Anthill Magazine

Ruslan Kogan, who has run more than 20 businesses since age 12, employs a canny marketing approach that attracts news media attention and plays up the David / Goliath aura. in 2008, he tweaked the government’s nose by putting out a “Kevin 37″ television and selling it for $900 — the amount offered to each Australian household under PM Kevin Rudd’s stimulus plan. Earlier this year, he stoked the fires of a verbal spat with Gerry Harvey, head of traditional electronics retailer Harvey Norman.

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Don McKenzie’s Stream Group is one of the biggest employers on this year’s 30under30 list, with a staff of about 110. McKenzie estimates the company will manage 25,000 home insurance claims this year, up from 2,000 in 2008, and total revenue is likely to exceed $80 million. Did we mention that he’s only 27?

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Andrew Craig’s company, Computer Empire, was started in his mother’s garage at age 18. Today, it runs out of a store in Brisbane’s central business district. Craig says turnover has surpassed $2 million per year. The biggest customer for his computers is the Vodaphone network in Papua New Guinea.

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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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