Why We Ranked #2 in the AFR's Most Innovative Tech Companies 2025 (Hint: It Wasn't Because of AI)

Sometimes the most innovative solution isn't the flashiest one - it's the one that solves a real problem.

We're thrilled to announce that SixPivot has been ranked #2 in the 2025 AFR BOSS Most Innovative Technology Companies list. This recognition from the Australian Financial Review, particularly for our work with Resource Hub on the Audrri platform, validates something we've believed for a long time: the most powerful innovation comes from deeply understanding real-world problems, not chasing the latest technology trends.

While AI Dominated the AFR Most Innovative List; We Were Talking Rubbish 

2025 was unquestionably AI's year. The AFR awards list was dominated by AI solutions, and for good reason. Artificial intelligence is transforming industries at an unprecedented pace. 

But our winning entry? A waste management auditing platform. 

Not exactly the kind of thing that makes headlines or goes viral online. No flashy generative AI interfaces. No ChatGPT integrations. Just a thoughtfully designed platform that transformed how waste facilities across Australia conduct compliance audits and manage operations. 

And that's precisely the point. 

Innovation Isn't Always Where the Spotlight Shines 

When Resource Hub's founder, Lacey Webb, approached us, she wasn't looking for the latest cutting-edge technology. She had a different problem: 20 years of waste management expertise trapped in her head and scattered across spreadsheets, with no way to scale her rapidly growing consultancy. 

Her team was conducting critical facility audits manually. Reports that should have taken days were taking weeks. Less experienced team members couldn't replicate her deep industry knowledge. The business couldn't grow without her being personally involved in every audit. 

Sound familiar? It's the same challenge facing thousands of traditional businesses across Australia. 

The Unsexy Truth About Innovation 

Here's what we've learned after years of building transformative solutions: the most impactful innovations often happen in industries nobody's talking about. 

While everyone races to add AI to their products (whether they need it or not), countless traditional industries sit on decades of expertise, inefficient processes, and enormous untapped potential. Industries like: 

• Waste management (like Audrri) 

• Agricultural compliance 

• Construction site management 

• Manufacturing quality control 

• Trade services scheduling 

• Fleet maintenance 

• Inventory auditing 

• Regulatory reporting 

These aren't sexy. They won't get you featured on TechCrunch. But they're where the real transformation opportunities lie. 

What Actually Made Audrri Innovative 

Audrri didn't win recognition because it used the newest framework or the hottest tech stack. It won because it delivered measurable, transformative outcomes: 

For Resource Hub: 

• Cut report generation time by 50% 

• More than doubled profit margins 

• Enabled less experienced team members to conduct expert-level audits 

• Created new revenue opportunities previously impossible to pursue 

For their clients: 

• Dramatically improved compliance and operational efficiency 

• Standardised best practices across facilities 

• Maintained competitive pricing while competitors raised rates 

• Reduced environmental risk through systematic oversight 

For the industry: 

• Resource Hub now serves 90% of waste levy zone facilities in Queensland 

• Set new standards for digital auditing in waste management 

• Expanding nationally with self-service and regulatory versions 

• Proving that traditional industries can leapfrog into the digital age 

These aren't vanity metrics. These are business-changing outcomes. 

Video testimonial: Lacey Webb, Resource Hub founder, shares how SixPivot built the Audrri platform in 7 weeks, transforming her waste management business.

The Innovation Gap Nobody's Talking About 

While technology companies chase the next big thing, traditional industries are desperately underserved by meaningful digital innovation. 

Consider this: waste management is a multi-billion-dollar industry in Australia alone. Every facility needs to maintain complex compliance records, track environmental metrics, manage operations, and generate detailed reports for regulators. Yet, until Audrri, most were using —literally— spreadsheets and clipboards. 

This pattern repeats across dozens of industries. Trade businesses manage job scheduling on paper. Manufacturers tracking quality control in Excel. Agricultural operations are conducting compliance checks manually. 

The innovation gap isn't in social media or consumer apps. It's in the foundational industries that keep our economy running. 

What AFR Most Innovative Recognition Reveals About Real Innovation

After working with Resource Hub and seeing Audrri's impact, we believe meaningful innovation requires three things: 

1. Deep Understanding Over Shallow Implementation 

Lacey Webb, Founder of Resource Hub, put it perfectly: 

"I don't think there are any firms that get to the heart of the problem you're trying to solve like SixPivot does. Their understanding of our industry meant we could dive right in without wasting time on context-setting." 

We spent time understanding waste facility operations, regulatory requirements, auditing workflows, and business models before writing a single line of code. That investment paid off exponentially. 

2. Solving Problems, Not Applying Technologies 

Audrri could have used AI… in fact, future versions will. But we could have added machine learning models for predictive analytics, computer vision for facility inspections, or natural language processing for report generation from the start. 

However, that wasn't what Resource Hub needed to transform its business. They needed a robust, user-friendly platform that captured expert knowledge, standardised processes, and generated reports efficiently. 

Technology should serve the problem, not the other way around. 

3. Measuring Success in Client Outcomes 

The accurate measure of innovation isn't how cutting-edge your tech stack is. It's whether your solution creates measurable value for clients. Audrri succeeded because it:

• Solved an urgent business problem 

• Delivered immediate ROI 

• Enabled growth that was previously impossible 

• Created competitive advantages in the market 

That's innovation that matters. 

The Opportunity Ahead 

Here's what excites us most about this recognition: it proves there's an enormous appetite for thoughtful innovation in traditional industries. While everyone scrambles to add AI chatbots to their websites, massive opportunities exist to: 

• Digitise manual processes that waste thousands of hours annually 

• Capture expert knowledge before it walks out the door at retirement 

• Standardise workflows across growing teams and locations 

• Enable data-driven decisions in industries flying blind 

• Create competitive advantages through operational efficiency 

These opportunities don't require bleeding-edge technology. They require: 

• Deep curiosity about how industries actually work 

• Patience to understand problems fully before proposing solutions 

• Discipline to build what's needed rather than what's trendy 

• Commitment to delivering measurable outcomes 

What's Next 

This AFR recognition isn't just validation for Audrri, it's a call to action. If your business has: 

• Manual processes everyone knows are inefficient 

• Expertise trapped in people's heads or spreadsheets 

• Growth limitations because key processes don't scale 

• Teams spending more time on admin than value-creation 

• Competitive pressures from more efficient operators 

  
  

You don't need AI. You need innovation that solves your specific problem. 

And you're not alone. Every day, we talk to businesses sitting on enormous potential for transformation—family businesses with decades of proprietary knowledge that's never been systematically captured. Growing companies are strangled by manual processes. Industry leaders who know their workflows could be 10x more efficient but don't know where to start. 

The Bottom Line 

Winning #2 in the AFR BOSS Most Innovative Technology Companies is an incredible honour, and we’re proud to have climbed the list from #6 in 2024 for our work on Social Protect. But the real achievement isn't the ranking; it's what the ranking represents. In a year dominated by AI hype, recognition went to a solution that: 

• Solved an unglamorous, real-world problem 

• Delivered transformative outcomes for clients 

• Set new standards in a traditional industry 

• Proved that deep understanding beats shallow trend-chasing 

That's the kind of innovation Australia needs more of. 

The flashiest technology isn't always the most impactful. Sometimes, the most innovative solution is the one that finally solves a problem everyone else overlooked because it wasn't exciting enough. 

There are thousands of these problems waiting to be solved. Traditional industries are ready for transformation. Businesses with enormous untapped potential. 

The question isn't whether AI will change the world—it clearly will. The question is: while everyone chases the latest trend, who's going to solve the problems that have been waiting decades for attention? 

That's the work we're committed to. And based on Audrri's impact, it's the work that truly makes a difference.

Think more businesses should focus on solving real problems over chasing trends? Let's start a conversation about where meaningful innovation happens.