Lumen Autumn 2017 - Flipbook - Page 13
story by Ian Williams
Start-up gurus offer
mentor support
Don and Michelle Perugini are life and business partners – two gifted
research academics and entrepreneurs who love nothing better than
taking a great idea and turning it into commercial success.
T
he two University of Adelaide
graduates transformed their first
business, ISD Analytics, from a
start-up to an international tech company
which they sold to global business
group EY in 2015.
During the transition, they became
executive directors in the company and
made another discovery – their real
passion is in the start-up community.
And that’s great news for young
academics attempting to capitalise
on their own brilliant ideas. Both Don
and Michelle are now offering their
considerable expertise as mentors to help
kick-start new tech companies.
“Our real interest is in driving these
very new and advanced technologies
and building them from the ground
up,” says Michelle. “We quickly missed
the excitement.”
While Michelle and Don’s early specialist
fields are quite different – Michelle is
a medical scientist while Don focused
on defence research – both became
experts in advanced analytics and
artificial intelligence.
They used this expertise in launching
ISD Analytics with its groundbreaking
software that can predict consumer
behaviour to support business
decision-making.
Late last year they launched a new
venture, Presagen, which uses advanced
artificial intelligence technology used in
defence to support business automation.
At the same time, they are donating
their services to the University’s
Adelaide Enterprise program where
they are assisting with various
commercial-ready ventures.
“We’re really interested in building
companies from new innovations and
through the University of Adelaide we have
access to hidden gems of world-class
research which can be commercialised,”
says Don.
“It means we can mentor people
who just need a little bit of confidence
and guidance to get out there and
commercialise their research. When we
started ISD we relied very heavily on
our mentors and now we’re trying to
give something back.”
Among their most recent mentoring
successes are Dr Jonathon Hall and
Dr Melanie McDowall.
Jonathon and Melanie’s 'Life
Whisperer' technology took out two of
the top awards for medical innovation and
research commercialisation at Australian
eChallenge, which is run by the University’s
Entrepreneurship, Commercialisation and
Innovation Centre (ECIC).
Life Whisperer provides non-invasive
image analysis to help improve embryo
selection for couples attempting to
have children through IVF.
Don and Michelle have
formed a partnership
with Jonathon to
commercialise the
technology.
“I was previously involved in translational
medical research so it fits very well within
the embryology application,” says Michelle.
Don and Michelle are also mentors in
the United States accelerator program
Techstars which is opening its first AsiaPacific operation in Adelaide.
“This is one of the biggest accelerator
programs in the world and will run from
July to October,” says Don.
For more information visit
adelaide.edu.au/echallenge/information/
Don and
Michelle Perugini
The University of Adelaide | Alumni Magazine 11
