MySupervisorOnline.com Selected for One of Ten Coveted Spots in ANZ Innovyz START Accelerator Program

ANZ Innovyz START today announced that MySupervisorOnline.com, an online resource, support and networking site to assist Honours, Masters and PhD students, is one of the ten innovative companies that have been selected for the coveted three month accelerator program launched by Innovyz and ANZ.

Since its launch on February 24, the ANZ Innovyz START accelerator had over 130 Australian and International applicants to the 12-week program.The program has signed on over 45 mentors from Australia and around the world. Some of the best innovators and business minds will be spending a week in Adelaide with the ten companies in the accelerator and will maintain an ongoing mentoring relationship with the participants. Seven of the ten companies selected are from Australia: Sydney (1), Brisbane (1), and Adelaide (5) and three are international: USA (2) and New Zealand (1).

MySupervisorOnline.com was founded in 2011 by Dr Christine King to support Honours, Masters and PhD students undertaking a research project or research degree. The primary aim of the company has been to establish an online networking and resource tool to enable students to interact with each other and with academic supervisors across the globe.

MySupervisorOnline.com is supported by a robust IT infrastructure and strong knowledge-based components. It is based on sound market research, testing with students and supervisors across time zones, and feedback and endorsements from associations and institutions. Although currently focused on the postgraduate market, the MySupervisorOnline.com platform is applicable to other professional areas where supervision is required.

Dr. Christine King, MySupervisorOnline.com founder, said “I spent 15 years managing small and large scale multi-stakeholder, international projects, for both the Government and the University sectors. These experiences have provided me with the knowledge, background and skills to create the resource infrastructure for MySupervisorOnline.com. But commercial realities and the challenges of growing an entrepreneurial venture are new areas of learning for me. The ANZ Innovyz START program will give me an opportunity to learn the start-up process in a professional but safe space, enabling me and the company to learn how to adapt and respond to new challenges in a constantly changing global environment.”

Dr Jana Matthews, ANZ Innovyz START Program Director, said: “MySupervisorOnline.com is at a critical stage. They have developed a concept, built the website, and are testing various aspects with subsets of their market. Double-sided platforms are interesting, and sometimes tricky to get right. Our mentors and I believe we will be able to guide them to a successful strategy that meets the needs of customers and monetises the platform. Those who have been through the TechStars program say it’s the best decision they ever made, and we know our companies will feel the same about the ANZ Innovyz START program.”

ANZ General Manager for Small Business, Nick Reade says the ANZ Innovyz START program fits perfectly with ANZ’s commitment to encouraging and fostering more entrepreneurship, innovation and start up businesses in Australia.

“I was also very happy to see the diversity in the applications and the number of companies that have the potential to grow on a regional and global scale, which aligns with ANZ’s super regional strategy. I look forward to working with all the participants and following their companies as they accelerate through the next phase of their growth,” said Mr Reade.

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ANZ Innovyz START is 12-week accelerator program modelled after the highly successful TechStars program in the United States (rated as the world’s #1 accelerator program). Many companies apply but only 10 are accepted. Those CEOs and one or two team members move to Adelaide, AU for 3 months (May 28 – August 17, 2012). ANZ Innovyz START will give an $18,000 grant to each company ($6,000 for each of three founders) to participate in the program. The Program Director works with each company to develop a viable plan for commercializing its break-through innovation. The program includes mentoring by successful entrepreneurs, learning programs around growing a company, identification of target markets, working and reworking the company’s plan, and a presentation to potential investors on the final day of the program. ANZ Innovyz-Start is one of 40 accelerators in the Global Acceleration Network that was created by TechStars. http://www.innovyz.com/innovyz-start

ANZ is committed to Start Up businesses and the broader small business sector. Currently the bank of choice for over 390,000 small business customers, ANZ has one of the highest approval rates of loan applications from start up business, approving 76 percent of ANZ start up loan applications. ANZ offers small business customers a range of easily accessible tools and resources to support their business at any life stage, including the ANZ Business Insights Tool, which allows registered customers to track sales trends and compare performance with local competitors.

Dr Matthews was recruited to the original senior team of the Kauffman Foundation’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and was the architect of highly successful programs designed to teach CEOs and their executive teams to lead and manage growth.

She is the author of fifty articles and seven books, including Lessons from the Edge and Leading at the Speed of Growth. She has worked with CEOs of growth companies in the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, China, India and other countries in Asia Pacific, has taught at several universities in the region, and was a Global Thought Leader for SAP.

Dr Matthews is the founding CEO of The Jana Matthews Group, based in Boulder, Colorado and an international expert on entrepreneurial leadership and business growth. Named “One of 18 women business gurus in the world” by Pink Magazine, Dr Matthews studied at Yale, the University of London and has a doctorate in management and planning from Harvard University.