21 Dean McEvoy, 30 – Booking Angel
Dean McEvoy wanted to be an inventor since childhood, but he had to work his way through the family business (a pub), then an advertising agency, then a web developer and another bar before he launched Booking Angel. Thankfully that business, which draws from all that experience, has successfully developed into a service that enables restaurants to easily take bookings over the internet. Booking Angel is now expanding internationally, and was recently voted one of the top 100 private companies by a group of Silicon Valley executives.
QMCodes bridges the gap between the mobile internet and print advertising. Advertisers place a small coded symbol (called a smartcode) within their print advertisement, and when photographed using a mobile phone camera, the user is immediately linked to mobile content related to the ad. Working in conjunction with Hitwise founder Andrew Barlow, McGregor Dey says he is receiving strong interest from advertisers that want greater interactivity with consumers.
At the age of just 28, MacKenzie has trained over 3000 young people in personal leadership and professional development. As a partner in Development Beyond Learning, he specialises in training Generation-Y staff, managers and potential leaders in skills such as advanced self-leadership, networking, personal planning and team work and confidence building.
William Scott formed the marketing services business Smart Advertising in 2000, and in 2007 rolled that into CommQuest, which was listed that company on the Australian Stock Exchange. CommQuest has secured a $44 million facility to begin consolidating other marketing services businesses, and Scott has stated a goal to make CommQuest a $500 million business by the end of the decade.
Joshua Nicholls was just 22 and had been only three years working as an electrician when he founded his electrical trade group, Platinum Electrical Contractors. Now, aged 28, his business employs more than 30 staff and has a turnover of more than $3 million a year. Nicholls’ company has begun franchising its business, with a vision of creating 50 new franchises in the next five years operating a fleet of 150 vans.
Appalled at the lack of computer games titles designed for young women, Holly Owen created her own. Coolest Girl in School is billed as the world’s first mobile phone-based role-play game for girls, requiring players to lie, bitch or flirt their way to become just what the game’s title says (it also attracted a call for a ban from the Australian Family Association). Owen was also instrumental in the development of the innovative music education company Starplay (formerly In The Chair), and is now creating a women’s mobile entertainment portal.
Peter Sheahan has built a career out of educating the world about people like himself – the elusive Generation-Y. The author of the successful book Flip! and a regular on the speaking circuit, Sheahan has consulted to many of the world’s leading brands including Loreal, BMW, Coca-Cola, and News Corporation, and is currently negotiating a regular show on a US television network.
Entrepreneurship is not often associated with farming, but with water an ongoing concern, Victor Harbour farmer Damien Smart was able to use a 2006 Nuffield Australian Farming Scholarship from Landmark to visit some of the world’s best-practice regions for irrigation. He is now applying that expertise to his family 3400ha farm near the town of Keith, which is moving from the older method of flood irrigation to new forms such as pivot and drip irrigation, to make better use of its 500mm of annual rainfall.
Sam White has wrangled a group of young, talented digital media and animation artists into a professional animation studio that has created internationally award-winning work for short films, television, mobile phones and computer games. The PRA is now looking at annual turnover of $1 million, and somewhat fittingly is working with the Chinese Government-owned Shanghai Animation Film Studio to develop feature projects, while negotiating with major US studios.
Zoe Warne started her own business when she was just 18, creating a design group, Boardwalk Enterprises, for her stepfather’s consultancy. Now with partner Daniel Banik she manages August, a digital media agency that is reporting 400% growth, and has taken on clients including Foster’s, Dairy Australia Snowgum and Sustainability Victoria. Warne’s career has also seen her step into the media, co-presenting a Melbourne ABC radio program with Jon Faine.
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