About
Since 2015, the Innovation & Collaboration Centre has supported early-stage startups through providing workspace, mentoring and funding. Read more about our staff, entrepreneurs in residence and our startups.
Programs
The Innovation & Collaboration Centre is home to Venture Catalyst and the state's first space incubator program Venture Catalyst Space. These programs are designed to help founders start their business.
Director
As Associate Director of the ICC, Jasmine is responsible for exploring new and more effective ways of doing business every day.
For more than six years, she has led the UniSA’s flagship startup initiative, Venture Catalyst. Under her watch in 2016, the program received two Knowledge Transfer of Australia awards for ‘Best Entrepreneurial Initiative’ and ‘People's Choice Award’.
Leading a team of highly skilled staff who are passionate about bringing innovation to life, Jasmine is inspired by fostering communication and collaboration between talented graduates and entrepreneurs with innovative ideas and those with the experience to help new businesses launch and existing businesses to flourish.
With a focus on managing support programs for startups and uncovering new means of support within the university, her team has facilitated many industry focused education, workshops and events to further encourage progress.
She has been instrumental in driving and supporting a wide range of entrepreneurial initiatives within the University of South Australia, resulting in the development of a new incubator and accelerator program in the space sector. The South Australian Space Industry Centre committed $3.6M in support over a four-year period commencing in 2018 to the creation and support of startups in this field.
Prior to this role, Jasmine gained more than 15 years of policy and program experience, working in both the higher education and State Government sectors in innovation and technology knowledge transfer units. Her management of both entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship in both the UK and Australia are testament to her ability to effectively unite multiple stakeholders to deliver strong partnerships that deliver exceptional results in innovation.
Program Lead
Vasco's sweet spot is a mix of business development, project management and strategy.
Vasco has degrees in Business Administration and Environmental Management and previously worked for various design and tech startups in Amsterdam, Dublin and Berlin. Vasco also has a keen interest in sustainable living and innovation. He recently moved with his wife Down Under and enjoys the Adelaideian vibe, proximity to outdoor activities, and beach lifestyle.
Marketing & Communications Officer
Samantha brings a diverse skillset to the ICC, having worked across multiple industries. She comes to the ICC with a digital marketing and journalism background.
Samantha worked for the ABC for almost six years as a multimedia journalist before pivoting to project management rolls and strategy development in the marketing world. She has also worked with SMEs across South Australia, helping to scale their business and grow their brand.
Samantha has a deep interest in branding and buyer behaviour and is fascinated by the intersection between traditional marketing and contemporary digital strategy. She has a passion for writing and photography and loves to bring creativity to the ICC.
She loves good food and fine gin and has a beautiful golden retriever at home called Lilly.
Administration and Project Officer
Julia Collins has been working at UniSA since 2016 and joined the ICC team in July 2018 to provide administration and project support.
Previously working as an Executive Assistant working in both Adelaide and United Kingdom, Julia brings to the team a wealth of administrative experience in various sectors including education, investment management, finance and engineering.
Digital Officer
Alex Ferrabetta is the brains behind all things digital for the ICC.
He began working at the ICC in 2018 after previous roles for the University’s digital teams working on marketing automation, web authoring and creative marketing collateral.
Alex co-founded local video game studio, Melonhead Games working as an Environment and Graphic Artist, utilizing both his marketing knowledge and digital skills.
He has a Diploma of Screen and Media, an Advanced Diploma of Interactive and Digital Media and a Bachelor of Creative Arts, Digital Media.
LeapSheep
Kirk Drage is the Chief Executive and Co-founder of LeapSheep, a subscription advisory and startup building platform that aims to revolutionise the rate of startup success.
After 12 years at Microsoft holding many roles, including Head of Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Relations for Asia Pacific based in Singapore, Drage spent time in Silicon Valley developing Artificial Intelligence products and services before returning home to Adelaide in 2015.
Drage wants to support passionate and committed entrepreneurs with disruptive business ideas to create the next generation of hyper-growth startups.
“What’s not to love about this role?” Drage says. “Supporting early stage startups has developed into a real passion. As an entrepreneur and investor, I’ve made my fair share of rookie mistakes, it’s both highly challenging and rewarding to help founders avoid these common pitfalls. If we can focus on making brand new mistakes, we’ll either have a chance of running the gauntlet to success or at the very least, we’ll have a potential book project titled the ‘Innovative New Ways to Kill Your Startup’,” Drage says with a smile.
Drage met ICC Manager Jasmine Vreugdenburg after returning from the US and says he “seeks out” people like Jasmine who have “both a ‘pay it forward’ and ‘power connector’ mindset - fundamental elements to nurture the collaborative culture needed to support early stage companies”.
Vreugdenburg says Drage brings global experience and perspective to Adelaide, critical to helping new founders who are wanting to grow a globally successful and competitive business. “By growing founders here, we hope to build and maintain a culture of globally successful entrepreneurs in South Australia. Kirk understands the bigger picture and the global environment that current startups are competing in. He brings great awareness and his key networks to the startups we support in the ICC.”
Drage hopes to “support the development of investable startup companies and inspire serial founders” during his residency. “Our state needs to compete on the world stage to create the next wave of industry defining companies – the kind of companies that bring outsized benefits in terms of social impact, wealth creation and an entire ecosystem of jobs.”
“Our state needs to compete on the world stage to create the next wave of industry defining companies – the kind of companies that bring outsized benefits in terms of social impact, wealth creation and an entire ecosystem of jobs.”
User Experience Strategist, UX Researcher, UX Architect
Melissa Cooper works with businesses to build customer focused products.
Melissa's expertise is in customer research, innovation and solution design. She describes herself as a problem solver who fosters goal-orientated design thinking. Her passion is to create products that customers love and lead to business success.
Melissa's career spans over 15 years in San Francisco, Sydney and Adelaide.
Career highlights include joining Eventbrite as their first UX designer in 2011. As Director of UX, Melissa established a lean UX practice and built a team of 5 designers and 2 researchers. Melissa oversaw management responsibilities and created experience strategies to address company goals.
In 2015, Melissa moved to Dwolla to head up UX and Design. This role included managing UX, visual design, copy and front-end development. Together the team redefined Dwolla's core product offering to focus on a B2B audience. Key projects included a new merchant dashboard, developer portal, and on-boarding experience.
Melissa has designed user experiences for Australia's largest online publishers. While at Fairfax Digital she worked on SMH, Domain, RSVP and Stayz. At News Digital, she designed user experiences for Moshtix, news.com.au and The Australian. Melissa has also worked at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in the Innovation Unit where she focussed on mobile user experience.
HLB Mann Judd Adelaide
Mike is a Director of HLB Mann Judd Adelaide and has extensive experience in strategy, CFO and finance roles, also working in major blue‐chip organisations and advised SMEs throughout their business life cycle.
Mike’s career has provided him with international experiences; having worked with UK, US and Australian organisations.
Mike specialises in technology, e‐commerce, manufacturing, and service companies and has helped with business turnarounds, financial transformation and preparing them for growth and sale. Mike has been the owner and CEO of several businesses and uses this wealth of experience to advise and guide SMEs on establishing targets to achieve their objectives and vision. Mike’s methodology for driving strategy is through data and financial insights.
Mike is a key presenter of the export ready workshops on costing, pricing and risk management. This is aimed at emerging exporters, exporters looking for geographical diversification and mature exporters innovating and developing best practice. He has been an Export Award Judge since 2015.
Growth Expert
Ann Angel has a 25-year business background with international experience introducing new products to new markets.
She has been part of the management team in several Australian start-up technology companies in addition to establishing Asia Pacific distribution networks for a US technology company. Ann established her own medical device company in 1998, which has gained international recognition for introducing a new product to treat breast cancer patients. This product is now distributed around the world. She has particular skills in market entry strategy and distribution chain management.
Ann has a particular interest in medical device regulations, with experience in navigating this process in several countries including an appeal process with the US Food and Drug Administration. She has managed product development/manufacturing for several new products, with an emphasis on low-cost product development to gain market feedback. She has one approved patent and one pending patent application.
Her background includes work as an Investment Manager for SA early-stage VC Playford Capital and she is currently a Commercialisation Advisor for the Federal Government grants program, Accelerating Commercialisation, and a facilitator for the women’s network Behind Closed Doors.
The Partner Engagement Team streamlines access for industry partners to a wide range of programs and engagement opportunities available across UniSA. The team focuses on making it as easy as possible to do business with UniSA – ensuring that the programs and activities are appropriate to their needs, and able to deliver the outcomes anticipated.
As the technology commercialisation arm of the University of South Australia, UniSA Ventures collaborates with researchers and industry to translate research outcomes into commercially viable products which have a positive social impact. Key services offered by UniSA Ventures include commercial assessment, Intellectual Property (IP) advice and protection, technology licensing, capital raising and spin-out company formation.
The Australian Centre for Business Growth at the University of South Australia delivers world-class business growth programs that provide executives with the knowledge and skills they need to develop as leaders, accelerate company growth and compete in a global marketplace. Their programs teach executives how to lead and manage growth via diagnostics, expert presentations, facilitated group discussions, peer-to-peer learning and action planning.
Match Studio is a dynamic and non-traditional research and learning space where UniSA’s teaching and research expertise is combined with real-world, industry-linked projects with a range of industry, government and not-for-profit clients. It creates the right environment for knowledge exchange so that industry and business can identify and articulate a challenge or a problem, and work with a purpose-built interdisciplinary team with the right mix of skills.
UniSA’s Future Industries Institute (FII) focuses on building knowledge and capacity in core future industries and develops the University’s internationally competitive research capacity across four key strands: Minerals and resources engineering, Energy and advanced manufacturing, Environmental science and engineering, and Biomaterials engineering and nanomedicine.
“The most important things you need to do to make your startup successful are not on your task list or in your inbox.”
– Terry Gold, Entrepreneur in Residence 2019
“Don’t compare yourself to the superhumans who started the latest and greatest tech wonder companies. It will only discourage you. Learn from them, but be thankful that you have what it takes”
– Terry Gold, Entrepreneur in Residence 2019
“Who you hire is more important than what you sell.”
– Terry Gold, Entrepreneur in Residence 2019
“Having lots of things on your task list means you have the opportunity to choose what is most important that only you can do. If it isn’t important, why is it on your task list?”
– Terry Gold, Entrepreneur in Residence 2019
Monday to Friday................8am to 5pm
Weekend & public holidays.....closed
Adelaide
Level 2, UniSA Bradley Building
Adelaide, SA 5000
(08) 8302 7368
Regional
UniSA Building L/111 Nicolson Ave
Whyalla Norrie, SA 5608
(08) 8302 7368
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