Budding Success
The winner of the Lord Mayor Budding Entrepreneur Round 6 is..... Adrian Dudok
No, not really, the real winner here is Skyborne Technologies.
I was one of fifteenth start-up founders that was awarded a funding grant from the Lord Mayor's Budding Entrepreneurs Program, mid 2016. Firstly, I would like to say how delighted I am to be a part of this young, enthusiastic, intelligent and innovative start-up business. However, I honestly don't believe this award is the effort of one individual but rather, the combined efforts of a dedicated and talented team.
The Lord Mayor's award provides $5,000 to spend on entrepreneurial development activities, which lucky includes developing Skyborne's business capabilities - which is exactly how we intend to utilize it. Without the team and fellow founders there would be no personal entrepreneurial development, because there would not be a start-up named 'Skyborne' to develop a business evolved around technology, robotics and innovation.
How do we intend to use this grant? Good question. My initial thoughts were to give everyone a pay rise.... But we decided to be sensible and use it to fund a trip to Singapore's Tech Innovation event, in September 2016 (pending event finalisation), to pitch our start-up business model at an aerospace accelerator. Exciting right? Any unused funding will goes towards further processing our UAV design 'Patent' to extend to a national level.
To finish things off, I will take credit for taking time to fill in the application for this funding grant, but all the hard work from the team at Skyborne Technologies is starting to pay off. All grant funds help, even if they are a small amount, because being a hardware start-up developing a product in the aerospace sector, implements further budget constraints to bring a innovative product to the shelf and to industries that require these solutions fast. So I hope in the future we can win awards like, Robotic Manufacturer of the Year (I am very optimistic and who knows if this award even exists).
I have included below a few quotes taken from the Digital Brisbane website, promoting the winners of the Lord Mayor's Budding Entrepreneurs Program Round 6. It's compelling to see the vast range of entrepreneurs living in the state of QLD and pushing their innovative limits.
Till next award, thanks for your time and support.
Adrian Dudok - Chief Business Officer
“Fifteen Brisbane startups have been awarded funding grants in the latest round of the Lord Mayor’s Budding Entrepreneurs Program, which offers aspiring entrepreneurs up to $5000 towards developing their business capabilities.
From agriculture to social enterprise, health tech to shipping, the latest crop of budding Brisbane entrepreneurs is further proof the city is full of globally scalable bright ideas.
Grant winner Adrian Dudok, whose business Skyborne Technologies has developed inventive new designs for airborne drones, said the Budding Entrepreneurs program would give him the opportunity to attend an event in Singapore to pitch the company’s product and access seed funding.
“The program will give us the opportunity to accelerate our product to the local and global market at this early stage of our startup venture,” Mr Dudok said.
“We’ll be able to showcase our product on the world stage.”
Another grant winner Anthony Brewer said the program assisted in funding a provisional patent but, above all, would open doors for his ground-breaking business.
“Founding a startup and backing yourself to succeed is a scary experience,” Mr Brewer said.
“It’s fantastic to get recognised by and exposed to investors and businesses in the Brisbane startup ecosystem.”
Mr Brewer’s environmentally sustainable business agAlytics puts high-tech capability in the palm of your hand, empowering farmers to measure soil nutrients with a low-cost, smartphone-enabled sensor.
Since launching in 2013, the Lord Mayor’s Budding Entrepreneurs Program has provided funding of more than $200,000 to 58 up-and-coming Brisbane entrepreneurs.”
“Adrian Dudok
“Skyborne Technologies did not want to be ‘just another drone company’, but rather enter the market with something completely different, and much needed. There are two UAV prototypes currently in development, Cerberus and Chimera, which utilise our ground-breaking tri-tilt rotor technology.””
Adrian with Cerberus V2