It’s often said that there has never been a better time to be a young entrepreneur in Australia. Apparently, it’s a super-awesome time if you are aged 28.
This year’s 30under30 was one of our largest. And the two hottest ages for getting entrepreneurial were 26 and 28. We also received our highest number of teen entries ever and, more importantly, we received our highest number of entries from women ever.
In fact, this year we received the highest percentage of women to men in the award’s six year history, close to 30%. Sure, this is a far cry from 50% but, in past year’s, we’ve had to aggressively pursue gender balance. (But that’s a discussion for another day.)
AGE OF ENTREPRENEURS
GENDER OF ENTREPRENEURS
THE TOP 30, 2013
The Top 30 are listed by age.
| FIRST | LAST | AGE | GENDER | STATE |
| Jeremy | Hansen | 17 | M | QLD |
| Alex | Jeffery | 19 | M | VIC |
| Brandon | Cowan | 19 | M | NSW |
| Owen | Yang | 20 | M | NSW |
| Ash | Davies | 20 | M | VIC |
| Van | Armota | 22 | M | NSW |
| Genevieve | George | 22 | F | NSW |
| Isobel | Crumblin | 23 | F | NSW |
| Eamon | Sheedy | 24 | M | NSW |
| Phillip | Hoare | 24 | M | NT |
| Andrew | Barnes | 24 | M | QLD |
| Jared | Hopping | 24 | M | VIC |
| Dani-elle | Davidson | 24 | F | QLD |
| Sonny | Saini | 25 | M | NSW |
| Vishal | Sood | 26 | M | NSW |
| Tish | Naughton | 26 | F | SA |
| Greg | Latham | 26 | M | QLD |
| Charlie | Caruso | 26 | F | WA |
| Kym | Clark | 27 | F | QLD |
| Aaron | Weller | 27 | M | NSW |
| Jayde | Lovell | 27 | F | VIC |
| Michael | Cohen | 28 | M | VIC |
| Jarred | Rubin | 28 | M | NSW |
| Janine | Zappini-Rosa | 28 | F | NSW |
| Nathan | Birch | 28 | M | NSW |
| Andrea | Tjoeng | 28 | F | QLD |
| Declan | White | 29 | M | WA |
| Steve | McLeod | 29 | M | VIC |
| Nicole | Kersh | 29 | F | NSW |
HON MENTIONS
They may not have made it into the top 30 but hot digity dog!
But these up and comers and worth keeping an eye on.
| FIRST NAME | LAST NAME | AGE | STATE | GENDER | BUSINESS |
| Sebastian | Kade | 21 | NSW | Male | Bitbound |
| Jonathan | O’Brien | 21 | VIC | Male | On Tap Recruitment |
| Elliot | Smith | 21 | QLD | Male | HSK Instruments |
| Joshua | Burke | 22 | VIC | Male | OziRig Pty. Ltd. |
| Nick | Molnar | 23 | NSW | Male | Iceonline.com.au |
| Jamie | Stenhouse | 23 | SA | Male | JCP Creations |
| Aaron | Beashel | 24 | NSW | Male | INTRAPRENEUR |
| Omar | de Silva | 24 | VIC | Male | Focus Merchandise |
| Shanti | Korporaal | 24 | NSW | Female | eintellego Networks |
| Jamie | Lee | 24 | NSW | Female | Kids at Switch |
| Jake | McKeon | 24 | VIC | Male | Moodswing |
| Peter | Moriarty | 24 | NSW | Male | itGenius Australia |
| James | Stack | 24 | VIC | Male | Lighting Matters |
| James | Stapledon | 24 | VIC | Male | Lighting Matters |
| Chris | Von Wilpert | 24 | QLD | Male | Snowed Under Sno Cones |
| Graeme | Caplen | 25 | QLD | Male | Union Lane PTY LTD |
| Christopher | Drake | 25 | QLD | Male | uCrack iFix |
| Daniel | Flynn | 25 | VIC | Male | Thankyou Water |
| Emily | Gowor | 25 | QLD | Female | The Word Artist |
| Sonia | Lipski | 25 | NSW | Female | Impact Leaders |
| Phuong | Nguyen | 25 | NSW | Female | PeoplePledge |
| Angelica | Nohra | 25 | NSW | Female | Direct Wine Cellars |
| Adrian | Rokman | 25 | VIC | Male | AllSportz |
| Adam | Centorrino | 26 | VIC | Male | CENTORRINO Technologies Pty Ltd |
| Emily | Haigh | 26 | NSW | Female | Impact Leaders |
| Elana | Harari | 26 | VIC | Female | Social Media Servants |
| Gina | Lednyak | 26 | NSW | Female | Lednyak & Associates Pty Ltd |
| Brett | Louis | 26 | VIC | Male | Hunter Gather Group |
| Robin | McGowan | 26 | NSW | Male | InStitchu |
| Chris | Raine | 26 | QLD | Male | Hello Sunday Morning |
| Justin | Verhoef | 26 | NSW | Male | InstaFIT |
| James | Wakefield | 26 | NSW | Male | InStitchu |
| Matthew | Alberto | 27 | NSW | Male | PeoplePledge |
| Nic | Blair | 27 | QLD | Male | Search Factory Pty Ltd |
| Pierre | Boutros | 27 | VIC | Male | Millennius |
| Ahmed | Haider | 27 | NSW | Male | Zookal |
| Blake | Proud | 27 | WA | Male | Toys Collective |
| Kath | Purkis | 27 | NSW | Female | Her Fashion Box |
| Carl | Taylor | 27 | NSW | Male | Business Builders Academy |
| Yianni | Tsimopoulos | 27 | SA | Male | Nationwide Wealth |
| Melinda | Weaver | 27 | VIC | Female | BABYink |
| Simon | Hanlon | 28 | VIC | Male | Airspaced |
| Dale | Hansen | 28 | QLD | Male | Base Media |
| Finn | Kelly | 28 | VIC | Male | Wealth Enhancers |
| Alison | Lee | 28 | NSW | Female | INTRAPRENEUR |
| Jason | Levin | 28 | NSW | Male | JasonL |
| Grant | Newton | 28 | NSW | Male | ONQ |
| Chris | Panzetta | 28 | NSW | Male | S1T2 |
| Jonathan | Peacock | 28 | NSW | Male | WooBoard |
| Jonas | Rohrl | 28 | QLD | Male | Apex Hunting Pty Ltd |
| Glen | Vollebregt | 28 | SA | Male | Student Rooms |
| Stephanie | Woollard | 28 | VIC | Female | Seven Women |
| Ainslie | Young | 28 | NSW | Female | Young The Label |
| Ben | Lipschitz | 29 | NSW | Male | L & M Designs Pty Ltd |
| Rick | Munitz | 29 | NSW | Male | L & M Designs Pty Ltd |
| Grace | Bowe | 29 | NSW | Female | Bride Body |
| Ebony | Centazzo | 29 | VIC | Female | Cat Napping |
| Kelly | Fischl | 29 | NSW | Female | Coaching Ink |
| Josh | Guest | 29 | VIC | Male | b2cloud |
| Lana | Hopkins | 29 | NSW | Female | iCoverLover |
| David | Janovic | 29 | VIC | Male | Retrojan |
| Jonathan | Lui | 29 | NSW | Male | Airtasker |
| Joshua | Portlock | 29 | WA | Male | INTRAPRENEUR |
| Orren | Prunckun | 29 | SA | Male | INTRAPRENEUR |
How were these young guns picked?
The 30under30 awards begins with nominations, followed by a process of self-application. Why? Because we believe that one of the most important traits any entrepreneur should have is the ability to win friends and influence people. The self-application process gave our judges a direct line to the personality of each applicant entrepreneur.
Commercial success is not everything…
The 30under30 program rewards traits beyond pure successful venture creation. While some applicants wowed us with their, sometimes instant, commercial successes, others demonstrated their ability to learn from the school of ‘hard-knocks’, embrace unexpected opportunities, harness the skills of others and build buzz beyond their sometimes meagre budgets. All these factors, were considered ‘in the mix’.
Benchmarking success by age…
We’re often asked, ‘How do you measure the achievements and entrepreneurial traits of a 19 year-old against those of a 29 year-old?’ The simple answer? We don’t. Rather, during the judging process, the successes, the skills, the attributes of each applicant are measured against other entrepreneurs their age. So, if you’re a 28 year-old entrepreneur wondering why someone else made the cut while you didn’t, perhaps stop comparing yourself to the 18 year-old and look to your age bracket. As the older you get, the higher the bar.
