Success Stories

 

“Joining ilab was the most important thing that happened to RedFlow.” 

When RedFlow arrived at ilab in September 2004, they had been working in their father’s backyard to create a new type of battery design. They had a crude working prototype of their battery (which had been funded in part by a Queensland Government renewable energy grant), but were stuck at this point, not knowing how to take the technology forward and turn it into a business.

ilab helped the RedFlow team conduct detailed market research, compile a business plan, generate initial sales leads, and restructure their company into a more streamlined format. The team received regular mentoring by a panel of experienced business people, as well as introductions to angel investors, corporate business partners and key management personnel. ilab’s role was to turn this bunch of brilliant inventors into knowledgeable, well-connected businesspeople.  

RedFlow left ilab 3 years later in November 2007. They have now successfully matured their zinc-bromine flow batteries, which are commercially available in 5 kW/10 kWh modules. They also package their batteries into energy storage systems, with ratings from 5 kW to 200 kW. 

RedFlow are at work in three utility networks in Australia, and are now being rolled out into selected telco installations. Having successfully listed on the ASX in December 2010, RedFlow is now accelerating its growth. Its Australian factory has gone from strength to strength: it is now working double shifts to meet international customer demand and will be further expanded in 2011.

“Joining ilab was the most the important thing that happened to RedFlow in its start-up phase. Before that we were just a couple of engineers developing an elegant battery design in our father’s backyard.  ilab showed us how to change our mindset from building a product to building a business.” Chris Winter, Co-founder and CTO, RedFlow (ASX: RFX). 

CharmHealth is an information management system which has been developed to support the multi-disciplinary teams involved in the care of patients with cancer. CHARM ties together all the data management aspects of cancer care, from diagnosis through to chemotherapy preparation, manufacture and supervision, right the way to coding, staging, and data management. Its failsafe approach to data management makes planning and monitoring simpler and quicker, reducing the risk of human error in cancer care.

When CharmHealth arrived at ilab in June 2004 they had a great product but were severely under-resourced, with a staff of four, reduced cashflow, an ineffective sales process and an unsustainable pricing strategy. CharmHealth was deployed in just two hospitals, with export sales a distant dream. The business was being consumed by the demands of relentless software development, leaving them no time or resources for business and promotional strategy. This meant that this ground-breaking solution was being largely ignored by the largest state and private health service providers. 

The staff and mentors at ilab worked relentlessly with the Charm team to address their business issues, reviewing their sales and pricing strategy, and developing a business plan and marketing strategy, as well as providing encouragement in the face of numerous setbacks. 

Today, CharmHealth employs 22 staff, boasts 20 clients in over 50 individual facilities, and now focused on securing overseas contracts.

“When I launched Charm I thought all I needed was a good software product and we would sweep across the hospital and clinic market.  Fortunately I found ilab and joined their program.  Those initial years were so tough. Without the mentoring and support provided by ilab I don’t know how we would have kept the business running and growing.  But we did and ilab was a major contributor to turning us into a business rather than a company with a software product.”

 

“The things I learned along the way ... ultimately helped us get where we are today.”

Codesion (formerly CVSDude) is an on-line hosting company, specialising in tools for software project development and collaboration. They provide round-the-clock, year-long hosting and management, backups, and end-user customer support.

Their core product offerings are CVS and Subversion, open-source software development tools which give project teams a reliable, secure place to store their source code, and allow them to keep a history of code changes. Above all they enable numerous developers to collaborate on software projects, regardless of their physical location.

Codesion arrived at ilab in May 2006, 4 years after the company was founded. Despite the huge potential of their product, Codesion was running as a part-time software development interest, with a small team; limited management, marketing and sales capability; and a poor understanding of the marketplace and the competitive position of their company.  

As well as an unsustainable pricing strategy and tight cash flow, the team were severely under-resourced, with customer support demands falling to the company founder. Codesion had big ideas but weren’t in a position to achieve them: it was time to start turning this hobby into a business.

Codesion received regular mentoring by a panel of experienced business people, as well as assistance with market research, competitor analysis, marketing, business planning, growth strategies and cashflow management. ilab helped Codesion modify their pricing strategy and recruit their management team, as well as preparing for investors and helping them submit their winning application for the University of Queensland Enterprise competition.  

Codesion has enabled more than 3,000 customers and 70,000 users in 90 countries worldwide to effectively code, connect, and deploy some of the world's most complex open-source and commercial software applications. 

Codesion left the incubator in December 2008, and in December 2010 was acquired by US-based CollabNet, world leader in enterprise ALM and the commercial backers of the open source tool Subversion, which is used by over 70% of developers worldwide.

“The things I learned at ilab were all part of the success of the company, and ultimately helped us get where we are today.”  Mark Bathie – Founder and CTO, Codesion.

 

Opengear supplies secure server and remote control solutions for in-band infrastructure management and out-of-band disaster recovery, meaning that customers can now centrally monitor and control all their distributed servers and networks, from major data centres to the smallest and most remote offices.

When they arrived at ilab in November 2005, the Opengear team - two experienced technologists and start-up entrepreneurs - had plenty of experience and knowledge in their fields but were experiencing cash flow problems, and were struggling with marketing and sales. They were known in the US and Europe, however, wIth only four employees, three products in the product range and minimal Australian sales, Opengear joined ilab with big hopes. 

Today, Opengear employs seven Australian staff, and 13 across the USA and UK. The company boasts over 50 products and models with sales averaging $1m in Australia and significantly higher some years when large contracts are secured. Opengear now sells into 20 countries worldwide.

ilab delivered regular mentoring by a panel of experienced businesspeople. They focused on issues such as secondary market research, sales partner strategies, new product options, sales strategies and exit strategy planning.    

“Opengear was founded by two well seasoned tech entrepreneurs.  We’d  launched and exited five previous businesses and achieved some great results. But by the time we launched Opengear and we found some market space beyond all the non-compete agreements we’d signed with previous businesses, we were in new territory and essentially starting from scratch.  Locating our new Opengear venture in the i.lab Incubator was the right decision even though we had many years of previous experience.  i.lab and the mentoring program made us look deep into the new business and explore where and how we could make it succeed.  You’re never too old to learn from others, especially in a start-up.”          Bob Waldie, CEO.