Meet Heba Khamis - the CEO and Founder of Contactile, who design sensors that replicate human touch in robots. Contactile have just finished the Fast Start program, a bespoke 6-month coaching program for high potential entrepreneurs to supercharge their commercialisation journey.
We sat down to talk to Heba about her experience in the program and what she and the team have been able to achieve in the last 6 months.
"Our mission is to give robots a human sense of touch so that they can use their hands with extraordinary dexerity just as we do."
Contactile is a deep tech hardware startup making tactile sensors that give robots a human sense of touch and enable robotic dexterity.
At the end of 2020, we were awarded a Tech23 prize of 6 months sponsored incubation at Cicada Innovations! One-on-one mentoring from deep tech entrepreneur experts?! We were stoked!!!
Ben and I eagerly met with Dharmica and Sally Ann and fixed the start date for our 6-month roller-coaster ride in March 2021. There were highs - meeting face-to-face (it seems but a distant memory) with mentors and Cicada residents and conversing over food and coffee at the new Locomotive St eateries… And there were lows - lockdown...enough said.
We set big hairy goals, and we were forced to focus our efforts on the things that would help us to achieve them. Each and every week, we were held accountable... What had we done? What hadn't we done? What had we learnt?...don't underestimate the power of having someone ask you these three very simple questions each week.
And at the end of every weekly catch-up, Dharmica would utter six little words: "What can I do to help?"; which would be followed by introductions to people with particular expertise that we required, mentors and other founders - a never-ending network of people to call upon for advice and support and that "happy to help" spirit which is so constant (yet still surprising, considering how busy everyone is with their own ventures) that is abundant in the start-up ecosystem.
We've learned a lot during these six months - the importance of goal setting, staying focussed, tracking progress, and celebrating the wins!
And we'll take these learnings and continue to apply them onwards and upwards.
Thank you to the entire Cicada team for all your support, and we look forward to celebrating the end of our incubation with you in person, when we are allowed!
Fast Start Incubation is a chance for a startup to set goals that really push them to stretch beyond what they traditionally see in front of them as a goal. Contactile came to me as an already ambitious team, who had come quite the way but still hadn't got to where they wanted to be. With such a broadly applied technology such as the Contactile sensors, we sometimes underestimate how hard it can be to articulate something as simply as where we want to be.
Together, we talked through their mission, their vision, their achievements to date and where they wanted to get to next - we set some aggressive targets and kicked off this 6-month program. I have so enjoyed challenging the team and watching them grow from strength to strength in the time they spent as residents of Cicada Innovations.
In 6-months, they have released a second prototype of their product, developed a refined, targeted communications strategy, closed paid orders, validated their key market and customers and built over 10 new relationships with key partners. It has been a lot of work for the team and a lot of grilling from me - but what has made them so successful is their open minds and work ethic. They have taken on each challenge and come out with a focussed, determined strategy.
I am really proud of what Heba and Ben have achieved these last 6 months. I cannot wait to see them propel into the next phase and look forward to supporting them even as they graduate out of this program. It has been a pleasure to get to know them and work with them, and I wish them every success going forward.