Sharing Knowledge on our Unique Community
The individuals that comprise the Sydney Knowledge Hub community make it special. Our small and mighty team has been working in the startup and innovation space for years, but we never cease to be amazed by the deep level of subject matter expertise, acumen and benevolence of this community.
We recently conducted a member survey to better understand our six-month-old community and thought we would share some this data .
Finding #1: Our Members Aren’t Just Startups
60% of the organisations here are startups. The remaining are a collection of non-profits, individuals from corporates, and teams from the University. The Knowledge Hub is industry-agnostic and have a range of organisations operating in different sectors, including agtech, AI, edtech, biotech, and medtech. All of the organisations here would consider themselves innovators in their sector.
This has led to a community with such a range of perspectives. Our members tenacious, but we don’t have the ‘hustle at any cost’ mentality that tends to be the dominant culture in many startup spaces. We have technical salespeople, data scientists, philosophers, academics, and students. They all fit together and are able to help each other out on different aspects of a problem. Conversations get deep pretty quick around the coffee machine.
Finding #2: Our Members are Closely Tied to the University
To our surprise, 3 out of 4 members have an existing affiliation with the University. It is heartening to see the University of Sydney find ways to keep its entrepreneurial staff, students, and alumni involved with the community. As we mature, we want to extend our reach to collaborators that are keen to work with the University of Sydney for the first time.
The University of Sydney is very large organisation. Even when members already have a relationship with one faculty, we can link them with new partners on campus. We also spent a significant amount of time making the structure of the University more transparent and have mapped out all the faculties, schools, labs and resources our members can access.
Finding #3: There Isn’t a ‘Typical’ Member
Members are quite varied in age, industry, and experience. We have nearly a 50/50 gender split in membership (and a similar split on female-led businesses). We’re pleased to see this diversity and hope to maintain it.
This will take some creativity and proactivity in our recruiting pool, perhaps with initiatives to groom entrepreneurs that may not otherwise be represented. It encourages us to promote inclusive values and provide content that is relevant for a diverse range of people.
Finding #4: We are a Place Where Teams Grow
On average, teams have grown by 0.8 FTE (full time equivalent) since joining the Knowledge Hub. Being on campus also gives unique access to talent including interns, graduate or higher degree research students. In fact, over half of our organisations have expressed interest in hiring someone from the University in our survey.
We will be dedicating the next few months to create a clear path for our members to provide work placements for University students.
Finding #5: Research is at the Core of Each Member Organisation
We use the term “research-based organisations” to describe our members. While it’s not a perfect term, it tries to capture the fact that science is at the core of their product, and that a research collaboration with the University could help these organisations get to the next stage.
We are hoping that having the Sydney Knowledge Hub on campus and increased access to events around innovation will encourage more researchers to translate their research into impactful organisations.
Are you interested in joining our community?
We will be running virtual information sessions while social distancing measures are in place. Check out our website to find out when the next one will be.
This article has been compiled by our Community Manager, Sarah Lacroix
