From lab to boardroom: How Australian inventors become founders

There's a community full of amateur robotics builders and inventors emerging across Australia, and one Sydney startup is ready to bring engineering tools to the masses.

“I’m amazed at the level of creativity. They’re making robotic projects, illuminating their surfboards, animatronics, they’re working on their cars,” says head of mini oscilloscope maker Pokit, Paul Moutzouris.

An oscilloscope is an electronic testing tool that tracks a range of metrics including voltage. Pokit is a tiny version of this technology that costs a fraction of the professional engineering tool and connects to your smartphone app.

It’s being spun out of electronic product consultancy Ingenuity design after Moutzouris and his team stumbled upon significant interest when working on it as a side project.

Pokit launched a $20,000 Kickstarter for the tech and met that goal in five minutes, going on to raise more than $200,000 from the general public for the technology.

It was a big opportunity and making the transition from the world of development to that of startup founders was an even bigger step.

“We’ve had to learn everything on the go: marketing, community support and technical support,” Moutzouris says. Read more

Emma Koehn - Brisbane Times - 31 Jan 2019