Christopher Mote

Brent Chandler would like to inform us that takeaway food can have a happy place online. Zwift is a platform that gets restaurants online, substituting an online menu and a click of the mouse, and throwing in some marketing services on the side so that businesses be found online easier.

Rosanne Sandars is a self-confessed Webholic, but she will happily put her addiction to online marketing to good work for you. One of her effective brand awareness inventions was a nifty trend known as 'cupping', by which she prompted her Facebook fans to 'mug' for the camera with a coffee cup in tow. The cupping campaign was such a hit that other businesses picked it up.

One of the questions often asked of Jo Schneider pertains to the fact that the co-founder of DVE Business Solutions, based outside of Adelaide, has a degree in mechanical engineering. To her, the business benefit is obvious: problem solving skills.

Philip Sondhu spent his childhood on a farm, and as his career reveals, it's hard to take the country out of the country boy. FarmBuy.com, which he established in 2009, opens up the online market to agricultural real estate.

When one in three people in the world have no access to clean energy, practical solutions call for inventive thinking. To that end, Boyd Whalan is demonstrating that solutions are possible. After volunteering in Ghana and studying business at uni, Whalan founded Hessex Solutions to make solar energy easier to purchase.

Townsqr seeks to encourage stronger networking and fund raising for community projects at the local level, where donors can readily experience the effects of their contributions. While still preparing its formal launch, Townsqr will operate as a not-for-profit social network.

The first thing you associate with Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, probably isn't fashion. Then again, nor would you have founded Bachhara, as Amanda Ryan did, as a tool for empowering women and their indigent communities. Her original idea, in 2008, was to organise a sewing centre to raise funds for the school where she was volunteering. Although Ryan had no business experience, she had plenty of willpower, optimism and pure spunk to bring her idea to fruition.

Monica Kade is a journeyer. After her career took her to New York and back, she chose to dedicate herself to the physical, mental and spiritual health of young women. Through her online journeys and speaking tours, she helps girls to cast off the false and damaging attitudes about body image and self-worth that can lead to depression, suicidal thoughts and eating disorders (which she herself overcame).

David Dixon's journey started with one girl, an orphan in Uganda who was unable to pay her school fees. As Dixon helped her pursue her education, he learned just how much odds are stacked against young women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa. It's common for girls to miss school during their periods, and facing sexual assault is more common than graduating. Many don't attend school at all. Dixon is fighting the odds and making education achievable...One Girl at a time.

Fai Wong has taken an unique route to noteworthy. At Social Startup 48 in Sydney, Wong had the happenstance to meet the founder of Start Some Good, whose crowdfunding-for-charity platform closely corresponded to his own vision for a startup. "It was all just too coincidental so I emailed them to express my interest to be more than just an employee," says Wong, who is now chief technology officer. "Other people would not have thought outside the box and approached them like I did!"

This year marks a departure for Anthill and Ruslan Kogan, who hits the big 3-0 next month. An occasion for sadness, you say. Frankly, we at Anthill couldn't be happier. As we see it, one new spot on the 30sub30 for another Australian wunderkind just opened up. Besides, we're pretty sure the founder of Kogan Technologies, Australia's number one online electronics retailer, isn't leaving the headlines anytime soon.

"I know it’s going to sound corny," James Greig admits, "but the highlight of my day is when I hear success stories from businesses that are using my products." The 29-year-old Queenslander's products are about helping businesses help themselves -- knowing their market, sprucing up their brand, hooking their customers -- and doing it through consolidated, software-as-a-service platforms.

Does crowdsourcing work? The rise of Designcrowd, with backing by angel investors and venture capital, is strong evidence it can make for a thriving business model. And Lynch, the gifted CEO, is showcasing it through some very public design campaigns -- well outside of Australia.

You don't need to know what CeBIT stands for to understand that businesses totally dig conventions and exhibitions. Stan Kruss understands this. The founder of Expo Centric is dedicated to the whole show room experience, from set design to marketing to digital interactivity.

As Nicole Kersh helped out her parents with their cable installation business while a university student, she gained a deep knowledge of the logistics and inefficiencies of supply chains. So when it came time to blaze a career path, she took a pair of sharp cutters and snipped out the middleman.

Ben Thomas-Brigden knows his name isn't a head-turner at biz and tech conventions, and basically, he's cool with that. As the chief technical innovator at Blink Mobile Interactive, he's content to let his brand do the talking.

When Melbourne's finest walk through the doors of Wealth Enhancers, they find themselves in the presence of CEO Finn Kelly -- a charming socialite who, they quickly realise, is half his clients' age. Kelly is wrapping up his 28th year in good spirits, though his cool, fun-loving demeanour hides the fact that he's spent the majority of his adulthood pretty much working his gut off.

Michael Cohen wants his clients to see the friendly side of security. In six years of leadership at Executive Security Solutions (ESS), Cohen has grown his business to offer a variety of creative services, providing staff for personal escort, crowd control, protective surveillance and more.

Count Jane Lu among the entrepreneurs who see failing as the luckiest thing to ever happen to them. Her current fashion business, Show Pony, makes it hard for one to believe it, but then again, fashion and image boosting are part and parcel of her game.

Seven years is a long time for an online business. It's also been the majority of Joshua Kamil's adult life. He has been doing his thing as "the Robin Hood of printing" for precisely that long -- even as the Internet has evolved and forced the extinction of many entrepreneurs who couldn't keep up.