Covid-19 has impacted us all. It's changing the way we live, the way we do business and the way we interact with each other. We've seen businesses react in a range of different ways, and decided to use this time to share some inspiring stories of digital business who are innovating to survive and thrive. In this short mini-series, we'll share stories of how businesses are managing this from the coalface, how they've changed their product/strategy and how they've made it all happen with remote teams, and what they see for the future.The sudden change we have experienced over the past few months has forced us all to adapt. One of the sectors this has been most true for is education, with the entire school population moving to a remote learning model in the space of just a few weeks. In the fourth and final episode of our Covid-19 mini-series, we talk with Alex Burke, CEO of  Education Perfect. In many ways, the accepted method of teaching has not changed for 20 years but over the past three months, schools have had to rapidly incorporate new technology to facilitate learning from home, as well as negotiate how to best help students, parents and teachers coordinate and collaborate.Education Perfect has been at the forefront of helping schools, parents, teachers and students move to a new way of learning, while at the same time managing the adaptation of their own organisation at a time of rapid growth and change.To keep up to date with what is happening with Cogent, including when new episodes of this podcast are released, you can subscribe to our blog at cogent.co/blog or follow us on Twitter or Instagram.

Cogent Conversations

Covid-19 Mini-Series: Education Perfect

Covid-19 has impacted us all. It's changing the way we live, the way we do business and the way we interact with each other. We've seen businesses react in a range of different ways, and decided to use this time to share some inspiring stories of digital business who are innovating to survive and thrive. In this short mini-series, we'll share stories of how businesses are managing this from the coalface, how they've changed their product/strategy and how they've made it all happen with remote teams, and what they see for the future.In the third episode of our Covid-19 mini-series, we talk with Fresho, a tech business that provides smart fresh food ordering software to some of the biggest names in the food industry.Up until the point of social distancing and isolation, Fresho were solely focused on providing solutions that enabled cafes and restaurants to place orders with wholesale fresh food suppliers. As you can imagine, the need for this type of product dropped significantly when restaurants could no longer welcome dine-in guests. Fresho's food wholesaler network found themselves with an abundance of food and excess delivery capacity. People still needed to eat, even though they were now confined to their homes. Could Fresho's platform help wholesalers get their food directly to customers? Fresho responded quickly, deploying a solution that has opened them and their wholesalers to a new market, enabling anybody to order from the businesses that supply their favourite restaurants. They went from a B2B business offering to a B2C within a matter of days. We spoke with Huw Birrell, Co-Founder and Co-Managing Director of Fresho about the new opportunities he and his team have found in some of the world's most challenging times. 

Covid-19 Mini-Series: Fresho

Covid-19 has impacted us all. It's changing the way we live, the way we do business and the way we interact with each other. We've seen businesses react in a range of different ways, and decided to use this time to share some inspiring stories of digital business who are innovating to survive and thrive. In this short mini-series, we'll share stories of how businesses are managing this from the coalface, how they've changed their product/strategy and how they've made it all happen with remote teams, and what they see for the future.In the second episode of our Covid-19 mini-series, we talk with Covidence, one of Cogent's long-term clients who build technology which enables better systematic review management. At the start of the pandemic, they were engaged as part of a world-first Taskforce to ensure that frontline healthcare professionals could treat COVID-19 with confidence, knowing that their approach is backed by evidence. Covidence has since created the first Covid-19 “living guidelines”, a single source of truth for all healthcare professionals.We spoke with Frank McKenna, the recently joined Chief Product Officer of Covidence, about the adjustments they have made, and the direct impact of their work on healthcare workers.To keep up to date with what is happening with Cogent, including when new episodes of this podcast are released, you can subscribe to our blog at cogent.co/blog. Or follow us on Twitter: @cogent_co or Instagram: @cogent_co.

Covid-19 Mini-Series: Covidence

Covid-19 has impacted us all. It's changing the way we live, the way we do business and the way we interact with each other. We've seen businesses react in a range of different ways, and decided to use this time to share some inspiring stories of digital business who are innovating to survive and thrive. In this short mini-series we'll share stories of how businesses are managing this from the coalface, how they've changed their product/strategy and how they've made it all happen with remote teams, and what they see for the future.One of our values here at Cogent is Wellbeing. The wellbeing of the people who work at Cogent has been of paramount importance during this time of rapidly changing context.Similarly, Smiling Mind has wellbeing at the centre of its purpose; specifically the wellbeing of young people, equipping them with what they need to thrive and excel in life.For them, this new context has meant rapid change on multiple fronts. The use of their already popular meditation and mindfulness app has grown by over 165%, and they've had to adjust from running workshops and training in-person, to delivering them digitally.In this episode we speak with their Chief Operating Officer Sarah La Roche about their new normal.To keep up to date with what is happening with Cogent, including when new episodes of this podcast are released, you can subscribe to our blog at cogent.co/blog. Or follow us on Twitter: @cogent_co or Instagram: @cogent_co.

Covid-19 Mini-Series: Smiling Mind

The founder journey can be a lonely one. Sometimes you wonder if it's all worth it, but it it's also full of reward, joy and a profound sense of achievement. In this episode we talk with Judy Anderson, CEO of Startup Vic. Startup Vic is a not-for-profit organisation which nurtures the community of founders in Victoria so that their struggles and joys can be normalised and shared, helping give founders the best possible chance to succeed.Judy gives as a insightful look into the life of a founder, the strengths of the startup community in Melbourne and highlights where the biggest opportunities for growth exist.This is our last episode for this season of the podcast, which has focused on digital businesses that are having an impact. Fittingly this is area that Judy sees as being the focus of the founders and startups they support in 2020.To keep up to date with what is happening with Cogent, including when new episodes of this podcast are released, you can subscribe to our blog at cogent.co/blog. Or follow us on Twitter: @cogent_co or Instagram: @cogent_co.

15. Startup Victoria with Judy Anderson

Corporate innovation is hard. Much has been written about it and there are countless ways to go about it, but the benefits are tantalising. For some organisations, it means that they continue to live; they can reinvent themselves before it's too late. For others, it is an opportunity to grow beyond what they are; to leverage the social, brand, intellectual, monetary capital they have built up to create something new.In this episode, we get a first-hand look at a corporate innovation story that, while still in its early stages, is a growing success. Agent Reach was a new product idea for the team at REA Group, and something Cogent was able to help create. However, the co-creation in this particular instance of corporate innovation was certainly not without its own rocky road.We spoke candidly about this project, and corporate innovation in general, with Andrew Rechtman, one of the Executive General Managers at REA Group, who oversees the customer experience across all of REA's product, both legacy and exploratory.To keep up to date with what is happening with Cogent, including when new episodes of this podcast are released, you can subscribe to our blog at cogent.co/blog,  or follow us on Twitter or Instagram.

14. REA Group with Andrew Rechtman

The stories that inspired the creation of many of the businesses that we work with are  pretty amazing, and we think the stories of Oculo and its founder and CEO, Dr Kate Taylor, are right up there with the best of them.Kate trained as a surgeon but discovered she had an allergy to surgical gloves and went to work at McKinseys where she founded the Global Health Initiative through the World Economic Forum. She eventually found herself having a conversation with a Professor of Ophthalmology, wondering how their profession could do such a good job at using technology for diagnoses and management, but still rely upon letters and faxes for correspondence.Today Oculo is a Melbourne-based startup that is having a positive impact on improving patient outcomes, both locally and internationally. We love the energy that Kate brings to her organisation and the vision she has for creating positive change.To keep up to date with what is happening with Cogent, including when new episodes of this podcast are released, you can subscribe to our blog at cogent.co/blog. Or follow us on Twitter: @cogent_co or Instagram: @cogent_co.

13. Oculo with Kate Taylor

'Enabling organisations to be great places for humans to work'It's one of those aspirations that's easy to say and agree with, but yet seems to be a challenge for so many workplaces nowadays.After a number of attempts experimenting with different product ideas to help move organisations in this direction, the co-founders of Culture Amp decided to try again, this time without writing a line of code. Armed with hi-fidelity designs they pitched their idea to HR leaders of large organisations to see if it had commercial viability.Fast forward a few years, and they now have a significant positive impact on the workplaces many of us are part of, including here at Cogent.We spoke with Doug English, co-founder and CTO of Culture Amp, about how they built the momentum they enjoy today, how they developed their own culture, and what's emerging in the domain of creating great places to work.To keep up to date with what is happening with Cogent, including when new episodes of this podcast are released, you can subscribe to our blog at cogent.co/blog. Or follow us on Twitter: @cogent_co or Instagram: @cogent_co.

12. Culture Amp with Doug English

When .ID (Informed Decisions) was founded, the term startup didn't exist. The founder was Ivan Motley and after spending a period of time working within larger organisations, he thought that by starting his own business he could create the change in the world he wanted to see. It's a familiar story for many of us today, but one that was a little more unusual 20 years ago..ID are all about harnessing data that tells a story, enabling those who are shaping our communities to make better decisions. They are demographers, geographers, economists and technologists, and have created an organisation that contributes significantly to impacting our society for good.Our guest for this episode is Lailani Burra, the CEO of .ID. Lailani originally came to the company to work within client services, and when Ivan decided to step back from the day-to-day of the business Lailani was appointed CEO. Now fifteen years into her time at .ID, Lailani is facilitating cultural change that's enabling this organisation to get even better at delivering products that improve our lives.We find .ID inspiring, not only for its vision, but also for the way they're going about it. 'Humble' and 'bold' are two of the values that drive the way .ID does business. Those values describe Lailani, they describe the culture of the organisation and they describe the way .ID approaches its customers.To keep up to date with what is happening with Cogent, including when new episodes of this podcast are released, you can subscribe to our blog at cogent.co/blog. Or follow us on Twitter: @cogent_co or Instagram: @cogent_co.

11. .ID with Lailani Burra

The construction industry has risk pretty much built in, from safety risks to budgetary risks and risks that appear years after the building has been finished. In an industry with such tight margins and such big upfront costs, even small improvements can have a large impact. Ynomia is an Internet of Things start-up that is working with construction companies to help them make one such improvement, specifically around gaining clarity on where their building materials are at any given moment of a construction project.To enable this vision they are immersed in a highly complex environment, bringing together partnerships with industry and research organisations, developing their hardware and software, and working out how to enable the tracking of materials on an ever changing construction site.We are impress by how they are going about it. They're understanding the key areas of learning to focus on, building a cohesive team and seeking to enable a better construction industry.We spoke with Matthew Lickwar, one of the co-founders of Ynomia, who brings his experience in engineering, international business and startups.To keep up to date with what is happening with Cogent, including when new episodes of this podcast are released, you can subscribe to our blog at cogent.co/blog. Or follow us on Twitter: @cogent_co or Instagram: @cogent_co.

10. Ynomia with Matt Lickwar

What would it look like if the technology we created was informed by the voices of many, and built solely to create positive outcomes?What would be enabled if careers in technology were more visible to indigenous communities: for the individuals who take up that career path; for the indigenous communities that are better served by technology; and more broadly for western and corporate Australia? Our guest for this week, Liam Ridgeway, is the co-founder of two organisations that together embody an answer to these questions. One is NGNY, a digital agency that is 100% Aboriginal owned and operated, and the other is Indgitek whose mission is to grow the number of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people who take up STEM as a learning and career path.We loved chatting with Liam and are excited about the impact his work will have.To keep up to date with what is happening with Cogent, including when new episodes of this podcast are released, you can subscribe to our blog at cogent.co/blog. Or follow us on Twitter: @cogent_co or Instagram: @cogent_co.

9. Indigitek with Liam Ridgeway

To view the show notes for this episode, visit: cogent.co/podcast-8Some products can only be described as beautiful, where the product just seems to nail it. Whether it's the considered details of design, deep learning enabling meaningful impact or the commitment the product shows to helping people to live better lives.We think that Up, Australia's first digital bank, is one of those beautiful products. We were full of excitement to talk with Dom Pym, co-founder of Up and Ferocia about his story, and it seems we aren't only ones. With over 140,000 customers after just one year of operation, Australians are resonating with the idea that Up can help them to live better lives through a clearer understanding and ability to control their finances.Dom gives us an inside perspective of the experiences and learnings over the past 10 years that have helped lead him and his team to this point. He also talks about creating a culture that enables them to sustain excellence.To keep up to date with what is happening with Cogent, including when new episodes of this podcast are released, you can subscribe to our blog at cogent.co/blog. Or follow us on Twitter: @cogent_co or Instagram: @cogent_co.

8. Up Banking with Dom Pym

To view the show notes for this episode, visit: cogent.co/podcast-6It can be a difficult to turn a consulting business into a product business. The two require very different mindsets and the immediacy of consulting revenue can be tempting to pursue over the longer-term benefits of product creation.The founders of Neighbourlytics seem to have negotiated this path well, learning quickly after winning the She Starts program, creating a product that is loved by customers, and now with a team of 10 operating from 6 desks, they just completed a $1.25 million seed  investment round.We spoke with one of the co-founders, Jessica Christiansen-Franks, about things like countering the bro-culture of tech startups, creating vibrant cities where people find a connection, and the importance of finding work meaningful to enable us to do great work.To keep up to date with what is happening with Cogent, including when new episodes of this podcast are released, you can subscribe to our blog at cogent.co/blog. Or follow us on Twitter: @cogent_co or Instagram: @cogent_co.

6. Neighbourlytics with Jessica Christiansen-Franks

To view the show notes for this episode, head to www.cogent.co/podcast-7Marty Andrews was high on our list of people to talk with on this podcast. One of Melbourne's early adopters of the principles of Agile, Marty helped bring about changes to the way software products were created for digital businesses in this city.The primary means for this was through co-founding Cogent 11 years ago, the Melbourne-based consulting business which produces this podcast. And while Agile is an important part of the Cogent story, so is its focus on values such as transparency and personal wellbeing, something Marty ensured was an integral part of Cogent's culture.Now, after recently completing his transition out of the company, he is the co-founder of the funded start-up Chargefox. Chargefox is Australia’s largest public charging network for electric vehicles (EVs). In our conversation we talk about things like the difference between a services and product business, transitioning out of a business as a founder, and the legacy of Cogent's focus on its values.To keep up to date with what is happening with Cogent, including when new episodes of this podcast are released, you can subscribe to our blog at cogent.co/blog. Or follow us on Twitter: @cogent_co or Instagram: @cogent_co.

7. Chargefox with Marty Andrews

To view the show notes for this episode, visit: cogent.co/podcast-5___The purpose of Code Like a Girl is as inspiring as it is clear: Liberating the talents of women and girls. Right now their primary way of doing this is through liberating the technical talents of women and girls through coding camps, internships and events.We thoroughly agree that this work is important, and some of the many reasons we admire this organisation. They do simply amazing work demonstrating the importance of diversity in product development, and in creating spaces where girls with a love of tech can feel they belong.We spoke with Ally Watson, one of the co-founders of Code Like a Girl, about how she accidentally fell into tech, the numerous experiences she had in being the only female developer in organisations she worked for, and her decision to do something about it.To keep up to date with what is happening with Cogent, including when new episodes of this podcast are released, you can subscribe to our blog at cogent.co/blog. Or follow us on Twitter: @cogent_co or Instagram: @cogent_co.

5. Code Like a Girl with Ally Watson

Cogent gets a pretty unique look inside digital organisations, which enables us to deeply understand what goes into make these types of business work well.We were thinking about this, and we were pretty sure there would be a bunch of other people that would like to hear about what we have learned both from us, and other people who are working in digital businesses around Melbourne. So was born the Cogent Conversations podcast.In the episodes that follow we talk with founders and leaders from organisations we see as exemplars of the digital businesses of Melbourne, getting their insights and experiences of what goes into making a digital business thrive. In this episode, we give you a quick look at the origins of this podcast, why we think it is important, and the types of organisations we will be talking with.To keep up to date with what is happening with Cogent, including when new episodes of this podcast are released, you can subscribe to our blog at cogent.co/blog. Or follow us on Twitter: @cogent_co or Instagram: @cogent_co.

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Cogent Conversations

hubhopper