{"id":45515,"date":"2023-10-20T15:44:17","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/four-tips-for-scoring-a-government-grant-for-your-startup-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:44:17","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:44:17","slug":"four-tips-for-scoring-a-government-grant-for-your-startup-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/four-tips-for-scoring-a-government-grant-for-your-startup-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Four tips for scoring a government grant for your startup – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

Government grants can be a difficult and time-consuming task to take on when you’re in the middle of building a startup from the ground up, but if it’s done right the rewards can be transformative.<\/p>\n

ATP Innovations chief innovation officer Ben Wright recently worked closely with three medtech companies<\/a> that scored nearly $8 million from the NSW government\u2019s Medical Device Fund (MDF).<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re about to start one of those fun grant applications, here are four key lessons from these startups and what they did right.<\/p>\n

1. The proof is in the detail<\/h3>\n

Wright says that the three grant winners spent 12 weeks of the incubator program gathering evidence to support their applications, and one of them used data from more than 700 interviews.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were able to turn around and say we\u2019ve spoken to health insurers, government health departments, clinicians and this is what everybody said about our technology,\u201d Wright tells StartupSmart.<\/em><\/p>\n

With the MDF grant, he says the application itself was about eight pages long but grant-winners supported this with another 20 to 80 pages of data.<\/p>\n

And, once you submit, patience is key, as it may well be a year before you see an outcome.<\/p>\n

2. If you\u2019re the founder, be the author<\/h3>\n

Wright says it\u2019s best practice for founders and core team members to complete the grant application themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt needs to be driven by the founders in the company,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the only ones that understand the business properly, they\u2019re the only one that have engaged with the customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Don\u2019t tell, show the demand for your product<\/h3>\n

With the MDF grant application, Wright says there were some key areas its winners paid attention to.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe things that were focused on were technical viability, product feasibility, clinical buy-in [and] having a customer that really cares about what you\u2019re doing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than saying I\u2019ve got this technology somebody should buy, it\u2019s showing that we have this pool of patients with a massive need, we have clinics who want to deploy this.\u201d<\/p>\n

4. Use grants to do a self-check<\/h3>\n

If you apply for a grant and don\u2019t get it, the application itself is still a great way to assess the areas in your venture that need review.<\/p>\n

Melbourne startup BajaBoard recently scored $250,000 through the Accelerating Commercialisation fund, and its founder George Li told StartupSmart<\/em><\/a> that while the application process may be long and intensive, it\u2019s a good activity to undertake for an insight on how your venture is actually performing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a startup, you should know how to answer those questions,\u201d Li said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to substantiate everything, don\u2019t use words like \u2018many\u2019 or \u2018several\u2019. Actually put the numbers in and put attachments where you can back up your claims.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Government grants can be a difficult and time-consuming task to take on when you’re in the middle of building a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45515"}],"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=45515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}