Q & A with local entrepreneur Justin Davies
Innovation isn’t a luxury – with so much digital disruption in play, entire commercial markets are changing. Innovation must become part of the DNA of your organisation.
As Managing Director of Emergination, and Co-founder of Prezentt, Justin has a wealth of knowledge to share with those working in the startup and innovation space.
Top 3 business tips?
- Study Lean Startup and develop a lean canvas for your business. When you do, make sure you do your homework and don’t fall in love with your solution / product. So many startups get lost as they aren’t clear on what problem they are solving for which audience, and just ignore the competitors. By the way, your biggest competitor is always “Do nothing”.
- Everything is a hypothesis until proven with prospective customers. Do not hide away building your product and then take it to market.
- Getting your value proposition really tight is so important. If people aren’t getting your idea, then it isn’t being communicated well or the problem isn’t worth solving. Your time is your energy. Spend it in the right places and engage the right help early.
What does collaboration mean to you?
Using all of the brains you have – and all of the brains you can borrow – to work collectively on projects for a common rather than individual benefit.
Innovation in the Northern Corridor – what are the challenges?
It is a question of critical mass. There is a perceived disconnection from centres of innovation – Joondalup vs Perth.
However, this applies to Perth vs Sydney, Sydney vs the Valley. Getting a critical mass of like-minded, hungry people is critical to ensure that we are all thinking big enough, and helping each other to succeed. I have seen some people treat being in a startup like a gap year, or the 2017 equivalent of “hey, I’m in a band!”. Fortunately, the market is maturing and we are seeing the better connections in helping lift others to success.
What excites you about Emergination and Prezentt?
Emergination has been involved with all sorts of really interesting projects – from adding mobile CCTV systems to driverless trains, helping larger companies connect more effectively to their markets, commercialisation of technology companies, helping tech startups and emerging companies connect more effectively with their markets and grow. It is pleasing to see strategies that were put in place yielding results over a long period of time. Prezentt is also a particularly exciting business – and has also received a number of awards for innovation. We are attracting a lot of international interest – it is an exciting time for that business.
What’s next for you in this space?
I’m excited that more people are really considering investing in newer companies as a real and viable way to grow new businesses. There is a greater focus on entrepreneurship and technology as an enabler and this is filtering through to education. The capacity to develop world-leading technology like Prezentt from Perth and deliver it to a global market is exciting. With all this change, it points to a greater need to have a clear strategy and then execute on that.
This article was published in the LiNK enews on 17 March 2017.
