Launched by co--‐founders and friends Martin Karafilis, Marcel Herz and Christopher Sampson while they were undergraduate students, Tiliter is a technology startup that is revolutionising the supermarket checkout while reducing plastic waste on a global scale.

This innovative startup uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to teach supermarket checkouts to recognise products without the need for barcodes or manual selection. By replacing barcodes, Tiliter is creating faster, easier and digitally advanced checkout processes, and providing a more sustainable shopping experience.

Aside from the technology, the driving force behind Tiliter is the urgent need to reduce the amount of plastic waste that is being produced for product. "The top two supermarkets in Europe produce over 800,000 tons of plastic a year, so we started to realise that that was more of a focus for us than anything. The whole idea is that we can replace barcodes, and therefore take away the need for the plastic packaging," said co--‐founder Martin.

Despite their big vision and innovative technology, the Tiliter co--‐founders faced an enormous hurdle;
"We came from big, corporate companies. We weren't really involved in the startup scene or entrepreneurship in general. We thought that we were just good businessmen, or that we had good technical skills," Martin said.

Recognising their talent and potential, UNSW Founders Program managers accepted Tiliter into the flagship 10x Accelerator program, where they received their first masterclasses in lean methodology and corporate strategy, were matched with industry mentors and were introduced to investors.
"Having that sort of community, people to talk to, people to bounce ideas off is really good. That's something that money can't buy," Martin said.

A year on from their 10x experience, Tiliter has experienced astonishing success. In 2019 alone, Tiliter signed partnerships with suppliers to four major retail chains in Australia, opened an office in Munich that employs 11 people and services partnerships throughout continental Europe, and expanded into the US market.

Reflecting on their past achievements and future plans, Martin is incredibly grateful for the experiences and opportunities made possible through the Founders Program. "This accelerator program is really producing some of the best startups in Sydney right now, I think. The support that the university gives through the program is absolutely amazing."

Communication - the Founders Program is an ambitious program offering a wide range of different initiatives to participants at different stages. Engaging with participants with a level of personalisation so that the 'Founders Journey' is relevant to them is challenging.

Scale - impacting only 10 or 20 companies is not sufficient to build a sustainable pipeline; we needed to design programs that had much bigger impact, more quickly. They also needed to be designed as a pipeline so that earlier-stage programs could fuel recruitment into later-stage programs.

Quality - Entrepreneurship at scale demands quality. To encourage startups and the ecosystem to engage we needed to deliver programs that are delivering value so that participants become our most effective advocates; Founders 10x is an example of this, with alumni frequently recommending the program to their peers.

Sustainability and Impact - our participants have demonstrated a strong desire ensure their companies are financially successful, but are also contributing positively the world. In a recent survey of our advanced companies, over 90% had either already implemented, or intended to implement, a sustainability strategy informed by frameworks such as the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

In 2020, UNSW Founders will continue to explore new opportunities to extend our unique model for teaching entrepreneurship and encouraging our startups to focus on impact.
In 2019, we ran a pilot, Health 10x Accelerator, in partnership with The George Institute of Global Health.
The accelerator's goal was to support health startups whose product or service was directed to solving one of world's most pressing health issues;
the rise of non-communicable disease.
This pilot, which supported over 20 startups, was so successful that the Australian Federal Government has announced Health 10x as a recipient of a significant government grant.
This grant will see Health 10x run again in 2020, with an expanded remit to support health startups from across Australia.

UNSW Founders is also actively considering new industry--‐‑specific accelerator streams including Future Cities and Cyber Security.
We will also launch a world--‐‑first
'Entrepreneurial PhD', which will encourage postgraduate researchers to commercialise their PhD research through entrepreneurship.
This three-year program will see researchers participate in the Founders Program as they work towards the completion of their thesis and will culminate in their participation in the 10x Accelerator.

Finally, 2020 will see the launch of a new focus on sustainability within our programming.
We will launch a new framework to embed sustainability education into our programming, prioritise speakers and mentors who have expertise in the field, and introduce a new monetary prize in recognition of our best performing, sustainable company.