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Quirky Kid was named Panel Choice runner-up at the 2016 iAccelerate Pitch Grand Final, recognising the organisation’s business model and potential to scale its psychology, publishing and digital work.
The fifth annual iAccelerate Pitch Final was held at the University of Wollongong on 27 October 2016. Six resident companies were selected to present to a panel of experts and a business audience after completing formal pitch training and mentoring.
The University of Wollongong’s official event report records Quirky Kid as the Panel Choice runner-up, with StabilCo taking the Panel and Audience Choice wins.
Turning a psychology practice into a scalable enterprise
At the time, Quirky Kid was developing beyond traditional clinic-based psychology. The organisation was building a publishing arm, expanding structured child-development programs and exploring digital ways to make psychological support available to more families and schools.
The pitch competition required finalists to communicate their market opportunity, competitive advantage and growth potential in a concise presentation to experienced business and investment professionals.
For Quirky Kid, the runner-up result provided external recognition that its combination of child psychology, educational publishing and emerging technology had commercial as well as social potential.
Part of the iAccelerate growth journey
The result followed Quirky Kid’s selection into the University of Wollongong’s iAccelerate program earlier in 2016.
Joining iAccelerate gave the organisation access to business mentoring, founder education and a university-backed innovation community while it worked on the systems needed to grow.
The Pitch Grand Final became one of the first public tests of that strategy, requiring Quirky Kid to explain how its clinical expertise could translate into products and services capable of reaching a larger market.
An early signal of later growth
The 2016 runner-up result sits within a broader period of development that later included international publishing awards, independent university evaluation, government growth grants and investment in the BriteChild digital psychology platform.
It remains a useful milestone in Quirky Kid’s company history because it captures the point when the organisation was beginning to articulate a scalable model around its psychology, publishing and technology work.
