MERRY CHRISTMAS COGNIOM FANS!!
Only 12 sleeps until Santa arrives with 5 projects finished from 4 crazy team members attending 3 pitch events adding 2 new investors …. and a partridge in a pear tree!! Last month in our November blog, we touched on our individual journeys and how start-up life has changed us all in a single year. Check it out here if you missed it!
Our Social Media posts had to take a back seat the last few weeks, and that is purely due to the volume of incredible projects we’ve been a part of! Check out what we have been up to!
RIVER CITY LABS: RIVER PITCH 2019
In November, we were one of the few startups selected for the River City Labs River Pitch 2019 event on November 14. This time there is video proof too! The room was full of energy with angels and investors present, including one of the Australian Shark Tank hosts seated in the front row! No pressure of course…
CLICK HERE to check it out!
MEDTECH’S GOT TALENT: FINALISTS NIGHT GALA
We spent a week in Melbourne this month finishing up our involvement with the MedTech’s Got Talent program culminating in a Black Tie Gala! We met some incredible entrepreneurs over the week that are going to make some amazing contributions to the medtech space in the coming years.
As a finalist, we were one of five companies from the Sydney semi-finalist round to pitch against teams from Melbourne and India. It’s not every day we get to look this dashing, so we flew the entire team to Melbourne join Zoe and myself at the Finals Gala. After working so hard, it was the perfect end of year celebration to remind the team what we’ve achieved this year. Pitching is getting easier, particularly when you get to be on stage in a tux! Turns out, we all scrub up rather nicely. After dinner, we managed to demo the TANDM software to a literal blitz-in audience members lining up to talk to us after the show!
The experience was made all the better with our Johnson and Johnson mentor (and now close friend) Warwick Shaw standing next to us. We’ll never be able to show him enough gratitude for all his help. He has been absolutely instrumental in getting this far and I am so incredibly humbled to have his wealth of knowledge and guidance these past few months. But fear not – Santa said we can keep him, so we are looking forward to more adventures with his future involvement as an informal Advisor and part of the Cogniom family. Our warmest thanks goes out to Jamal and Dr. Buzz with MedTech Actuator for hosting an absolutely spectacular event!
JOHNSON AND JOHNSON: OPERATING THEATER STUDY
Speaking of J&J, Warwick’s team finished their very first Observational Study bringing our software into the Operating Theatres and replacing Excel sheets and stopwatches with the TANDM Suite! In just one week, the J&J team found possible improvements that they predict will increase the number of completed surgeries by 600 patients annually, significantly reducing the patient waitlists while increasing revenue for the hospital!
After working so hard to develop TANDM and watch it continuously evolve, it was an incredible experience to see TANDM in full flight with a study of this magnitude, and see the true capabilities and future possibilities with an insanely genius team of researchers telling us what they loved and excitedly asking for future abilities. I won’t lie, it was a pretty proud moment! Johnson&Johnson have already expressed interest in moving from their trial to paid licenses when they pick up additional projects next year.
HUMMINGBIRD HOUSE: NURSE DAY IN THE LIFE STUDY
This has been another incredible experience this month. Hummingbird House is a hospice care facility for children, one of only three in the entire country. They conducted a Day in the Life study to gain a true understanding of their practices and services to ensure they are providing the best possible care and support for the families that pass through their doors.
The data that TANDM was able to collate on their behalf was amazing, and the team have collected insights that will go along way to setting incredible benchmarks for future services. We even received these beautiful words…
…Using the TANDM Suite, we were able to complete the data collection and reporting in a fraction of the time, enabling us to begin crucial conversations far earlier than anticipated. The software was incredibly easy to use and the team were always there to offer support and guidance and answer all our questions. This work has allowed us to quickly and accurately establish a benchmark for the work Hummingbird House does. This is the first time in Australia a children’s hospice has done this work. Robert and Zoe took considered time to understand what we do at Hummingbird House, the goals we were trying to achieve and were true to their passion of helping others. I would definitely engage in their services again, and highly recommend them to anyone looking to conduct any type of observational research projects.” -Fiona Hawthorne, General Manager
COGNIOM ADVISORY BOARD AND INVESTORS
Most of you have been following our journey for a while now. (For those of you just joining…. you can catch up on our investor blog page!)
I got pretty lucky with a an all star cast of a team. I joke all the time that I’ve never actually hired anyone, they just showed up one day and never left. They just really ‘got’ my vision and felt as strongly as I did about making healthcare better!
I also got pretty lucky with those people who also decided to join the Cogniom family as an Investor or Advisor. There are so many others that have lent their support in different ways, from family and friends to other start up founders who have made introductions, offered words of wisdom or just knew when we needed a stiff drink! I can’t even begin to think what this past year would be like without them.
I do want to take a moment to introduce you to our official Advisory board and Investors and to thank them for all of their boundless efforts to help us on our journey.
Karen (and Wade) Bard – Our Cornerstone investor, who was the first to believe in us enough to invest in our company! Karen also chairs our Advisory Board and brings a wealth of knowledge of corporate structure and scaling having grown several startups and companies in years prior. With her continual support, she challenges us to continue learning and growing and to be the best we can possibly be. Their support and willingness to share their own time and resources is simply amazing!
Tamara Mills – Undisputedly one of the biggest names in med tech and start up space in Australia, we have been so incredibly fortunate to have Tamara with us from the beginning. Her experience and counsel have proven invaluable time and time again. With a background in Health Economics, several FDA patented Medtech Devices, and running VC funds all while raising a family – her accomplishments are simply super human. Bonus, we also get to call her an incredible friend to boot!
Janelle van de Velde – Probably one of the hands down strongest, motivated, and successful women we’ve ever met. We met Janelle during our time at Impact Academy and her counsel and support have seen us through many dips that come with the start-up roller coaster. We affectionately refer to her as “Team Mum” but her experience in corporate and governance is unrivalled and currently led her to an executive chair on the UnitingCare Synod Board of Directors. From industry experience to three degrees to back her knowledge in legal, ethics, and governance, she’s an absolute power house of knowledge. We know we can rely on her to tell us how it really is!
Andrew Smith – Where would we be without our sage technical advisor who has seen us been with us even before TANDM was an idea! Mentoring our Dev team from the start, Andrew has been there for us unconditionally on everything from tech architecture to best practices in software development he has always been one of our loudest and greatest supporters!
Sonia Goodwin and Nova Evans – The founders of Sunny Street, our start up sisters and all round incredible humans provide us clinical and industry guidance and hands down give the best hugs in town. When we have questions about hospital procedure or clinician impact or we’re just having a rough start up day, we can count on them to be there for us with smiles and encouragement!
Stacie Wiechman – Physiotherapist and consulting healthcare practitioner, Stasie is no stranger to backing start-up businesses and was one of the first investors that believed in our vision. When she saw the incredible impact TANDM can have, not only in healthcare but across many industries, she was excited to be a part of the journey. She has been an avid supporter and cheerleader for Cogniom and provides us with a massive amount of knowledge about the US Healthcare market.
Chris Hewson – Rockstar marketing and sales expert, he’s exited several companies and has a strong background in growing companies and helping them scale. Newest member to our team, we can’t wait to have more time to learn from him and implement his advice and strategies in our business next year.
THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT
Next year is set to be just as big as our first and we can’t wait for you to join us. If you are thinking about investing, we have already raised nearly half of our pre-seed round. While there is still time left to get in early, we don’t think the pre-seed will be available for much longer. If you would like more information, please shoot me an email. We’d be happy to supply you with additional information and our Investor Memorandum.
Until then, from our family to yours, we hope you have a very Merry Christmas! However you spend your holiday break we wish everyone a great time to relax, recuperate, and enjoy your time with loved ones.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your continued support and we’ll see you all again in 2020!
