Smart 100 2011

An NSW-based company, Flovac, has developed a deployable sewage treatment system that could answer the health need of military encampments and emergency refugee camps. The products earned the runner-up spot in Anthill's SMART 100.

I used dynamometers as an apprentice, to test diesel engines. I wanted wind-powered heating as part of a desalination unit – to make fresh water from the sea.

This innovation initially came to life when Rod, keen environmentalist traveler and rideshare advocate, met Ross, expert online marketplace developer. Rod was certain that creating a carpool and rideshare network as complete and functional as a bus network was a real possibility. Ross, bringing his knowledge with online marketplaces, developed the execution which made it a reality.

After generations of disadvantage in marginalised Australian communities, Evolve director Kerry Grace realised there must be a better way. Kerry met with colleagues in the Nambucca Valley and commenced developing the 'architecture' to make significant and sustainable change in the community.

This innovation arose from a desire by the originators to give themselves control over their own electronic identities and online information. The first germ of the idea started when one of the team started to write his story and wondered how he could prove his story was not fiction. The ideas became more focused when the developers of the idea had to identify people for an online payments service. The development started when it became apparent the AML/CTF legislation required organisations to reliably identify people and there was no privacy-friendly service on the market.

We wanted to create something that connected to the average Australian. The financial planning industry ignores people who have simple goals and not large amounts of money -- we wanted to help and connect with people from all walks of life.

My friend and I became new mums and quickly discovered the horrible customer service in baby stores in Sydney. We found how hard it was to find great baby gear and, moreover, nobody was making it easy to give feedback to improve products and services. As time-pressed mums, with consulting backgrounds from McKinsey & Company, we decided to apply our brains to solve this problem, fast. And, when we developed a mobile site for feedback we realised that it is not just baby stores but every single retailer and service providers that could benefit from customer intelligence. And so... CustomerUnderground was born!

Mouse Eye Tracking enables online marketers, webmasters, web designers and developers to analyse and generate actionable insights that drive online marketing strategy. This is achieved via three key features: Heat Maps, Mouse Tracking and Page Navigation. These features give Mouse Eye Tracking the unique ability to record and display user interaction on each web page.

Two french horn players set out to make it possible for musicians to (a) broadcast a live concert from small venues and sell a 'ticket' to viewers and (b) allow music students to participate in master classes with teachers around the world. They realised that video streaming was both expensive and complicated -- and decided to change that!

I was holding four cans of beer whilst waiting for the Jesus and Mary Chain to come on stage at the 2008 V Festival. Like all cans at festivals, the four cans had been opened at the bar. Someone bumped my elbow and the bottom can in one hand fell to the ground and the beer in it exploded out and covered me in beer. Two thoughts came into my head: "Crap, there goes seven bucks," and then, "I wish I could re-seal the cans after they open them at the bar..." And that's when I came up with the Spillah can lid.

David Scholes, a noted Real Estate auctioneer, and myself [Brian Edmonds] decided it was time to take one of the world's oldest professions and introduce it to the digital age. We wanted to use the opportunity to create a better way of buying and selling property, one that is transparent and less stressful than the normal auction process.

We conducted some analysis of the rewards credit card market for our website and discovered that the vast majority of rewards credit cards fail to deliver real value for Australian consumers. We were gobsmacked to learn that some cards even put consumers in the red, charging more in fees than they deliver value in a year. It was time someone made it easy for the average person to compare rewards cards and rewards types, and to expose the sneaky marketing tactics banks and financial institutions have long used to promote ‘rewards’ cards.

I was sitting on a beach in Dili, East Timor. While the sun was setting, I realised two things: 1) Physiotherapists are placing increasing emphasis on education and exercise programs in injury management; 2) People in remote areas should not miss out on valuable personalised injury information. The idea for an online injury assessment and management clinic was born.

Kogan invented LivePrice when we realised there were shoppers around the world pre-paying for goods but not receiving any benefits for doing so. LivePrice creates a win-win situation for both retailers and shoppers. It rewards customers who jump on great deals quickly.

We realised that although there are 6.8 billion people of the earth, only 2 billion have the Internet. However, they are now getting online at record rates. While people join up, looking to improve their socio-economic situation, the Internet began delivering a tectonic shift to the global labourforce. Freelancer.com was created to facilitate this shift -- by connecting businesses of all sizes to the world's largest liquid workforce -- over 2.3 million professionals.

With the state of the stock markets, economic turmoil and inflation, GoldSwap helps people preserve their purchasing power. Gold is the best protection in terms of financial preservation, and passing wealth from one generation to the next. A dollar today is not necessarily going to be a dollar tomorrow...but an ounce of gold will always be an ounce of gold.

A potential client, the British Ministry of Defence, was having problems with the extreme weather conditions in Afghanistan affecting their pump systems and regulatory changes meant that they could not leave their sewage at the site of their camps. We have had 25 years of experience using vacuum technology for sewage networks in Australia and so managed to come up with a way to containerise the system and handle the conditions.

Vickie Johnson (founder & director) was working in her car between coffee shop meetings in the North Queensland heat in December 2009. Sweating and watching the battery power of the laptop depleting, she reflected on the fact that using her iPhone right now she could book a hotel room or a flight to England, but here she was working in the car and having meetings in coffee shops with no other options. Being a woman of action rather than negativity, she set about creating a network providing businesses with access to work or meeting space Australia-wide.

I was trying to find helpful and useful toys for my nieces and nephew who had too many plastic toys. I was tired of watching the kids devote only a few minutes to an expensive Transformers toy. I wanted to give them products that were also eco-friendly and guilt-free (i.e. less contribution to landfill).

Two Harvard Business school students met and exchanged ideas about whether crowdsourcing could be applied to the fashion industry. We identified a way to leverage the internet to connect independent fashion designers with customers around the world, and have the crowds curate the marketplace.