Innovation unlocked: How 12 women shaping Australia's future find their ideas

There are many women working in the technology sector, forging Australia — and the world — forward with their innovation.

But how do these innovative ideas come about? SmartCompany Plus chatted with 12 of Australia’s women in tech to find out.

Kylie Frazer, co-founder and partner at Flying Fox Ventures

Innovation occurs where a meaningful problem collides with a team who has the vision and resources to do something about it. To find innovation, you have to find the problem and you have to find the people. Sometimes we start with the problem and actively search for the best teams working on solutions. Other times we are blown away by the people and let them take us on a whirlwind learning journey of the problems they are obsessed with.

Kylie Frazer, co-founder and partner at Flying Fox Ventures. Source: supplied.

Jeanette Cheah, CEO and founder of HEX

For me, innovation is all about creative problem solving, so finding new innovations usually starts by identifying a new problem, and then just doing small experiments to see whether we’re on the right track. I think getting into the habit of incremental innovations helps build the muscle for when it’s time for a big pivot or a strategic shift.

I’m a scanner by habit, so I’m constantly scrolling Twitter, Product Hunt, startup Slack groups, Discords and communities for inspiration.

Plus, I love hearing from my team. We’ve all got diverse lived experiences, and sometimes you get the coolest ideas when those experiences and ideas clash!

Jeanette Cheah, CEO and founder of HEX. Source: supplied.

Jill Berry, CEO and co-founder of Adatree

Many companies look to overseas trends for their next idea or business, but to be innovative, you need a different take.

Being in regulation tech and looking at new and upcoming regulations means it constantly changes. While that does make it a bit easier for us, it also brings another set of challenges. The companies in our space actually have to participate in it, instead of just wanting to. In saying that, you become more aware of trends and your customers — whenever there’s a problem that doesn’t have a solution right now, you work to find one.

Adatree co-founder and chief executive Jill Berry. Source: supplied.

Silvia Pfeiffer, CEO, director and co-founder of Coviu

At Coviu, our ideas and new innovations are spurred by a couple of key areas. The first is focused on our deep understanding of the needs of and bigger developments within the healthcare sector, and utilising technology — such as artificial intelligence and machine learning — to provide the best possible solution for clinicians. We’re focused on tapping into innovative technologies to find new ways to solve problems within healthcare, and partnering with customers, institutions and industry to collaborate and experiment on projects. This can often result in exciting outcomes that make a real difference.

The other area is focused on our conversations with customers. Customers often describe and talk us through a problem, along with a suggested solution. It’s then our job to solve that challenge in a simple but effective way. Sometimes, it’s about simplifying the customer’s solution and testing ways to make it workable. Other times, the process is longer and it’s more of a challenge finding a strong solution. This is often the case when we’re limited by technology but it gives us the perfect opportunity to think outside the box and consider innovative ways to create a simple to use and efficient solution.

Silvia Pfeiffer, CEO, director and co-founder of Coviu. Source: supplied

Kate Quirke, CEO and managing director at Alcidion

Our innovation isn’t sourced externally, rather it is derived from fostering the skills and creativity of the individuals in our team who come from the industry we operate in, have the knowledge of the sector and, importantly, the ability to identify, relate to and innovatively solve problems.

We purposely create an environment where individuals can grow, with encouragement, support and opportunity. We try not to limit people’s potential to their current role and actively promote extending oneself into new domains — thereby fostering innovation.

Kate Quirke, CEO and managing director at Alcidion. Source: supplied.

Bronwyn Le Grice, founder, CEO and managing director at ANDHealth

At ANDHealth, we’ve always worked to create an open and innovative culture that has a focus on attracting innovative thinkers — as team members, industry partners, and the entrepreneurs leading the high growth potential digital health companies we work with.

The most innovative ideas in digital health come from agile-thinking entrepreneurs with absolute dedication and passion for their cause, evidence that proves their product can deliver real health outcomes, resilience when things don’t go their way, and an understanding of the huge level of responsibility that comes when you hold the lives of consumers in your hands. They know the work that needs to be done, know it’s hard, and pursue it anyway. These are the people we strive to attract to ANDHealth, and when we do, the innovation follows.

Bronwyn Le Grice, CEO & managing director of ANDHealth. Source: supplied.

Gabrielle Munzer, ESG venture lead at Main Sequence

The valuable companies of the coming decades will be those tackling epic problems for a planet in trouble. As a deep tech venture investor here at Main Sequence, we believe that the combined force of entrepreneurship and science can solve these problems.

Curiosity is the samurai sword of the venture capitalist. We are all different in our team, but curiosity and ideas connect us. We surround ourselves with the best brains in Australia via our networks in the research ecosystem, among the 50+ publicly funded research organisations, including our universities and the CSIRO. We also find innovative ideas through the network of founders in our portfolio, who often refer high-quality opportunities to us as well.

There are a few questions we ask ourselves when looking for innovative ideas:

What are the great challenges in the world that venture and science can impact?
Who are the inventors changing the world (or who might do one day)?
What are the technologies and discoveries that might rise to these challenges and how can we understand them enough to build conviction?

We’re focused on founders of companies based on novel science or engineering innovation — we call them the “Unreasonable Inventors” because, after all, it takes an unreasonable belief to achieve the impossible.

Gabrielle Munzer at ESG venture lead at Main Sequence. Source: supplied.

Ruby Kolesky, co-CEO at Joyous

I don’t think I ‘find’ innovative ideas, rather, I enable things to unfold or be created in innovative ways. A lot of what I am most proud of wasn’t found, it simply didn’t exist before. And that’s innovation — something entirely new or invented.

Joining an organisation such as Joyous, which is intentionally disruptive for a noble purpose that I care deeply about — making life better for people at work — and surrounding myself with like-minded people who are similarly aligned to this objective has been an essential ingredient. If your guiding principle is to be an advocate for good and you have a deep desire to make a positive contribution to the world, the rest tends to follow.

Over the years, I have developed killer instincts for what could be better and for when something isn’t headed down the right path. Course-correcting continuously and being open to following the ‘squiggly’ line, the one that feels instinctively right but hasn’t been followed before, and is often the harder path, has led to amazing outcomes.

I also believe the best types of innovation are made possible within partnerships, where the combination of different people and their ideas breeds something better than any individual may have dreamt up. I could innovate alone, but it wouldn’t be anywhere near as effective, or nearly as much fun!

Joyous co-CEO Ruby Kolesky. Source: supplied.

Nancy Shellhorn, CEO and co-founder of RapidAIM

Innovation is the result of solving a problem. For RapidAIM pest management is a guessing game, so insecticide is used as insurance just in case. We deliver region-to-farm pest information to take the guesswork out of managing pests, and while it’s very natural for people to want to jump to solutions, this can waste time.

Instead, we regularly return to the problem space; test the market with who has the pain points and readjust where needed before we launch into creating a solution. It’s challenging because we’re a deep-tech company with many highly skilled team members who can deliver amazing solutions to problems — but true innovation are those solutions that solve the problem.

Nancy Shellhorn, CEO and co-founder of RapidAIM

Maria Halasz, chief executive and managing director of Cellmid

Because of the complexity and intense regulations around biotechnology, each stage of development requires a certain level of innovation. From very early concepts to innovative delivery of drugs on the market, to novel medical devices.

My first port of call in the search for innovations in biotechnology is universities and medical research institutes. They’re a rich hub of revolutionary ideas.

For later stage innovative programs, one company’s abandoned research project can be another one’s gold. Large companies that acquire tech from big pharma or other organisations can deprioritise their projects if the product champion leaves the organisation or the perceived returns don’t measure up to other projects. This opens the door for us to take advantage of unwanted innovations and turn them into successes.

Maria Halasz, chief executive and managing director of Cellmid. Source: supplied

Julia Reisser, co-founder of ULUU

I am an ocean scientist who has spent the last decade obsessed with solving our plastic pollution crisis. I have done my PhD on this topic and worked with technology startups and impact investing focused on tackling this issue.

When I’m looking to innovate, I analyse what other organisations are trying in the quest to tackle plastic pollution, identify the opportunities that haven’t been explored or aren’t quite working, and aim to find a solution that will replace plastics and benefit the world. I took this approach to founding ULUU, which allowed us to discover an opportunity to create PHA from seaweed, which will be far more economical and ecological to tackle plastic pollution than anything else like it.

Julia Reisser, co-founder of ULUU. Source: supplied.

Anastasia Volkova, CEO and co-founder of Regrow

A founder’s vision for the market or a product gets formed under multiple influences. One of them is a deep understanding of the customer problem, and truly understanding it. To this understanding of the customer problem, it is important to add to the mix various perspectives on how the problem can be solved.

I often look for inspiration “outside our box” by talking to professionals who work in other areas of the industry or other industries altogether. I ask for advice from investors who have scaled businesses under different circumstances and I get inspired by products and business models that I find innovative. Learning the myriad of options outside of our field of view helps me see what parameters can be played with when coming up with something completely new.