The last time I spoke about the inter-generational cooperation platform I am working on with my co-founder and CEO, Andy Smith, our startup was still called Koostoo. But the name didn’t play well with audiences. So we have renamed the startup Abide, we even have a website now!

Abide took a big and important step this year by being accepted into the Impact Boom Elevate+ social enterprise accelerator. Elevate+ is funded by the Brisbane City Council, and we were selected from a competitive field of startups draws from across Brisbane City.

Brisbane City Council is the largest local government in Australia because way back when, we merged a lot of small town councils into one super council. We do this a lot in Queensland.

So while a city like Sydney is bigger then Brisbane, they don’t have one big city council that covers the entire city. What that means is that Brisbane City Council can do a lot more then the other city councils. So they have a economic development unit that supports initiative like Elevate+.

Andy, Tom and I, at the Impact Boom Elevate+ cohort 2019 welcome event

The Elevate+ cohort for 2019 was announced last Tuesday, the 5th of February, and even though I was in the middle of the MIT Bootcamp, I was able to take some time to make an appearance at the Brisbane Social Enterprise Drinks & Networking, meet Tom Allen, the CEO of Impact Boom, in person. Before rushing off to the MIT Bootcamp networking event. It was a very busy night.

Getting accepted into Elevate+ was very important for Andy and me because we are both working on sweat equity for now. So it would be very easy for us to let Abide slip by the wayside. But now we have a target to work towards because the graduating cohort of Elevate+ gets to pitch in front of the Lord Mayor, and other at The Triffid on the 6th of June. Along the way, we have a set time during the week where we get to take time and work on the startup.

The first session took place the Tuesday just past, the 12th of February, at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, South Bank Campus. The first module that goes with the session is also now available online to complete. I am looking forward to using this opportunity to develop Abide further, making something of an idea that enjoyed strong support from QUT, which has to date put in $3,000 in seed funding, and the community at large!