For Mildura-based duo Julia Payne and Louise Ackland, an opportunity arose when they entered the Mildura Hackathon in August last year. The weekend-long event jointly organised by the Hacker Exchange and the La Trobe Accelerator Program, was to encourage entrepreneurs from the region to develop an idea that could solve a common program. The grand prize for the competition? Two weeks paid exchange to Silicon Valley, USA to develop their idea through workshops, tours and forums. Both Payne and Ackland were awarded the prize along with Richard Rydberg and Abraham Cronje. The genius idea that saw them travel to the birthplace of Apple, Microsoft, Uber and Google, is called Farm Mate.
“Farm Mate is a customisable home page for farmers where they can access all of the information they need,” says the La Trobe student and founder Julia Payne. It aims to encourage networking between farmers to remove isolation, provide weather, drone footage, budgeting, chemicals and so much more. Whilst the team had the idea validated and developed during their 12-week La Trobe Accelerator Program, the 2-week excursion with the Hacker Exchange taught them some valuable skills. Julia says that they were instructed on “what it’s like to be a start-up, how to prototype, marketing, networking and even how to build an app!”
The two Mildura-based teams met with many diverse people from a range of industries in the area and were introduced to potential partners. They were encouraged to engage further with the community after the day was done, often arranging to go to meetups and networking events in the evening.
Co-founded by Jeanette Cheah, the Hacker Exchange is an education program based in Melbourne that exports entrepreneurs to the USA, Singapore and Tel Aviv (Israel). They work alongside national accelerators to provide a much-needed push for teams to take their idea global. Tertiary students can often receive government or university-based funding to cover the cost of the program, so it’s worthwhile for students to contact student resources at their campus.
“The Hacker Exchange program is one like no other. It provides the opportunity to learn skills and meet people that I would never have been given the chance to do in the classroom.” – Louise Ackland
For more information about the Hacker Exchange and to apply for their upcoming trips head here. The La Trobe Accelerator program returns in August 2019, with applications opening in late March, learn more here.
