HealthTech Activator - Market Validation workshop - 31 March 2021

Robust market validation is one of the most common weaknesses in early deep tech businesses looking for investment. It’s a challenge that can lead you to make the wrong product for the wrong customer, an expensive and avoidable mistake. This workshop unpacks the following for your project:

• Market validation – what’s different for deep tech?
• Clarifying the problem context and the customer
• Identifying assumptions and how to (in)validate them

The workshop should help you produce a market validation report that demonstrates the rigor of a best-practice market validation process. Robust market validation is crucial when it comes to seeking funding, and scaling up your project into a viable business.  

Aimed at early-stage healthtech companies, the workshop will focus on helping innovators to better define the problem their technology is solving.

Event details:

• Market validation essentials online learning and pre-work assignment - this should take no more than two hours to complete and will be sent to you a week before the workshop for you to complete in your own time
• In-person workshop session - Wednesday 31 March, 9am - 4pm, hosted at Makora Tahi, Generator, PwC Tower (Commercial Bay) Auckland CBD  
• Follow up session - a virtual session as arranged with the facilitator at the workshop. 

Cost per person - $75 ex GST plus booking fee. The $4.80 booking fee will be donated to the Educational Equity for Maori and Pasifika Learners.

This workshop is strictly limited to a maximum of 5 companies, with an allowance of 2 people per company. As part of registering for this workshop, you commit to attending all sessions. We will also be in touch with you prior to ensure this is the right programme for you. 

Facilitator:  Julia Chambers

Julia Chambers has more than 25 years’ experience working internationally in pharma-biotech, including with Eli Lilly (UK) and Genzyme (US). She has significant experience evaluating commercial opportunities and executing corporate transactions, working with senior stakeholders in both major corporates and early-stage companies. 

Julia's professional passions include helping innovative, high-growth businesses thrive globally, and investing in a diversified NZ economy. Her experience covers venture investing; governance; product development and commercialisation; translational research and development; innovation and high-growth strategy; global scale-up and expansion; and corporate development.

Julia currently holds governance and strategic commercial advisory roles including:

Chair of Humble Bee, which is working to replace existing, toxic and unsustainable plastics with superior, biologically inspired materials to improve human and environmental health: https://www.humblebee.co.nz/

Non-executive director of Kode Biotech, which is commercialising and licensing Kode™ Technology – a multi-functional nanotechnology that offers rapid biosurface modification: https://www.kodebiotech.com/

Julia holds an MBA from Alliance Manchester Business School (UK), where she was also a mentor on the full-time MBA programme.

For more information on this workshop contact Anne Wight, anne.wight@callaghaninnovation.govt.nz