Smart 100 2012

MOB created buildAR.com, which quickly became WordPress for the Augmented Reality industry. This helps publishers ensure they're not left behind by the mobile AR and Augmented Web revolution and makes it easy for you to create AR in minutes with no development required.

We got sick of having to charge our clients for fixing work that was already paid for and having to justify our fees to our clients for this work. The majority of bookkeepers weren't qualified and hence did not understand accounting and yet charged high rates based on experience. We realised we could offer the same services with better qualified staff at lower rates by moving accounting functions offshore.

This one is for the backpacker in all of us. That sun-kissed specimen who treads lightly on the surface of the globe, travelling with little luggage and luxury... albeit often at the expense of personal hygiene. Ashley Newland faced the usual dilemma before undertaking a climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro. He came up with a solution that would allow for effective laundry washing while on the road. Behold the Scrubba Wash Bag -- an innovation whose design, efficiency and progressive vision have earned it this year's highest honour in the Anthill SMART 100.

Two innovators from Cairns established a statewide pool fence inspection business. A customised iPhone app and a bespoke database for managing the inspections was designed and developed. After 14 months and 3,500 inspections, the app achieved highly efficient outcomes. A team of 30 inspectors was managed by a single support person...but why limit this to pool fence inspections?

I was building a house in Tassie, partly from the rock rubble lying around the building site. Packing irregular shapes together to form a nice-looking regular structure was hard work and I thought, "A computer can do this." I realised that as well as solving an intellectual problem, the software would enable the use of a local resource, unprocessed quarried rock, which is about 10% of the price and its production results in just 10% of the greenhouse gas emissions compared to manufactured and processed masonry material like concrete, brick and dimension stone. So, great for sustainable development.

BoomVox was born to help businesses engage their customers positively. Our first product, BoomVox Amplify, is a mobile application brands use at events to capture genuine customer excitement and spread it online. It’s live, and has demonstrated tremendous impact for attractions and events like the Peats Ridge Festival and the Australian Museum.

Searchwords’ Get Me Online innovation came to life when the founders saw the struggle for small businesses to move online. Websites are the cornerstone of the Internet but before Searchwords website development posed a time-consuming and costly problem for SMEs. Searchwords’ founders were itching to remove the costly frustration and solve the problem, giving every business a chance to participate online and get their business online quickly, cheaply and without requiring any technical knowledge.

One of our community members asked us, "What's the best way to access money while overseas?" We didn't know the answer and immediately put the Mozo Rate Chasers on the task to find out. Within eight weeks of being asked that question, the Mozo Travel Money Hub was born. That person got the answer they needed for their trip and now everyone else going overseas can too.

A team of ex-Disney and ex-games industry veterans decided to create the best virtual world for kids. Our startup is the fastest-growing games company in Australia, growing from five people in Jan 2011 to over 20 people now, and we’re now taking our story to mobile platforms and brand franchise extensions.

I was tutoring HSC maths students and found they were encountering the same problems I had encountered when I was studying for my HSC maths exams -- namely, that there was not a comprehensive online resource for students to refer to for help with HSC maths. The existing online HSC maths resources just felt like electronic textbooks rather than providing anything different from what students already had in their textbooks.

Our co-founder swore off using expensive recruitment agencies in his (50-person) business forever. He began a mission to slash the cost and time it took him to recruit new employees. He initially found a contract recruiter who would charge him an hourly rate. He could outsource the process, but save 90% compared to an agency. Then his friends started asking for her details. There was demand for this model!

The purpose of this innovation is to change the way channels to market (supply chains) work to give everyone in the channel -- Manufacturer, Distributor, Reseller or End User -- equal access to a single source of truth (think Facebook for channels).

Sterling and Hyde Custom is a new bespoke shopping experience where women can create their own dream leather handbag. A range of designs, leather types and colours enable millions of possibilities, ensuring that elusive perfect handbag becomes a reality. We use softest sheepskins, colourful suedes and hardy cow leathers to create a handbag which is not only functional but individually yours.

I spent months speaking with independent sellers struggling to find simple and affordable online distribution channels that paid their product due respect. These sellers were also looking to partake in a relevant social cause that made them feel their business has a sense of purpose, and without cutting in to their already slim margins and time poor lives. Andable was born out of desire to provide a marketplace to support independent businesses, both here and abroad.

We have been working to help solve training issues in the construction industry by breaking down barriers. This market is experiencing a skills shortage impinged further by more stringent building licensing requirements. This initiative was developed to assist in the experiential learning of safety risks in a construction environment. It also allowed people to learn anywhere, anytime and capitalised on the massive growth of tablets and smartphones.

Several Telco customers approached us wanting to offer electricity to their retail customers. They recognised our business system provided the foundation of all they needed to run both their electricity and Telco business in one single sign-on cloud-based SaaS system. Our clients identified the opportunity for us. We worked interactively with them to make this come to life.

I discovered that there was a way of giving people who experienced financial difficulty a way to declare bankrupt, to become annulled from bankruptcy within six months. However the "innovation" is giving the client their life back and a clear credit rating as if the bankruptcy never happened or existed in the first place.

Whenever any music event is booked, there's always that massive risk of people not turning up. This sucks for artists because it means they have to play in front of a weak crowd, while promoters and venues make a huge loss on the night. GiggedIn was born when a couple of guys realised there was a better way.

We were working with clients on their strategies. We continually heard them (and many other companies) say: We are actually quite good at developing strategy but we are lousy at implementation. We need something that will keep us disciplined. At that point, we realised that a strategy implementation tool was greatly needed by companies to help them keep on track with the execution of their plans.

We gave our eldest son a cooking set but he didn't have a play oven to accompany it. With quick thinking, I turned the box the cooking set came in, into a cooktop by sticking some paper hotplates to the box -- problem solved and he absolutely loved it! I started to think about what other inexpensive toys could be created from a cardboard box...then came the idea of moving plastic parts to make them even more realistic and interactive, some stickers to make it more authentic...and the Imaginabox product line was born!