Meet our members // The Melt Accelerator team
Founder Trent Bagnall and Malcolm Turnbull launch The Melt at Dashworks Makespace in Warners Bay
What is unique about your business offering?
There are few investors who can minimise the technical and execution risks associated with hardware innovation projects. There are also very few professional engineers who can provide the product management, commercialisation and governance required to realise a return on investment. The Melt’s offering covers both of these necessary services for the complete lifecycle of the innovation venture.
The Melt’s unique and diverse offering provides:
- Entrepreneurs and SME’s the opportunity to develop the capabilities required to build hardware businesses and succeed in international markets.
- Large companies with the ability to liberate internally ‘trapped’ hardware projects and IP to save time and money, mitigate risk, improve operations and get new products into the market quicker.
- Students with the ability to gain valuable real-world experience working alongside startups and corporates on exciting and valuable projects with the aim of gaining employment and keeping talent local.
What is the biggest challenge you see with start-ups and entrepreneurs building commercial products?
The biggest challenge is understanding and managing risk. Hardware innovation, due to its complex nature, is very unforgiving of mistakes. The product development strategy needs to be focused on risk identification and mitigation rather than the usual “Design it Build it” waterfall. Unlike purely software projects, hardware innovation has limited opportunity to fail and pivot so the iterative sequence needs to be well planned and orchestrated. Also, we see many Startups who build a great product who assume this equates to a great business. Of course, Startups need to build great hardware products however they also need to ensure that the business model is sound, sustainable and successful – this is where The Melt can help.
How are you finding being a member of the Makespace community?
Makespace provides so many opportunities for connection and collaboration. The diversity of businesses here means that there is generally one degree of separation between what you need and having that need met by someone’s network. Also having the innovation lab housed within the building creates a lot of efficiency and it’s inspiring to see products come to life at speed.
What advice would you give someone who is struggling to get a prototype to market?
Stop struggling. Come in and talk to our experienced product managers who have brought a complex product to the market. We can help you set up a plan to take control of your destination.
Where do you see the Melt headed in the next 5 years (with start-up and corporate businesses in mind)
We plan to scale our reach with a network of like-minded people, increased capabilities and capacity to be able to further accelerate hardware innovation and stimulate future employment opportunities for the Hunter region and beyond. We intend and are working towards creating impact on a global scale.
How can people apply to the Melt Accelerator program?
Easy. Check out our website and apply at. Unlike traditional accelerators with cyclic cohorts, our program is always open. A great place to start is to visit our website www.themelt.io and book in a strategy discussion or discovery workshop to see how we can help.
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The Melt industrial prototyping lab and innovation accelerator are set to power the creation of the world’s best products and it all started right here at Dashworks Makespace. Read more about The Melt here
Join our vibrant and supportive community to build and commercialise your product. Access industry-grade prototyping equipment, software and programs to accelerate your success – book your free 5-day trial here.
A few stories of many finding success with Dashworks.
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