Startup & Entrepreneurship

Train commuters in Melbourne no doubt started scouring the environs for hidden cameras earlier this month as an epidemic of trouser-dropping broke out around them. Up and down the platform, even in the trains themselves, men and women peeled off their pants, proudly exposing their underwear and, generally, pale legs. Was it a flashing flash mob? Mass hypnosis? An initiation stunt for a gender-neutral school fraternity? No, no and no. This boxer rebellion was carefully staged publicity for The Pantless Postman.

A 'who's who' of leading Australian entrepreneurs and business builders gathered last night at Melbourne's 24 Moons Bar in AC/DC Lane to celebrate Anthill Magazine's 2010 Cool Company Awards. Winners were presented with as Australia's biggest award in business -- a 1.2 metre personally branded trophy bean-bag. In addition to the formal accolades, attendees were treated to party games for entrepreneurs, such as 'Pin the Idea on the Venture Capitalist'.

Australians love pies. We consume more than 300 million a year, yet, by 2003, the category had become... stale. Pie Face was launched to change all that, adopting a cheeky and fun attitude to the sale of a traditional market, coupled with the franchise model. Each flavor comes with a signature face baked into the crust. No humble pie, these. Pie Face is this year’s Big Kahuna Award winner in the Anthill Cool Company Awards.

Freelancer.com has a long, long reach. Headquartered in Sydney, the web-based company connects business and individuals who need a task done with those who have the talent do it. Freelancer.com has more than 2 million users. The company describes itself as a marketplace of talent -- an eBay of people, if you will. The company so impressed our august panel of Anthill Cool Company Awards judges that it took top honors in two categories: Global Growth and Online Business.

Law school graduate Ben Lipschitz was out for a night on the town in Sydney when he noticed many women were walking barefoot. Obviously, they were taking a break from their high heels. But the sight struck the young man as wrong -- these young ladies should have backup protection for their soles. Hmmm. A set of portable, fold-up shoes would do the trick, he thought. Cue light bulb. Flipsters is this year’s Micro Business Award winner in the Anthill Cool Company Awards.

Pollenizer provides all the services a business needs to create an online presence. Well and good. Australia is stuffed with companies that do that. Where Pollenizer sets itself apart is that it serves as a web-business' co-founder. In their own words, "we will be there from idea inception to launch and forward, with our team helping every step of the way." The organisation has 18 portfolio companies, 125 employees worldwide, $10 million raised and $50 million in valuation. And we did it in less than three years with only $1,000.

Gretha Oost is an innovator with a passion for environmental protection and a knack for marketing her own ideas. Her latest creation is 321 Water, a portable, on-the-go water filter. The name refers to the three litres of water required to normally make one litre of bottled water.

Living Fundraisers offers a range of herb- and vegetable-growing kits that offer an alternative for chocolate bars and cookie dough for school money drives. The company also offers seed-embedded Christmas cards. "These products allow schools and community groups to promote healthy, educational activities instead of flogging chocolate bars," co-founder Rachel Taylor said.

Australian online retailer eStore.com.au is in acquisition mode for 2011 with plans to grow its already significant business through the acquisition of local online companies. In a statement to Anthill, eStore founder Lorenzo Coppa says he is keen to speak with owners of online businesses selling technology products looking to exit the market or explore opportunities to leverage their products with eStore.com.au.

In this episode, Eckersley-Maslin spends a day in Paris, encounters his first setbacks and can be seen completing his Anthill 30under30 application while on the Eurostar! (He also scored himself lunch at Le Jules Verne on the Eiffel Tower and a potential distribution partner, demonstrating the truth in his sentiment that luck is self-made.)

In this week's interview, Ruslan Kogan, founder and chief executive of Kogan (formerly Kogan Technologies) and recent Anthill 30under30 winner, discusses his take on changes being wrought in retail by direct to public online traders. Word of mouth, service and good value are the keys to success, he says, and his company has just reported a 48 percent quarterly rise in revenue at a time when High Street retailers are feeling the pinch.

With this sister-site almost live, we're now seeking progressive companies to partner with. Would you like Anthill to sell your products and services using this new sales model?

We all now understand that the past decade has let consumers build a 'social layer' on top of their everyday lives, using services such as Facebook and Twitter to capture their social lives on the web. In this clip from TEDxBoston, proud Princeton "dropout" and mobile-entrepreneur Seth Priebatsch considers the next layer in progress: the "game layer" (a pervasive set of motivating 'dynamics' that will reshape education and commerce).

If you're wondering about the future of the internet but want more than the glib, usually poorly researched (albeit visually spectacular) YouTube memes that surface every six months, prepare to be impressed. In 20 minutes, Morgan Stanley's Mary Meeker outlines the 10 most influential internet trends likely to influence the way we create, consume and exploit digital media in 2011.

They narrowly missed out on a place in the Top 5 but are still hot in our books. Introducing Anthill’s 2010 5over50 Honourable Mentions.

They don't often feature in the 30under30 awards, but this young gun was impossible to ignore. Working within an existing organisation, he has exhibited the drive and vision required to expand the organisation's reach and put his personal stamp on the world. Meet Nick Byrne, Anthill's 30under30 Intrapreneur of the Year.

They narrowly missed out on a place in the Top 30 but are still hot in our books. Introducing Anthill’s 2010 30under30 Honourable Mentions.

Real-estate entrepreneurs have never featured strongly in the 30under30. In our opinions, entrepreneurship is not about personal wealth creation. It’s about the process of creation itself! This year, three real-estate entrepreneurs grabbed our attention, not because of the number of Torrens Titles stashed under their beds, but because each has built a business around the real-estate industry at a tender age.

Entrepreneurship and artistic endeavours have much in common. They involve imagination, following your dreams and creating something from scratch designed to make the world a richer place. These three "artistic" entrepreneurs may not have made it into the 30under30 Top 30, but we decided they deserve a place in this year’s broader gallery for their commercial creativity.

This is one of the few times that Facebook has created something specifically for the small business sector. It also offers a firm answer to those who still today believe that Facebook is not relevant to their business because they operate in the real world.