What made you enter the iAwards?
While we had won startup awards before, we hadn’t entered any prestigious business awards. This is the first year we have actually been selling a commercial product worldwide. We are no longer building prototypes and just wowing people with a technology, we are actually a business with revenue! Being the only commercially available volumetric display in the world – completely changing the world of display technology and the viewing of 3D data – we thought we had a good chance.
Why would you recommend entering the iAwards?
Often it’s about the people you meet. We’ve been surprised that we have actually built partnerships with many of the other entrants, with some even becoming customers and buying VX1’s! Along with the recognition that comes with a National iAward, it also puts us in a category alongside companies like Atlassian and Xero, two companies that have gone on to do such amazing things. This is something we mention to potential investors.
What did you learn from pitching at the National iAwards?
It certainly gave our CEO a reason to refine and practice the Voxon pitch in front of a large group of people. By refining your pitch, you concentrate just that little more on where the business is at and what direction is it heading. The pitch is about selling your story and communicating your passion as to why you believe your product will succeed in solving problems, or in our case, delivering the future that science fiction has promised!
What advice would you give other young innovators considering entering?
Just do it… What is there to lose? Consider it a marketing expense and a team building exercise at the very minimum, and you can’t go wrong.
How does it feel to have won the Consumer Markets iAward at the National iAwards?
We are absolutely stoked! We love what Australian company Atlassian has done in tech over the years, love what Mike Cannon Brookes stands for, and for us to be put in the same category, we are just over the moon!
What’s next for Voxon?
September was a big month for us. After winning at the iAwards, we were off to San Francisco for TechCrunch Disrupt and then, the Mobile World Congress in LA for a collaboration with Ericsson and Verizon to create the world’s first two-way 3D volumetric video conference call over 5G. We then travelled to Japan for the Tokyo Game Show to debut our arcade game version of the VX1. This was so successful that we are now looking to start selling the arcade version of the Voxon VX1. And, yes – there’s more exciting stuff ahead, some we can’t even mention yet 🙂
Do you have a fun fact about your iAwards journey?
Gavin Smith, our CTO and Co-Founder, had avoided owning a suit for many many years. We made him buy one for the iAwards. He scrubbed up ok…
Find out more!
For more information about Voxon Photonics, visit their website.