SpaceDraft: Perth tech startup set to go global with Lucy Cooke

Lucy Cooke, tech start up entrepreneur is the CEO of SpaceDraft – an innovative and groundbreaking Perth tech start up which will revolutionise how we communicate across time and space, bringing to life and underpinning ideas for Web 3.0, gamification, virtual reality and even providing a new avenue of communication for the neuro-divergent. 

SpaceDraft is a visual logistics plotting startup that provides a creative planning tool for any virtual or physical service.

Hard work, resilience and passion go hand in glove in the start up community and Lucy has this in spades. She’s a pioneer in her field and an inspiration to many, including young women hoping to tread their own career paths in technology.  Lucy shares the story of SpaceDraft and how it is poised to make an impact on a global scale. 

Duration: 38 minutes.

Links:

Website: SpaceDraft

Sign up and create your own SpaceDraft: https://launch.spacedraft.com/register

SpaceDraft on social media:  Facebook  Instagram Twitter LinkedIn

If Innovation Could Talk interview with Lucy Cooke

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·      Sincere thanks to Jay (Justin) Hill for his expert sound mastering and patience! Jay, together with the incredible Eva Chye, have inspired me through their passion project If Innovation Could Talk – a YouTube vlog also promoted through

Transcript

Lucy Cooke: 0:05

So we had Shakespeare with the income the quill for the theatre. And before that we had carved stone, then we have the typewriter. And we have Word and PowerPoint. We need something else to sustain the kind of entertainment and the kind of enjoyment that we're going to see. That is the product of our society and the evolution of technology. So we are a tool to help the next phase of our creative economy evolve. And I just know that if it's not us, it's going to be someone else. So why not just die trying

Sonia Nolan: 0:39

Lucy Cooke technology startup entrepreneur is our guest today. She is the CEO of space draft, an innovative and groundbreaking Perth startup, which is revolutionising how we communicate across time and space. Space draft is bringing to life and underpinning ideas for web 3.0, for gamification, for virtual reality, and even providing a new avenue of communication. So the neurodivergent hard work, resilience and passion go hand in glove in the startup community. And Lucy has this in spades. She joins us today to tell us about her journey from Perth to Hollywood. And now back here in Perth, where she is a pioneer in her field, and an inspiration to many, including young women hoping to tread their own career paths in technology. I'm Sonia Nolan, and I invite you to join Lucy and I for a smart conversation with heart around my warm table. Lucy, thank you so much for joining me at my warm table.

Lucy Cooke: 1:41

Thank you for having me, Sonia.

Sonia Nolan: 1:42

Yeah, it's so great to be able to sit down and have a chat about space draft because it's been on quite a journey in the last couple of years. And I just want to hear all about what actually led you to being the CEO of a tech startup in sunny old Perth. Where did it all begin? Lucy?

Lucy Cooke: 1:59

Well, it came out of necessity, like so many other startups do. I was always so passionate about movies and so passionate about the creative industries. But I also always love computers. So working my way through Hollywood, I found my niche in visual effects, and was on the set of a movie called soldado Sicario, in New Mexico in the freezing cold. And I knew that there was a problem on set. And there was no way for all the crew to visualise that problem remotely. And I knew we had all this equipment, but no tool that could quickly mock up the worst case scenario and the best case scenario so that everyone could see basically how we could all work together to improve the situation. And I just knew I had to solve this problem, I knew that I was the person to solve this problem. And I believe that there are so many other people that have this problem in lots of different industries of just helping people come together and see solutions and then be able to work towards them. So that's really the purpose behind space draft. And that was five years ago. And it's been a beautiful journey, since we're really excited to now have the product in market. And we've got some amazing feedback and customers.

Sonia Nolan: 3:17

Oh, that's amazing. I want to take you back to Hollywood because that's obviously super exciting. How How did you find yourself a Perth girl in Hollywood,

Lucy Cooke: 3:26

I was always encouraged to just roll up your sleeves and do the work that needed to be done. My parents instilled that kind of value set in my brothers and I you know, a lot of our upbringing was in the Wheatbelt on the farm. You know, there was never not a chore to be done or so. Loving movies, I knew that movies were expensive, and there were always some not nice jobs to be done on film sets. But I was always the first to put up my hand, went to WAPA studied production after behavioural science. And essentially, there was a cinematographer who approached me and said, Luce, look, you're a real hustler. And there's this movie being made in Perth with you and McGregor. And then they really need some help with locations. So I met the producer and figured out how to kind of set up some country deals around Perth. You know, I'll get out get these cars and exchange for your daughter being in the movie and this this and it's all just wheeling and dealing type stuff. And the producer was so smart and were still very good friends to this day. And he said look, you got to come over to Sydney because your talents needed. So we went over to Sydney and there was there were no jobs even slept outside of the ABC reception just trying to get an interview with someone and waitress worked in Alana Hill, which is a closed shop, you know, and off my routine for six months was working Lana Hill 10 to six sleep on a friend's couch then get to the city work in a bar from 10 pm to four in the morning just to save enough money to be in Sydney whilst trying to apply for film jobs. And my parents even came over said you got to come back to Perth and do postgrad law because this passion for movies isn't going anywhere. And I just knew that I had to stick to my guns and believe in myself. So I got a phone call after putting out like, 1000 CVS to different film people. And this woman said, look, I've got your CD CD on my desk, there's this prison, and prison, there's this prison, and the inmates are putting on a play. Now we need ushers to get the audience into the prison and out safely, would you be up for it? And I was just desperate for cash. I said, Where's the prison? She said, Parramatta, you've got to, you've got to get there yourself. And I had no money like I couldn't even afford a taxi or anything. But I knew that there was just something in there. So I get on the train to Parramatta in a really nice velvet dress and Olympian excited to be an usher to prison.

Sonia Nolan: 6:04

Is this a case of dress for the job you want? Not the job you have?

Lucy Cooke: 6:07

Yeah, pretty much and get to this prison and the other ashes there. We walked the audience in. There are lots of celebrities at this event, because it was quite high profile for the prisoners putting on a play.

Sonia Nolan: 6:19

So really, quite this was an event. This is what the prisoners are doing a play and you're gonna invite all these external celebrities and other people, stakeholders to come and watch the play.

Lucy Cooke: 6:29

Yeah. Okay. And then all the other ashes start kind of eating the food and drinking the drinks. And I just pick up a broom and I start sweeping the prison kitchen. And this woman comes through, really dressed up nicely. And it's like, what are you doing? I said, Hello, my name is Lucy Cook. I'm here to work. Do you need anything? And she just was blown away. And she said, Look, where do you live? And I said, Oh, I'm staying at a friend's. In Paddington. I'm sleeping on the couch. She's like, Well, can I drive you home. And she pulls up in a really fancy car. And I get in and she drives me home. And I'm just sharing the story of waitressing working in Atlanta, he'll just trying to get a big break in the film industry, she drops me off, he says Lucy, I happen to know that there's this movie being made and the director needs an assistant. Now from what you've told me, you're pretty good at just pulling up your sleeves and getting busy. And that's the type of person that needs this job is going to be huge, you're not going to have a life. And I said that's why I'm here because I just believe that I can positively contribute to the film industry. And so she told me when the interview was I had to tell Alana hill that I had gastro, they didn't fire me. And I get there and the director is there. And he's the scariest man I've ever met. But I'd broken into his university to find his own unique short films. And I watched them over and over and over before the interview, so that I could basically quote his first movies.

Sonia Nolan: 8:01

Wow, I'm not even gonna ask how you broke into the university. I'm gonna go there. Clearly another skill that you have,

Lucy Cooke: 8:06

oh, well, you gotta just find a way right? Anyway, I'm good at that. Oh, gosh, within the law, of course, as far as that goes without saying. And so anyway, I got the job. And then turns out they with the job comes a brand new car, they pay my tolls, I get paid more than I've ever been paid. And I'm working with the most incredible people like Jeffrey rush, Gerard Batlow became a good friend. And all the cast and crew to this day are still my friends and who believe in space draft and know why I'm doing what I'm doing. Because they've felt the pain every single day of not having a tool to help everyone on a film set, see the solution to problems, strategic problems. Sorry for the long winded story. But I think it's just important to know how hard it is to crack into the movie industry. And you only stay if you are the last to leave at the end of every day. And I just I put that kind of chutzpah, I guess into building space draft. Every single day is is a day on set every single day, I put my clothes out the night before, because you're getting in costume for the day to be your best version of self so that you can just keep working hard. I guess

Sonia Nolan: 9:21

you are amazing. Lucy, you really are. You're inspirational and not just in the work you're doing at spacecraft, which we will definitely touch on will really unpick spacecraft in a little moment. But I just want to sort of really validate how incredible you are as an inspiration for young women wanting to have a career in tech, because that's something that you're really pioneering here in WA as well is being a woman in tech. So tell me about what that represents to you.

Lucy Cooke: 9:49

Well, wow, wow, you really got it out of me, Sonia. I think I just wish it was easier for more women to be able to do it. I just it's actually yeah Um, I can't believe I cry. Um, it's hard. It's hard. But when you reflect on like to get to this point and what it took, I'm just I'm grateful. I've got a supportive family and things and an amazing team. And we're at a really exciting inflection point of going global, which I'll get to. But yeah, building space jobs in Perth without 10 Other companies up the road, doing something similar that you can talk about at the pub, it's pretty isolated. And it's pretty lonely because you're going through stuff every day. And there's only so much you can learn from podcasts in the US about how to build a tech company. But I just know, at the end of the day, we are solving a global problem locally, and it's only a matter of time before we're a household name.

Sonia Nolan: 10:45

You definitely, definitely you're gonna hear space drafts based drafts send me the space draft, that's the tagline is that that's it. So tell me about space drafting. Tell me why it's so important and where it can be used? Well,

Lucy Cooke: 10:58

essentially, there's PowerPoint, okay. And PowerPoints been really good for communicating to people a presentation. But PowerPoint can only go so far, we're entering this new frontier of spatial computing, which visual effects pioneered in the 70s. With with Star Wars, so ever since practical effects were taken over by the computers, all of a sudden, we're now able to create simulations of physical spaces and physical environments. And that really is all that web 3.0 is it's about not just communicating in 2d, but in 3d across time, which is actually 4d. So what spacecraft is, it's the most simple form of 4d communication. So you're able to show someone, the thoughts inside your head over time, in a really easy, really, really simple interface.

Sonia Nolan: 12:01

Lucy, can you describe what someone like me, who is, you know, needs a really user friendly to be able to get the most out of it? If I went onto your space draft website? What would I find? And how would I make it work for me?

Lucy Cooke: 12:15

Sure. So when you go to the website, space draft.com, and you log in just like every other web tool, essentially, it'll ask you, what are you trying to visualise? Here are a bunch of backgrounds. So you select the background, it might be a church, because you're planning a church service, or it might be a basketball court, because you're planning a basketball play. So you just basically set your background. And then we've got this library of what we call pins, which are just little images and icons, that you drag and drop onto that background. And then you just right click and make the move, you just drag the movement that you want that pin to make. And then it happens. That's it. So it's really user friendly. We spent a fortune building this library of pins and assets so that you didn't have to go out of your way to find the right images. And yet, it's all there. So there's a tool to onboard you to guide you through all the steps. But what we're having to really focus on at the moment, is that discoverability and usability, you know, making sure there's little explainers everywhere, making sure that people are like, Oh, they don't think where do I go for this?

Sonia Nolan: 13:28

And overall of those pins, you can actually overlay voice. And you can also have like, a little script on the side is that and that's where the time and space sort of come together? Is that right?

Lucy Cooke: 13:39

Absolutely. You've got your background, you've got people which appears, you just drag and drop them. And then you write about what the scenario is on the side. So when you send that spacecraft off, you've got the words and the pictures and the movement, explaining what you want someone else to understand.

Sonia Nolan: 13:54

Yeah, yeah. So it is that simple. And really, you just got to get on there and have a play, don't you?

Lucy Cooke: 13:58

That's it for your imagination to life. You'll love it.

Sonia Nolan: 14:05

Web point three is something that we're hearing a lot more about these days. It's becoming part of the vernacular. And I remember 10 years ago as web 2.2. And we're all very excited about or 2.0 Wasn't it? Web 2.0. So we're all pretty excited about what that meant. And that was more the feedback loop coming in and people being able to interact with the web. So now the conversation has moved to web 3.0. And that is where you're talking about time and space and actually visualising what's in people's brains through the web. Is that right?

Lucy Cooke: 14:36

Yeah, no, Sonia, you're spot on. You're exactly right. But there's a lot of noise about the metaverse. I mean, just park that like everyone should just park that. I mean, if it's easy to commercialise, you know, crypto, whoop dee doo, but ultimately, it's just the next wave of communication and the future is spatial. And as long as people understand that there is room between people pull between our thoughts and ideas. But there's also room between physical objects. And web 3.0 is just putting those two things together to communicate in a new kind of way.

Sonia Nolan: 15:12

And these are all the skills that our kids are going to need to understand, aren't they? So it might be a little bit difficult for me as a parent of young adults just doing an okay job at wrapping my head around it. But for them, this is just how they're going to think and communicate in many ways.

Lucy Cooke: 15:26

Absolutely. So that's why the majority of our customers are school children and schools, we're really lucky to have strategic partnerships with Hale and PLC. And in Catholic ed kids that have grown up with phones, Gen Z, Gen alpha, they either grew up playing games, or they grew up sending memes, all of that is spatial communication. All of that is material that basically helps us evolve. Web three. So we've got two markets for spatial, there's education, and there's gaming, we know that space draft is the go to planning tool for all kinds of AR VR. But predominantly games, if you have an idea for a game, you can't just jump into a game engine and build it, you have to plan the game before it's actually built. That's our niche that we've found and, and kids who are playing games who either want to design a game or not, they use space drive to gamma phi, they're learning and also to gamma phi, their understanding. So if they build a spacecraft, they're actually turning their thoughts into kind of a game, so that it's a fun way to explain themselves. And I know if I'd had spacecraft growing up, I wouldn't have been so misunderstood.

Sonia Nolan: 16:45

Yeah, that's a really interesting point. I've also heard a lot about gamification in leadership and gamification for team building, you know, that's starting to be a lot more of the things I'm seeing like on LinkedIn with some of my peers, and they're talking about gamification a lot more to how could space draft work with those sorts of team building tools or gamification in a workplace.

Lucy Cooke: 17:05

Great. So if you think of gamification as a chess board, alright, so you've got your black and white squares, and then you've got pieces on the board, well replace the black and white checkers with a mind sight, or replace the black and white checkers with the ocean. And then you've got people replacing the chess pieces on a board space draft is the tool that does that, that is all that we do. We help anyone without technical skill, visualise where people are meant to be in the context of the situation. And then on the side of our interface, you've got essentially a Word document that allows you to input details about what you want that person to do, why you want that person to move from there to there, why you want that person to get on that boat at this time. And that's what our tool does. So then when you send a space draft, you're literally sending everything that you want someone else to catch as an understanding of how to solve that problem. So that can totally be applied to every workspace in the world. And also virtual spaces, which is why we are the pre production planning tool for all web 3.0 content.

Sonia Nolan: 18:22

The other part of space draft is that it can be used for sport, which of course is so big in Australia. So you know, if you're a coach of even a basketball team or a football team, you can use space draft to create your plays.

Lucy Cooke: 18:36

Exactly. So there's, you know, hundreds of different backgrounds, different courts, you know, say a basketball court or footy field or something, you've got that background, you've got all your players in the pin library, just drag and drop them make the move, and then you can do a voiceover to explain what the drill is. And then write about what the drill is on the side and then send that out you can have it as a QR code, people can scan it, see what the play is, and everyone's on the same page.

Sonia Nolan: 19:01

You've just thought of everything Lucy it's fantastic.

Lucy Cooke: 19:04

It's a very universal tool because all the world is a stage and we all think in space and time so we've just built a tool to help people communicate on that level.

Sonia Nolan: 19:14

Incredible so from a logistic point of view, it's it's just essential by the sound of it but also from that understanding of things that you can't see so look I'm thinking about all of the things that happen subsea for example, and all those things about trees growing biodiversity and what something's going to look like after rehabilitation for example for a mind sight so actually projecting the future and projecting what happens that you can't yet see that's something that's based draft can also work with is that right or those unseen,

Lucy Cooke: 19:44

that's exactly what we do. So in movie world, that is called previous, previous previous So previous is actually its own industry and not a lot of people know about previous but previous is abbreviation for pre visualised. As a nation, so for insurance purposes on a movie that's north of $100 million in budget, you have to previous the whole movie, before you actually bring out a camera. And that means to create an animation of the whole movie before it's actually filmed, so that all the investors in all the insurance companies can know what the scope of the project is, before they actually start making the movie. So previous has existed in the film industry since forever. But now it's just being taken out of the context of just the film world of being applied to the real world. So when you talk about digital twins, that's previous, and guess what, you're using the same technology to build a digital twin for Mindsight, as you are to pre visualise on a movie, and those that those technologies are called game engines, which are very complex, very powerful rendering tools of 3d objects. So space draft is the tool for all due respect, but for the non game engine, people just speck out the scope of a project before you jump into that game engine. But

Sonia Nolan: 21:12

isn't that great, the fact that you've actually made this for the for the non techies in a lot of ways, and people like myself, who could actually get a space draft account and just make a space draft, and I'm not techie, but I can then you know, sort of let people see into my brain with a really easy to use tool. And it's a little bit like what Canva has done for graphic design, you know, in the sense that, you know, I can create lots of amazing things on Canva. But I'm not a graphic designer, but the tools are all there for me to actually make it happen. Space draft is that 4d time space approach for normal people. I'm going to use normal, non techie people to be able to create amazing logistics and pre visualisation tools you're exactly

Lucy Cooke: 21:54

spot on. And I think what's really, really cool is where it's starting to get the acknowledgement from government bodies who like, oh, wow, this is something that really is going to make a dent in the universe. So as trade sending us to represent Australia at Gamescom, in Germany, we're the only technology company going to represent Australia, the world's biggest gearing Conference, which is pretty cool. Congratulations. Thank you. Yep. So that's exciting. And we've been sent to a lot of different spots to help. Well, lots of people with different kinds of neuro diverse needs, use space draft help get their ideas out of their heads.

Sonia Nolan: 22:32

Let me talk about that. Yeah, that sounds really interesting. So the whole neurodiversity aspect, and we were talking earlier, Lucy about post verbal. So let's explore that a little bit. Because I think that's, that's an incredible market and incredible tool for these incredible people, I'm going to keep using the word incredible, to help us see all these solutions and opportunities.

Lucy Cooke: 22:55

So if I said to you, Sonia, I want you to imagine a purple dinosaur, in a mountain, and there's a heart, and inside the heart is a beautiful woman cooking, you have a different vision of that heart than I do, she's cooking something different in your mind than me,

Sonia Nolan: 23:13

she clearly looked like me in both pictures.

Lucy Cooke: 23:17

There's always this discourse between what I see and what you see. And the sooner we can come together, we can start then creating a new kind of story. And people that think within the kind of the gaming kind of world, their imagination is so beautiful and rich, but sometimes the biggest problem with so much of that, you know, education, and everything is, is it's just really difficult for people that are neurodiverse, to get their ideas out of their heads. Because the humaneness gets in the way, our expectations of how people are meant to behave and be gets in the way. So what spacecraft does is it cuts with a knife through that, that discourse and it just allows you to get the richness of the creativity of the person via the space draft without judgement. And we've seen the most beautiful spacecrafts come through that just explain what the student understands about a concept, whether it's for English, whether it's for maths, whether it's for soldiers, we get these beautiful visual maps of worlds, and then a description of what that world means to them. And it's just, it's just magnificent that there's going to be such incredible VR AR games built in the future as a result of spaced draft being used first.

Sonia Nolan: 24:35

And I guess it also allows students who are neurodiverse to be able to participate in a curriculum that is not always designed for them. But using a different tool to actually express it. It's not I'm not going to write an essay on this or I'm not expected to perform a play or a public speech in this, but I can create a space draft which unlocks all of my ideas and helps to demonstrate to my teacher that I do understand the code concepts, but I'm just not going to be able to present it in a way that makes me uncomfortable or I'm unable to participate in. But here's my space draft. And it's, you know, it's an A plus.

Lucy Cooke: 25:10

That's it. And even employers, I mean, you know, we're in a digital, we're in the virtual economy now, like, I can have a great space draft and submit it to a games company in Germany, and they love it, then they pay you the commission for the rights to that space draft. So we're opening up just like a film set has all different people with from all different backgrounds and industries, you can be a great florist and build a space draft and submit it to a gaming studio. And they can have insight to this amazing world of floristry. And then build an amazing interactive experience and AR VR experience based on this florists, beautiful space draft, we have an original idea for a game. So we're opening up this new world of possibilities of how we explain ourselves, and how we can create new kinds of stories.

Sonia Nolan: 25:56

So there is no market that doesn't work for spacecraft really is there, you know, we've talked education we've talked, even mining, which, of course, is a big deal in in WA, we've talked game, gamification, you know, every market is, is ripe for for using a tool like this, given that these are the sorts of skills that are leading us into this next future that we're all still trying to imagine.

Lucy Cooke: 26:24

Absolutely. But I think the problem with that is you cast a net too wide, people think you don't have focus. And so you know, I've raised $2.7 million to date. But every single time I've raised money, I've had to try and communicate how big this company could be. So to get to this point, I've had to say yes, you can be used in it can be education, mining, gaming data, data data, so that I can raise the money that I've needed to to get to this point, my team know that we're really focused on our markets of education and gaming, because we know that in the next few years, they converge, because you can't not have gaming as part of how we learn as a as a result of the process of gamification evolving how we think and how we communicate. So education a game here, our target market, but then we've got wedding planners, we've got, you know all different types of people using spacecraft to pre visualise scenarios. But in order to get to our next round of funding, which is a Series A, we've got to hit certain milestones, which is we've got to have X number of users or X number of revenue. And so in order to do that, you have to target all your marketing efforts and all your resources to growth within market segments. Now, that is an A hot and we don't have a lot of infrastructure in in WA or Perth, to help what could essentially scale up or help within that growth phase. So I've had to go over East I've had to go to Singapore, to get people to help basically, evolve those growth strategies.

Sonia Nolan: 28:03

Is that not understood properly yet? Or is it just it's just not there in Perth at the moment?

Lucy Cooke: 28:09

Well, I I mean, I'm the I don't want to poopoo Perth, I love Perth, I love everything about WA, I think it's just just a matter of time before people just wake up and see how fast other countries are evolving in appreciating the need for support around the evolution of tools to maintain the onset of the demand for web 3.0 content. There are so many startups that build VR or build AR only to not be able to sell the actual product or raise more funding for it because it was just built too quickly. Without enough planning our partners in Malaysia, they're just like, Oh, thank goodness for this because we can assess whether this game is going to be good or not. Or this VR or AR is going to be good or not based off the space drive first. So yes, I do believe it's just a matter of time, before Perth kind of wakes up, you know, it's hard to be gracious and polite all the time as a woman in business without being like, for goodness sake, are these innovation hubs of the big mining companies. Like How hard are they innovating? You know, we'll get there my team is the most important part of the company and and keeping their morale up and, and keeping them excited and focus like that's a full time job in itself. You know, the markets are hot right now for talent and you just have to keep fighting and people will come in and they'll leave and you know, it's a long game. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Sonia Nolan: 29:34

And you've been you've been running that marathon for a while now. Lucy, I want to take you back to the very early days and people were working for you and you were cooking for them.

Lucy Cooke: 29:44

Yes. My husband was him. Yeah, great. Cool. Yeah, I just I rattled the tin after I got back from America. And I raised 20 grand just to build the prototype which got me into the Microsoft accelerator. which we won, which got me to Taiwan, where I raised another round and then back in Perth, a family office putting some money. And so I was building the next phase of the product with a development team in Paris. And then I had this MPV, but it was really, really unstable. And I happen to be at UWA is IQ X. And there were this there was this gorgeous engineer and his his girlfriend and another friend, and they were still studying and I said, Look, I'm trying to raise as much as I can, I can pay you a little bit, but I can cook and I'll, you know, so I just ended up. I don't think there was even an agreement, but I just cooked a lot. And you know, they're just the best people and they're still in the company to this day. And, you know, I was able to back pay them and get them on salaries. And they're just my dear dear friends now. And but yeah, you just got to do what you got to do. Right?

Sonia Nolan: 30:54

Well, you are the master of that. Lucy, I'm just so impressed with your passion and commitment. And the fact that you roll up your sleeves, you'll sweep the floor after a function you'll cook to keep your engineers happy. You're just incredible. The passion and their resolve that you are so committed to space draft that you can just see the long game.

Lucy Cooke: 31:15

Oh, Sonia, yeah, it's just some days it feels like a longer game days. Yeah. But look, you know, it's like every movie starts with a script. And that's what I know, you have words on a page. And that process of putting words on a page, we had Shakespeare with the income, the quill for the theatre. And before that we had carved stone, then we have the typewriter, and we have Word and PowerPoint, we need something else to sustain the kind of entertainment and the kind of enjoyment that we're going to see. That is the product of our society and the evolution of technology. So we are a tool to help the next phase of our creative economy evolve. And I just know that if it's not us, it's going to be someone else. So why not just die try.

Sonia Nolan: 32:07

Think it was Forbes magazine. And in fact, any business magazine that you will read will actually tell tell us that digital technology is the number one issue. And number one challenge for every single CEO in the world, you know, all the business leaders have been interviewed, and they will come back and say digital technology is absolutely what is going to move our business forward. And we can't not invest in digital technology. So space draft is very much part of that language, isn't it?

Lucy Cooke: 32:37

Absolutely. And you know, there are the mirrors and the giant whiteboards and all of that. And it's great for remote communication, that's fine. But we help people visualise scenarios over time, which is very different. And you know, back when I was raising the first round, it was always, oh, you're in the next mill. It's just the next camera. It's all that kind of we're not care, but we're nothing like Canva. But if it helps people think of the scale of how big we could be one day, then that's fine. We're definitely certainly new. And I think to answer your question, you know, in your point, it is hard for people to get their head around that how many digital technologies there are, and why you need them. And that's all marketing that really is. And that's what we're trying to focus our money on at the moment. splaining that story of what space draft is as quickly as possible. And the best way to do that is with videos. And that's digital technology.

Sonia Nolan: 33:32

And we'll put some of those little videos on our my warm table community on our Facebook site and our LinkedIn pages as well. Lucy, if you're happy for us to share that so that people can actually visualise some of the things that you know, we've been talking about in our podcast today. Yeah, great,

Lucy Cooke: 33:46

Sonia, thank you. That'd be awesome. anyone is interested, they can just go to space drive.com and sign up for free and have a play around got over 60,000 students now on space draft, we've got some amazing strategic partners. We're, you know, being used on the film sets of the new Mad Max movie every day, which is really exciting that right, yeah, yeah. Essentially, they're using spacecraft to visualise the scenarios for their shoots. Because Mad Max is a huge film that requires a lot of logistics. And they're using spacecraft as his full guy in Sydney. They're using spacecraft to help pre visualise how they would create a huge stunt.

Sonia Nolan: 34:23

And that's the fall guy with Ryan Gosling. And yeah,

Lucy Cooke: 34:26

we built spacecraft, not just for kids, but for so many people. Kids need to know how to spatially objectify scenarios. Everyone needs to be communicating across space and time. We think spatially. If I say let's go to the shops, how we're getting to the shops, we visualise in our mind, a plan across space and time. So all we're doing with spacecraft, as if using the pens even Harry Potter, I'm sharing my thoughts inside my head and I'm giving them to you as a gift so that you When I can both see the same thing. So if I can see what you can see, and you can see what I can see, then we can both see the same thing and move forward together, rather than in our own silos of understanding.

Sonia Nolan: 35:12

So is it a collaborative tool as well? So you're I'm not just receiving what you see, but I can actually feed back to it.

Lucy Cooke: 35:21

Yes, so real time collaboration was a feature that the schools all wanted and needed for the kids to do group work. So I can be working on a spacecraft. So like, for my wedding, I was working on my spacecraft for my fiance was offshore. And so he's working on spacecraft when I am so we're doing the seating plan, moving everyone around, pre visualising the perfect wedding remotely in real time. And that was how we managed to pull it off.

Sonia Nolan: 35:47

Fantastic. Yeah, so even something is gonna say simple. But gosh, I think seating plans that are wedding are far from simple. But something as that's something we can all really relate to is coordinating a large event and how that that can be really useful with spacecraft. Absolutely,

Lucy Cooke: 36:03

oh, this person can't sit next to that person. And it's going to take this long for this person to get to the stage. Therefore, we need this music at this time and the lighting here, All the world's a stage. Yeah, that's the foundation of why we've built this tool.

Sonia Nolan: 36:17

Lucy, it's just been absolutely amazing talking to you today. I I'm particularly passionate about space draft. I think one that it's a, it's a wonderful tool for the future and for our kids and for, like you've said, designing the way forward for how we're going to have to communicate and not just helping us in our silos, but also that aspect of neurodiversity and unlocking some of those amazing ideas in a way that's easier to communicate for them. I also love the fact it's Perth based. I think it's wonderful that you are here and you are pioneering the tech space for young women. And also just adding your richness to the ecosystem of technology startups here in Perth. I think that that is something that, you know, we really need to embrace even more. And I'm just excited about where space draft is gonna go and wish you every success. Lucy.

Lucy Cooke: 37:08

Thank you, Sonia, thank you so much for this opportunity. When women help other women anything is possible. I'm just grateful to have this opportunity. Thank you.

Sonia Nolan: 37:22

You've been listening to my warm table with Sonia Nolan in Italian at tavola. calda is a warm and welcoming table where you can share big ideas, friendship, laughter and life. So much happens around the kitchen table. And I wanted to amplify it here in this podcast. My aim is to feed your mind and soul through smart conversations with heart. No topic is off limits. But good table manners rule. I hope you'll join us each week as we set the table for my extraordinary guests who will let you feast on their deep knowledge, life experiences and wise insights. Let's keep the conversation flowing. Please subscribe to the my warm table podcast and share it with your friends and networks. Perhaps if they're new to podcasting, take a moment to show them how to download and subscribe so they don't miss an episode either. I'd also love you to join our community on Facebook. You'll find the group at my warm table podcast. Your support is very much appreciated. So that together we can eat, think and be merry