It took a broken bed in Dubai, a near-death experience in New York and a fact-finding trip to China for Jason Ballo to realise his true calling was at home. With Ballo Furniture, he designs and manufactures all of his own furniture pieces and sells them through his online shop to guarantee the best prices.
What’s more auspicious, and fitting, for a budgeting specialist site than being named Shoe String Startup of the Month? Kixup, says Andrew Frahm, comes with tools for beating debt and building savings. “Kixup is all about where your money is going and what the months ahead have in store for you financially,” he explains.
When asked how Terem Technologies was funded, Scott Middleton replies, “by customers.” Without capital or credit, he generated his cash flow by pre-selling services to customers and using the sales to build the full business. And it helps that Middleton is a grand master of software development.
A single ‘Like’ is a great first step toward greater brand awareness, and Abs Elmaz can’t understand why more brands aren’t on board. The Melbourne entrepreneur founded Social House Media to capitalise on Facebook as a channel for promotional marketing.
Rather than start his own business, Chris Hooper did the next best thing and reinvented an existing one. Considering that most 25-year-old accountants out there aren’t running their own firms, Hooper’s partnership stake in Cirillo Hooper & Company has been pretty buzz-worthy on its own.
Rowan Kunz’s tutoring enterprise began with a self-published book targeting HSC students. Today, Art of Smart Education employs over 100 exam preparation coaches in NSW, Victoria and the ACT. And Kunz continues to broaden his wingspan.
Gareth Robinson finished uni with a degree in computer science, an obsession with entrepreneurship and the will to disrupt the real estate industry. The result was Leasate, a rental property management service designed to connect landlords with tenants without relying on an agent.
Businesses that are stuck in the pre-digital age have a prayer of hope thanks to Michael Woods, the creative director of Media Saints. A full-service digital development company, Media Saints produces games, mobile apps and even feature films for clients.
For Ross Scutts, the satisfaction of succeeding on one’s own is never enough. That’s why he founded the Young Entrepreneur’s Club, a support network for business innovators who want to be around like-minded individuals.
Michael Morgano strives to make online classifieds more affordable, more accessible, and even more quirky. Car owners who are selling their vehicles can turn to Car Genie for a simplified listing plan that requires only $5 for six months.
Though only 26, Carl Taylor has spent a decade acquiring and selling businesses. His first, at 18, sold for a measly $600 — a tenth of its actual worth, he says. Yet from that teachable moment, Taylor began to explore how to maximise business value and negotiate favourable prices.
It’s not easy to get kids to learn maths, which is why David Truong is gaming things up. The Adelaide native made the leap to Melbourne to establish Broccol-e-games (named, of course, for the food equivalent of maths). In July, the company released its first educational game, Maths With Springbird, which hit Number One on the Australia/New Zealand Education App Store.
Daniel Ashton’s Boost Mobeel (as in auto, hence the spelling) brings the signature fruit smoothies to school, corporate and entertainment events. The idea was a hit with the company board, and it’s worked so well in Western Australia that its gross sales have doubled each year since its founding in 2007.
Designer furniture shouldn’t be limited to luxury budgets, so believes Bill Huynh, the founder of Interior Secrets. Employing a streamlined model and online-only presence, Interior Secrets sells replica model furniture at low prices and delivers it Australia wide.
Mathew Beeche began Shoe String Media as a one-man show cataloguing business stars on the ascent, then turned it into a monthly print magazine. Shoe String now operates as an online daily with a network of bloggers and full multimedia palate, and TV and radio outlets have taken note.
Most marketers say they have ‘social media experience’. Mike Watkins has eight years of it. Knowing Facebook inside-out pretty much from its inception has made the founder of Digiocial into a guru among gurus. Brand Temper is Watkins’ latest innovation for helping brands to gauge their social media influence.
Marcus Lim loves the home trades (from plumbing to landscaping to masonry) and wants to make the market for them more efficient and less fragmented. Lim is the co-founder and director of operations of OneFlare, which lets homeowners post their needed jobs and compare quotes from servicemen in their area.
Let Dwayne Martens infect you with his good vibes and personal energy. Then, try his açaí berries for a second hit. Yes, Martens is an unabashed health geek, but a socially conscious one as well. As the founder of Amazonia, he has introduced thousands of Australians to the healing properties of the purple berry.
Daniel Calleja has been working the camera since he was a teenager. At 23, he turned his passion for multimedia into a business: Innovating Visuals. Calleja and company specialise in promotional videos, events filming, photography and even e-learning technology.
Gabriele Ulacco sees mass technology affecting not just multimedia, but physical forms of production, and nowhere more than in architecture — which defines AR-MA’s practice. The firm (which stands for Architectural Research – Material Applications) consults with artists on challenging art projects and buildings, to help them realise their designs with a mathematical precision.
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