Intro: I'm Kate Ricketts, founder of ISpy Nits, and mum to two neurodiverse boys. I developed a glow in the dark powder that makes head lice and their eggs light up under a UV torch. We went from 13 stores to 388 pharmacies across New Zealand and Australia in just over a year. Right now I'm opening up new territories for 2027, and we've got a clinic pilot running in the US. My goal is a million kids checked across New Zealand and Australia. It's estimated one in three kids has head lice at any one time, and behind every one of them is a parent who can't get them to sit still long enough to look. I want to be the reason that fight stops. Origin: I've got two neurodiverse kids, and my oldest was about nine and coming home with head lice constantly. The emails from school, the whole thing. I couldn't get him to sit still for a check. The sensory side of it was horrible for him and there was honestly nothing in it for him. And you can't send them back to school with it, so you're stuck, and it just gets worse. I wasn't trying to build a product. I genuinely just wanted to see the eggs better. That's the whole thing. I couldn't see what I was looking for, so I started thinking about how to make them visible, and that's what led me down the glow in the dark path. I won't go into overkill on the technical side, but I got an innovation grant through the university and it went from there. He goes hunting with a torch now. It went from the worst ten minutes of our week to something he actually wants to do. And that's how it started.

Thing Learned - origin story, drill it back to feeling, how did I feel? how did the kids feel? then work from there Commitment for Next Week - finalise intro and origin and present

Gained clarity on: The 'How did I come up with this' story - breaking it down, reviewing technical language, finding the emotional points. How to navigate whether you are answering with the angle the host intended i.e. package the answer with "Well let me tell you what I considered before developing the product..." What are you committed to? Finalising a good draft of the origin story above Following up on podcast pitches

Great session, sorry to miss most of you, good to see Kate, we had a full on value filled one about so much so definitely listen back and get read for next week, looking forward to seeing all your pitches posted on here. Remember if you do the work, so much happens. And it might feel like hard work now, but it will pay off when you start getting invited to some of the biggest shows in your sector. Keep going, this is good, I am proud of you and I think you are awesome! If you have any questions about the program or what you're learning please voice it here or send me an email and we can chat. See you all next week! Mina