{"id":43094,"date":"2023-10-20T15:26:02","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/six-steps-to-cause-disruption-in-an-industry-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:26:02","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:26:02","slug":"six-steps-to-cause-disruption-in-an-industry-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/six-steps-to-cause-disruption-in-an-industry-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Six steps to cause disruption in an industry – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Listening to your customers and solving the bigger problem are essential ingredients to being able to disrupt an industry, according to a panel of entrepreneurs who discussed the topic at the South Start conference in Adelaide last week.<\/p>\n

Makers Empire chief executive Jon Soong, TheRight.Fit co-founder and chief executive Taryn Williams and Australian Clean Tech managing director John O\u2019Brien were joined on the panel by Accodex co-founder Chris Hooper, who moderated the discussion.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on their journeys and lessons learned to date, they revealed six steps to disrupt a sector successfully.<\/p>\n

1. Solve the bigger problem<\/h3>\n

Before Williams launched TheRight.Fit, an online platform for brands wanting to find talent quickly, she spent four years building tech platforms with her other company Wink Models, which led her to realise there was a larger issue to solve.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I saw] there\u2019s an opportunity to use some of this software with my domain properties to solve the bigger problem,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

After creating products to manage payrolls and the like in the modelling industry, she saw that these could be used to empower the growing number of social media influencers to manage their careers while simultaneously connecting them to clients wanting online talent.<\/p>\n

2. Expect discomfort<\/h3>\n

Creating transformative change in your industry may turn former colleagues into competitors and affect some of the relationships you\u2019ve established in the traditional space, according to the panel.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to get comfortable with that discomfort,\u201d Williams says.<\/p>\n

In the early days of building TheRight.Fit, Williams said she often had to just turn a blind eye to some of the social media comments she received.<\/p>\n

She says reminding herself that her venture is actually creating better opportunity and autonomy for talent saw her through.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s allowing clients to book more jobs and more campaigns,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

3. Hussle<\/h3>\n

Getting out there, planting seeds and using creative ways of getting your concept in front of potential customers is critical, says Joong.<\/p>\n

When first trying to get their concept into schools, Joong says one of Makers Empire\u2019s co-founders attended a principals tour designed for parents.<\/p>\n

Though his co-founder didn\u2019t have any kids of his own, he attended as a \u201cprospective parent\u201d, listening to other parents\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n

During the tour there was a tech workspace and he took the opportunity to ask if they had 3D printing, adding that he\u2019d want his future children to attend a high tech school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a fair bit of hussle,\u201d says Joong.<\/p>\n

4. Listen to customers the whole way<\/h3>\n

Even if you\u2019re not ready to take a product to market, founders should be speaking to potential customers to understand what they need, says O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

This includes going to as many events as possible to network and meet people in your targeted market.<\/p>\n

\u201cStop building stuff that people don\u2019t want,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

And when you build technology or products that the market wants, communicate the value and relevance to the user.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to speak the language of your customer,\u201d he says<\/p>\n

5. Establish good credibility and reputation<\/h3>\n

Before Williams started TheRight.Fit, she had developed a strong presence in her industry.<\/p>\n

As a vocal advocate and active lobbyist for industry change and better rights for talent, Williams says she was generally known and seen as credible in her space.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving that established presence and respect in [your] industry will make it much easier to disrupt [it],\u201d says Chris Hooper.<\/p>\n

6. Always keep improving<\/h3>\n

At the end of the day, whatever industry you\u2019re disrupting, there\u2019s one thing that won\u2019t change.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not so much about disrupting as it is trying to work with people,\u201d says Joong.<\/p>\n

Even in Makers Empire\u2019s own sector of bringing 3D printing to school, the broader problem is ensuring there are skilled people to drive tech innovation in the future in Australia.<\/p>\n

Consider South Australia\u2019s new $50 billion contract to build submarines, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be building them for the next 50 years [and] the people going to be designing them in 20 years are like five years old now,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless we keep trying to make it better, it will stagnate.\u201d<\/p>\n

This piece was first published on SmartCompany.<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter,<\/em>LinkedIn <\/em>and <\/em>SoundCloud.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listening to your customers and solving the bigger problem are essential ingredients to being able to disrupt an industry, according<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43094"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}