App provides food for thought

Health Delivered is the brainchild of RMIT MBA Executive alumnus Tanya Gilliver and her business partner, Pete Saunders, who has tutored in advertising at RMIT.

In December, with the support of the RMIT Activator, they flew to London as Australia’s representative to promote the concept at Pitch@Palace Global.

Pitch@Palace was established by the Duke of York three years ago to offer entrepreneurs with tech business idea the chance to showcase their work to a global audience of influencers.

Saunders said the idea for Health Delivered was prompted by concerns about malnutrition among the elderly.

He pitched the idea with a small team at a hackathon run by HealthXL, involving companies Bupa, IBM and Northern Health – winning the malnutrition category and placing in the top three.

“The app is aimed at dietitians in private practice to begin with, but we aim to expand to cover hospitals and community care, aged care, and sports nutrition,” Saunders said.

“The app is going to help dietitians during the consultation process by allowing them to enter their clients’ goals, health background and taste preferences and generating a meal plan that can be shared by phone.

“It will also pull in data from wearable medical devices. Overall, it will save dietitians time and allow clients to log feedback on what they like and don’t like.”

Gilliver said: “About half of all Australians have a chronic disease. Dietary factors and high body mass index are the two leading risk factors.

“We want to provide a positive solution not just for those people directly affected but also those at risk.”

Saunders said the experience of Pitch@Palace week was “nothing short of surreal”.

“One morning having tea in Buckingham Palace, to boot camps on pitching taught by choreographers.

“The next moment, learning about international expansion, IP laws and tax concessions, to shaking the hand of Prince Andrew and being blown away by his active, genuine interest in seeing start-ups succeed.

“The pitch night itself is an intense whirlwind. You hold the stage for three minutes. You are anchored by the responsibility of representing your country, your idea and most importantly, the person you are on stage with.

“It’s hard to really remember everyone I met and everything we spoke about.

“Offers from investors, partnerships with leading cancer research and hospital networks, introductions to the NHS, UK and Australian governments all happened in a matter of minutes.”

RMIT Activator Director, Renzo Scacco, supported the pair in London.

“Pete and Tanya did an awesome job as Australia’s selected ambassadors for the event.

“They had just three minutes to pitch their idea and made a real impression on the panel. The experience has set them up with a global network of contacts.

“This is what RMIT Activator is all about – an initiative that helps current students, staff and researchers grow successful start-up ventures, turbo-charging start-ups and research innovation projects into commercialisation.

“Pitch@Palace is heading to Australia in 2017 and I’m hoping there will be more RMIT teams taking part.”

Story: David Glanz