Anthill Magazine

Expanding the reach of sustainable energy is no easy task. Reducing poverty in developing nations while cutting back the world’s carbon footprint is a job of herculean proportions. Meet Hugh Whalan, who has co-founded a nonprofit that is making those things happen.

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The dedication of Halliday and his staff is well-illustrated by a tale he tells when asked about his biggest entrepreneurial setback. His says a recently hired technician managed to crash the server and destroy the backups of one of Mercury IT’s biggest clients. Halliday and his business partner worked non-stop from 5 p.m. Friday to 12:30 p.m. Sunday rebuilding a network for 200 users. “It was all working Monday and the client knew no different,” Halliday says. “Thank you, caffeine!”

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A few years ago, a young investment banker named Stephen Dash was in JFK airport in New York. He needed to access his email to learn the name and address of his hotel. But — horrors — his iPhone was dead. Dash paid $45 for a charger at an airport convenience store. And out of that angst came an idea that hurled Dash out of banking and into the entrepreneurial multiverse.

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In 2007, at age 23, Steve McLeod parlayed a background in emergency response into a company that became Fire and Safety Australia, which offers workplace training in every state and territory on the continent. Today, Fire and Safety Australia has 11 full-time employees and six casual staff, and McLeod serves as managing director. He also has 16 co-providers who run safety-training business as licensees of his company.

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Polka Dot Bride, started three ago by a now-25-year-old entrepreneur, is an online marketplace and inspiration clearinghouse for Australian couples preparing to say “I do.” The business was started in 2007 by a Sydney-area woman who is now 25 years old and and who carefully maintains her anonymity on her site and on this profile (Dorothy Polka — Dot Polka … get it? On her site, she goes by Ms. Polka).

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“I bring a new era of business ethos,” says Dwayne Martens, owner of the health-food company Amazonia. “I am absolutely passionate to show conscious business is more powerful and more effective than the dollar-driven business.” As for the bottom line, Amazonia moved $300,000 in product in August, and totaled $2.4 million in sales in 2009. Martens hopes to crack the $3 million mark soon.

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What truly sets apart the 23-year-old Jack Delosa is that he’s driven to bring more budding entrepreneurs into the fold. His latest venture, The Entourage, aims at inspiring and developing up-and-comers while linking them to mentors and potential investors. In Delosa’s words, it “connects Australia’s best entrepreneurs with Australia’s next entrepreneurs.”

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At age 23, Jack Fitzgerald is well on his way to never having to call someone “boss.” And for that, he rejoices. “Working for someone else sounded like a jail sentence. I had to create a business or join the 9-to-5,” he says. The result was Ship 2 Anywhere, a website that allows people to compare shipping costs of top couriers.

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Mini-motorcross has been a driving force for Brad Smith. Over five years, starting with his own money and funds from his family, the 23-year-old Tasmanian has built an offroad motorcycle empire that includes four stores, his own bike design, four tracks, a race series, 40 employees and a United States distribution deal.

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Twenty-one year-old Tarik Houchar says his Sydney store Muslim fashion is “committed to the modern, fashion-loving Muslim girl. It provides fashionable, modern hijabs and Islamic fashion in a fun, exciting retail environment.” Some of these words might seem at odds with hijab. But Houchar clearly knows where the lines are drawn and what young Muslim women want.

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