Dean Dobson

One of the largest and most active business angel networks in Australia connecting high-potential companies with our investor members, to collaborate with exceptional founders, and collectively forge revolutionary companies. We are a member-run organisation of active investors. Our members are entrepreneurs, CEOs, and business leaders who have founded, financed, and developed exceptional companies. Our members possess diverse industry knowledge, forming a broad network of entrepreneurial assistance. We guide and support the startups we invest in, taking on advisory roles, offering connections, and aiding in areas such as team formation, strategic development, and financial planning.

At Board Associates, we support owners in driving long term growth and value creation. We do this by creating, staffing and running Advisory Boards for our clients. In our experience, owners struggle with 3 things that impede their business: 1. They don’t have the right experience to guide the next stage of growth 2. They lack the breadth of expertise to run all parts of their business well 3. They don’t have access to experts who provide objective advice, challenge thinking and drive accountability Board Associates solves these problems by creating a professional Advisory Board made up of relevant experts and who partner with owners to drive long term growth.

Buildvation is a new technology startup company looking to contribute to the huge opportunity for Digital Transformation in the Construction and Resources industries by applying innovative technologies to solve safety and efficiency problems. Recent technology advancements have opened up opportunities to improve safety and efficiency on construction sites that were difficult or expensive previously. Buildvation will bring to market several products using new technologies like smart glasses (augmented reality), sensors and artificial intelligence to improve safety and productivity on construction, oil, gas and mining sites. The initial product 'Rigger Assist'​ is a retrofit product for cranes to make them smarter, safer to operate and more productive. We want to focus on crane safety as crane operations are one of the riskiest activities on construction sites - in Australia over the last 10 years cranes were involved in at least 22 deaths, over 2000 serious injury cases and significant financial losses for both the operator and customer. Rigger Assist provides the crane rigger or dogman with real time data about crane loading as well as calculated guidance to optimise the lift setup, helping to ensure a clean lift without swinging or pitching, the cause of many on-site accidents. Future products will build on the technologies used in Rigger Assist to apply machine learning for early safety warnings (when crane operating parameters are trending towards danger), predictive maintenance and operational efficiencies. We are aiming to have Rigger Assist for purchase by April 2018 and already have a prototype which has proven itself in field trials for the last 6 months to improve lift setup for a clean lift. We are also looking to connect with like minded startups dealing with IoT in the construction, mining and related sectors that we can partner with, so if what we are doing at Buildvation is of interest, then please get in contact: info@buildvation.com.

One of the largest and most active business angel networks in Australia connecting high-potential companies with our investor members, to collaborate with exceptional founders, and collectively forge revolutionary companies. We are a member-run organisation of active investors. Our members are entrepreneurs, CEOs, and business leaders who have founded, financed, and developed exceptional companies. Our members possess diverse industry knowledge, forming a broad network of entrepreneurial assistance. We guide and support the startups we invest in, taking on advisory roles, offering connections, and aiding in areas such as team formation, strategic development, and financial planning.