Product Updates

We are glad to announce that VideoTranslatorAI is embarking on the Proof of Concept (PoC) phase of the [NSW Small Business Innovation & Research (SBIR)](https://www.nsw.gov.au/grants-and-funding/grant-recipients?nid=82869) Program – Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Challenge.

This next stage is pivotal as we build on the insights and successes of the Feasibility Study. Advancing to this phase brings us closer to breaking down language barriers and making healthcare and other essential services more accessible to culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

## A Grateful Word of Thanks
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the South Western Sydney Local Health District (SWSLHD), the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer (OCSE), and the Small Business Innovation & Research (SBIR) program team for this incredible opportunity. Their support, guidance, and belief in our vision inspire us and strengthen our resolve to make a meaningful impact.

We would also like to acknowledge the invaluable contributions and ongoing leadership of Professor Josephine Chow, Principal Investigator and Deputy Director of Research at SWSLHD; Chair of the South Western Sydney Nursing and Midwifery Research Alliance, SWSLHD, and the Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research.

Additionally, special thanks to Aleisha Heys, Clinical Midwifery Consultant at Fairfield Hospital; Safa El-Dadoun, Clinical Midwifery Consultant at Lidcombe-Bankstown Hospital; and Sam Shen, Health Language Service Manager at SWSLHD.

We sincerely appreciate their commitment to innovation and are honoured to collaborate with such dedicated partners. Together, we are excited to push this groundbreaking technology forward to enhance healthcare communication for the CALD community.

## A Milestone Achievement
The completion of the Feasibility Study marks a significant milestone for VideoTranslatorAI.

Our team worked tirelessly to develop a platform that provides:
1. A customisable video translation solution that is compatible with existing media content.
2. The capability to create tailored glossaries and dictionaries for medical terminology with accurate translations for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities.

We are incredibly proud of the progress we have made and the positive feedback we have received. This achievement underscores our commitment to enhancing communication in healthcare settings.

## What’s Next: Proof of Concept
With the Feasibility Study behind us, we are now moving forward to the next exciting stage of the SBIR program: the Proof of Concept (PoC). This phase will require us, as the grantee, to develop a tangible prototype of the solution proposed during the feasibility study. The goal of the PoC is to advance our solution to a level where it is technically ready to be considered for procurement by the NSW Government or other customers.

#### Objectives for the PoC Phase
Our main objective during the PoC phase is to develop a telehealth app with video conferencing capability and real-time transcription and translation. This tool will help clinicians who need to communicate with patients with limited English proficiency.

Our telehealth app enables clinicians to speak in English, which is then translated into the patient's language. Patients can reply in their preferred language, and their responses will be translated into English, facilitating effective two-way communication.

Along with the telehealth app, our team is also enhancing the video translation capability, which has been partially delivered in the Feasibility Study. This tool enables health communication staff to translate existing video content into CALD languages, ensuring equality of health information accessibility for all.

These goals seamlessly align with VideoTranslatorAI’s mission to leverage AI’s potential to break language barriers and promote effective communication across multicultural communities. We believe that our solution can help address the challenges faced by healthcare professionals while also advancing the broader goal of improving healthcare accessibility for everyone.![large_Healthcare_accessibility_e8bdb466f3.webp](https://storage.googleapis.com/vtai-web-media-prod/cms/originals/blog-inline/cc2894f144f46f759099f3ba55b5f23d30881c4ec4f122268aa8f7e665c6a08e.webp)

## Conclusion
As we embark on the PoC phase, we invite you to stay connected with us. Follow our blog and social media channels for regular updates on our progress, insights into our development process, and announcements of upcoming milestones.

Your support and feedback are invaluable as we strive to break language barriers and promote accessibility for all.

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from VideoTranslatorAI!

If you have questions, [try our product now](https://agent.videotranslator.ai/chat). 

VideoTranslatorAI Advances to the Proof of Concept Phase in the NSW SBIR Program!

VideoTranslatorAI enters the Proof of Concept phase in the NSW SBIR Program to enhance healthcare access for culturally diverse communities with AI solutions!

Elephant Stripes builds applied AI products, internal tooling, and delivery systems.

Turn AI use cases into production workflows, internal tools, and customer-facing products with senior delivery judgment.

Practical AI Consulting That Ships

Elephant Stripes helps teams design, build, and ship practical AI products, workflow automation, and production-ready AI systems.

Elephant Stripes | Practical AI Consulting

Home

Elephant Stripes designs and ships practical AI systems for real business workflows.

DISCLAIMER: This blog post was updated after having a conversation with JobsForNSW. [3 Dec 2019]
**
Please check the JobsForNSW website for updates. The process covered below changes regularly and DO NOT rely on the below to be correct going forward. It was correct at time of publication, but talking to the JobsForNSW staff it is LIKELY to change pretty soon.**

Earlier this year we put in an application for a Minimum Viable Product Grant from JobsForNSW, a [NSW Government initiative](https://www.nsw.gov.au/).

In this blog post we are going to look at the entire process and work through our successful application. Specifically:

What is the MVP grant and where do you get more information?
What the grant process looks like and what information we had to provide to get the grant.
What the grant process was like, step by step, at a procedural level.

The point of this post is to provide information to anyone else within the Sydney/NSW startup ecosystem who is also looking into this grant and potentially applying.

Will probably do another post of the content of (a) the videotranslator.ai grant application itself, and (b) the progress report at the end.

We are also hoping to have a follow up post where we talk to one of the officers inside JobsForNSW to get a insider view into how the process works.

## What Is The JobsForNSW MVP (Minimum Viable Product) Grant?
From the JobsForNSW website, Minimum Viable Product (MVP) grants are designed to support promising startups with the funds needed to progress from a proof of concept stage to a minimum viable product. The grants are aimed at startups that are yet to generate revenue to help them engage with a potential business customer, or channel to market, and create innovative solutions that address compelling industry needs or market gaps.

## How Much Money Can I Get From The JobsForNSW MVP Grant?
From the JobsForNSW website, An MVP grant is a matched funding grant up to 50% of approved project costs, to a maximum of $25,000.

Remember: You do not have to ask for the full $25,000.

In the specific case of videotranslator.ai we had a total project cost of $41,400.00. The idea is JobsForNSW is funding 50% of approved project costs, to a maximum of $25,000. Hence the amount we ended up getting for our project was $41,400 * 0.5 = $20,700.

## Assuming We Get The Grant - What Is The Timeline For The Application Process?
From the JobsForNSW website, Successful grant applicants will receive 35% of the funding up-front and 65% after completion and validation of the MVP.

The exact sequence of events is provided below:

**DISCLAIMER: SmartyGrants below is the old system - JobsForNSW are transitioning to a new system.**
- You put in your application using an online system called SmartyGrants. The form itself is fairly straightforward - we did not use any external consultants.
- You get a notification saying your submission has been received. This is an email and looks like below. **Note the blacked out telephone numbers and emails are public, but have been hidden to the JobsForNSW staff don’t get spammed. If you really need to reach them, get creative with Google.**

![large_blog_assets_winning_how_we_won_a_jobsfornsw_mvp_grant_winning_how_we_won_a_jobsfornsw_mvp_grant_1_2d841642ba.webp](https://storage.googleapis.com/vtai-web-media-prod/cms/originals/blog-inline/b3b2d6cad41e3d63f80db42c944b867368afab8c72e923fcb555222e1d501099.webp)

- You get another notification saying you have been moved to round 1 of the selection process. Unless your application is terrible and you have not completed the form, you should get to here without too many issues. It looks like below:

![large_blog_assets_winning_how_we_won_a_jobsfornsw_mvp_grant_winning_how_we_won_a_jobsfornsw_mvp_grant_2_7333df57c9.webp](https://storage.googleapis.com/vtai-web-media-prod/cms/originals/blog-inline/94b2e99e9ab9dfd3f3359d084cd98de17d450b32322fbfe6bcc52df1b0895fec.webp)

- Once here JobsForNSW has an internal process. In another post we will talk about how that exactly works. For now, the application goes to an internal committee and either you get the grant or you don’t get the grant.
- In our specific case, videotranslator.ai got the grant - Winning! Also, on winning the grant you get notified by email. This looks like below:

![large_blog_assets_winning_how_we_won_a_jobsfornsw_mvp_grant_winning_how_we_won_a_jobsfornsw_mvp_grant_3_7d07efd6c7.webp](https://storage.googleapis.com/vtai-web-media-prod/cms/originals/blog-inline/540d11a63436a2bbb7028f119c2391d7db524193d9f85b7b2484602f2ffe2ede.webp)

- You will also get another email, from a person - that how you know :)

![medium_blog_assets_winning_how_we_won_a_jobsfornsw_mvp_grant_winning_how_we_won_a_jobsfornsw_mvp_grant_3b_a6b1b3e79a.webp](https://storage.googleapis.com/vtai-web-media-prod/cms/originals/blog-inline/7468d364e7740c615562758151a39f68e53b73ff73b07250cd2d0d835e9f2444.webp)

- Download the deed, and make sure you sign and return the contract.

![medium_blog_assets_winning_how_we_won_a_jobsfornsw_mvp_grant_winning_how_we_won_a_jobsfornsw_mvp_grant_3c_0908e6e6c5.webp](https://storage.googleapis.com/vtai-web-media-prod/cms/originals/blog-inline/27f7927293f5c4bd3b6b3bfff43e0e760ff1b293cc161421a983ad71b4571db5.webp)

- Sweet - the entire process took maybe 8 weeks - its a pretty quick turnaround.

## Assuming We Get The Grant - What Do I Need To Know About The Deed?
The grant is fairly simple. That being said, there are a few things which are really important:
- The grant will cover the budget you put into your application. You really want to get this part right!

![medium_blog_assets_winning_how_we_won_a_jobsfornsw_mvp_grant_winning_how_we_won_a_jobsfornsw_mvp_grant_5_6a2f148313.webp](https://storage.googleapis.com/vtai-web-media-prod/cms/originals/blog-inline/d1855567226fa0babac3abcda8b75eab14dfff12f7bb071ad87dcd799629ac1a.webp)

- Additionally, it is important that 80% of the Project Costs are within NSW. This does not mean if you pay Google Cloud or AWS or Azure you are in breach, it means that you can use a maximum of 20% of your budget on offshore resources. You also need to be aware that the duration of the projects is a maximum of 6 months.
- Don’t worry too much about being too specific - in private conversations, the JobsForNSW staff understand you are a startup and maybe not everything works out. They understand that you are trying to do something really hard, and not everything goes to plan always.

![medium_blog_assets_winning_how_we_won_a_jobsfornsw_mvp_grant_winning_how_we_won_a_jobsfornsw_mvp_grant_6_e082418728.webp](https://storage.googleapis.com/vtai-web-media-prod/cms/originals/blog-inline/081ad68120eec7ed87ca496fd3f1124151dd66530208c50b826eb13d37a160c1.webp)

- Lastly, the deed will cover exactly what JobsForNSW will fund and its timing. This looks like so:

![medium_blog_assets_winning_how_we_won_a_jobsfornsw_mvp_grant_winning_how_we_won_a_jobsfornsw_mvp_grant_7_281381b331.webp](https://storage.googleapis.com/vtai-web-media-prod/cms/originals/blog-inline/8674b32e896839333cf5acea1ccdffec7159dcc26754d266eeae30903df50c1d.webp)

- You're good to go!

## Assuming We Get The Grant - What Is The Timeline For The Project?
The main points to know:

1. The payment is in two parts. The first 35% is pretty much immediate. You raise and invoice and that is it.
2. The second part happens at the end of the project. You submit a report (using the same online application), have a meeting with your advisor, and then raise another invoice for the remaining 65% of the grant monies. 
3. That is kind of it in terms of process.

## Conclusion
We are super grateful to JobsForNSW. We did complete out prototype, filling out bits that did not work very well. We picked up a client (hopefully they will become a keystone client) during the project, and the client is super happy with our work.

Personally, we have not yet reached product-market fit, which I think of as having a scaleable sales process for your product at a good customer acquisition number (CAC), rather than product itself, but also think we are well on our way 😃 😃

## Thank You
I spoke to some other folks at Fishburners for advice through the process and after. Would like to thank the folks below, you guys are awesome.

1. David Cox at QAChef.
2. Man LEE at Sana.
3. Peter Boyer at Muster - a mate at Fishburners was curious about the MVP process. Hope you get the grant bud!

Check out the above startups - they are doing very cool technology stuff!

Please connect with us on LinkedIn, YouTube or Facebook for any comments, questions, or just to keep up to date with the work we do!

We are very grateful for your support!

Winning: We Won The JobsForNSW MVP Grant! Before, During And After...

We won the JobsForNSW MVP Grant! Learn about our journey through the application, execution, and completion of the grant in this behind-the-scenes blog.

We use cookies to improve site performance and understand how the portfolio content is being used.

Elephant Stripes is a consulting firm that designs, builds, and ships AI products and delivery systems.

Product Updates coverage

Featured recognition coverage

VideoTranslatorAI Advances to the Proof of Concept Phase in the NSW SBIR Program!

Latest recognition posts

Winning: We Won The JobsForNSW MVP Grant! Before, During And After...