The biggest obstacle for innovators is determining whether or not their idea is what people want and whether they're willing to pay for it.
That's according to Siobhan Curran, who heads up the University of Newcastle's Integrated Innovation Network or I2N, which supports budding innovators and entrepreneurs from the idea creation phase through to scaling up a company.
And the program has the success to prove that.
I2N has helped more than 170 teams to launch their ideas, which has created more than 230 jobs and raised more than $42 million in capital in the eight years since it began.
Ms Curran said I2N started from an ambition within the university to support startups and boost businesses in the Hunter and Central Coast.
"So that they could provide job opportunities for our graduates, integrated learning placements for our students and potentially undertake research collaborations with universities as well," she said.
"The reason why they focused on startups specifically was at the time there was a lot of buzz from the federal government in supporting startups because startups leverage technology to be able to scale and grow their businesses as quickly as possible to kind of get in the hands of their customers.
"And it's those companies that are creating jobs the fastest as opposed to more established companies who when times are bad, they might lay off staff, but then when times are good, they might rehire them again, so their net job growth isn't as dramatic as for startups."
Ms Curran said I2N delivered a range of free workshops and programs that helped people pinpoint the problem that needed a solution and what their ideal customer was already doing to help solve that problem to make sure that the product or service had a point of difference.
The I2N programs include pre-accelerator, accelerator, incubator and mentoring. A new accelerator is also being rolled out specifically for clean tech companies.
Among the success, there has also been ideas and businesses that haven't gone ahead because they've been able to figure out early that their product isn't different enough or there isn't the appetite in the market.
"Either they pivoted and changed or they've put it on the back burner and that's a good outcome too because it means people aren't spending lots and lots of money paying app developers to deliver something that isn't nearly going to be downloaded from the App Store," Ms Curran said.
The ideas that have been most successful though have come from founders with a passion for solving a particular problem.
"They typically have had from lived experience or it's something from their domain of expertise," Ms Curran said.
"A lot of the people that come through our programs succeed best when they have the customer or person who they're trying to create value for.
"Our region is really diverse. It's not a 100 per cent metro location. It has rural and regional pockets as well, and they have really unique problems.
"So coming at it from that lived experience and being able to provide that diversity of backgrounds within the geographic footprint we have in the Hunter region I think is a real strength too."
- Innovation Ready is an Out of the Square initiative produced in collaboration with Hunter Innovation Festival and the Newcastle Herald to highlight the region as an innovation powerhouse. The videos can be viewed at newcastleherald.com.au and innovationready.com.au
