The University of Sydney Business School has announced the winner of its flagship start-up accelerator Genesis. The top prize was taken out by 24-year-old Sophia Kurianski, who secured $25,000 for her solo venture Jinolo, a 3D and 2D computer-aided design (CAD) file-sharing platform that helps connect engineers, suppliers, clients and other team members.
Kurianski was inspired to launch her own venture by her personal experience studying mechatronics and computer science at the University of Sydney.
“I was working on a group project creating a robot component, and we were swapping USB drives trying to keep up with the latest version of the design. There are good online tools for keeping track of group work on software and I realised we need the same for hardware,” Kurianski explained. “I spoke to engineers, industrial designers and other people who have tried to solve the problem, and given my technical background, decided to build the solution myself.”
Kurianski launched her company with the help of an NSW Government MVP grant and the University of Sydney start-up launcher INCUBATE.
On being a part of Genesis, Kurianski said, “The mentors are incredible. They gave a lot of actionable advice, and I was able to see progress immediately, which is crucial. And the other start-ups were really inspiring.”
With the win, Kurianski is looking ahead to a venture capital raise in 2023 to grow her company, focusing on recruiting engineers to add requested product features.
“Our beta partners include small-to-medium design shops, consultancies and hardware producers, and they’ve been really happy with the product while accepting it’s not perfect. Their advice and feedback has been invaluable,” she said.
“My advice to other entrepreneurs is to take one small step at a time,” she added. “Rather than looking at the peak of the mountain, which is intimidating, just focus on making a bit of progress each day.”
Open to University of Sydney staff, students and alumni, Genesis accepts what the program considers the best start-ups twice a year and help them accelerate their commercial and social enterprises. Its members over the years have secured $52 million in funding, created nearly 1000 jobs, and the current community boasts over 500 start-ups involving 1500 individuals.
Joining Jinolo as this year’s participants were: Zipr, a TikTok-linked service allowing users to buy and sell wardrobe items featured in their videos; KomplyAi, which enables safe and rapid adoption of AI technologies into government and enterprise organisations; Enigma2, an AI-powered neural rendering to convert foreign films to English; and Carapac, which offers compostable packing that is made from crustacean shells
Manager of the Genesis program, James Crowther, said he felt privileged to play a small part in the journey of the participants.
“The vibe for this cohort was amazing! Our panel of judges routinely said that it was tough deciding on who to award the prize to. The start-ups were unusually strong this time round,” Crowther said. “I’m so delighted that Sophia won the prize, she really impressed everyone with her tenacity and spirit. She has an infectious passion for her craft, and she does not let up!”
