Make Tomorrow Better: My Time at Curtin University
A little known fact, I’ve been an Entrepreneur in Residence at Curtin University in Perth since 2020. Randomly, I might add, as when I met my friend Rohan who ran the Commercialization Department there, first in Perth at West Tech Fest in 2018 and then in SF right before the pandemic lockdowns in 2020. He asked me to join the program a few months after, and I happily accepted as I was chilling career-wise at that time.
During the pandemic, I advised on their accelerator program and did some mentoring & keynote talks for their accelerator and entrepreneurs virtually. And finally, in 2023, I got to fly out to Perth to meet the teams and do these live shows, which was really great after years of Zoom calls.
I was asked by many of the founders in the program during my week there: Why are you doing this? Are you looking for startups to invest in? Is it for the money?
My answer in general is NO. My annual stipend is 10k AUD and I end up donating most of it to charity anyways. My trip here and spending a full week here actually costs me money because there are opportunity costs (and my billable hours are not cheap). I am certainly not looking for deal flow, I have far more deals than I can sift through.
But for me, coming out here is so much fun and educational. I get to come to a beautiful city and region. And it’s incredible to talk with and try to help young smart entrepreneurs, early in their journey, even if you don’t invest. It’s literally my juice and gives me so much energy.
You can disproportionately impact them and their business at this stage. Hopefully in a positive way. The basic questions that come out really help me think and understand where the ecosystem is. It also helps me figure out whether my advice and knowledge still makes sense and is relevant. And dissecting problems for whatever shape or size of the business is how I can sharpen my edge.
It’s fun but also a way to help grow new startup ecosystems. And it’s also good for the karma front as well. I truly believe in Karma. Do good things for others and it comes back to you in some other random form. But the big reason is that it fulfills the mission & motto that Curtin espouses: “Make Tomorrow Better.” This is ultimately my mission for life as well.