We had the opportunity to interview Esther, the founder of Agili8, this month. Her award-winning smart glasses with deep learning capabilities are designed to reduce human errors, time delays, and knowledge gaps.
Q1: What did you do before starting Agili8?
Before embarking on my entrepreneurial journey, I was the Deputy Commercial Director in charge of 7 departments with 100 staff and 3000 contractors at a large global miner.
I became Managing Director and subsequently Chairwoman for another mining exporter, winning multiple awards before starting Agili8.
Q2: How did Agili8 get started?
I founded Agili8 – an adjective meaning Empower to work Smarter. Faster. Safer as a Business For Good, when my second son lost his vision at 16 years old from misdiagnosis and delays during the COVID-19 lockdown, precluding a gifted child from more than 60% of the jobs in the workforce.
This made me realise that this misdiagnosis and delay problem leading to adverse events affect more than 136m people globally yearly.
As I shared my story, I found many more people like me who had their loved ones taken away or robbed of a future like my son. So many babies and kids died prematurely, with people young and old all suffering from permanent disabilities, mental health issues and family breakdown, but 80% of these deaths and disabilities are preventable!
The root cause of this problem is often due to the frontline clinicians not having sufficient information, experience or expertise to diagnose the medical condition accurately. More often than not, they work under extreme stress and pressure to perform with long working hours in understaffed conditions to cope with complex cases they have never dealt with before.
That’s when I decided to combine deep tech using extended reality, artificial intelligence and computer vision which we call XRAI Vision, to solve this problem by delivering knowledge on-demand in real-time.
We connect front liners to remote specialists or AI assistance through lightweight smart glasses connected to a mobile app and web platform to empower humans to work Smarter. Faster. Safer, and deliver quality telehealth transcending time, distance and exorbitant costs with benefits to both patients and clinicians alike.
Q3: What’s been the most challenging thing about starting a start-up in Western Australia?
We don’t have a mature startup ecosystem like Silicon Valley or huge government and private sector funding like in Singapore. Investors in Western Australia tend to only invest in resources, property and blue-chip listed companies, which precludes most start-ups in other industries.
Ironically, despite Western Australia having one of the highest rates of self-made billionaires in the resources and property sectors, wealth or knowledge of successful entrepreneurship is not shared or flowed into the startup ecosystem here.
Unlike the US, Europe or Asia, where the economies are highly competitive with the survival of the fittest culture, Aussies tend to be very risk-averse to new technologies they don’t understand or even suspicious of out-of-the-box ways to solve problems differently. The Lucky Country mindset stifles innovation as we are too blessed and cosy with the status quo.
Q4: What piece of advice do you give aspiring entrepreneurs in Western Australia?
Don’t go alone. Be humble to seek advice or mentorship from those who have done it before. One great thing about Western Australians is that we are mostly kind and generous with our time and advice, so don’t be afraid to ask.
Also, surround yourself with great people who share the same PPE as you – Purpose. Passion. Ethics to make your vision a reality. That is the foundation of a great company that will last beyond your generation.
Don’t forget to treasure your loved ones and help those in need. After all, we all only have one life to live.
For instance, one project we did last year was to crowdfund for the Foundation of Indigenous Sustainable Health so we can deliver our telehealth solution to remote Indigenous communities who suffer the problem we are so determined to solve, especially when there is a huge lack of doctors in the Kimberleys. Deliver telehealth to Indigenous communities - Lift Women
Another project we are currently doing is to support Dr Tim Inglis with our solution in his London Marathon to raise funds for disabled kids. You can read more about how we use our innovation to optimise human performance, prevent injury, and create assistive technologies to help people with limited mobility.
I strongly urge the community to give generously and make a difference to those needing our help!