disability, he is nonverbal and cannot read or write. As a teacher, I have seen how the use of visual activity schedulers can help and support individuals like Charlie. Unfortunately, these old-school schedules lack flexibility, the generic images provide no meaningful connection, and the biggest kicker for me, they are so time-consuming to create. I knew there had to be a better way, and that with my lived experience, I was the perfect person to create it. My Ability Hub is an on-the-go photo calendar application that uses photos from your own personal gallery to create events, set rewards, and reminders, promoting independence and task completion. We are moments away from development, and we are just so excited. We would love to connect to any families or allied health professionals that would like to be the first users of My Ability Hub. Now is your chance, sign up today, get in touch with us, and we know that My Ability Hub will be the perfect tool for your family because it is the perfect tool for ours.

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[35:15] Peter Hartley from Quick Styx
Hi, I’m Peter from Quick Styx. Our mission is to revolutionise wound care using a NASA-designed healing gauze. We’ve pinpointed two priority target groups, children born with clubfoot and athletes dealing with minor injuries. Why are these two groups? Personal experience fuels my passion. My son’s clubfoot treatment used an 80-year-old procedure and is etched into my memory. It drives my commitment to constantly look for ways to make things better. And athletes, we all know that the worst part of exercise is injuries, soreness, and sprains, which prevent us from keeping fit and being our best. Over 300,000 Australians, for example, grapple with plantar fasciitis each and every year. We believe that this tiny piece of tech can have an enormous impact on the lives of so many Australians. The Remarkable Launcher program has opened our eyes. The masterclasses, experts, networks, and coaches have helped me realise we’re no longer relying solely on benevolent philanthropists to make a difference. In 2024, we all have the potential to forge new paths to success in disability technology. How can you help Quick Styx? We’re currently seeking experts for a clinical advisory board. If you know wound care specialists or key leaders in sports performance recovery, then we’d love to speak. You’ve probably heard the saying that time heals all wounds. Well, at Quick Styx, we believe in creating a world where healing happens in no time at all. Thank you.

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[36:48] Lorace Zhang from Vysm
When was the last time you had eye drops running off your cheek, and how rigid was the plastic eye drop bottle? 900 million people around the world use eye drops daily, and if it’s difficult for you, eye drop administration is a bigger struggle for people living with dexterity challenges such as parkinson’s and arthritis. My name is Lorance, co-founder of Vysm. Vysm’s delivery device simplifies eye drop delivery and tracks medication usage. Our user app provides treatment feedback to both users and eye clinicians. Our device is eyedrop agnostic, semi-automated, and designed for users. Our ability to provide connected care in the eye drop space makes us unique. Vysm received $100,000 to date which enabled IP protection, usability studies, and ongoing product development. Our prototype has attracted interests from key leaders, social clinicians, and our industry partner who were keen to support Vysm’s distribution of the products through clinics, webshops, and pharmacies. As a team of clinicians, engineers, and healthcare economics experts, we are confident to make this happen. If you live with dexterity challenges, join our usability study to provide feedback. We also appreciate introductions to parkinson’s or arthritis supporting groups or organisations. You can reach out to myself via Lorace@vysum.com.au. Thank you.

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[38:21] Tori Marshall from Teamy
Hi, I’m Tori, the founder of Teamy. This is me and my twin sister Georgia. After our dad’s heart attack, Georgia’s supports became more complicated with more workers and therapists involved. Like Georgia, around 15% of the world’s population live with a disability. Not everyone will need a team around them, but for those that do, supports often operate in isolation. Insights from almost 50 surveys show that 75% of people are spending up to 10 hours per week organising supports. It’s ineffective and time-consuming. Currently, communication, scheduling, note-taking, and day-to-day organisation are all happening across separate platforms. So, the idea for Teamy was born, a central hub where everything is in one place. Teamy will be a subscription-based, person-centred app, available on both web and mobile platforms. It’s designed to empower individuals to be the leaders of their own support team. Teamy’s innovative scheduler helps to streamline organising supports. Pick your support time, team members enter their availability, and the work is done for you. Other features include voice-to-text, progress notes, a news feed, team profiles, goal tracking, document storage, and messaging tools. The ability to customise app privilege settings for every team member ensures that it works for you. Our research shows a strong demand for Teamy, but we need your help to bring it to life. We’re looking for software developers and collaborators to join us on this journey. Teamy a future where organising support is simple and easy.

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[39:58] Storm Menzies from By Storm
Hi, I’m Storm, I’m the founder of By Storm Beauty. I’m a female in her 20s, i have short brown hair and red lipstick on. My story starts with a stroke at birth that’s left me navigating life basically one-handed. But it wasn’t until I injured my good hand that I actually understood just how inaccessible the beauty world was. Suddenly, I couldn’t open a tube of mascara, let alone hold it steady. Feeling completely frustrated and with mascara everywhere, the idea for By Storm was born. By Storm is redefining beauty and inclusion. We have designed a range of makeup accessories that attach to your favourite makeup items to make them easier to use for everyone. That includes if you have an upper limb disability, poor grip strength, tremor, or dexterity issues. Our products were co-designed with the disability community, which is why we understand that makeup is so much more than just looking pretty. It is about self-expression, identity, and independence. With a potential market of over 13 trillion dollars currently overlooked by the beauty industry, By Storm is smart business. We are also NDIS registered for assisted technology. So, we’re searching for someone passionate about accessible beauty to be the face of our social media. If you know someone or have a connection at Sephora or Mecca, please get in contact with us. You can also join the waitlist for our products by scanning the QR code. Thank you so much.

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[41:55] Gregory Mena from Seymour Accessibility
Hi, I’m Greg from Seymour Accessibility. There are millions of deaf and hard of hearing people around the world, and they often face barriers to fully engage at live events. Simply put, they can’t understand what’s being said because there are no captions, making them feel left out and frustrated. Our solution, Seymour, delivers real-time computer-generated captions to mobile devices at live events. Seymour has two touchpoints, first our solution starts with an application developed for live sound technicians—better sound quality leads to better caption accuracy. Second, we have developed an easy-to-use, mobile responsive, customisable captioning app for end-users. With the support of Launcher, we are excited to announce that we have moved from our prototyping phase into private beta testing. We are currently working with one public school and one place of worship, and we are improving our product every week with the feedback we are getting. Our next priority is increasing the number and variety of venues that we are working with, so we are asking for your help in identifying new venues that would like to be early adopters. All beta testing venues will receive legacy pricing when we launch Seymour to the public. Please visit our website to apply.

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[43:30] Tessa Riley from Hey Jean
Hi everyone, I’m Tessa, one of the co-founders at Hey Jean. Growing up in the ’90s, my older sister Stephanie was diagnosed with Edwards syndrome, which was a massive shock for my parents. She had a lot of help and support from support workers and allied health providers, but back then, care providers didn’t use any technology to track her progress or keep us informed. Fast forward 30 years, and it’s sadly still the same situation. Australian service providers spend more time on running their businesses than with their clients and participants. They have a lot of paperwork and reporting to do but no time to do it. The industry lacks affordable tech, so businesses either build their own clunky software or they use pen and paper methods to manage their staff and clients, which means that at the end of the day, there’s no real-time communication or updates. We’re building a care management tool that is purpose-built for the NDIS and aged care sector. Our technology will give small service providers all the tools they need to manage their client care, schedule their staff, and keep loved ones instantly informed. We’d love your support. If you’re a small NDIS provider, we’d love to speak with you and hear more about your business. You’re also welcome to join the waitlist on our website to find out when we launch to the public. Thank you.

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[45:59] Gary Mansted from iVocab
Introducing iVocab, a groundbreaking augmentative and alternative communication mobile app that is revolutionising how individuals with communication impairments express themselves. Traditional AAC solutions fall short with lengthy setup procedures, outdated interfaces, and frustrating user experiences, compounded by user disengagement. Hi, I’m Gary, iVocab CEO. After seeing my own son struggle with the current market offerings. iVocab is about reinventing the AAC paradigm by providing a highly personalised, contemporary, and intuitive communication experience driven by AI. Imagine a world where AAC users project their own personalised voice, effortlessly crafted through iVocab’s AI-enabled predictive modelling technology. With every interaction, the AI learns, refining its suggestions and responses based on context and location and more. But it’s not just about innovation, it’s about impact. With over 100,000 users in Australia alone and millions worldwide, iVocab has the potential to transform lives and bridge communication gaps across diverse conditions, ranging from autism to cerebral palsy to motor neuron disease. Our next step is to participate in the Stoen and Chalk’s AI Sprint competition and further develop our MVP in preparation for taking it to market. To learn more, please visit our website at ivocab.com.au.

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[46:29] Pete Horsley from Remarkable
Certainly, some more incredible pitches there. Launcher is part of a suite of global programs and initiatives that Remarkable runs. We’re a division of Cerebral Palsy Alliance, and for more than 75 years, we’ve been working with great minds from around the world to create impact and create a world of opportunity, particularly for people with cerebral palsy. But we knew to do that, we had to open up the world of technology. We’re relying more and more on technology today, and sadly, the benefits of technology aren’t distributed evenly to the human population. We wanted to start to shift the dial on that. We also acknowledge that throughout history, people with disabilities have been some of the greatest innovators we have seen. They have been problem-solving for a world that wasn’t created for them. So, we partner with the disability community and acknowledge that they have an absolutely key role in all of the work that shapes our futures. Since Remarkable began, we’ve now supported over 120 startups who have gone on to create lots of jobs, served over 186,000 customers so far, and attracted over $63 million in capital. This is a growing market, and we keep stressing that to investors that this is one to watch. We’re proud to say that we play just a small part in that. Launcher is just one of the programs we run, and we now have a pathway of support of programs and initiatives from idea all the way through to scale. Today, tonight, wherever you are around the world, you are the first to hear that we’re opening applications for our 2024 Accelerator program, which will have cohorts based out of Australia and also the US. Those applications will be opening next week, Tuesday the 2nd of April 2024. They are only open for a few short weeks, though, so applications close on the 29th of April. So, if you’re ready to accelerate your disability tech startup or know someone who is, please share our website with them, remarkable.org, and I will now hand back to Emma.

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[49:04] Emma Earley from Remarkable
Thanks, Pete. So, this is the third and final section, sadly, of some seriously impressive elevator pitches. You’ll hear solutions for Smarter Homes and Communities, some ways to Enable Education and Employment, and then bringing us home are some tech solutions in the world of Recreation and Inclusive Play.

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[49:23] Jason Woelfi from Button
Hi, my name is Jason Woelfi. I’m a white male with a beard, wearing glasses and a black baseball cap. I’m the founder of Button, and we are on a mission to make the future accessible. In today’s world, public transport remains a challenge for millions of people living with a disability. Simple tasks like boarding a bus or requesting a stop can be stressful, unsafe, and inequitable. At Button, we’re tackling this problem head-on. Our app Button allows users to hail a bus and request to stop using their mobile device. Button can then learn a user’s preferences and behaviours using machine learning and AI, resulting in automated journeys that are seamless and personalised. We’re currently collaborating with industry partners to test pilot our MVP, and we’re excited about the emerging possibilities. We’re on the lookout for connections, whether you just want to say hi, share your insights, or find out more. We would love to hear from you. Join us on our mission to make the future accessible. Thank you.

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[50:28] Şafak Akinci from Facial Gesture Recognition System
Imagine you can’t speak or move your body and you need help at night when everyone is asleep. In such a situation, you will have to wait for 8 to 10 hours until morning. People who have motor neuron disorders can control their computers with facial movements during the day to express their needs. However, at night, their devices are turned off, and there is usually no one with them. By detecting with just a few predetermined facial gestures at night, their loved ones or caregivers are alerted instantly, reducing wait times from hours to seconds. Our system requires no calibration and adapts to changes in facial movements over time. Also, it can be integrated with other smart home devices. This innovative system functions seamlessly in daylight and in complete darkness at night, thus empowering those having such conditions to live more independently and safely both day and night. Your support is more than just an endorsement. By advocating for our mission, you are making a tangible difference in the lives of those facing profound challenges. Let’s unite to ensure that everyone can communicate. Thank you.

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[51:59] Bahar Ramazanova from Altogether
Imagine a world where justice is a fundamental right for all, yet millions of persons with disabilities are left navigating a complex and inaccessible legal landscape. Laws and legal services are often difficult to understand and unaffordable. My name is Bahar, I have black long hair, I’m wearing a red dress, and I am the co-founder of Altogether. This is an AI-powered mobile application which aims to provide accessible disability law information, simplify reporting to responsible bodies, offers affordable legal assistance for persons with disabilities, and disability compliance services tailored for businesses and institutions. After engaging with hundreds of members of the disability community, our findings discovered a clear demand for our product. We are the winners of the Global Be Changemaker 2023 competition with funding. I invite you to join us as co-founders, partners, and investors to make the world a more equitable and accessible place for everyone. Please scan the QR code, visit the website, and contact me for more details. Thank you.

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[53:28] Rafael Anselmo from Vinculo.app
Hello, I am from Vinculo.app, a Brazilian Tech of social impact. Did you know that 1,2% of the Brazilian population have some type of disability, and enrolled in public school? Have you ever thought about the challenges faced by teachers? Using technology as a foundation, we assist teachers in identifying the specific education needs of students with disabilities and develop a pedagogic strategy using AI. This provides a more effective and personalised learning experience. Our recently used case at Rock School in North Brazil led to the transformation of the education of over 75 students with various disabilities. During this period, we achieved school enrollment of 97.2% providing quality and available education for all. Come be part of this transformation. Thank you.

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[54:43] Christina Chang from Geshido Corporation
Hi, I’m Christina Chang, CEO and co-founder of Geshido. Geshido is the AI Focus Assistant that saves entire teams from being busy for nothing. You may know that feeling of being busy Monday morning, you’ve got a nice list of priorities. 10 minutes in all you can see are Slack messages, emails, calendar invites, all those notifications that eat up your focus. While this is a frustrating experience for many tech workers, it especially burns out workers with neurodivergence, from ADHD, autism, anxiety to workplace stress, and these workers are composing a larger and larger portion of the workforce. Now, imagine having clear priorities with only relevant interruptions at every time. Geshido achieves this for the entire team with a secure Chrome extension. First, it aligns managers and their direct reports on shared priorities that stay up to date. Second, it cuts out noise or notifications across apps that do not relate to the priority being worked on right now. And unlike Slack, Microsoft Teams, or even Jira, it helps the worker focus 100% on doing real work, not mining for information in search of that work. We’ve already received positive feedback from multiple team leaders at our early customers at Aspiritech and Lyra Health. If you believe your team could benefit from Geshido, please email me at christina.chang@geshido.com for an introductory teamwork workshop and please join our waitlist by visiting geshido.com. Thanks so much.

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[56:24] Lee-Anne Reuber from Second Skin Society
My name is Leanne, and I’m the founder and CEO of Second Skin Society. I’m a white woman with long brown hair worn down to my shoulders, black framed glasses, and a black top. So, you know how working out with partners, family, and friends creates more accountability and fun in your fitness routine? Well, what if your partner uses a wheelchair and you don’t? Are they supposed to adapt to the instructor rather than having the instructor speak to their needs? Our accessible fitness app provides multiple versions of each class and gives users the opportunity to follow up to two instructors simultaneously so people with and without disabilities can work out together. You know how you’re participating in an online fitness class and sometimes you got to crank your neck to see in order to understand what the instructor is asking you to do? Well, our app provides enhanced queuing so you don’t have to watch the instructor the entire class and so people who are blind or have low vision can also participate. You know how turning on captions provides a better user experience? What about your friend who’s deaf and relies on American Sign Language for communication? Our app provides classes taught with American Sign Language, and we have captions too. Our fitness app has been created with and by people with disabilities to provide an end-to-end accessible solution for those who are blind, have low vision, are deaf, hard of hearing, wheelchair users with and without lower body mobility, and their social circles. Our fitness experiences will leave you feeling empowered, valued, and included. Join our society today.

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[57:59] Anthony DeVergillo from Our Odyssey
Hello, my name is Anthony DeVergillo, and I’m a white man sitting in a black wheelchair, using a non-invasive ventilator to breathe. Have you ever felt alone? When I was diagnosed with a muscle-weakening rare disease, I struggled with severe social isolation. I lost the ability to play video games with friends, I lost eating out with friends, and like so many of us, I lost connection with everyone during the pandemic. The pandemic may have ended, but my social barriers still remain. So, I partnered with Our Odyssey. This vision is to be a socially inclusive virtual platform that connects young adults living with a rare or chronic condition. We host virtual social meetups, develop software for accessibility, and raise awareness through our live stream network. Through Our Odyssey, I gained the ability to play video games again with the Overjoyed Accessible Controller. I gained the opportunity to socialise with people who understand what I’m going through at our social meetups. And most importantly, I gained a community that I can advocate for through gaming, music, and cooking live streams. If you have ever felt alone, I invite you to join the Our Odyssey community by sharing our social meetups, participating in our streams, and using our accessible controller in the #NoControllerChallenge. Thank you.

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[59:37] Emily Drennen from Erge Toys
Hi, I’m Emily Drennen, founder of Erge Toys. I’m a 50-year-old plus-sized white woman with long red hair and chunky glasses. Erge Toys is a sexual wellness company that centres the needs of people with disabilities. Too often, we make do with products that aren’t meant for our bodies, or if we do find something that might work, it’s likely to be too expensive. We’re going to change that. Using ergonomic principles and input from disabled folks, Erge’s innovative designs will offer everyone the chance for radical embodied joy. Sex toys are wildly popular among American adults. Did you know that approximately 82% of American women own at least one sex toy? By 2028, the US sexual wellness market will surpass $10 billion, marking a substantial increase from $6.5 billion just two years ago. In the US, 13.3% of people identify as having a disability, while almost all of us will experience temporary or permanent disability at some point. Together, these point to a strong market for what Erge Toys is all about. We believe that everybody deserves sexual wellness. I’m excited to share that we’re prototyping our first product, a design I’ve wanted to create for over 20 years. Join our waitlist by visiting tinyurl.com/ergetoys or send me an email at ErgeToys@gmail.com. Thanks.

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[1:01:18] Jay-Dee Pitcaithly from Sound Clusive
Hello I’m Jay-Dee, and I’m a female wearing a white button-up shirt. I’m the founder of Sound Clusive, and we want people living with disability to access and enjoy events just like anyone else. With over 10 years of experience in the events industry, I noticed just how many barriers people living with disability face when wanting to go to events. Sound Clusive is an online hub partnering with venues, promoters, and ticketing agents to provide accurate and consistent access and ticketing information, backed up by reviews from people with lived experience. With this, we hope to increase the confidence of the disability community and provide an opportunity to just have fun and create lasting memories with their families, friends, and carers. As we continue our development and trial phases, we would love to connect with people living with a disability as well as venues and event organisers looking to increase their accessibility at their events. If this sounds like you, please scan the QR code or visit soundclusive.com.au and join the Sound Clusive community.

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[01:02:33] Emma Earley from Remarkable
Thank you so much for sticking with us as we ran a few minutes over time, but please join me in congratulating all of our teams and, in whatever way is available to you, well done everyone. And to our teams, thank you again for trusting us to work with you. To everyone else in the audience, thank you for being here to support our Launcher 2024 teams. Please reach out to them and connect them to your network to help launch them to their next stage of growth. Next week, we’ll be sharing a blog post with the recording, alongside handy links and each of their ‘asks’ for support, to make it so simple for you to connect with them. And that’s it for our Launcher Customer Showcase, but please don’t let it be the end of our time together. Are you working on an innovation that impacts people with disability, or do you know someone working on a disability tech solution? Depending on the stage of the journey, express your interest in Launcher 2025 or apply to our Accelerator program, which opens next Tuesday, the 2nd of April. Please share with anyone you know who may be interested. Head to remarkable.org. Thank you so much for joining us. Goodbye.

2024 Launcher Customer Showcase | Screening 1

March 27, 2024

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2024 Accelerator Ask Me Anything Session | Global Startups

April 12, 2024

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Transcript [00:00] Music starts [00:08] Voiceover Many of the greatest technological advances enabling the world right now were originally created by and for people with disabilities. Remarkable exists to amplify those innovators, to help transform their ideas into revolutionary tools whose benefits are felt universally. Because technology cannot only drive inclusion and equity for people with disabilities, it can do it for everyone. [00:56] Music Together we’re unstoppable. Together we’re unstoppable. [01:10] Voiceover Remarkable Disability Tech amplifying every human’s potential. [01:18] Emma Earley, Remarkable Hi everyone, thank you for joining us. I’d like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we are gathered today and for me that’s the Gadigal and Bidjigal peoples. I pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and we acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and contributions, and we believe we are better together. Thank you so much for being here. It’s the Remarkable Accelerator Ask Me Anything for the Global cohort 2024, I’m so excited. I’m Emma Earley and I’m the Head of Acceleration programs here at Remarkable. I’m a mid-30s half Filipino woman with long brown hair and I’m proudly wearing a black shirt with a white Remarkable logo. And a note on accessibility for today, this event will have live closed captions that can be accessed in your Zoom toolbar. We also have two wonderful Auslan interpreters joining us and the recording will be available next week with a full transcript. So what we’ll go through today, a little bit about Remarkable for those of you unacquainted, a lot of detail on all of the benefits that you’ll get from joining our Accelerator program and then some detail on what startups we are looking for and how you can craft a successful application to stand out. And then we’ll throw to you for the opportunity to ask some questions. But to begin, oh actually I’ll make a note if you have questions based on what we’re saying as we go please pop them in the chat so we can try to answer them relevant to what we’re saying but there will also be the opportunity at the end for you to ask other questions. But first for those of you who haven’t met him yet I’d like you to meet Pete Horsley founder of Remarkable. [03:03] Pete Horsley, Remarkable (cough) That was terrible start, hi everyone my name is Pete Horsley. I’m today wearing a blue shirt, a blue jacket, a brown hat and some black rimmed glasses, I’m a white 40-some male. It’s really great to have you here and really we’re wanting to answer your questions that you might be able to put in your best forward as you apply for the Accelerator program in 2024. Remarkable started back in 2016 and it was really our mission was trying to accelerate technology, get technology, into the hands of people with disability. As we started to do that we figured that we needed to try and create the ecosystem that sits around that, so investors, other partners. And so really what we’re trying to do is to see technology that actually creates change, creates a greater inclusion, autonomy, independence, access and possibility for people with disability. Over that time we’ve worked now with over a 100 companies, we have seen them go on to create incredible impact in terms of the work that they’ve done. They’ve created over 550 jobs, served over 186,000 customers and attracted a bunch of capital, millions of dollars of capital. And what we’re trying to see happen is that, that this opens up pathways of support for startups and technologies that are at their very earliest stages. On the screen there’s a, I guess a sideways funnel, that you can see there that actually has a number of different stages. So right from ideation all the way through to scale. And so we have a number of programs and initiatives that we run as part of Remarkable, starting with kind of really trying to kind of bring home the idea that disability has always been a real driver of innovation and many of you are the next crop of innovators coming through. We have just finished our Launcher program, which is a pre-accelerator program, some of you who are on this call were participants in that this year and perhaps even a couple of years ago when we ran it last. Then we have our Accelerator program and Accelerator program really is around commercialisation and this kind of term that we call ‘go-to-market’ so how do you get your products out into the market and into the hands of people who need it most. One of our newer programs is Scaler, that is for Seed to Series A investment. It’s a little bit of terminology from the startup community but essentially for startups that are in market already selling their product and are looking to kind of scale their growth quite quickly. So we we now have a range of programs and supports that sit around that. So if there are any questions specifically on kind of Remarkable as a whole, this is part of, there is another cohort that we call the US cohort as well that will be operating at the same time, so those two cohorts operate in parallel as well. So if there are any questions certainly let me know and I’ll just open up the chat to make sure that I’m seeing that. Otherwise I’ll hand back to you Emma. [06:45] Emma Earley, Remarkable Thanks Pete okay so the fun stuff. What makes our Accelerator unique? I’d like to share some Accelerator Commitments and Operating Principles that Molly, who is my US counterpart, and I have worked on. Importantly the hint is in the name, we will accelerate you and we do also expect you to actively accelerate your startup. We will add value and respect your time. We only want to do things that are helping you achieve your startup’s objectives, not just sort of making you attend something for the sake of it. And on that note we will tailor our programming for your startup so that you’ll receive just in time content and just in time connections. So it’s not about a prescriptive program where week one you must do X and week two you must do Y. And community is also really important as well. So this is how we work as a Remarkable team and how we would like our portfolio companies to work as well and that is building in and with the community. And those communities include people with disabilities, your cohort, the both International cohorts, and within your startup team as well. And as far as our Operating Principles go as I’ve said we build our programming around your startups objectives and we evaluate our success in our ability to accelerate you in those particular areas. Then kind of universal and unique to Remarkable is that we want to develop your startup’s understanding of accessibility and inclusion and help you on that learning journey. And with that we really want to prioritise inclusive leadership and your team development, so that can include your team dynamics, and helping set you up for the next stage of growth as you do grow and need to build your team as well. So what do you gain access to? In short: Coaching and Mentoring; Community, Connections and Network Access; Bespoke Programming across 16 weeks followed by Demo Day and Investment, which is exciting but I’ll go into a bit more detail on each. So Coaching and Mentoring across the 16 weeks ,each team will have a dedicated one-on-one coach who will help set your objectives, help you stay accountable, unblock and troubleshoot any issues you have and connect you to what you need. Then as needed you, that can be supplemented with mentors who are subject matter experts in a particular strategic area that is relevant to you and you can tap into the hundreds of mentors in the Remarkable community. So that is really focused on just-in-time connections to what you need, when you need it. And this is an image of a few of our mentors on the slide. Community and Connections really valuable to help you as founders and startup operators through the program but also help your startup’s journey. So as Pete mentioned we have two international cohorts operating in tandem. I’m leading the Global cohort and that’s for Global startups based outside of the US. And Molly will be leading the US cohort and that’s solely for startups based in the US. You’ll also be able to tap into our Remarkable team, our great network of Coaches, Mentors and Alumni. You’ll be able to access, as relevant, Cerebral Palsy Alliance, our partners and industry contacts, disability community and the wider startup ecosystem as well. So we have a really extensive and engaged network and they are primed to support you on your next stage of growth. So how does our bespoke or tailored programming work? Once we have selected the teams, before the Accelerator kicks off we have one or two Deep Dives per team and that is to really understand your needs, surface any challenges or gaps that you might have, any roadblocks and opportunities for development. And from those Deep Dives we’ll design the programming tailored to your startup’s needs. Then the Accelerator itself runs for 16 weeks from the 17th of June until the 4th of October. So each week you’ll have one-on-one coaching, and then supplement it with mentoring as needed, not necessarily weekly unless that’s really something that you need. Then each week we’ll have two 75 minute sessions, probably on a Tuesday or and Thursday and those 75 minute sessions will be designed from a menu of programming which I’ll explain on the next slide. You’ll have access to Industry Events and other in-person events. And then after the 16 weeks we have a Finisher to sort of wrap up the program with your cohort and prepare for Demo Day, which is currently planned for the 15th and 16th of October in Sydney. Okay so our Menu of Programming. It’s just-in-time content, non-prescriptive. So over those 16 weeks on a Tuesday and Thursday, mid-morning Sydney time, most likely there’ll be a range of sessions that could look like, workshops, masterclasses on particular strategic areas that you they relevant for you, could be a Q&A with a founder, a peer-to-peer learning session or mastermind, could be a panel with investors, could be a Remarkable Roundtable with stakeholders in the disability community or even pitch practice sessions. So some weeks it’ll be the whole cohort working on the same strategic area and will align where possible, but other weeks it might be individual teams or smaller groups working on one of these things, and other weeks it will actually be the full international program of both cohorts attending one of these sessions. So you only need to attend what is relevant to meeting your startups objectives in line with our commitment to add value and accelerate you. But once we do work together in that Deep Dive to design your tailored programming, the expectation is that you are committed to attend all of those sessions. So the time commitment that that looks like is approximately 7 hours a week for Accelerator sessions, coaching, any supplementary mentoring, and deep work you need that week. But the weeks that we do have in-person events it will be a little bit higher than that. So just bear that in mind as you plan. We’ve got some really exciting, and hopefully really useful events and networking opportunities for you. So towards the start we have what we call Kickstart and that is an immersive in-person event with our cohort. Up to you if you’d like to stay with us in our Airbnb or whatever other accessible accommodation that we book. You can also stay in your own accommodation, if preferred. But that’s really for us to come together, set objectives, collaborate with your cohort, your coach and within your own startup team. So if possible your core team should be able to attend that and that’s planned to be in person in Sydney, 2nd to the 4th of July. Then halfway through we have a mid-program catch up with the cohort and you’ll also have the opportunity to exhibit at no cost to you in the Remarkable booth at the Sydney Disabilities Expo, so you can showcase your product to potential customers and make connections. So all startups are welcome to attend that but that’s not required attendance. Then once we’ve finished up the program, two weeks later, we have what we call Finisher and Demo Day. So we’ll come together, wrap up, get prepared for Demo Day and at Demo Day we plan to invite industry, investors, potential partners but we’ll work with you to tap into our network because our aim is to get the right people in front of your startup. We also will plan four sessions across the 16 weeks where it is the international cohort coming together. Okay a note on program accessibility. So we’ll ensure that our program meets your accessibility needs so we’ll work together prior to the start to ensure we’re best serving those accessibility requirements. And I will say that some programming is designed for in-person attendance but we can of course make accommodations for accessibility there. Global cohort programming is will operate in Australian Eastern Standard Time and as I’ve mentioned a couple of times it’s currently planned for a Tuesday and Thursday mid morning Sydney time but the final times will be determined once we know that cohort and we’ll do our best to align with everyone’s availability. But do bear in mind it is Australian Eastern Standard time for some of you outside of the time zone. We will be able to record some of the sessions but they are designed for live attendance wherever possible. The program is also designed to be delivered in English and, as required, sign interpretation will be available. And a quick note on our coaches and mentors. All of them speak English but some of them are bilingual and multilingual, so if there are language needs there we can do our best to match up. Okay Investment. So what that looks like for the Global cohort is $100,000 Australian dollars for 6% Equity but as we navigate this process we are equipping you with some legal sessions. So to ensure you have full understanding we’ve organised a legal session with Legal Vision to go through the Accelerator agreement and our suggested shareholder agreement. That will be as a group and then we’ll give you access to one-on-one legal advice with a Legal Vision lawyer for up to four hours. And that’s just between your startup and a lawyer, it doesn’t include any of the Remarkable staff team in those sessions and it will be at no cost to you. We really want to help you navigate the investment process and understand your rights and obligations there, and you’ll then have an opportunity to meet with Pete. And this is all before you sign anything, so we really want you to to be informed in making those decisions. Okay so before I move on to the ‘what startups we’re looking for’ in application process, does anyone in the live session have particular questions about program inclusions and how that operates? I’ll just pause for a moment you can put a digital hand up or type in the chat. My chat box has just disappeared Pete, am I missing anything in the chat? [17:34] Pete Horsley, Remarkable – question from chat It’s just a question about could you explain how the equity works? So so for companies coming into Remarkable we do have we asked that you have a company structure where you’re a for-profit organisation. So if you’re not-for-profit then we, unfortunately at this time, aren’t working with not for-profit companies we’re working with for-profit companies. And so if you’re not familiar with kind of setting up a shareholders structure for your business, that’s where you can get some support from Legal Vision. So they’re at an arms length to us, so they’re operating on behalf of you and your startup. They are not operating on behalf of CPA or Cerebral Palsy Alliance or Remarkable, they are are there to really help you navigate that process. So in doing that we give, we invest $100,000 into what is a generally a fairly early stage company, and as part of that as well you get all the value that Emma has spoken about of: the mentors the coaches, who we pay, as well as access to our networks and access to all the experience that we bring around Disability Tech that we’ve been kind of focused on for the last 8 years. So it is worth much, much more than just the $100,000 but the $100,000 is cold hard cash for the Global cohort. It is a little bit different for those of you, I know we’ve got some people here from the states as well, a little bit different there so. And I’m just seeing some of these other questions come through. [19:23] Emma Earley, Remarkable – question from chat So some of the other questions I will answer in terms of sort of Eligibility and Stage. I wonder if, maybe Pete you can answer this one? If an applicant has already raised funds at a valuation slightly higher than that of Remarkable’s is it possible to negotiate? [19:39] Pete Horsley, Remarkable We can. So if that has been a recent raise and it has been with sophisticated investors not just friends and family then we can certainly have a look at that and open to that. [19:54] Emma Earley, Remarkable So the other ones (questions in chat) hopefully I will answer in the next little section because the first part was about program inclusions but if I don’t I will make sure to get to them. So ‘what startups are we looking for’? And please continue to post your questions in the chat. So a note on Eligibility. So obviously Disability Tech, that is what Remarkable is here to accelerate. So your startup needs to clearly benefit people with disabilities directly or indirectly and that can include disability, health and aging spaces as well. So Stage. Having a bit of a zoom issue here there we go. So ideally the Stage we’re looking for is post-product and post-revenue, but if you are an earlier stage med tech product we really encourage you to apply as well because we acknowledge the longer path to market in particular. If you feel like you might be in a bit of a grey area, I’d really encourage you to apply. But if you are very much earlier than that, perhaps next year’s cohort of Launcher might be a better fit for you. If you really are unsure feel free to send us an email. Okay Business Structure. Pete mentioned before, for-profit and then also for-purpose is very important to us but a not-for-profit structure unfortunately is not eligible for our Accelerator program. Okay you need to be Growth Ready, it’s all about growth here. So that means your tech needs to be able to scale, to help more people. And finally your innovation needs to be ‘remarkable’ and what does that mean for us? So we are seeking innovators who are focused on positive impact and groundbreaking innovations. Okay so, ‘Who in particular are we looking for’? What types of startups and what do you need to know and have. So a clear solid, understanding of the problem and how you validated that. So clearly describe in your application the problems that you’re looking to solve for people with disability, and how you validated that. This problem needs to be solved and your solution is the way to solve it. Please make sure that you are providing evidence of this, and that could be customer interviews, research statistics or other verifiable data, could be lived experience and subject matter expertise of you and your team members. So the solution needs to be scalable and Remarkable. So a strong solution that solves that problem. And tell us why your technology is remarkable – why, how are you pushing boundaries? We’re not looking for copies with the tiniest of tweaks of things that are already in market, we’re looking for unique innovations that can really make impact here. And then your team. Why are you the right team to solve this problem? Let us know. If you happen to be a solo founder let us know how you manage all of the things that go into a startup. Do you utilise contractors or are you looking for a co-founder maybe or how do you go about managing all of the the moving parts and why are you the right person or people to do it. We’re also looking for people and teams that are coachable, willing to get out of your comfort zone and those with a growth mindset. We’re not after people who sort of think they already have all of the answers, like let’s work hard and figure it out together. And then Program Fit. So it needs to be aligned and engaged. So we want people who would love to be active participants in our Accelerator program, building in and with community. Someone who actually wants to partner with us at Remarkable as your support team, almost like an extension of your team. And I will make a note here if you are only looking for funding, that’s perfectly valid, but it’s not the right fit. We want people who want to be actively involved in our program and within the cohort. Importantly each of these things aligns with the application questions, so please bear that in mind. And this on this slide, this is an image of Cheryl Gledhill who is an Accelerator alumna and she’s now a mentor, a coach and a masterclass facilitator for our programs and currently works at Culture Amp. Okay so ‘How to craft successful applications’. I mentioned a little bit before about those specific areas that will include but please, please, please it sounds so simple read all of the frequently ask questions and application questions before you hit submit. We are asking all of the questions for a reason, they have been consciously crafted and reviewed. And use plain English, explain it to us simply and clearly. We have diverse judging team from different backgrounds, different neurotypes and different sector expertise, so explain it simply and clearly. Don’t skim over anything, another thing that might seem a little bit simplistic but answer everything and give everything care. We score each category numerically, so that’s important to note. So don’t only focus on one area that you think you might be particularly strong and not give each of the other questions and sections the same love and energy and attention because we score each category numerically. But with that, bear in mind that long answers don’t necessarily mean better answers. If you can explain things concisely it can often demonstrate that you have a clear understanding and a better handle of your startup. And then finally be authentic and honest. You don’t need to answer what you think we want to hear, be authentically you. And I will make a note there that if you feel like you might have a bit of a gap in one of the questions or one of the areas, I’d encourage you rather than to leave it blank or omit an answer, acknowledge that gap acknowledge that area for support and growth because we want people who do have that sense of awareness and are wanting to grow as well. Okay onto the ‘Application Process’. For those of you that haven’t logged in yet and seen it. So we have built our own custom portal through Glide and you access that on our website Remarkable.org/accelerator or just navigate to the Accelerator page and click apply. So it’s a three stage process. Step 1 is to develop your personal profile. To actually get there you’ll be emailed a PIN, so just bear in mind check your spam or clutter folder if you don’t get that PIN but it will give you access, you don’t need to create your own password though .Should only take up to 5 minutes and then Step 2 is to create your startup profile and give us some general information about your startup. That should take up to 20 minutes. And then Step 3 you need to select the Accelerator program. We’ve built the portal so that you can apply for multiple programs so make sure you’re clicking Accelerator in Step 3 and then that’s where you’ll answer some of those more detailed questions. And that should take up to 20 minutes. So you can see here that it might be up to 45 minutes to go through the whole process. So if you are in that grey area I don’t think it is too honorous if for you to really you know throw your hat in the ring and put yourself up for consideration if you feel like you might be on that grey area of eligibility. Please bet on yourself and be part of it. But obviously it might take a little bit longer for you to craft your responses and refine them as best you can. Okay we’ve got a couple weeks, two and a bit weeks, applications close on Monday the 29th of April. And I will make a note here that the application portal can be optimised for screen readers, there will be a toggle at the start to click to optimise for screen readers and the structure of the questions will change slightly to be more accessible there. But you can also head to the website frequently ask questions page if you’d like to download a PDF or Google doc version of the main questions, if you wanted to draft your responses before logging into the portal. I make a note of our diverse judging team. We will have a mix of genders, ethnicities and lived experience with disability and sector expertise, that’s really important to us. Okay let’s move on, to you. We’ve got a couple of frequently asked questions that we’ve been asked before and I’ve got some key dates to go through but why don’t I just see in the chat first. Maybe I’ll go bottom to top. So ‘How many places are there in the Global cohort and are teams of founders prioritised or preferred over solo founders?’ So the first answer to your question is around about 5 for the Global cohort is the number of teams but we really will look at the applications and we want the right people and the best startups that are aligned with the program. And in terms of solo versus group founding teams. Pete I don’t necessarily think it’s one or the other it’s about whether the team, irrespective of how many, is the right team. [29:29] Pete Horsley, Remarkable Yeah I think that that’s a great response like it’s we don’t have a you know a bias against solo founders. We’ve worked with solo founders before, and again it’s are you the right person solving this really big problem. That’s the thing that we’re kind of looking for the most. And do you have the ability to, kind of, draw around you others who believe in this mission as well. Like that’s, they’re the kind of key things…as I do that my phone is ringing…So yeah they’re the things that we’re probably looking for. So no preference of solo versus team. [30:10] Emma Earley, Remarkable Okay another question here is [Question] ‘What kinds of areas of work are you looking for? Mine is focused on edtech for a school age audience?’ [Answer] So critically it needs to impact people with disability directly or indirectly. So edtech could impact people with disability directly or indirectly, so I’ll leave that for you to determine but it’s not a particular edtech ‘is or isn’t’, it would be is your solution serving people with a disability. Sorry let me just scroll up. ‘Can it be (just for the benefit of people watching the recording, even though some of the questions have been answered by Pete in the chat I will speak them out loud) [Question] ‘Can it be an existing company, established 10 years ago but hasn’t traded much’? [Answer] Yes, simply yes. ‘If an applicant has already read’ oh we answered that one before. [Question] ‘If we are pre-revenue when will the equity kick in? Mine is private limited for-profit.’ [Answer] So it’s a fixed equity round, Pete has written in response, it kicks in when the program starts. It might be relevant in terms of your cash flow planning that it is about Week 3 of the program which starts the new financial year in July when the funding will actually be transferred. So funding won’t be transferred week 1 of the program, it will be from week 2 in the new financial year. [Question] ‘What kind of traction are you looking for?’ Thank you for the question. Pete do you want to take that one. [31:46] Pete Horsley, Remarkable [Answer] Yeah so I guess we are looking for kind of a product in-market that’s starting to be sold. We say on our Frequently Asked Questions as well, that if you’re a Medtech device and aren’t quite at that stage of selling to customers yet that that’s okay. And we do make some allowances for hardware technology because we know that (a) there is not a lot of help out there for Hardware startups. So the kind of traction is some early stage validation, of that through some paying customers – apart from what I’ve just said about Medtech and Hardware. That, that’s kind of … so it doesn’t have to be kind of hundreds of thousands of dollars month on month that’s coming in, we’re looking for some early stage traction there that that you’re out in-market, with customers who are wanting to pay for your product. That’s kind of what we’re looking for. [32:44] Emma Earley, Remarkable [Question] Okay another question ‘What are previous year’s success rates for applications?’ [32:52] Pete Horsley, Remarkable [Answer] Yes I think last year we had about, oh gosh, 120 applications some around that and we took kind of 7 I think was in last year’s one. So yeah you can kind of do the math on that. [33:07] Emma Earley, Remarkable [Question] ‘What level of involvement will Remarkable have in terms of the day-to-day running of each successful startup once the Accelerator is over?’ [Answer] I think I might talk to during the program ,we will support you but we’re not necessarily like working in your startup per se in terms of the day-to-day running. Maybe that’s just a nuance that my brain is is you know honing in on but we, when I sort of said think of us almost like an extension of your team, not working in your startup per se but supporting you in whatever areas that might be working with you to troubleshoot or unblock, it might be connecting you with someone who can support you, it might be giving you access to content or other resources. And then once the Accelerator is over, again in terms of working on the operating side, not that style of relationship but this might actually be an opportunity to introduce you to Kate Jenkins who is our Head of Community and Partnerships and maybe she can share ways that we are supporting our alumni community. [34:16] Kate Jenkins, Remarkable Hi everyone. Yeah we, post Accelerator we want to make sure that we we do keep you in our community because we have an incredible ecosystem of people and I our alumni are my very core to that. So my role is coming to make sure that we do nurture that community more and more. So we’re setting up ways that we can do peer-to-peer learning sessions, community networking sessions where you can meet with others and network online but also in-person. We do the in-person ones a couple of time a year but hoping to get out to more cities to do that over the year. We just recently did one Sydney where we had lots of people turn up. And yeah we also, kind of work out how we can do more, give more value in terms of like developmental learning sessions. So stay tuned for more of that in the coming weeks. [35:15] Pete Horsley, Remarkable I might just add as well we’ve got Zara on the call here, as well. So Jen we definitely want to be continue to be we’re… we’re an active shareholder so you know we we don’t want to just say thanks and see you later. We’re… we’re interested in your future success and certainly I think that the thing that Remarkable brings is the power of our network and so I…and others in the team Liza on this call as well. We still have contact with people who are from the first cohort of Remarkable and we are actively supporting them and their growth so we obviously can’t do it as intensely as what we do during the Accelerator program but certainly it is…it’s in our interest to see you succeed, and so we want to see you have the impact that you you’re hoping to have. I hope that kind of answers the question as well. [Emma] Okay another question here, I might keep it for you Kate. [Question] ‘Could you please talk about the kind of mentor support they can receive in terms of their professional expertise?’ [36:30] Kate Jenkins, Remarkable [Answer] Yeah throughout the program we have incredible mentors within the community. So we have mentors that are like working in like leadership development, oh we’ve got people like we’ve got a mentor that used to head up HR for Salesforce and Apple. You know, so in terms of professional expertise like there’s plenty of people within our community that you can tap into, as well as your coach will be there along the road you know that’s had you, all our coaches have had you know amazing experience, that would be there to support you. So developing you as a leader, you know we we want to focus on that. So whether you’re leading a team or just a a solo founder either way we have a focus on making sure that you’re getting the development that you need. And the coach’s role is really about looking out to the mentor community and seeing who’s who we can bring to you to help you with that support and it’s also you know I’m here to do that as well. So yeah lots of different people in the community that can help with that development. [37:48] Emma Earley, Remarkable Right thanks Kate, okay. [Question] ‘What is the process once applications have been submitted following the April 29 deadline?’ [Answer] So we go through through a couple of internal rounds of scoring, to screen the applicants. Then we numerically score them, then we have a selection panel to further short list to the top, however many, that we will invite for an interview. And then once the final cohort is sent offers, that’s when the group legal session, which is currently planned for the 21st of May, will happen. Then those startups will have a week to have those one-on-one legal advice sessions, and then hopefully accept the place and sign the documents by that 31st of May. So that the following week we can start onboarding and the Deep Dive process, and then the the program will will start on the 17th of June. [Question] ‘Could you explain a bit about Remarkable’s approach to IP and expectations for what stage teams should be at?’ What do you mean by stage in relation to IP – could you clarify that please Michael? [39:11] Michael Hi thanks Emma, Pete. For folks coming into the Accelerator program should folks have it already disclosed or should they be looking at working with the Remarkable or team mentors and Accelerator program, to go about navigating that as they look at entering the market? [39:31] Pete Horsley, Remarkable [Answer] I think probably the best response to that, nice to see you again Michael, is…so we want to accelerate and work with the company that has the IP. So all the IP is yours. Like there’s no… there’s no kind of question about that, that should all kind of sit with the company. Sometimes there are some interesting structures in terms of kind of IP sitting somewhere and then the company sit over here and then another kind of shell company that sits over the top of some of those things. So we we want to work with the company where the IP sits, solving the problem that is kind of a big problem that we’ve… we agree with you that that needs to be solved. So all the IP is definitely all of the startups. We do ask during the application phase if there are any IP agreements in place, just to kind of make note of those. Again mostly just so that we’re doing our due diligence, in if you’ve had contractors working on kind of parts of things that there’s not going to be some kind of claim over that IP kind of down the track that could unseat a company in some way. So that’s just kind of part of our due diligence process. And then in terms of kind of what stage they should be at before, during and during the Accelerator. Yeah I guess those we do have people within the community that if IP is a particular area of interest for you we’ve got both IP lawyers and kind of people who have worked in Venture Capital with startups that are part of our mentor and coach community as well. So… so yeah we can definitely advise and have other people help you think through that. It’s obviously all of our mentors are giving advice, it is ultimately up to you as the founder of the business to actually decide whether you kind of take on that level of advice as well. [41:37] Emma Earley, Remarkable Question in the chat. [Question] ‘Will we get financial support in coming to Sydney for the program events?’ [41:45] Pete Horsley, Remarkable [Answer] So if it’s an international we do have travel bursaries that are available there. If it’s a domestic then we haven’t in the past so. [41:56] Emma Earley, Remarkable [Question] ‘Can you be in two accelerators at once?’ Do you mean two different ones or the two cohorts simultaneously? [42:05] Audience Two different ones, like UNSW’s accelerator for example. [42:12] Pete Horsley, Remarkable [Answer] Look it I mean that’s… it is up to you, kind of…if you think that’s the best use of your time certainly we understand that startups… there isn’t lots and lots of support around for early stage startups, so I can understand I guess going for various kind of funding sources in in different places. So… and it’s just then and about do you feel like that you have ample time to, kind of, commit to the things that Remarkable requires as well as the other accelerator and be working in your business, like that’s ultimately the thing that you need to do is not just attend things – you need to accelerate your business. And so we try and find that balance between the amount of contact hours that we have, as well as, you know really having time that you are pushing forward on things and that we’re really clear about all of the kind of questions that are coming your way, what are the priority areas that are going to move your business forward the best and the fastest. So I think it’s possible. You probably just need to kind of then figure out.. yeah how am I balancing all of those kind of requirements. [43:35] Audience [Question] If there are multiple peoples in the team, you know, you can actually have shared the burden but obviously you say you know, you are right need to focus, so thanks. [43:49] Pete Horsley, Remarkable Certainly and you just got to make sure your communication is really strong, as well, across the team. Because if you’re…you know if you have different people, hearing different things from different people, making sure that the communication of that is is really well done within the team I think is important. [44:04] Audience Sure thank you. [44:05] Emma Earley, Remarkable [Questions] ‘Hey is my company eligible if it has an exclusive or non-exclusive license to the product IP?’ Good question. [44:14] Pete Horsley, Remarkable [Answer] That’s a great question Michelle. Yeah like I think, so again it’s… it’s there is nothing that kind of says anything in terms of eligibility around if you have exclusive or non-exclusive license. I guess what we do look for within there is you know, the competitive landscape – do you have a kind of you know a way of competing against others and and winning in that in that world to to make sure that your impact grows quickly. So sometimes an exclusive or a non-exclusive license, both of those things can actually be something that tips in your favour. It can also be something that you’re then wedded to the organisation that you’ve got that license agreement with and so their development is really critical in your own development as well. So there there can be kind of pluses and minuses around that as well. I hope that makes sense. [45:20] Emma Earley, Remarkable [Question] ‘Could you please define how much revenue we should be making to be eligible for the program?’ I’m not sure that it’s a specific number, it… revenue is an indicator of traction and validation. So the best way you can validate that, you know, your problem is solving the solution in the right way, that your customers need, is by having paying customers using your product. So that’s why we do ask that, but there does need to be revenue potential and a scalable business model. Did you have anything else to add on that one Pete? [45:53] Pete Horsley, Remarkable No I think that’s perfectly answered. [45:55] Emma Earley, Remarkable Okay have I missed any? We’ll have a little scan. I will just go onto another slide that has a couple of others (questions) that we’re often asked in the meantime. [Question] So…Is the program only based…only for startups based in Australia and the US? No…but we we support startups across the world. But I will make a note here, that our strongest networks and experience are in the Australian, and then US markets for the US cohort, but if you are based outside Australia and the US we do have networks in other countries but please just make sure you do take into account time zone differences. I…hopefully it’s clear but I think it’s worth saying, Which cohort am I eligible for? So if your startup is based in any country in the world excluding the US, then you are eligible for the Global cohort. And when we say based, it’s not just where the founder lives, it’s where is your… where’s your business registered and where are you mainly operating – that’s what we mean by where is it based. And then the US cohort is solely for startups in the US and it works on US Eastern Standard time. Is the Accelerator a full-time commitment? So your participation in the Accelerator time is not … as I mentioned before … expected commitment each week will be around about 7 hours and that is mostly online but the weeks that we do have the in-person events, and maybe some other weeks when like when you’re preparing for Demo Day it will be higher than that. I will make a note though that we’re probably optimising for teams that are working full-time on their startups. We don’t want this to be something that sort of sits outside of what you’re working on your business, we want it to be embedded in how you’re already working on and growing your startup. Yeah that’s actually the last of the very common FAQ’s that we have. Have I missed any in the chat? Please point out somehow in the chat, with a digital hand up or come off mute, whatever is available to you. [48:11] Liza Maclean, Remarkable Emma, I think Vinya had an extra question just around disability expertise of the sort of mentors and coaches. [48:18] Emma Earley, Remarkable Thank you…I can’t see the question but to answer that we do have a diverse range of people in our network with a lived experience, with a range of disabilities. We do also have networks within disability communities that we can connect you with. So it is a combination of network access and collaborating directly with people with lived experience with disability. [48:50] Pete Horsley, Remarkable Maybe just one other thing to add to that, is that Cerebral Palsy Alliance is also part of something called The Alliance 20. It’s a network of, it’s actually now about 25 of the largest disability service providers in Australia, and we have relationships in into some of those organisations as well. So and we have people in the team that have, that have been part of the disability sector for more than 20 years or 20 years. So…so yeah there is some deep expertise there around the disability sector. Vinya? [49:35] Audience [Question] Yeah so basically I’m a special educator, I worked for a long time in California and I came back to India to work on setting up a venture. So … the mentorship I would need would not necessarily be from you know people with expertise, just in terms of disability, but people who working on a venture you know. So like a combination of people who might have run businesses, so they really understand the branding positioning part of it. [50:08] Pete Horsley, Remarkable Yeah definitely and the other thing to kind of mention as well, is that a couple of years ago we set up the +N network, or the Inclusive Innovation Network, which is a global network of other startup acceleration programs that are in different parts of the world, and we have strong partnerships with AssisTech Foundation in India, who understand that kind of network really, really well as well. And we’ve got different kind of connections in different parts of the world, as well. So Africa, the UK, India, China, New Zealand, Canada as well as US as well. So we can tap into that expertise that kind of really is, you know some of that… that global market intelligence I guess, that that hopefully is relevant to startups as well. [51:08] Emma Earley, Remarkable Okay I can’t see any other questions. Hopefully that has been useful for you, to help you craft your amazing applications for your incredible startups, that I’m sure even if you’re not part of this particular cohort at this time, will go on to make incredible impact in the world. So thank you first of all for working on that. Thank you for joining us today. All of this information that I’ve shared should exist on the website. I don’t think there’s anything outside of that but this recording, if you did want to go back and get the notes again, will be available as a blog next week. We’re aiming for Monday but we do need to make sure that there is a transcript. And my counterpart will have a US cohort one with ASL and it does take us a little bit longer to ensure that the recording is accessible to our audiences. So maybe Monday, maybe Tuesday it will be available as a recording. If you did have any other questions please send us an email our details are on the website. 29th of April is when applications close and it’s automated, the portal will close. So you won’t be able to sort of submit after the timeline because the button will not work. So thank you so much for joining us. Good Luck. Oh is there did I miss another question. [52:36] Pete Horsley, Remarkable So it is 11:59 p.m. Australian Eastern Standard time is the time that it actually closes on the 29th. So you need to look up Australian time at 11:59 p.m. After that it, it does switch off. [52:52] Emma Earley, Remarkable Right thank you so much for joining us. Take care and I cannot wait to see these applications. Have a great week. Bye.

2024 Accelerator Ask Me Anything Session | US Startups

April 12, 2024

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[00:00] Molly Lazarus, Remarkable
For those of you who I have not met yet, my name is Molly Lazarus and I run the US arm of the Remarkable Disability Tech Accelerator. You are here likely because you are interested in applying, which we are very excited about and so we’re going to go through all about the program today and then we’ll save a lot of questions for you to ask us anything. Ideally about the program but we did say anything, so your choice. So why don’t we just jump in. To start the hype a little bit I just wanted to play our most recent Remarkable quick video, so you can kind of get a feel for who we are.

[00:45] Video with audio description, and Voiceover
Various scenes of disabled people in day-to-day activities. Many of the greatest technological advances enabling the world right now. A girl brushes her teeth. Were originally created by. A workshop. And for people with disabilities. A family has a sign language video call. Rapid views of disabled people with disabilities utilizing various technologies enhancing their aptitude. Remarkable exists to amplify those innovators. A man in an electric wheelchair. To help transform their ideas into revolutionary tools whose benefits are felt universally. A high-tech diagram, men in wheelchairs in a gym, a man and woman walk with prosthetic legs, a mechanical hand is activated. Because technology can not only drive inclusion and equity for people with disabilities. People apply technology. It can do it for everyone. Scenes of the disabled empowered by technology, a girl plays a keyboard, a man with a prosthetic leg dives into a swimming pool, a man weight trains, another man joyfully finishes a race, a senior woman looks through virtual reality goggles, a blind man walks down a street, a girl embraces a gymnast, a woman types on a screen, a man in a wheelchair waves to a cheering audience, a little girl tries on glasses. Remarkable Disability Tech. Amplifying every human’s potential. Made possible by Cerebral Palsy Alliance and Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation.

[02:02] Molly Lazarus, Remarkable
Alright…we’re gonna go to the next slide and share it again. Okay so for those of you who may have just joined in the last minute again my name is Molly Lazarus this is the Ask Me Anything for the US arm of the Remarkable Accelerator. I’m going to take a quick accessibility pause and talk through what we have on the call and open up the option for anything that may not have been considered that might be needed. So we have two wonderful ASL interpreters on the call today. We have Dalton and we have Jenevieve who will be switching back and forth, so we are going to make sure they are spotlighted but if for any reason they’re not visible to you, and you need them, please make sure to stop us we’re more than happy to make sure that’s available to you. There are also closed captions. I will describe any slides that have pertinent information for those of us who may need descriptions for slides but with that being said if there’s anything that you may need that we haven’t provided please drop it in the chat, stop us, my colleague George is on the call, he’s monitoring everything and so we’re here we want to make sure this is inclusive for everybody. If anybody needs anything, this is a good moment otherwise I’ll continue.

So today we’re going to talk about Remarkable more generally. We’re going to talk about the Accelerator program, the kind of startups that we’re looking for, how to craft a successful application and then we’ll take plenty of time to do FAQs anything that wasn’t really covered that you want to dig into some more. So Remarkable. On the screen is a variety of logos, probably about 50 of them, that have gone through the Remarkable global program. Remarkable is one of the longest running Disability Tech accelerators in the world. We’ve supported over a 100 companies through a variety of programs. As you may have heard in the video Remarkable is made possible by the Cerebral Palsy Alliance which is an Australian organization, and the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation which is a US organization. Globally the US program started about two and a half years ago. This will be our third cohort but we work very closely across the global program and the programs run in tandem, so while you’re at the US AMA we’ll be working on and off with the global teams and will get the whole amazingness of Remarkable.

With that being said we have a variety of programs across Remarkable that I just wanted to highlight very quickly. They go from ideation, validation, commercialization, scaling and follow on funding. At the ideation stage we have our Insights podcast, which is a podcast our colleague Viv runs that talks about the space and we have Designathon which is something that our colleague George on the call runs which is really surfacing ideas and coming up with solutions kind of rapidly to those… those problem statements. Stage 2 is Launcher which some of you may have done, it just wrapped up. That program is really about product testing, you know getting kind of zero to one in your startup. The Accelerator, which I imagine you’re all here for, is really about that commercialization stage. It’s really saying you, you know what your product is. You kind of figured out revenue on some level and let’s really get our, you know, power behind you to bring it to market in a meaningful way. And then we have a newer program we just launched called Scaler and that is follow on funding for people kind of going into the next stage post accelerator and their fundraising. One of our US companies that was in our Accelerator last year Aurie, they just received some follow on funding from Scaler. So it’s a nice kind of next potential step post accelerator. So at Remarkable US we set out to accelerate ground breaking startups that can have life-changing impact on disabled people while also proving that this space has strong economic opportunity. And I think that that’s a really important piece. We’re looking to create really meaningful impact but we’re also looking to create businesses because I think it’s very important that we create a rigor around this space in terms of our ability to create sustainable business models and to prove that this is an investable market. And so we try to hold both intentions, as best that we can. To give you some stats on the companies that have gone through our US programs specifically, which again we’ve now run two cohorts.

So over the last two years 9 startups went through the US program those startups have raised $ 37.9 million, they’ve created 73 jobs, they’re serving 15,000 customers, probably more because we took this data the end of 2023, so probably more at this point. They’ve secured 32 patents, they’ve gone to 8 countries for exports and their population of disabled founders is around 23%, are disabled teams, and that you know mirrors the general population.

On the slide you’re going to see pictures of variety of the startups that we have invested in. You’ll see on the left the woman is holding up a little monitor that’s a spinal neural modulation you can put it on your back, it’s from Spinex and it allows people with CP or limited mobility to actually regain the neural pathways to be able to move muscles that they maybe had previously not been able to. Up top there are two men walking down the street, one with a cane that’s Wear Works they create navigation solutions for people who are blind. There’s a man pushing a wheelchair that’s Participant, they are a company that makes a affordable, really customizable wheelchair for lower and middle- income countries. On the right is Biotium, again these are all startups that have gone through our program, they make a wearable robotic that helps people with foot drop and different gate issues to be able to walk more easily and using less energy. Bottom left is a wristband with a cup and a curly thing that kind of goes around the cup and that is Hominid X, they’ve created a way for you to grip any sized object without having the universal cuff, which for people with limited mobility they often just wear that cuff and so this is a big Improvement. We have Springrose, they make a bra for women with limited mobility or dexterity. Next to Springrose is a picture of a man holding a box that says Aurie on it. Aurie makes a reusable no touch catheter that helps people who maybe need intermittent catheterization to be able to do that in a safer way that prevents UTIs. And on the right, actually don’t know what that picture is from. George do you know? Oh no it’s it’s …enable… it’s Cephable. I pulled it from their website. Cephable was in our program last year as well and they allow you to interact with your technology through anything that you want. You can do voice, hot keys, facial expressions all sorts of things. Rethinking how people use technology. So as you can see based on these and on this page I kind of put a description of all the different companies Aurie, Biotium, Cephable, Hominid X, Participant, Springrose, WearWorks and XR Navigation that, we although though we are a CP organization, we really look across the disability spectrum and we are looking to support companies that have an impact on people with disabilities more generally.

So what makes our accelerator unique? For those of you who I have had the pleasure to talk to the thing that I often say is a lot of accelerators are decelerators. I was a startup founder, I went through Y Combinator I went through a lot of the big accelerators when I was a startup founder and my commitment is that this program brings a lot of rigor and that our commitment to you is that we will actually accelerate you and we will actually only take companies on that we believe we can provide meaningful value to. So commitment number two is we add value. We add value while respecting your time. I know there are two things that a founder has and can utilize, and one is their time and the other is their equity and an accelerator asks for both. And so we don’t take that lightly and we really focus on ensuring that we can add value and that we can accelerate you. We do this by making sure our program is really, really personalized. In the US we’re only taking five companies this year. So we basically build the program around the companies that are in our program. We’re not going to just give you a curriculum, that’s not how startups need support anymore in a world of chat GPT and a million you know Google videos to teach you how to do anything. We are really going to tailor the program to the needs that you have. And the last piece is community. We build in the community, we believe in nothing about us without us. We build alongside people with disabilities and we build alongside your cohort and with your team. We found if you call up any founder from this program, the community that we create and the way that we build community around your startup is really one of our key differentiators. There are not a lot of disability focused accelerators and so the community is really a value add and important part of what we do. Our operating principles. We build programming around each startup’s objectives and evaluate success on our ability to accelerate the object your objectives. So essentially you’ll come in, we’ll workshop kind of what you expect your startup to look like in four months and then we basically build programming so that you can get that support in those areas. We focus on developing a startup’s understanding of accessibility and inclusion and we support leadership and team development through the lines of inclusion. Ideally all of you will be wildly successful and you will go on not to just make products that help disabled people but you will also be employers of disabled people. And so we want to ensure that as you are building your company and your team and your values and your ways of working that you are building them in a way that also supports the future employment of disabled people in a meaningful and inclusive way.

Okay so what happens during the Accelerator? Coaching and Mentoring. There’ll be Community Connections Network Access, 16 weeks of customized bespoke programming that leads up to Demo Day and in the US there will be a $55,000 investment in the form of a safe. Those are often here, they are negotiated based on the terms of your current raise, so if you’ve already raised a lot of money generally will just come in at the terms of what you are currently raising and if you haven’t raised any money we usually come in around five 5% I believe. But again that’s a conversation that you have with us, it’s not a this is what we do and and that’s it. You will have a coach that you will work with every week once or twice a week. For all 16 weeks we have found this to be a really positive part of the program. We have a huge global network of mentors. The US and the Australian program have access to all the same mentors, so if you’re like I want to understand how to use… how to get into the Australian you know system I want to talk to this person like we have those people, we have them in a lot of different places. And guarantee if you need a mentor, you don’t have them in our system we can find them for you. And again with that just in 10 connections you know starting last year companies came in and they’re like we need to have connections at X Y and Z. At the start of the program we didn’t have them, by the end of the program they we had them and the companies had meaningful relationships with them because the Remarkable name really does go a long way in terms of being able to open doors for people. In terms of the community that we have right now, we have two international cohorts that will be running at the same time, the Global and the US program. You have a Remarkable team, wonderful group of humans. You have everybody at the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation, which is the nonprofit that runs the US program it’s based in New York. You’ll have connections through Cerebral Palsy Alliance, which is one of the largest direct service providers people with disabilities in Australia. Coaches, mentors. You’ll have connections to all of the many partners that we have in the US. We work really closely with the Cerebral Palsy Research Network, which is a network of 30 hospitals and those hospitals you know focus on work with doctors any way touches CP so you get a variety of doctors since CP is so diverse. We have a huge group of people in the disability community, which you’ll be meeting with almost weekly. We are connected to most of the startups in the space and we have opportunities for you to do AMAs with Founders who are a little further along than you and in those ways you can really kind of have a intimate conversation about the things that they maybe would not say publicly but there’s a lot to learn there. And we’re part of the +N Network and the Moonshot Network, which is a group of I think 11 Global disability focused accelerators that operate in countries like China, New Zealand, Australia, India and so we have the ability to introduce you to folks who maybe know the localization of those countries a bit better. At the start of the program we will, if you are selected, we will do Deep Dives and that’s basically how we build the program. We’ll kind of spend, you know up to four hours with you, kind of getting to know what is under the hood of your startup and then we go to work to make sure that we’re building the program that will actually accelerate you. That is a 16 week program. It starts June 17th and it ends October 4th. That as I said, we’ll have weekly coaching and then mentoring sessions as needed. We’ll have 2x 75 minute sessions per week. I think those will be on Tuesday and Thursday. There’ll be a menu of things that will happen during that time, I’ll go over that later and then we’re going to have a couple in-person events. I think that’s on the next slide so let me do it, almost next slide.

Okay I know I’m talking fast and I apologize, I just want to make sure we have lots of time for questions at the end. But if I’m talking too fast, tell me and I will slow down.

So just-in-time content. Those are those, two 2 hour blocks every week. That will be filled in basically by what’s being highlighted in coaching sessions for what the cohort needs. And so that might be a workshop on something specific, that might be a Founder Q&A. As I mentioned like we’ve had a last year we had a ton of founders that came in and were just like here’s everything about our startup like dig in and ask me anything because this is a community and like a private space. We have Investor Panels. Almost every week. We’ll do a Remarkable Roundtable, which is kind of our version of speed dating. I guess where you’ll meet at least you know five to eight people who are either disabled or run something within the industry that might be interested in taking your stuff to the next level. And you know these Remarkable Roundtables last year have resulted in people hiring people in our community to be their heads with marketing. It’s resulted in you know big industry connections, it’s resulted in connections to the VA or to Kaiser or to different things. So it’s a, you get used to talking about your startup quickly, but it’s a meaningful way to get to know our community very quickly. And then you know the variety of different things that are could fill in Masterminds, Pitch class pitch practice things like that. For the US we’re going to have three in-person weeks, these are ideally full team weeks. So we’re going to start out actually at the Chicago Abilities Expo. This is something we used to do in the middle of the session but now that the program dates have changed we’re going to throw you right into it. Remarkable gets a booth at the Expo and so we give a space for all of our cohort to share what they’re working on at the Expo. It’s a really great way to connect with, I think the 3,000 or 4,000 disabled people who walk through that event over the weekend. That’s in Schaumburg, Illinois. Which don’t be confused, is near Chicago but is definitely an hour outside of it. Then we’re going to have our Kickstart which will be July 16th to 19th in Vermont and then we’re going to do Finisher and Demo Day in October ideally overlapping with M-Enabling, so that we can bring to together you know folks in the industry to be able to see your Demo Day. This will be the first in-person Demo Day we’ve done least since I’ve worked here, so it should be should be fun to get back in person. And then we’ll do 4 evening overlapping meetings with the international cohort that’s running at the same time. So you’ll be able to meet everybody and to connect with that cohort as well. Okay we’ll meet twice a week, I think already said all this. Two hours of coaching and then bi-weekly we have a really incredible coach who’s going to come in and kind of work on leadership and team coaching. Last year we did it in a small way and everybody asked for it in a bigger way, so that will be happening bi-weekly. So when you’re not in person you can anticipate around six to eight hours committed to the Accelerator but that won’t all be like on a zoom it might be you know working on something that we talked about or might be meeting with a coach or things like that. So accessibility. Just like this call we will meet all the accessibility needs of our program participants. Some programming is designed for in-person and we will make sure to make accommodations as needed. And the program is delivered in English and sign interpretation is available if it is needed. $55,000 is the term it’s in the form of a safe. The one key that I haven’t mentioned is you do need to be registered as a corporation to be able to to issue a safe essentially. That’s okay if you’re not, right now some folks did have to change their status like after they were accepted but to go through the process you need to be willing to do it because we just legally can’t do it for like an LLC or a nonprofit. And you’ll have the safe and the side letter to sign. Again you’ll have you’ll get to see that if you get to that point which would be great but that both of those will need to be signed by the deadline and sure to ensure your program participation.

Okay what startups are we looking for? Ideally Disability Tech so it benefits directly or indirectly people with disabilities so that could be age tech, that could be preventative, that could be something that directly impacts people with disabilities but really Disability Tech, we’ve accepted a variety of of folks across that kind of span of impact. Ideally companies are post-product, post-revenue. You’re a Medtech device, we know revenue is a little longer so Medtech products are encouraged to apply whether they’re post-revenue or not. If you’re kind of on the line and you’re not sure, certainly apply that can’t hurt but it may just mean that… hey you know we reviewed your application, we think you’re awesome but next year might be a better year but then we’ve you’re kind of on our radar already, which is great. Business structure. For profit, for purpose and really we want to bring people in whose tech is ready to scale. So if you’re like, we’re kind of locked into this design and it’s not going to come out for eight months and then we want to sell. It’s probably not the right window for you to be in an accelerator because there’s not a ton we can meaningfully do from like a pre-planning perspective with you but if you’re you got your tech and you’re ready to scale, or you know for Medtech it’s a little different, we have different ways to support, this is a good time to consider the Accelerator. And we say we want the tech to be Remarkable, and basically what we mean by remarkable technology is it is groundbreaking in some way. So as much as we you know love the idea of like a faster horse, we want to make sure that what we’re supporting is actually a meaningfully different option or a totally different option for people disabilities. So in the application. We’re going to ask a few questions. It shouldn’t, if you’ve done an application like this before, I’m guessing it wouldn’t take you more than an hour or so. But we really want to understand that you’ve have a solid problem, that you’re solving for disabled people and that you’ve validated that problem. We want to understand that your solution is scalable and the element of how it’s remarkable. So again like if you’re like we make the same thing that Apple makes but we make it like 20% better. Push into that 20% so we can really understand the difference and the differentiator that kind of brings that remarkable piece into it. We want to understand who your team is, and understand that your team is committed and ready to grow. And we want to take in startups, like I said that we can meaningfully accelerate. So we want to understand your commitment, your engagement and your alignment with both what you want and if we are able to provide support in those areas. How to craft a successful application. These are kind of obvious but you came to this so odds are you don’t need to go too deep into it but read all the FAQs, a lot of the stuff we talk about is there. You can the application questions before diving in and you can even save your application as you’re doing it. Use simple and clear language. Clear language is the most accessible language and I think a lot of times when we are in the heads of our startups it’s easy to be like this is super clear but if you have a kid maybe explain it to them and see if they understand it or your grandma or somebody that can be like that doesn’t make sense because judges are reading a lot of applications and we want to make sure that they understand what you do. Again around language. don’t skip on anything but also long answers don’t necessarily mean better answers. Clear, clean language goes a long way when you’re reading you know 50 applications. And then be honest and authentic. Like we’re really committed to the space and to empowering people in it and we you kind of just want to understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it and why this matters to you. So if you haven’t started already, like I said it will probably only take an hour you can find the application at remarkable.org/accelerator. You’re going to first set up a personal profile. Then you can add your teammates and they will get emails where they can set up their profiles. Then we’ll set up, you’ll have you set up your startup profile file that’s just kind of about your startup your problem, solution. Should only take about 20 minutes. And then stage 3 is to apply. And it’s just a few questions which you can get in and look at ahead of time but again I’m imagining it will probably take you an hour or so if you’ve done anything vaguely similar to this before. The applications will close Monday the 29th of April. The portal can be optimized for screen readers. You can download the questions on our FAQ page if you want to preview them. There’s no pitch video that is required from the judges. We’re really working to make sure that we have a diverse judging team which means across gender, ethnicity, lived experience with disability experience, ideally in the sector that you’re building for. And we’re really working to decrease bias wherever we can. For those who get through this stage a percentage will be invited to interview. For those who are, you’ll be notified, and you’ll need to have an interview booked the week of I guess it’s the week and half of May 9th to May 16th those will be probably about an hour.

Okay I did it in 30 minutes that was my goal. I may have talked too fast but we are at the point where I can stop talking at you. I see we’ve also been joined by some of our Aussies who have woken up, Pete and Kate are here to also answer questions. It’s very early time, what time is it 6:30? So if you would like to ask a question, feel free to raise your hand and George can unmute you or if you’d prefer to wait it in the chat, that is also fine too.

[30:28] George Miller, Remarkable
That’s one question already in the chat, so we’ll start with that.

[30:31] Molly Lazarus, Remarkable
All right [Question] How are mentors matched to the startup, is there for example of matching for needs to startup that are not yet met by the current team? We’ll start there. [Answer] So from a mentor perspective, mentors are different than coaches. Coaches you work with every single week. Mentors there is a huge database of mentors in the Remarkable database that you are able to reach to and they know that you will. So that’s one opportunity. The other opportunity is you know as you talk to your coach they’ll surface to us the types of mentors you might want to be talking to and we we likely know who they are and who you should talk to so we can sometimes work as an air traffic controller to like get you to the right mentor. For benefit, for purpose, a C Corp is essentially what what we’re looking for a corporation of some kind. It could be a B Corp, it could be a C Corp anything that can take you anything that can do equity in kind of issue shares. Some like an LLC if we wouldn’t consider in that.

[Question] What are the success metrics? Do you want to come off mute and share a little bit more what you mean that question JC? George could you unmute? Oh I can yeah.

[32:07] Audience
[Question] When you get when you get to the end, how do you know that you succeeded not to be yeah you should know that is it something like you set up front when you do interview and the discovery and say okay this is how we want to take you through and and this is what you’re going to need from us?

[32:26] Molly Lazarus, Remarkable
[Answer] Yes so our success, is really tied to your success right? So there’s a couple ways we tracked that last year. First we set… we set them as OKRs last year. We might do them as goals this year, but we set OKRs with the team at the start of the program. And at the end of the program they scored those, to say like yes we’ve meaningfully met these goals and we feel accelerated. We also took a essentially acceleration NPS for last year’s cohort and so out of 10 we scored like 9.36 or 9.4 or something like that. So we do kind of track that but really if you called any of our alumni and you said did you grow because of Remarkable, I would feel confident with you making a call to any of those people. Because I do think that whether it was the OKRs or the other opportunities that we were able to track that and that they were able to kind of meaningfully say like yes.

[33:28] Audience
Okay that’s very good, so growth… that’s a, that’s a great one right there and I’ve met Julia Franklin who’s from Cephable, reached out to her.

[33:36] Molly Lazarus, Remarkable
Okay Julia is the best. We love, we love, we love all our alumni but the Cephable team is lovely. And it sounds like you know an alumni but we try to create opportunities for alumni in a variety of ways so once you’re in the network you’re kind of in the network for good. All alumni are invited to come back to the Chicago Abilities Expo with us every year. So this year at least one of the alumni will be back with us in Chicago. We’re having an event in New York in a couple weeks, where a bunch of the alumni will be at that and I know our alumni are on their own little text thread supporting each other. It really becomes a lovely community. So I can’t say personally what it feels like to be an alumni but I’m sure Julia could could help fill you in too. Okay did… we have should I just go through the chat. I’ll continue to go through the chat.

[Question] The prior accelerator companies you shared are primarily devices, hardware? How do you doing tech enabled devices? [Answer] So they aren’t actually mostly hardware. Interestingly enough I think hardware is perhaps the easiest to put in a picture and that may be why it seemed that way but you know Daisy was just talking about Cephable they’re not a hardware solution they’re a software solution. We had a company last year called XR Navigation, they are a way to essentially preview do kind of like the orientation and mobility ahead of time for a map for somewhere where you’re going. But they’re also looking to say maps are traditionally inaccessible, people who are blind can’t be geography majors, let’s make a more accessible viewer. So we actually ended up have a lot of different kinds and maybe less hardware than you would think. But we certainly have covered both.

Okay [Question] Can you provide more information for Medtech devices? What stage of product dev would be suitable for this program? [Answer] Nordine would you maybe want to come off mute and share kind of where you guys are, and kind of would that be a more helpful way than to speak more generally?

[35:58] Audience
What I was thinking is that, so we are starting user testing. We have an alpha version. Trying to do user testing. Try and then get to Beta, that we can start commercializing. So we are not, we don’t have a product like tomorrow to commercialize but we are already doing user testing right, so we already have a working product.

[36:24] Molly Lazarus, Remarkable
And is yours a product that will require like FDA or other approval?

[36:29] Audience
So yes and no. If it’s to be used for digital control, there’s not going to be any FDA approval. Also want to use our system to control power wheelchairs and for that it’s going to be a class one device. So it’s not an FDA approval, it’s just a FDA registration and then you know some testing that is to be done.

[36:53] Molly Lazarus, Remarkable
[Answer] Yeah I think if you guys, I think if you are at the stage of, have a product and we need to get it to as many people as possible to to get feedback on it, potentially that could be a an area we could help. It might be a little on the early side for the Accelerator because we’re usually looking more on the like commercialization. So last year we had a company that you know was going through the FDA process but also needed to figure out the path to the VA because often that was faster and so we were able to support there. But I think, think that from a, from a like getting you to be able to connect with the community that you’re trying to serve, without knowing the in-depth of what you’re doing, it certainly but if you’re still like we’re making it and we don’t totally know what our product is then it might be slightly on the early side.

[37:48] Audience
Oh yeah, no no yeah, we know what our product is actually. We’re going to go to the VA in a few weeks, to work with the VA and we have a couple of partners, we have centers. So we know what we want to do. We have testing it before it’s more about accelerating.

[38:03] Molly Lazarus, Remarkable
So those are the areas, yeah those are the areas, that I think were most helpful in the medtech devices, is like opening doors to the variety of places like Shirley Ryan AbilityLab or the VA or you know Spaulding Rehab. Those are the areas that we probably most able to be helpful, from the kind of in-between stage of commercialization to like FDA or things like that with medical devices. The other thing that we find really helpful is not everyone but a lot of medical devices are commercialized by like, like researchers who are really like in the thick of the research and so we find helping to translate research to like how do we help general population understand what you’re doing so you can either raise the funds or you know connect with the people who might be users. We’ve also supported companies in those ways.

[38:57] Audience
Perfect yeah, we are, we also two researchers. Though we you know we’re more in the entrepreneurial mindset.

[39:04] Molly Lazarus, Remarkable
And I’m sure you guys are the best at it yeah awesome well thank you for sharing. Okay [Question] So are we looking for a specific post-revenue amount, stage or number of clients? [Answer] No, we just want to know that you have thought about it and worked on it and that the if it’s a remarkable technology and we believe it can make a meaningful impact. Whether you have five customers or a thousand customers, like it, it doesn’t matter it’s just, it’s just a way for us to understand that you’ve gotten it to that stage.

[Question] Teddy asked what the application deadline is. [Answer] April 29th.

[Question] MD as. Does a startup need to become a corporation before Demo Day? [Answer] You have to become a corporation before the start of the program. so we need to have all of our forms signed, to enable you to even start the program. Which would be probably by late May. In our experience for folks who needed to shift their program designation took maybe 10 days at most, so if you got to interview stage and you were not there and you it was looking promising we’d probably say hey like let’s if if you’re open to doing that let’s get it moving. If you are not open to switching your company structure, I don’t think that we could accept you. And so I think unfortunately just the way our legals work, if you’re an LLC or a nonprofit and you aren’t willing to shift it just may not be the right program. Happy to answer more if that wasn’t clear but that is, that is the unfortunate answer I have for that question. I think I’ve answered everything in the chat, maybe a little rapid fire but is there anyone else that wants to raise a hand or has questions or if not you know Pete if you wanted to say something you’re welcome I don’t see you anymore but you’re welcome to come off mute and share a little bit that about the program we generally. Do we answer everything?

[Question] As a California benefit Corporation. [Answer] I think that should be fine but if you want to just send me an email Molly@remarkable.org with the company structure I’ll forward it to our executive director who deals with our legals and he can just give me a confirmation that that’s fine but I think that’s fine.

[42:04] Pete Horsley, Remarkable
And Molly maybe just the the another question that JC had in there about…[Question] If we’re not selected, are there other ways to participate in the community and potentially contribute as well? [Answer] 100% like we’re, we’re all driven by mission and and we want to see you know more technology in this space and often times we actually find that connecting with other founders is one of the ways that this ecosystem continues to grow, and it’s one of the things that we love to see is catalyzing connections across the ecosystem as well. So absolutely we’d love to stay connected with you, in fact often times startups that haven’t been successful… we still go on to you know provide catch-ups every now and then with various people that we think could be suitable for you business as well. So we’re just wanting to see this entire sector move forward and connections across the ecosystem are really important part of that.

[43:10] Molly Lazarus, Remarkable
100% yeah. Someone has their hand up with. Hello Melissa.

[43:17] Audience
My name is Melissa Smith and I’m with ASL Flurry and I first of all want to say thank you so much for having sign language interpreters because it’s almost like having participated in various aspects of business and being like okay some members of my team are deaf and well we don’t have you know it’s just it’s really nice to see that access is not only possible but it’s just automatic so I want to thank you for that first off. Second of all I wanted if you could tell us a little bit more about the roundtables and the investor part and when you were going through the slide that had like eight different things, could you talk about that a little bit for me?

[43:57] Molly Lazarus, Remarkable
[Answer] Sure so those are kind of a menu of the types of things we might do and so they’re really built around kind of what is needed. But what we did last year which I think we’ll certainly do probably weekly this year, is the Remarkable Roundtables. And so last year we would switch off every other week, one week would be people with disabilities who might be users of the different products and so you’d be able to rapidly explain what you’re doing to those folks, they could give you feedback, they could make connections, it’s kind of like a very, very fast speed dating. And then the next week would be organizations that could be like amplifiers of your work, so that could be a medical system, that could be a nonprofit that works in a disability space, that could be a variety of folks. But what we found it was the most efficient way to get our community really jazzed about what the startups were doing and so many incredible connections came from them, but it was very informal. And the first ones everyone all the startups would come out with like their hair everywhere just like how do I talk about my startup that quickly but like by the end like the efficiency to which you can say what you do in a clear and meaningful way is so incredible it’s like such a skill that they were able to learn. So that will happen every week and then ideally every week. We’ve had Founder Q&As before. So last year we had Jamil at Heki, Ray at Biomotum, we had one of the founders of Be My Eyes like early founders of Be My Eyes come in and we create like a really safe space and we say like you can ask them anything. Like they’ve said that they’ll give you the answer if they’re comfortable. And so that’s something that we do, we’ll focus we had a session on the VA last year because we realized a lot of our startups were interested in getting into the VA, so we had somebody come in and really go startup by startup and say here are the three departments that your startup needs to talk to at the VA, like they were wonderful. And so we don’t totally know what it will look like every week but the goal is to build it around the five companies that we have so that you’re really getting value and you’re not just sitting in a session on you know funding when we could have just you know connected you to somebody who’s really good at funding and you had a one-on-one with them. So that’s kind of the the menu idea of those two weekly sessions.

[46:25] Audience
Okay great all right thank you, very much.

[46:27] Molly Lazarus, Remarkable
Yeah, yeah yeah excited you’re here. Okay I’m trying to check the chat as well.

[46:39] George Miller, Remarkable
That’s all questions for I think yeah.

[46:43] Molly Lazarus, Remarkable
All right well in that case thank you all for being here, for taking the time to learn more about the applications. Thank you to our Aussie friends for getting up at the crack of dawn, to show their faces and you can always reach out to us.

[47:01] George Miller, Remarkable
We’ve had one more question.

[47:02] Molly Lazarus, Remarkable
Amazing. [Question] I’m super interested in becoming a mentor is there a deadline for mentor applications? [Answer] There’s not and maybe George can even drop the mentor application in the chat.

[Question] Can mentors also for other programs? [Answer] Yes George do you want to talk to that a little or maybe Kate either one want to talk to the mentor part.

[47:28] George Miller, Remarkable
I’ll let Kate talk about that and I’ll drop the mentor signup link in the chat now.

[47:32] Kate Jenkins, Remarkable
Yeah we’d love we’re always open to more mentors joining our community because as Molly said we’re trying to find the right mentors for the startups that we’re working with. So always expanding our community, so please… yes there’s a there’s a form but you can set up some time to have a chat with me I’d love to have a chat with you about it. Yeah we hope an incredible community of mentors all that are now based all over the world so yeah you could be working with people with this accent or anyone in between yeah absolutely.

[48:12] Molly Lazarus, Remarkable
Thanks Kate, we would love to have you as a mentor. Liam did I just boot you Liam I tried to unmute you. Did he go?

[48:30] George Miller, Remarkable
I think you should be able to come off now Liam.

[48:32] Audience
Can you hear me? Yes. [Question] Yeah question along the lines of you talked about earlier about the hardware software yeah my… so my… my company is based around like our website and our process Curating make a product sort of like. We you know leverage tech but it’s like know on a very minimal level and the concentration is on our process like you know developing reviews yeah. So I was just wondering if you have any sense about like if we would be applicable yeah for Remarkable?

[49:44] Molly Lazarus, Remarkable
What might be actually more helpful is if you want to send me your site and I can take a look and I can we can even set up a follow-up time to chat about it, just so I can not just guess but I can actually take a look and give you a meaningful answer before you have to go through the full application process.

[50:04] Audience
Thanks so much Molly that be great.

[50:07] Molly Lazarus, Remarkable
That sounds good yeah Molly@remarkable.org but we can put it in the chat too. George is on top of it. Okay well that is my email for folks who maybe were too shy to ask the question live but grateful for all your questions. Grateful for you all being here, we would be thrilled to have you apply but as Pete said earlier we’re really just looking to support the community and the greater network so always happy to have a conversation or to make an intro, whether you are in this year’s program or not. And with that thank you to our interpreters, thank you for being here, thanks to George and Pete and Kate for being here from the Remarkable team and we look forward to staying connected with you all.

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