30under30 June/July 2008
They collectively turnover hundreds of millions of dollars each year, yet some are barely out of university. They are proud to be Australian but see their home-grown success as little more than a stepping stone. They have never known serious recession, political instability or significant global conflict, yet they are better educated and better informed than new business owners of any generation preceding them. Meet the future of business in Australia.
| Table of contents | ||
| The Winners*
Costa Anastasiadis Sarah Benjamin Kane Black Kelly Broderick Mike Cannon-Brookes & Scott Farquhar Robert Castaneda Andrew Collins Kirsty Dunphey Simon Goodrich Alexandra Keating Damien Langley Jess Logan James Masini Sebastien Maslin Ryan Meldrum Damien Moriarty Katie Patrick Stuart Richardson Daniel Roney Michael Rosenbaum Chris Saad Leanne Scanes Fred Schebesta William Scott Caroline Siler Tobi Skovron David Stallard Callan Taylor Zoe Warne Nicson White *These profiles are not ranked |
The Finalists*
Thumbs up Dawid Ostrowski Colin Reynolds Zara Hassan Brad Lindenberg Tyson Grubb Teenage fanclub Jamie Xuereb Jemma Nicoll Ryan Djurovich Jake Taylor Young innovators Alex Gelback Jeremy Levitt David Dinh Jesse Costelloe Josh Pell Ben Neumann Glorious glory hounds David Graham Alicia Curtis Peter Williams |
Entrepreneurs of the land
Sally Murfet Leigh Staines Behold, the new economy Riley Batchelor Lara Dall’Alba James Greig Jonathon Weinstock Travis Pittman Ross Hill Monica Kade Chris Kettle Oliver Pennington Anna Tucker Richard Eastes Alicia Laune |
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| Sponsored by national partner, Sensis | Innovation sponsor | State sponsor |
More information on the Winners.
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Winners
30under30 – The winners (part 1)
30under30 – The winners (part 2)
30under30 – The winners (part 3)
30under30 – The winners (part 4)
30under30 – The winners (part 5)
30under30 – The winners (part 6)
Finalists
30under30 – The finalists (part 1)
30under30 – The finalists (part 2)
30under30 – The finalists (part 3)
30under30 – The finalists (part 4)
30under30 – The finalists (part 5)
30under30 – The finalists (part 6)
Here’s a question to get you thinking…
Which communication technology gained widespread adoption first – the fax-machine or the internet?
Easy? Of course.
The fax-machine pre-dates the ubiquitous adoption of the world wide web as a communication tool. Companies had long stopped marvelling at the potential of the humble ‘facsimile’ machine, which attained popular usage in the 1980s, when the internet started dominating office life, and business models, in the late 1990s.
Here’s a question that you might find a little hard to answer: Which of these two communication technologies was the first to win the race to mainstream acceptance – the radio or the telephone?
If you’re having trouble answering this second question, it’s probably because the rise of the telephone and radio happened before you were born (unless you have more staying power than The Bulletin).
The business world has undergone such tremendous change in the last 20 years, sporning new entrepreneurial ways of thinking and a new generation of business builders ready to lead the charge.
These ‘young guns’ are switched-on, cashed-up and fearless. And if you haven’t already figured this one out, they also represent the future of business in Australia.
| THEY SAID IT…
Many entrepreneurs that didn’t make it into the top 30 had some pretty interesting perspectives. We’ve extracted some of our favourites ‘from the pile’. *Comments have been edited for the sake of length and clarity. “Inherent desire to pioneer or carve out a piece of history for oneself. Unfailing optimism and the ability to predict a best case scenario. The horrible need when sitting in restaurants (and other businesses) to calculate the number of punters against meal costs and overheads to determine whether it is making a profit. Burning excitement when discussing business, ventures and opportunities but little on the richter scale otherwise (much to the annoyance of wife). An eye for an opportunity when meeting everyone. (I mean everyone!) A giant love of making revenues but little real time or knowledge of how to spend the returns unless it is re-investing (having accountant as said wife does help though).” The ‘symptoms’ of entrepreneurship according to TechFlare Solutions founder Geoff Olds. “I’m an ‘incremental entrepreneur’. I ask myself if I am in a better position than I was in the weeks, months or the project before. That sucked. OK, have I improved? Yes. Excellent, let’s keep working on that. I may not have made my first million, but I am in a better position now than I ever have been. This is what keeps me going and when it’s no longer true, I’ll go take the easy money working for someone else.” Peter Henderson (24, ACT), founder of online store Blue Dog, coins a phrase and attitude to live by. “Don’t think about the dollars. Think about how you can change lives and the dollars will follow.” Autoselect founder Josh Wood (27, QLD) on valuing entrepreneurial achievements. “Haven’t had a job yet, but considering it.” Prolific web-developer Ross Hill (21, VIC) when asked about work history. |
MESSAGE FROM THE JUDGES
There are many clear and conflicting characteristics that make up the entrepreneurial mindset. This naturally made judging our inaugural 30under30 Awards an extremely challenging process. How can you measure the achievements of a 15 year-old dance school proprietor against a 29 year-old property baron? How can you compare an old economy retail business owner, turning over millions, with a new economy dot-com wunderkind, with no profits but a million ‘customers’? These questions confronted us at every turn. Every ‘clear winner’ was quickly supplanted by a ‘definite contender’, only to be returned to the top of the pile another half hour later, before temporary rejection again to complete the cycle. The quality of the entries was high. As such, judging Anthill’s inaugural 30under30 Awards was an unapologetically subjective process. Each applicant was measured against other contenders in his/her age bracket and against other entries from his/her industry. Ultimately, it became an enormous challenge to pick just 30, which is why another 30 high-flyers have also been included within the feature. If you are not in these pages, don’t worry. Many entries have been flagged and presented to the Anthill editorial team for use in future editions. For example, we were overwhelmed by the number of ‘intrapreneurs’ who entered (entrepreneurs who apply their skills for another company as employees). As such, a feature on these important and often-overlooked members of the entrepreneurial community is now brewing. On behalf of Anthill, we thank the hundreds of people who entered and the far greater number of people who nominated friends, family and other sources of inspiration.
