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What is Anthill?

Anthill is one of Australia’s largest online communities for entrepreneurs, business builders and innovators. It was initially launched as a print magazine, in September 2003, by its current editor-in-chief James Tuckerman, who at the age of 26 quit his day job, departing a promising career in corporate PR, to pursue his own entrepreneurial journey.

Frustrated by what he considered the ‘snoringly dry’ personality of the Australian business media (and Australia’s then ‘highly unenthusiastic’ attitude toward entrepreneurship), James moved back home with his mum and dad (after much begging and pleading) in order to launch what would become Australia’s first magazine specifically dedicated to innovation and entrepreneurship. ‘The Anthill Story’ (2006), courtesy of Inside Business, ABC Television.

Life after print

In early 2009, James and the Anthill team announced that the magazine would no longer produce a regular print product, so that it could focus its attention on digital activities. Anthill was soon reborn as a small blog in February. These humble online beginnings were short-lived. By November, it was ranked among the Top 50 Business & Finance sites in Australia by Nielson Online Ratings.

It is now also ranked among the Top 1,000 websites in Australia by Alexa (and among the Top 100,000 in US, despite all attempts to keep its traffic local). Since September 2009, Anthill has been audited by the Audit Bureaux of Australia. Twice it has topped the Bureaux’s engagement index. This simply means that Anthill readers spend more time onsite than your average website.

Anthill is now based in Melbourne’s CBD (much to the relief of James’ parents). It is widely known and respected as the Australian online community for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs, providing a rare and often refreshing take on business, innovation and commercial creativity (in whatever form it takes).

What’s it about?

Anthill’s first incarnation… a print product!

Until Anthill was launched in September 2003, business media in Australia was largely concerned with issues of relevance to small/micro businesses or large corporations (one or the other).

Anthill was developed to bridge this gap, appealing to highly innovative and ambitious ‘fast’ growth businesses – SMEs with rapid growth potential and larger companies that realise the value of reinvention to stay ahead.

It does not focus on the traditional ‘nuts and bolts’ of business development (although this is a key element of editorial content), but instead it highlights the inspiring thrills, spills, trials and tribulations of business development and rapid commercial growth.

Business can and should be fun, right!

The Accolades (print)

 

In 2005, Anthill won the Australian Publishers Association Bell Award for Best Small Publisher, for the second year running. In reaching their decision, the judges made the following comment:

“The publisher is to be commended for creating a whole new market segment. Breaking new ground in the way Anthill does and to do it so well – from the edgy look to the irreverent editorial – makes it a clear winner.”

The acknowledgement that Anthill had created a ‘whole new market segment’ was a watershed moment for Anthill, positioning Anthill as an industry leader with its own definable place in the Australian media market and guiding its future as a media company dedicated to innovation.

The Awards

The Smart 100 Index

“Anthill’s ‘SMART 100′ Index was developed in 2008 to identify and rank Australia’s 100 most innovative products. With 100 innovations profiled and ranked each year, it is Australia’s largest awards program dedicated to innovation.”

WHEN: January-June (six months)

MORE: https://anthillonline.com/smart-100/

The Anthill 30under30 Awards

30UNDER30 scaled“30under30 is an Anthill initiative, launched in early 2008 to encourage and promote entrepreneurship among young Australians. Thirty entrepreneurs under the age of 30 are identified and profiled by Anthill, in recognition of their outstanding entrepreneurial endeavours, culminating in an Alumni Event.”

WHEN: April-September (six months)

MORE: https://anthillonline.com/30under30/

Cool Company Awards

coollogosm“This annual fixture on the Anthill calender is all about recognising and encouraging rule changing behaviour. What makes a company cool?”

WHEN: June-November (six months)

MORE: https://anthillonline.com/cool-company-awards/

Why the name, Anthill?

Ants are known to be hard working and resourceful. They are super-efficient, highly organised and forever optimistic (even if they can’t move rubber tree plants).

They are also among the first to notice change – and act fast!

Successful business people have much in common with ants. But unfortunately, in Australia, many are also confined to their own comfortable, but restrictive, metaphoric ant hills. It is often said that Australians are highly innovative but lack entrepreneurial talent or global drive.

Too often, the outcome is unfulfilled potential – ideas that never see the light of day.

Anthill aims to change this culture, by aiding the development of fast-growth businesses – innovative private companies, fuelled by passion and their own genuine global potential.

Anthill is a fun media company with a serious economic purpose.

What are you waiting for!?

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