Move over Baby Boomer and Generation X entrepreneurs. Gen Y is on the scene. They’re children of the internet age – savvy, connected and profoundly global in outlook. So what new advantages and curses do they bring to the table? What’s it like being a young entrepreneur in Australia today? We asked three Gen Yers having a go in three very different ways.
Interviews by Paul Ryan.
Jake Alberts
Surfume
(Age 20)
At first glance, Jake Alberts is not your typical entrepreneur, if such a thing even exists. Like so many who grow up in the Gold Coast, surfing is his passion. So when he came up with the idea for a fragrance range that smells of surf board wax, he knew his market well. In mid-2005, Alberts won a $5,000 Nescafe Big Break, and followed that later in the year by pitching for investment on Chanel Seven’s Dragon’s Den, securing a deal for $50,000 in return for 51 percent of Surfume.
If anything, the real problem at first was being a young brand rather than being a young person. When people asked, “Who stocks this?” at first I was saying ‘two shops’. That led to a few turn downs, because I wasn’t Billabong straight away. The way I played it was to act like I was just a representative of Surfume rather than the founder. That came across as more professional to some people.
But there were also positives to being young. A fair few of the stores, mainly the smaller accounts, were willing to take a chance on me. They said, ‘We want to give it a go because you’re giving it a go.’ That helped significantly. Also, to the stores that were wary, I played up a bit of the, ‘I’m only 19, having a go. C’mon!’ That seemed to get quite a few of them over the line.
It took me a year to actually get the idea into a product. I really didn’t have any idea about what I was doing until I was doing it. I learnt as I went along. But I definitely think I’m a better business person for having made all of the decisions and mistakes myself. If I had to do it again, I could do it in two weeks.
We’re Australia-wide and in New Zealand. We plan to continue our expansion internationally, targeting the US, South Africa, South America and Japan. The Japanese thrive on western culture, the name is quirky and a lot of Japanese tourists buy the product in Australia.
I’ve received quite a lot of advice, especially from the main three Dragons who invested in the product. It’s been a lesson in letting go of some of the control. But that hasn’t been too hard because I’ve achieved what I want to achieve. My first goal was getting it to the shop and selling it. My next goal was to get 100 accounts, which I’ve done. From now on it’s about whatever needs to happen to make it big.
Alicia Curtis
Alicia Curtis Leadership
(Age 23)
Alicia Curtis epitomises the new wave of youthful social entrepreneurs. At the age of 12, she attended an international children’s conference on the environment and went on to help organise the ‘Kids Helping Kids’ conference, which evolved into the Millennium Kids organisation. Now 23, she runs Alicia Curtis Leadership, providing customised leadership training for young people, to inspire and develop their personal and community leadership skills.
My workshops are based on my personal experiences as a ‘teen leader’, as well as my knowledge of youth leadership. When I began, I was studying law at the University of Western Australia and dropped to part-time study to develop my business. Two years later, I dropped my law degree completely to take up the opportunity of studying the Masters in Leadership and Management at Curtin University of Technology.
My leadership programs challenge young people to discover their talents and passions and use them in a way that positively contributes to their community. It’s about believing that you can make a difference. Leaders must have courage to put ideas into action. Young people have the ability to offer fresh ideas, be passionate about what they are doing and create positive change.
There is a lot of support out there for young entrepreneurs, including training, networking and young business clubs. I’m a member of the Young Business Network in WA and I’m on the National Young Business and Professional Women (BPW) Board. These networks offer support, training and a place to meet other passionate business owners.
I think Gen Yers feel more comfortable with making fast decisions because they have grown up in a fast paced world. We are expert multi-taskers – we can SMS on the mobile while searching for information on the net while chatting on Skype!
Gen Yers also enjoy multiple challenges. Right at the moment, I run my own business, study my Masters at University while volunteering for a couple of non-profit organisations. I like the challenge. In fact, I get bored quickly if I don’t have a decision to make or something to do!
Bobir Akilkhanov
studentface.com.au
(Age 23)
Formerly from Uzbekistan, Bobir Akilkhanov came to Australia in 2000 to study IT at university. Not long after graduating, he secured investment and launched Studentface.com.au – a Facebook for Australian students. Studentface now has representation with over 20 Australian universities, with potential exposure to over 80 percent of approximately 600,000 undergraduate students in Australia. I graduated from my Bachelors in IT at Charles Sturt University in 2003.
I was developing software for another company when I had the idea to start my own project, studentpost.com.au. It was a trading website. I worked on it for six months and then realised that it wouldn�t work without a strong community, which evolved into starting an Australian student community.
At that time I did not have the resources to develop it. So I went pitching. I approached three or four potential investors, who declined. But then I was referred by one of my friends. I presented the business plan and they liked it. So that’s how we got the private investment – over a million dollars. That was the beginning of studentface.com.au.
I guess I’ve always been quite entrepreneurial. Even at a young age I was always creating things. In Year 10 I started working for my father’s IT company, doing web hosting and the like.
If you work hard and have some luck, you will succeed. Sometimes inexperience works against you, and sometimes it’s a plus, because you have confidence in fresh ideas. And there’s only one way to get experience.
Currently, Studentface has a very similar model to Facebook in the US. From mid-2007, we want to differentiate ourselves by introducing a platform for trading between students. We also want to introduce a job feature for Australian students. Currently, students trade by posting leaflets on a notice board. It is so ineffective and dated. We want to update that process.
My advice to budding young entrepreneurs is just get in and have a go. It is so much easier now because of the internet. There are no boundaries – the internet lets you do anything. The downside to that is that too many people are competing, creating noise, as they say, especially in the social networking area.
Everything is so connected these days. Ideas cross borders so easily. It’s not difficult to tailor a websites for the Australian market.
