Hayley Warren was a physiotherapy student at Curtin University when she entered the medical tech innovation scene in 2010 by creating HALO, a device that uses lasers to measure a patient’s range of movement.
Warren found plenty of space for the idea given existing joint measuring devices are manual (meaning significant scope for error) and haven’t been updated in 40 years. She hired technical specialists to design the device.
Warren won the Western Australian Innovator of the Year award and the People’s Choice Award on the ABC’s New Inventors in 2010.
She went on to form the HALO Medical Devices company, of which she is CEO.
Olivia Humphrey didn’t just see a gap in the academic video streaming and DVD market in 2007, she saw space for a whole educational ecosystem of video learning, both in class and online.
So she launched Kanopy to provide DVD and streaming services to help universities, libraries and schools manage the distribution of their content. Humphrey sources content from her contacts built after ten years in rights management in the film and television industry.
Humphrey’s collaborative approach has made her business strong. “By having a transparent and collaborative business model with both filmmakers and customers, we are able to identify new opportunities and work with industry to trial new products, applications and ideas,” she says.
Kanopy is almost six years old and is now the leading company in academic video, with plans to expand internationally this year. “I feel excited there is an opportunity to break genuinely new ground in terms of improving the way academics teach and students learn.”
Wendy Simpson is set to disrupt the Australian entrepreneurial scene in a big way with the introduction of Springboard Enterprises Australia, a venture capital coaching and connecting organisation for women.
The local version of American-based Springboard Enterprises was announced in June 2012. Applications for “investment ready, high growth companies” were open until 15 December 2012 and five to ten companies are set to be selected in February 2013.
As access to venture capital can be a challenge for female entrepreneurs, Simpson’s work as chair of this initiative will be a game changer for female business owners.
This article first appeared on Women’s Agenda.
Rose is the current head of growth at Rampersand Ventures. She was formerly a reporter at StartupSmart.
