30under30 2016

A first of its kind in the Australian market, Coder Factory has taught over 500 students through a U.S. style accredited coding bootcamp. Dan Siepen gave life to this idea as well as arranged a network of professional partners who support the company’s growth in order to “supply more qualified, work-ready developers into the market,” he says.

Noticing a lack of service being provided by other companies during the mining boom, Cory Byers founded KBSS Engineering, a specialist mechanical company. KBSS Engineering provides a range of onsite services, such as laser aligning of turbines and conveyor drives and building specific machines for required jobs. Cory’s company also provides other mechanical and electrical services to varying companies.

Working as an Uber driver may be a great gig, but what about those who don’t own a car? Chris King has the solution — Splend offers vehicles to rent for those who want to be drivers but thought they couldn’t. Splend has provided nearly 700 Australians with employment opportunities, but it offers more than just the vehicle itself. Those working with Splend can participate in professional development courses as well as earn rewards.

High school dropout turned successful businessman — this is just one way to describe Jeremy Hansen and his entrepreneurial success. In 2011, at the age of 16, Jeremy founded GlowBored, a forward thinking public relations firm, which now manages a wide variety of clients across Australia.

With the goal of making online learning globally accessible, Chris Eigeland created GO1 — the “TripAdvisor” for online education. In the early stages of development, Eigeland and his co-founder Andrew Barnes failed to raise their first round of venture capital funding for their original business idea, a CRM solution. When they went back to the drawing board a lightbulb went off. Education — this was the field in which their technology could make a true lasting impact.

For many years companies have easily been able to find employees online. Only recently, and with the help of Jordan O’Reilly, have people with disabilities been able to hire support workers online just as easily. “Hireup is innovating in the peer-to-peer economy, paying its workers industry-leading wages while saving people with disability thousands of dollars in fees,” Jordan says.

Jordan Grives has alleviated companies of the chore many employees can’t stand — answering the phone — and Fonebox’s abilities don't end there. Jordan has created a company that handles all sides of inbound telecommunications, including reporting of inbound numbers. Jordan says he noticed the market was discontent with existing providers. Products being created weren't comprehensive, reporting data was being provided in an ineffective manner and customer service was at an all-time low.

Logan Merrick and Graham McKorkill are what some may call ‘idea guys.’ Quite simply, they turn creative ideas into apps. Logan describes Buzinga as “an app development and innovation consultancy, helping startups and enterprises commercialize ideas and implement mobile-first strategies.”

Though it sounds unbelievable, Mitchell Clark began dabbling in the real of cyber security at the young age of 10 by founding his own company, CIT Dynamics. What began as hobby has turned into an international business with more than 200 clients.

Proactive, creating and forward thinking — these are a few of Online Marketing Gurus’ core values. The name blatantly outlines the company’s area of expertise. Andrew Raso and Mez Homayunfard created this specialist online marketing agency in 2012 in their parents’ living rooms.

With eyes set on giving back to his community, Robert Gillies created Conscious Creative Limited, a charity that manages a number of social enterprises. Robert says his charity has three goals: “make caring cool, make giving easy and receiving dignified.”

Though sitting at a desk may seem to be an extremely low-risk form of work, desk jobs come with more health risks than what meet the eye. Ryan Ebert has dedicated his life to ensuring workplaces know how to make their employees’ environment healthy and productive.

Cyber security is quite a complex topic, so much so that many may not understand it in the slightest. Sam Crowther feels just the opposite. He’s built a cyber security company from the ground up and it seems to keep on growing. “I wanted to commercialize two ideas: eliminating passwords and improving website security,” Sam says, which is exactly what he's done.

Sebastian Chaoui ensures children’s dreams of becoming an astronaut don't have to go to waste. Cuberider is an interactive space education company for high schoolers. With his co-founder Solange Cunin, Sebastian has created a way for students to code their very own space experiments and have them launch to the international space station.

A realtor’s strongest selling point can often be photos. Steve Ungermann capitalized on this truth when he started his own real estate photography and marketing business at the age of 19. At the time, professional photography was rarely used by agents, Steve says. This meant Steve was able to secure a solid spot in the market from the start.

Imagine a jigsaw puzzle that comes to life when you snap in the last piece — this is what Taj Paberi has created through Fiftysix Creations. Fiftysix Creations provides children, both privileged and underprivileged, with a kit that allows them to build their very own electronic tablet.

While he may not have his own startup, Tom Newby is the most innovative breed of employee. Tom says his role at RedEye Apps has inspired him to be a change maker, a thinker and a problem solver.

Customer centric construction — Belfort Homes, founded by Yassir Sheriff, prides themselves on embodying this motto. Having worked in the industry for a number of years, Yassir decided to create his own company when he noticed a lack of credible residential builders in the area.

With the help of Will Strange and Sports Performance Tracking, anyone can feel as if they’re training at the quality of a professional athlete. SPT provides sporting players with wearable cloud based software analytics technology. This enables athletes across the globe to have access to sports science and tracking technology.

Danielle McFarland, 29, is a true trailblazer in the entrepreneur community, especially for young women aspiring to launch their own business. McFarland, along with co-founder (and life partner) Sheree, run a software company called Mystro, a website named Healthinomics, and their newest venture Therapair.