Smart 100 2010

Our idea came about while we were waiting outside a women's clothing store for our girlfriends and we saw the same cars circling the block looking for parking. Having been frustrated at the inability to make informed decisions when finding a parking space -- and more than often walking past a better alternative on our way to our destination, we decided that it was about time someone found a better way! Digging into the parking space we realised that the rates vary dramatically and are not geographically dependent so we developed a rate comparison tool to allow for custom results.

This innovation came to life when we realised a gap in a developing segment in the telecommunications market. With telecommunications becoming commoditised, many entrepreneurs have joined the groundswell of companies offering innovative product mixes in voice, Internet, data, PBX, and hosting segment. While there are plenty of wholesale providers of these services, No one in the market has delivered an end-to-end BSS/OSS platform (front, middle, and back office solution) for these innovators. Utilibill Lite empowers such players to be competitive and offer first-class service while minimising overheads that were previously required to set up a telco.

Founders Sarah Taylor and Jeff Dusting realized how time consuming and unsatisfactory it was to locate, book, and pay for home, health and beauty services, and how few service providers had access to efficient low-cost online trading.

Following the 1998 major hail storm in Sydney (during which our car was extensively damaged), my wife and I were in Narooma one weekend. We heard that a severe storm was approaching the South Coast, and that it may contain hail. Having found that there was no undercover parking available in Narooma on a Saturday afternoon, I tried to find cardboard boxes to protect our car. Luckily it only rained, but it then became obvious to me that a portable shelter would have been ideal. Thus in 2003, Steve Anderson and I started on our project.

Our NPD team started to dream about a way to take Australia's rainwater collection experience to the world. As people globally begin to see how they can contribute to the water cycle through the collection of rainwater we asked, "How can we get Australia's learnings over the last decade, put it all in one product and make rainwater simple? Let's make a product that people won't need to worry about, will find easy to use and will let them contribute to our water system."

The founders were searching for the points of greatest inflexion to help move us to a sustainable economy. We realised that to be successful in this goal, we needed to engage consumers, and work to create a new market from the bottom up. Realising that government and corporate action on climate change was in regulation and artificial institutional markets we saw the need for a retail carbon market that everyday consumers could participate in on a daily basis, and trust enough to want to.

A research team custom-built a 3D laser range sensor for mapping the environment from a moving vehicle. The research group had previous experience with 2D laser mapping and positioning, and when extending their work to three dimensions was required to overcome a number of challenges. Most significantly, acquiring a full 3D scan takes much longer than a 2D scan, and therefore the data is susceptible to distortions due to the vehicle's motion. A software solution was developed and tested with the sensor mounted on a Bobcat driven around our research facility.

We received feedback from a number of our clients who are currently using Expect A Star's Child Care component of the Corporate Family Program. The clients relayed that the current offering is great for their staff caring for young children, but what about the older demographic who may be caring for an elderly loved one? In response to this feedback we developed a comprehensive Aged Care offering leveraging off the existing infrastructure of the Child care offering, but extending the reach of the innovation to an entirely new audience. So far the response to the program has been overwhelming.

We have spent almost fifteen years working in the Victorian education sector, teaching everything from Outdoor Education to Science to History to Geography. After seeing firsthand the increasing frustration felt by many teachers trying to find the best educational opportunities for their students, and how this was matched by an inability by many providers to successfully advertise their products to schools. Having identified a big gap in the market, we looked around at the technology available, decided upon ones and zeros as our medium, and after many sleepless nights and cups of coffee -- Cursions was born!

From my own experience of having a brain-injured daughter as a result of seatbelt injury. I spent hours researching pregnancy and driving and seatbelt effect, and I was convinced that something must be done. Hence, the Tummy Shield was invented.

This innovation initially came to life when two of the founders, Mike and Michael, were looking for a new, innovative online retail product to launch in Australia. The third founder, Jodie, had been designing her own shoes and having them made in Asia for a while. The three co-founders figured this could be done online and the idea for Shoes of Prey was born.

This innovation initially came to life when two of the founders, Mike and Michael, were looking for a new, innovative online retail product to launch in Australia. The third founder, Jodie, had been designing her own shoes and having them made in Asia for a while. The three co-founders figured this could be done online and the idea for Shoes of Prey was born.

Researchers at the ANU collaborated with Volvo in Sweden to explore advanced driver safety systems based on monitoring the driver (instead of monitoring the vehicle or environment). Using a video camera and video image analysis the team learnt to accurately track and monitor the driver's face and facial features. That technology allows the driver's eyes to be monitored (open or closed?) and to track the direction the driver is facing (looking at the road or not?). Crucial innovations along the way include coping with eyeglasses, sunglasses, working night and day, and being fully automatic and remaining off-body/non-contact.

After 25 years in hospitality businesses and at the age of 45 I knew I had one last chance of making it big. Sat down with 18-year-old son (doing business at Uni) and said, this is the big picture of a successful business and lifestyle. It can take you all your life following everyone's path or let's start at the top first. Lifestyle, money, minimal staff, outsource worries, outsource expertise, go national (more money), biggest ROI with least investment. The business dream. 6 months R&D globally distinguishing up-and-coming industries. A fully accountable national advertising platform on digital network.

Emily found herself limping home barefoot after a rather fancy wedding and had found herself in this rather unladylike position a few times in the past, and decided to take action giving ladies the opportunity to get home with (most) of their dignity intact for under $20. The Tipsy Toes concept was researched and product developed between January and June 2009; it was then the business name was registered after some serious "sole searching" for the right name...

This innovation initially came to life when a typically short snow season left the inventor thinking about how he could get the snowboard experience all year long. A love of extreme sport, a desire to ride a board off-road all year long and huge amount of ingenuity allowed the inventor to construct a proof of concept. It took 10 years from having the idea to riding the proof of concept in 2004. The outcome will be the best of skating / snowboarding / motoX all combined into one awesome electric powere off-road product.

Paul, Southern Innovation’s founder, was researching new technologies for the detection of antipersonnel landmines. Landmines, which lie active for decades after a conflict, are one of the most insidious artifacts of conflict, severely restricting communities getting back on their feet. Paul was investigating technology which could detect the explosive in the landmines; however, the detectors were so inefficient that detecting a single landmine could take 20 minutes. Paul and his PhD supervisor Prof. Rob Evans came up with a data-processing algorithm which would provide a twentyfold improvement in the efficiency of radiation detectors.

Our business concept came to life when we had both permanently swapped our weekends for 20+ hours working as lifeguards. During this time we discovered that we had both studied Logistics, were passionate about business, technology and innovation, and hated the idea of working for someone else. We realised that we had complimentary skills. I have the tech/web knowledge; Michael has experience in the logistics industry, providing him with insider knowledge and many contacts. We knew that by working together we were in a unique position to innovate in an industry that wasn’t keeping pace with new technology.

The founding technical directors came together in 2006 as individual contractors to contribute specific intellectual property to some unique product development. In 2007 the group identified a safe, environmentally friendly opportunity: an energy efficient, direct replacement for halogen downlights. The science behind Indice Ecotech had started to evolve at that time and it was recognised that it could make a meaningful contribution to saving lives, property and the environment. This valuable research has produced a rich suite of additional lighting products that will replace old inefficient and costly products in fields that naturally lend themselves to Indice Ecotech’s control technology.

Melbourne physiotherapist Luke Goodwin wanted to continue to make a difference in the area of falls prevention in the community, aged care and hospital environments. Following on from his internationally successful GripSox product, the REDuce Falls Sox are special ‘red’-coloured GripSox that allow staff members in hospitals and aged care facilities to easily identify a patient who has been assessed as a high falls risk, and therefore is someone requiring extra supervision to help reduce the chance of a fall. The socks therefore provide both a non-slip effect as well as a very important visual identification.