NSW startups will be coached to succeed and grow by one of the world’s leading experts on social impact technology, Israel’s Neta-Li Meiri, who is visiting Sydney as part of the NSW Government’s Visiting Entrepreneurs Program.
Ms Meiri will host a workshop, How Social-tech Can Change the World, at the Sydney Startup Hub on Thursday 23 May to share her knowledge with the NSW startup community.
Minister for Jobs Stuart Ayres said NSW companies with a focus on social benefit would learn from one of the world’s top experts.
“The Sydney Startup Hub is already home to autism recruitment startup Xceptional and Australia’s first disability-tech accelerator, Remarkable. This visiting entrepreneurs program will encourage more startups to grow and deliver social benefits and job creation,” Mr Ayres said.
Neta-Li Meiri is Managing Director of , a non-profit business accelerator program based in Tel Aviv in Israel that works to develop startups that have a focus on delivering benefits to society in education, health and gender equality.
Ms Meiri said 8200 Impact aims to use technology to drive positive change in society and that its startups have raised more than US$40 million in investment capital.
“Our society has some huge global problems that can’t be fixed with old ways of thinking. We need new ideas and new technologies to disrupt the status quo and create new socially beneficial business models,” Ms Meiri said.
“For example, 8200 Impact startup Voiceitt raised more than US$13 million to develop speech-recognition technology to allow people with severe speech impairments to communicate using their own voices in real time. This successful startup has won international competitions and grants including from Microsoft’s venture fund, M12.”
Ms Meiri said she was excited about the opportunity to visit the Sydney Startup Hub to mentor NSW startups, and offered a number of initial tips.
“Entrepreneurs should understand the market and develop their technology in parallel with their business plan. They need to be able to communicate their business simply, so it resonates with their users, investors, partners – everyone.”
