From UQ to Silicon Valley with Robert Quinn

Olivia Mackenzie-Ross (UQCS): 0:00

Hello, and welcome to the Router, the official podcast of the UQ Computing Society, where we explore the human side of tech. I'm your host, Olivia. And on this week's episode, we'll be talking to Robert Quinn about his experience in the fast paced startup industry. So thank you for joining me Rob. Um, let's start by if you could tell me a little bit about yourself, that would be awesome.

Robert Quinn (Patchd): 0:30

Yeah, for sure. Olivia, uh, so look, uh, my name's Robert Quinn, um, I'm actually a UQ alum, both of engineering and of biomedical science. Um, and I started a company in Australia a few years ago to save my own life, um, called Patchd, um, uh, Patchd. We use deep learning and wearable devices to predict the onset of sepsis. Um, I, you know, I had 18 episodes of sepsis following a liver transplant, actually. Um, and it's crazy because sepsis kills one in six times. And honestly, the only reason I survived was that I could tell I was getting, getting sick. You know, I could sort of get the sore legs and a warm face and I would show up at the hospital early to be treated. And so my buddy, uh, from Monash actually down in Melbourne and I, um, we sort of sat down together and were like, like, we need to do something about this. And what we realised was that we could probably use deep learning and off-the-shelf wearables, uh, to do the same thing for others. And so I guess that's how Patchd was born. Um, now since starting the company and we started in Australia, we started in, um, in Sydney actually together, we both moved to Sydney. Um, we went through muru-D and like now we find ourselves in the, in the United States. You know, we went through YC, we've raised a couple of million dollars. They building the building out the company ever since. Um, so now that's a lot right out the gate, but there you go. That's I guess my background.

Olivia Mackenzie-Ross (UQCS): 1:40

Yeah. Awesome. No, I feel like that's, that's actually a good, a good little summary that we can like kind of dive into. Um, so I feel like kind of starting at the very start, you had an awesome idea. How did you kind of get it off the ground initially?

Robert Quinn (Patchd): 1:54

Yeah, sure thing. So, uh, look, honestly, it was mostly just luck and determination. Um, more than anything else. I think the trick, honestly, it was just the start and, and that sounds insane. It's like, Oh, you just stopped. Like, that just sounds crazy. But that's what we did. You know, when we first started and I was in my final year of university, I mean, I've been at UQ now for seven years and I was going into my eighth year and we used to post like PCBs down to each other. Like he lived in Melbourne, I lived in Brisbane and we'd post PCBs to each other and we'd meet up in Sydney every, every month or two. And we'd sort of like, just discuss like, how are we going to get to the next milestone, how we were going to do the next thing, you know? And, um, I guess that's just how we just started. And the more time you spend working on the project and thinking about how you can turn it into a business and get it off the ground, you come up with these crazy ideas and you start trying those crazy ideas. Um, things just start to happen. Uh, I mean, we, we were scrolling through the like, how can we get some money to get so we can quit our jobs and like start this company and go full time. This was after we'd finished university. And we came across muru-D, I'm like, Oh my God, they'll give us$40,000, for just an idea, let's do it. You know? And so we did, um, you know, we, we ended up getting into muru-D. We quit our jobs and that was sort of the start of the journey for us. Um, it was crazy.

Olivia Mackenzie-Ross (UQCS): 3:07

Oh, that's that's yeah, that's very, very exciting. Um, how did you find, I guess, like quitting your jobs for obviously just the lump sum payment, how did you manage with, I guess the, the security of not knowing, not knowing how much income you were getting there.

Robert Quinn (Patchd): 3:24

Look, honestly, I think this is, this is an Australian thing. I think Australians are very risk averse in general, um, which is like, it's, it definitely works out. Um, it's, it's beneficial for us in a lot of ways. Um, but it also, like we're very risk averse, you know what I mean? And so you sort of, you said, well, I'll take me whatever risk there. Right. Cause like, you know, I, I just graduated university. I was working in Melbourne and Telstra at the time and like to quit the job and just go like, Hey, we're going to survive off the$40,000. It's it's nuts. Right. But I think that's sort of what drove us in some ways. Right. Because like we quit and then it's like, well, we've only got$40,000. We've got to turn that into something. Now they've got to raise money or we've got to like release a product and we've got to, you know, and it really got us. Um, I think the struggle to keep food on the table makes you innovate more quickly than I think most other things can. So really, um, yeah.

Olivia Mackenzie-Ross (UQCS): 4:15

I mean, yeah, it's a good, good motivator for sure. Um, how was the process of like applying for that, that$40,000?

Robert Quinn (Patchd): 4:24

So moody is what they call a startup accelerator. I'm sure if you like the people that listen to this, um, being a, you know, engineering students, they, they probably are aware of this, but basically an accelerator. Uh, what they do is they, they teach you how to run a company effectively. Um, and so, I mean, we went through moody, we went through Y-Combinator in the United States. We went through TMCx and we did them all for different reasons. And so the$40,000 was to get into moody and to start, like, I think, uh, UQ has iLab, um, I think that's the main one that Nimrod Klayman is running or is involved with in some major way, um, or IdeaHUB or something like that. Um, sorry I'm showing my ignorance. There has been a while since I've been at UQ, but, um, yeah. And so like an accelerator sort of helps you grow your company. And so we basically applied online through their website, um, which sounds absolutely nuts, but we did, we did the same thing with YC and we did the same thing with TMCx and they got into all three of them at the end.

Olivia Mackenzie-Ross (UQCS): 5:19

Awesome. Yeah, that sounds like it worked out super well.

Robert Quinn (Patchd): 5:23

Yeah. I mean, yeah, we got very lucky. I think being able to close a couple of million was a, that was a big turning point for us. It was like, wow, like, you know, we can now hire the staff that we need. We can build out the product. And that was all a result of honestly going through accelerators and learning how to run a company and how to raise money and lots of stuff.

Olivia Mackenzie-Ross (UQCS): 5:42

And so then you kind of took it over to the US how come you did end up moving over to the U S with the company?

Robert Quinn (Patchd): 5:49

So, I mean, if you look at Australia, um, Australia's fantastic, right? I love Australia, amazing for running a small business. A surprisingly difficult place to a startup. Um, just the investment, uh, like the investment landscape, a little bit newer, uh, like the, the culture is a little bit less, like a bit less, I'd be more risk averse, I should say. Um, and it's, it's not like it hasn't sort of been steeped in startup culture for many years. Um, whereas Silicon Valley, obviously, right. It's like the creme de la creme of where startups go. And if you look at the reasons why, right. Like America has 350 million people, Australia has 20 something million, right. And so like, you're talking about a market that all speaks English. Um, you know, it's a much bigger market. People have a, like, you get the billionaires in the U S like lots and lots of billionaires that are willing just to throw money at an idea and see, and say, that idea can take off. Um, and so I guess that the opportunity is more here, and I think that's why we moved across the United States. I think the other thing that plays into this right, is that not only is the population larger, um, but particularly with a medical device, you need to go through some sort of regulatory approval, right. And in Australia, that's the Therapeutic Goods Administration in the United States, that's the FDA or the Food and Drug Administration, but they're roughly equal in terms of like money, time, energy committed to actually get it across the line. And if you go through the TGA, you're accessing a market of 20 million people and one universal health care system. Whereas in the United States, if you go through the FDA, you're looking at 350 million people and one of the largest healthcare budgets in the world. Um, and so it's just a completely different, a different beast. And I think that's why, one of the main reasons we went to the United States.

Olivia Mackenzie-Ross (UQCS): 7:26

Yeah. That, that makes sense. Um, I guess is, is move, is going to the United States with your like idea. Is that something you would recommend as a way to really properly get someone's startup off the ground? Or do you think it is like more based on what you're kind of doing? Um, and like what your goals are?

Robert Quinn (Patchd): 7:49

Yeah, for sure. I think once upon a time, I used to always tell people, like, go to the United States if you've got a startup, you know, um, I think as I have now matured as a founder, I realize that different startups have different requirements. And, um, if you're, if you're a small business stay in Australia, Oh my God stay in Australia. You know, like if you're running something that's not like massively scalable, um, you know, like probably an example is like a coffee shop or a, you know, like, Oh, like a, some sort of engineering consultancy, or, you know, one of these things that's not scalable. It's not a product that can expand, stay in Australia. Australia's one of the best countries in the world to run a small business. It's incredible. Like just the support you get. And, uh, but if you're trying to run a startup, um, I would highly recommend coming to the United States when I say startup, I mean, specifically venture backed, raise a couple of million, do a series A, do a series B, exit in some way. Right. And the, and the reason I say this is investment in the U S is you just tend to get much bigger valuations and it's much easier to close money. I mean, like some of the valuations we were getting in Australia were on 2 million Australian, right. For me when we were leaving. And by the time we reached the United States that had gone to 8 million US dollars. Right. And so, like, the difference is monstrous. And I think that makes a big difference into like who you can hire. And I guess how you can expand and things like that,

Olivia Mackenzie-Ross (UQCS): 9:10

I guess, on the note of moving further down the, the startup and like actually turning it into a proper business, how did you find the transition from, I guess, being All about just developing the technology to becoming more of a founder and a head of a company?

Robert Quinn (Patchd): 9:34

Sure. Um, I think this was the interesting part for us because I was I'm technical, right. I studied at UQ. I did engineering, I did biomedical science. Um, but my buddy Wei is probably a much better, well, not probably he is a much better engineer than I am so very early on, we sort of delineated into, he would be CTO. I would be CEO, um, and probably within, out, within, within 12 to 18 months, um, I had lost a lot of the actual doing of the product and I was more focused on the actual business aspects. Um, it happened really quickly for me. Um, and I just sort of like, I guess that's the big thing with running a company, right? Is you just need to evolve. Uh, I need to evolve quickly, right? You need to learn quickly. You need to have an open mind and just assume you've got, you know, nothing. Right. And I think that's what happened on the business front is I just assumed I knew nothing. I asked lots of questions. Very soon I was figuring out how to raise money, you know, how to pitch investors, how to, how to go to industry, how to convince hospitals that they should work with you. Um, and you sort of, you have to do that even more when you're moving to the United States as well, because business is done very, very differently here. Um, so in Australia it's very much they're like,"no, no, no, no," and then like, finally, they're like,"Oh yes. Okay. I'll, I'll do this". Whereas in the United States, it's very much like,"yes. Yes. Oh yeah. That sounds great. Yeah. That sounds amazing. No, I'm not interested." Um, so a lot of it's about like, uh, yeah, just, I guess, learning on the fly.

Olivia Mackenzie-Ross (UQCS): 11:01

So I guess, would you say you had to kind of become more of a, like a people person?

Robert Quinn (Patchd): 11:07

I mean, I was already pretty outgoing to begin with. Um, and I think that sort of helped us out a lot. Um, there are a lot of technical founders. You'll notice this in YC, like YC likes to back a lot of technical founders. Um, and a lot of them, like maybe being people first isn't there isn't their strong suit. So they, they bring someone into that role or they evolve to become that role. Um, for me personally, I I've always been fairly like people first more than anything else. I'm very like chatty and social. So it wasn't so much of a problem for me.

Olivia Mackenzie-Ross (UQCS): 11:36

Yeah. That's fair enough. Um, so talking about the YC, what was it like actually going through such a, such a big accelerator?

Robert Quinn (Patchd): 11:48

It's insane. I mean like Y Combinator, Oh gosh. Oh my goodness. Like, it's just, it's something else. So you've got 150 of arguably the best companies in the world that are in your batch. So you don't get a whole lot of time with the partners, but they whittle this down. So they interview about 10,000 companies every single year and they pick 300 of the best in two150 company batches. Right. And so you're sort of looking at some of the smartest, most ambitious, most aggressive founders in the world really. Um, and so that the experience is more for me from YC was more around, um, I guess, networking with just incredible founders because being a founder is lonely. I mean, like, don't let anyone tell you otherwise, like it's a tough job. It's unforgiving as long hours. And like, you really need other founders to, I guess, lean on and talk to because there's a lot of things you just can't discuss with many other people. And I mean, if I start talking to some of my friends about my company, they zone out and it's like, it's just not something that they like, well, it's another world, you know? Like they're working their corporate jobs, like whatever. So like, I think for me, it was about getting that network of founders and like to learn, right. Cause like you all have different experience. You all have different knowledge, so you can learn from each other. So that's also the biggest thing from YC for me. Um, but I think more than that, why supervise this insane network? I mean, you look at the companies that have gone through YC, you've got Airbnb, you've got Dropbox, but they're just like the top two, right. Or the top couple, there's so many more there's Brex. There's like just, you keep going Stripe. Like you keep going down the list and it's just phenomenal companies there. Um, and so like you just get connections to these incredible people, I guess, not to mention the partners themselves are incredibly intelligent and easy to talk to and really knowledgeable as well.

Olivia Mackenzie-Ross (UQCS): 13:39

Yeah. That sounds like a fantastic program. I have to say. It sounds like it'd be very, very intense then like competitive and

Robert Quinn (Patchd): 13:46

It's very intense. It's not so competitive. It's more collaborative. I think that's actually something that I guess a point I could make to anyone thinking of starting a company that's listening to, this is in Australia what I noticed is that everyone was afraid to share their idea in case someone stole it, you know? Um, it's really not that much of a risk. Like, like it maybe, but not really. You know what I mean? What you notice in the U S is it's much more collaborative. Like you tell everyone what you're doing. Oh yeah. We're building a, unless you're running a stealth startup, which is like a, there's not too many people to do that, but most people like they share their idea and other people help them along the way. Like, it's not a, it's not a one man or three man journey. Right. It's like this it's a big undertaking and you shouldn't be afraid to share your idea. Most people won't have the guts to get, get a company off the ground with your idea. And like those that do. I mean, like, I just, it's very, very low probability of that happening. I think the benefits outweigh the risks.

Olivia Mackenzie-Ross (UQCS): 14:44

Yeah. So like, yeah. So I guess around having, having the, the drive to start that, um, how, how do you feel like once you've kind of started with the idea or like even have gotten a little bit further along, how do you keep yourself motivated to, um, keep, keep going and keep working at it?

Robert Quinn (Patchd): 15:06

You know, that's a really good question. And I think it, honestly, it comes down, at least my experience has been, and it comes down to the mission and why you're building the company in the first place. When you're building the company, because you're in it for the money you're going to be out within 12 months. I mean, like if I look at the things that I have to do, like in the early days, like when we raised that$40,000, it's a long story, but we had this, the situation occurred. And when I needed to pay a bunch of money out of our pockets, like 20 something thousand dollars out of pockets in order to keep the company alive in order to keep the lights on, I was driving Uber from 6:00 PM at night, till 10:00 PM at night. And then I'd wake up in the morning at 6:00 AM and I'd drive people to the airport and like, that's crazy. And then I'd worked by the way from eight or nine through til five o'clock at night. And I'd wash, rinse, repeat, you know, and I've worked both days and the weekend. And I did that for a good four to five months. Um, sort of keep the lights on. Um, because you know, we had a couple of small disasters along the way. And like, you just don't do that. If you don't have a bigger purpose and a bigger mission, it's like, I'm done, you know, and if we'd quit, then we'd never would be where we are today. And I think that's like, I think it's just honestly perseverance and having a mission big enough that you're willing to do the crazy stuff when you need to. Um, and like, I look back on that time and I'll finish up the story cause it's interesting. But like, so I was driving Uber to keep the lights on, you know, and I would drive people to the airport and everybody that hopped in my car, I would ask them what they did so that they would then ask me what I did. And the reason I did that is I realised that if they asked me what I did, I could practice my 60 second pitch. And so I practiced my 60 second pitch with essentially everybody that hopped into my car. And like, if you think about the fact that I did that for six months, I 60 second pitched probably about 500 people in that car or that space of time, that's a lot of practice. Right? Yeah. And so anyway, this competition came up to win$40,000 if you could do a good 60 second pitch, the St. George Kickstart Competition in, in Sydney. And so we applied and naturally after practicing that much, I was pretty good at doing a 60 second pitch and we won it. Right. And so that 60 second pitch ended up letting us get$40,000. No questions asked. We ended up, uh, we ended up getting publicity in front of a hospital. The hospital then agreed to conduct the study with us. And then from that study, we ended up getting into YC, because YC, is like,"Oh my God, you're doing a study." And so then that brought us over here. And then we raised a couple of million and like, that's the sort of stuff that like, you just don't do the mission. Isn't strong enough or if your, you know what you're trying to build. Isn't like a, I guess you're not passionate about what you're trying to build. If you're in it for the money. You're like, there's way better ways to make money.

Olivia Mackenzie-Ross (UQCS): 17:46

Yeah. Cause I know, I feel like a lot of people do have some exciting project that they often start, but it doesn't quite get completed or it doesn't, it doesn't quite fully happen. What, what was the mission for you? I guess like with your project,

Robert Quinn (Patchd): 18:00

I mean, to save my own life, really, was a pretty strong one. Honestly like if you consider the last year in America, at least, uh, sepsis killed more people than lung, breast and prostate cancer combined. I mean, that's monstrous. Um, I've been on the other side of it, I've had 18 episodes of sepsis or more than 18 episodes of sepsis. And sepsis is a condition that kills one in six times. Right? Like I've met people who have lost people. Who've lost friends and family from sepsis. Um, I've personally been on the other side of it. It's scary. Right. Like I landed myself in the ICU. I remember getting helicoptered off like Tahoe. I mean, like, this is a problem that needs to be solved. Uh, and I guess I want to be a part of that and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get there. Um, and I think that's, yeah, I guess that's why the mission mission is personal to me.

Olivia Mackenzie-Ross (UQCS): 18:49

Yeah. I mean, I feel like that that is the most personal, like way to have a mission is kind of a life and death situation. Yeah.

Robert Quinn (Patchd): 18:59

Just on that actually to not discourage people from doing this. I mean the mission doesn't have to be as cut and dry and crazy as me. Right? Like about solving a problem like that. It, it can be something that you're just passionate about or something that it just has to be more than money. And I think that's, that's the key is if you're doing it for the money, don't, go move across to the United States, become an engineer for Google. Earn like hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars and be happy with your life. Like starting a company, you've got to have a larger mission. You've got to have a larger purpose with it. Um, so yeah, I just thought that's something I should add.

Olivia Mackenzie-Ross (UQCS): 19:34

Awesome. Okay. Thank you. I think that's pretty much all of like all of my questions that I have prepared and I feel like we've covered a decent amount, which is really awesome. Um, is there, are there any like, um, anything else you'd like to say a little bit about the whole startup journey?

Robert Quinn (Patchd): 19:55

Yeah. I think what I would say is if your, a student sitting there thinking, I really want to start a company, um, on X, Y, or Z. Right. And I'm passionate about it and it's not based on money. It's something that you really think you'd love to do, or you'd love to make a difference in the world in some way. Um, go for it. I mean, Holy shit. Just start, um, learn, absorb all the knowledge you've got. You've got it in you. Right? Like the world is like a, what's that saying? The world is made up from people no smarter than you. Like, you couldn't do this. Right. I know I'm a country kid from Toowoomba that went to UQ and started a company. Right. Like there's nothing particularly special about me. There's nothing particularly special about any of the companies really in YC, they all have these impressive sounding resumes, but it's mostly, it's mostly just, just show. Right. Um, and, and you've got it right. Like you can do it. And I think that's the part that a lot of, particularly in Australia, a lot of founders struggle with as this, like it does, it seems so intangible. It seems so unreachable, but it's, it's not like you can, you can do this. You can be where I am right now. You can move across the United States, raise a couple of million and start a company. There's nothing stopping you. And, um, yeah. I just say to anyone out there, who's thinking of doing it, give it a crack. I mean, what have you got to lose that once you get started, it's a five to seven year journey. Um, sometimes up to 10 or more, so get ready for that, but what have you got to lose? Give it a try.

Olivia Mackenzie-Ross (UQCS): 21:19

Awesome. I feel like that's, that's fantastic motivational advice for sure. And I hope it does encourage like more people to pursue their great idea because so many people do have fantastic ideas and just not, not the motivation or not. Don't, don't feel inclined to try and realise them.

Robert Quinn (Patchd): 21:41

And an idea, an idea, isn't a comedy until you execute, honestly, like there's all these people have amazing ideas and they sit on them and they take them to the grave or they watch someone else build them out. But like, honestly, like you just need to take that idea and turn it into a company, uh, or turn it into something. If you think it's that good, like tested with users, like try it out and turn it into something that could really help the world. Um, I it's, it's, it really pains me to see that particularly in Australia, there's a lot of brilliant people. We ended up going well going and working for like, and there's nothing wrong with this investment banks. And like you name it when they, they, you know, and what their real passion was to start a company. I don't know. I just really hope that some people listening to this just decide to take the plunge and see where it goes. Um, you may end up be a gigantic flop, right. It may be a disaster, but God damn it. Give it a try.

Olivia Mackenzie-Ross (UQCS): 22:31

Yeah. Well awesome stuff. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining me for this one, um, Rob. I think it was really insightful as to whole the whole startup process, which I feel like is, um, often a little bit mystified. It's really hard to get a firsthand account of going all the way, including like going all the way to America, going through all these fantastic accelerators and then actually getting a proper business out of it at the end. So thank you so much for sharing that with us today.

Robert Quinn (Patchd): 23:01

No worries at all. Thanks so much.

Olivia Mackenzie-Ross (UQCS): 23:03

And that's all we have for you today. Please join us again two weeks from now for our next episode, until then, come join our community at slack.uqcs.org.