Jeremy Levitt

Jeremy Levitt once had a promising career at the international law firm Allens Arthur Robinson.

For him, entrepreneurship was just a pipe dream, and it wasn’t until the moment he finally shook off the guilt associated with leaving the law firm that the dream became reality.

He has since founded two businesses, PodProperty and Serviceseeking.com.au, growing both at 10 to 24 percent month-on-month since the beginning of global financial crisis.

Kirsten Black

Kirsten Black started her entrepreneurial career developing her innovative Halo Headphones, which feature specially designed high fidelity speakers that can be inserted into a comfortable headband.

After turning down an initial $200,000 offer for a 50 percent share in her product, Black worked for a number of years as crew member in the private yachting industry.

She came back to Australia with enough capital to fund the first production run of 5,000 units in 2008.

Jack Delosa

Jack Delosa is one of Australia ‘s leading young entrepreneurs. He has personally been involved in over $1.8m in capital raisings. Jack has been named in the top 30 entrepreneurs under 30 , in the Australian Anthill 30under30 Awards.

His company MBE Education, with revenues north of $1 million, was recently named in the Smart Company Fast 50 as one of the fastest growing startups in Australia. He is a regular contributor for thinkBIG Magazine on the topic of entrepreneurship and regularly speaks throughout Australia.

Julie Sweet

A yearning to become financially independent as “boss” and not “employee” triggered the transition for Julie Sweet to set up her online certificate operations.

Elegantly simple and clear in purpose, Certificates Online provides easy-to-access certificates such as birth, death, marriage and change of name (full originals) online.

While admitting that all the challenges she’s faced have not been so sweet, she says it has taught her that “You are where you are because you choose to be”.

Michael Fox

Having first dipped his toe into the legal profession, Michael wasn’t destined for the courtroom. He went on to spend several years in business management roles at retailer Supercheap Auto Group and then with search engine Google.

While the prospect of remaining at Google was tempting, a startup was an even greater temptation that Michael felt so strongly about that he handed in his resignation, and turned his mind to ensuring the women of Australia are always well shod.

Michael blogs about his startup experiences at www.22michaels.com.