By Broede Carmody, Dinushi Dias and Dominic Powell
Meet the SmartCompany Hot 30 Under 30 class of 2016.
This group of entrepreneurs are aged 30 years and younger and are drawn from 30 of Australia’s fastest growing SMEs.
They are making waves in industries as diverse as fashion, recruitment, property management and storage. They employ hundreds of Australians and have ambitious plans to continue growing their businesses.
This year’s list includes a host of familiar faces, as well as entrepreneurs who are making their debut on the Hot 30 list.
They are passionate, enthusiastic and more than willing to share what they’ve learnt with others. At SmartCompany, we know this is just the start of their success stories.
This entrepreneurial trio is responsible for those water bottles that thank you for purchasing them.
Justine Flynn, Daniel Flynn and Jarryd Burns are the founders of the Thankyou Group, a food and skincare product company that uses profits to fund sanitation and water projects in third world countries.
Originally launched in 2008 just selling water, the company rebranded in 2013 and began a social media campaign to get their products into Coles and Woolworths.
Three years later, their products can be found on shelves across the country, and the company has funded safe water access for nearly 200,000 people.
Recently, the company raised $1.4 million dollars by crowdfunding a book about the company’s story. The funds will go towards launch of Thankyou Baby, a dermatologically-tested baby care range, as well as the Thankyou Group’s expansion into New Zealand.
One third of Thankyou, Jarryd Burns, has some timely advice for hopeful entrepreneurs.
“Education is like time travel,” Burns says.
“In one book or a coffee with a mentor, you get to fast track something that maybe took them 20 years to learn. But, at the same time, you’ve got to be willing to challenge traditional ways of thinking.
“That’s the core of entrepreneurialism.”
Twenty-five year old Gen George is focusing on growing a new venture just four years after launching her first job-finding website.
Skilld.com has already brought together more than 12,000 businesses and 40,000 candidates across Australia.
“Scale is our best friend,” George tells SmartCompany.
“We’re also doing a big focus on machine intelligence to keep ensuring people can keep being matched to work.”
And George’s first company, OneShift, is also not slowing down any time soon.
There are plans to begin trials in major cities such as London, Paris and New York later this year.
Aimee Marks started her business after she decided she’d had enough of non-organic and inefficiently packaged tampons.
That was when Marks was in year 12 and only 18.
Her brand TOM Organics was launched in 2009 and has been continuing to grow for seven years.
TOM Organics continues to broaden its product range by stepping into the maternity and baby product categories.
“I’ve got 18-month old twins and have used way too many products that aren’t on that environmentally-friendly spectrum,” Marks says.
“So we’re taking on the big brands again, and launching a baby and maternity range in July into Coles and hopefully into Woolworths [as well]. That’s going to be enormous for us, it’ll double our business size in a year.”
These two 24-year-old entrepreneurs are the founders of app development company Appster.
Since 2011, they’ve made apps for clients including Bluedot and radio hosts Hamish and Andy.
Today, Appster has offices in Melbourne, India and San Francisco, and employs more than 200 development staff.
Humphrey’s advice for budding entrepreneurs is to not listen to people who say that something’s impossible and to create a compelling vision that inspires your employees.
“The secret is that the most talented people want to work for a company that is trying to do great things,” Humphrey says.
“They themselves are ambitious. People want a reason to get out of bed in the morning. They want something ambitious [and] to come on a journey with you.”
Kris Cochrane firmly believes “it’s not all about the hustle”, though this might be confusing coming from a man who began his own nation-wide personal training company.
“You can work your arse off, but go in the wrong direction,” Cochrane says.
“You have to aim in the right direction. Education yourself, plan, and then execute.”
Starting out sleeping in the storeroom of a gym in Sydney, Cochrane’s ‘rags to riches’ story is inspiring.
Rapid PT began in 2012 after Cochrane realised that after working to his limits, one trainer could only achieve so much.
He decided to expand and rapidly increased his client base to 150 customers in a year.
These days, Rapid PT claims to be the largest non-franchise personal training company in Australia, operating across 10 different locations.
This year, Cochrane hopes to enter the education space, creating an arm of his company that provides training for fitness professionals.
Jane Lu’s number one piece of advice is to take a chance.
Otherwise, you could be stuck at a boring job for the rest of your life.
“People should back themselves more,” Lu says.
After her first business failed, Lu said many people expected her to fail again. Her second attempt was Showpo, a popular online fashion retailer that turned over around $10 million in 2015.
Showpo also offers its customers recipes, videos, photoshoots and articles and with content like that, it’s no surprise Showpo is very big on social media. The retailers has over half a million Facebook followers alone.
“Don’t only look at the risk of failing, but also the risk of being stuck in a really boring job that you hate,” Lu says.
“Take a chance on yourself – I’m living the dream.”
2016 is shaping up to be a big year for 24-year-old tech entrepreneur Jessica Wilson, having recently returned from China after participating in the country’s own version of Shark Tank.
While Wilson is tight-lipped on her placing in the show, we know she made it into the finals and was the last woman founder to remain on The Last Unicorn.
It’s something Wilson is proud of, telling SmartCompany it “was quite a milestone for me”.
Wilson made her mark on Australia’s tech scene after developing and releasing Stashd, a fashion app that allows people to swipe right or left on a clothing item, stashing or trashing it respectively.
Stashed items are kept in a list, and users can review and then buy them, netting an 8% commission for the app. Recently, Stashd reached a milestone of 500,000 items stashed by its users.
Based out of Surry Hills, Sydney, Wilson runs the business with just six staff members. Despite this, the app is active in more than 136 countries and has won Apple’s best new app in 11 of those.
Currently, Wilson is working on a reality series pilot about her company.
“I had a couple of producers approach me for things like that, and I decided to say yes to a director who is passionate about women in tech. We raised funding and shot the pilot,” Wilson says.
She is hoping this pilot will increase company exposure and ramp up revenue, with the aim to have it air on a television network in Australia.
Hunter Mason founder Matthew Callender took out the number one spot in last year’s Smart50 Awards thanks to his company’s impressive year-on-year growth of 1740%.
The construction management firm turned over around $11 million in the 2014-15 financial year, and things are looking good for 2016 – although Callender says he suspects the numbers are going to flatten out as he’s happy where the business is now.
As for how he’s managed to grow the business so quickly in the past, Callender doesn’t mince his words.
“Develop good relationships not just to make money,” the 30-year-old business owner says.
“With a lot of our clients, it’s not just a business relationship – we get along like friends. It’s therefore easier to do repeat business. Build real, authentic relationships with people.”
It might not be sexy, but hard work is also the key to success, according Callender.
“Keep banging your head against the wall, and eventually you’ll get through the wall,” he says.
Three years in, friends and business partners Bridget Loudon and Emily Yue continue to break new ground with Expert360, a platform connecting businesses, big and small, with freelancers and consultants for projects.
“We’re hoping to surpass 2000 clients [and] 8000 active consultants,” says Loudon.
This year, Expert360 will move to a new office on Bridge Street, Sydney, as the company continues to strengthen its position in the Australian market, grow its US presence and roll out a new enterprise product.
The duo started the company with Tom Jowitt, now their head of engineering, and their credit cards.
Since inception they have quadrupled their growth, says Loudon.
Looking back, Loudon says resilience is what has kept them moving forward.
“You’re going to have really, really bad days, that’s part of building a billion dollar business,” she says.
“Be resilient, go to the gym, gave a cry, eat some chocolate, go easy on yourself.”
“But get up early and get back in your chair and go again, and again, and again.”
Since launching InStitchu five years ago, Robin McGowan and business partner James Wakefield have grown it into a multimillion-dollar clothing company with plans for international expansion next year.
The pair started the online retail business with no money, bootstrapping it by selling suits and shirts to their friends.
It was an industry neither founder had any experience in.
“Today our business is valued at more than $10 million,” says McGowan.
Institchu is looking to expand its team to 30 people across Australia, New Zealand and overseas with the goal to double the number of showrooms and increase revenue by 100%.
But when they started, McGowan says many of their closest friends didn’t think InStitchu would last.
“When we started, people told us that Australians would never buy suits online, let alone tailored suits online,” he says.
But the customers were there and today, he says, InStitchu is the leading choice for the 125,000 weddings that take place in Australia each year.
“Go where your customers are, not where you think they’ll be [and] always remember that ‘revenue is vanity, profit is sanity’,” he says.
Sydney entrepreneurs Troy Douglas and Drew Bible founded beverage company Nexba in 2011 in a bid to create a line of refreshing drinks that were healthy and low in sugar for Australian consumers.
Bible’s expressed passions are startups, innovation and the promotion of more active and health-positive lifestyles.
Along with promoting their range of drinks, the Nexba team regularly shares ideas for healthy snacks and meals that people can pair with the drinks.
Regularly adding to this healthy living content has seen Nexba grow a strong social media presence with a Facebook community of more than 20,000 people and over 5,000 Instagram followers.
In four years, the duo have turned Nexba into one of the country’s fastest growing beverage companies and are now selling their low-calorie drinks at more than 3000 outlets including Coles supermarkets and Virgin airlines.
Company: Splend
Age: 27
In little over nine months, Chris King has taken Splend from a small pilot offering rental cars on week-to-week subscription hire to a fast-growing startup with Uber onboard as a direct partner.
King started working on Splend in his home kitchen with an idea to enable more people who don’t own cars to earn income through the rise of ride-sharing and delivery service platforms.
The startup now hires out about 550 cars a week and is expanding its fleet by an additional 1500 vehicles, which are worth $60 million.
“There’s a lot happening in this space,” he says.
King has grown Splend to a team of 24 across Australia, with including GoGet’s former chief financial officer Craig Marshall on board.
“From the bottom of my heart the best achievement is the team that I’ve managed to build,” he says.
It’s been a busy year for Zachary Rook, with his nine-year-old business Your Local Movers and Storage stepping in to shift stock for electronics retailer Dick Smith when it collapsed into receivership.
The company also has two potential acquisitions on the cards.
The businesses Rook is eyeing off are both smaller companies, but are based in different locations, which would potentially boost Your Local Movers and Storage geographical reach.
Your Local Movers and Storage, which was founded in 2007, now turns over around $2 million and completes more than 3000 moves every year.
“This year we have done some bigger commercial projects, which has been good fun,” Rook tells SmartCompany.
“Dick Smith had some things going on, we did a whole lot of work for them. We can react to that stuff pretty quickly.”
As for his advice for budding entrepreneurs, Rook says it’s all about locking down the numbers and hiring the right people.
“You’re never better than your people, and cash rules everything,” he says.
Company: Roza’s Gourmet Sauces
Age: 29
Since taking over the business from her late mother, Jasmin Robertson has grown Roza’s Gourmet Sauces into a BRW Fast 100 company that is turning over $2.5 million.
“When I took over the business five years ago, I had two staff and a $20,000 overdraft,” she says.
But last year, the business grew by 30% and Roza’s Gourmet Sauces now sells 11,000 products a week on average.
“There have been a lot of difficult choices, big steps, and scary moments in the last few years, but I think I am most proud of my determination to get through the difficult periods, never giving up and following my instincts,” Robertson says.
Robertson has recently visited China as a delegate for Australia Week in China, which was led by federal minister for trade and investment Steven Ciobo.
“I am looking forward to coming back to Shanghai for the SIAL food expo next month and generally spending 2016 exploring and building international expansion opportunities for Roza’s in the Asian market,” she says.
Though Sarah Timmerman began her business against the turbulent backdrop of the Global Financial Crisis, she has grown Beginning Boutique into a seven-figure business based in Brisbane with operations in Indonesia and China.
“Our biggest plan this year is really ramping up our ability to create our own products [and] produce our own designs,” Timmerman tells SmartCompany.
By the end of this year, Timmerman wants to Beginning Boutique originals to make up 60% of the online fashion retailer’s stock.
Now, generating more than $4.5 million in sales with 16 full-time staff and 13 casuals, Timmerman says it is essential for all entrepreneurs to understand their financials.
“Always underestimate what your revenue is going to be,” she says.
“If you’re truly bootstrapping have a strong understanding of what you can achieve over a certain time.”
“When you’re passionate about something you think everyone’s going to be passionate about it but you have to be in a position where you can fund it to run it how you want to run it.”
Since launching in 2012 with the backing of the Simonds and Smorgan families, close friends Jake Williams and Lewis Romana have collected a high profile portfolio of brands for their job network Spotjobs.
“We had an initial amount of $15,000 to fully explore the market,” says Williams.
But with the likes of Uber, Apple, Nandos and Grill’d on their client-sheet, Spotjobs now has an estimated value at just over $9 million.
“[We’re] continuing our growth that we have focused on in our initial three years and [are] exploring new opportunities for business,” he says.
The duo recently launched SpotTalent, a database of talent to help employers and recruiters find the right people more efficiently, and the duo is planning a pre-initial public offering capital raise later this year in preparation to float SpotJobs on the Australian Securities Exchange.
Williams says their proudest achievement to date has been creating a platform that 20% of all Australians have visited.
But he lives by a simple piece of advice.
“Don’t be greedy,” he says.
Chris Thomson and Amy Sargeantson established Noosa Chocolate Factory back in 2012 and the business is already turning over more than $3 million.
The former Smart50 finalist, which sells a range of treats locally produced chocolate treats, has one factory and four retail outlets across Queensland.
This year is a big one for Noosa Chocolate Factory, with a new factory 22-times larger than the company’s current production facility set to be completed in July.
The business also has its eyes set on consolidating its position in the Sunshine Coast market, with the potential to open more stores.
Thomson told SmartCompany the key to Noosa Chocolate Factory’s growth has been not overthinking things when first starting out.
Thomson advises all entrepreneurs to quit procrastinating and start rolling up their sleeves.
“Something finished is better than something perfect,” Thomson says.
“Try to get going straight away.”
Talia Sasson started her retail business Bridesmaids Only with her mother back in 2010. Today, the business services more than 1000 weddings each year.
This year, Sasson is focusing heavily on e-commerce – with the aim of using her site to expand across Australia.
The business is also trialling a borrowing system where several bridesmaids can try on the one dress before the wedding party makes a final decision.
“We can’t get left behind, we have to move with the times,” Sasson says.
As for her advice for budding entrepreneurs, Sasson says it’s all about surrounding yourself with great people.
“Have really good quality staff,” she says.
“Also, keep trying. Don’t get disheartened by any bumps that come up in the road. All those things lead to better things, and you learn from your mistakes.”
“Every time I make a mistake, I do better the next time around. I call them ‘school fees’,” she adds.
Jordan Grives has always been a self-starter.
The entrepreneur started making money for himself when he was just 15 by selling cans of soft drink to his schoolmates.
While the soft drink business didn’t last long, Grives’ lasting legacy has been his telecommunications company Fonebox Group.
The business counts Officeworks, Volkswagen and Holden among its clients, and it turns over around $15 million annually.
Grives told SmartCompany he always tells young entrepreneurs to find a niche and be persistent.
“Anyone that is an entrepreneur should be pretty sales-driven,” Grives says.
“That’s what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones.”
Nick Grinberg and John Vlasakasis are pioneering data-driven accountability with GMG Search Engine Optimisation.
After developing trademarked methodology “Data Driven Quantification”, the duo are helping businesses better understand and assess whether their media spend is returning business outcomes.
“We are the media spend accountability angel,” Grinberg says.
“If you buy media from an online store you want to see that it converts to sales.”
With this offering, Vlasakasis says GMG is entering its most exciting year yet, doubling its growth rate, moving into a new office and boosting the core team with yet another key hire for the senior team.
The entrepreneurial duo is also securing some major accounts.
“We’re on the cusp of closing one of the big four banks as a client,” says Vlasakasis.
Grinberg and Vlasakasis came into this together and say one of their proudest achievements is the team they’ve built and the synergy they have with each other as co-founders.
“We both chipped in $1000 to start the company,” says Vlasakasis.
“Together, we’ve grown it into an organisation turning over about $10 million that has been built on employee trust.”
Kiel Van Daal founded digital communications agency Digilante three years ago.
The business has been able to snap up blue-chip and corporate clients in a very short amount of time and is turning over around $2.3 million.
Van Daal says this year he will have his hands full thanks to winning a contract to rebrand the Australian Rugby Union.
As for how he’s managed to win so many high-profile clients in such a short amount of time, Van Daal says it all comes down to being “people-people”.
“That’s a big selling point for us,” the 29-year-old entrepreneur tells SmartCompany.
“There’s a lot of BS that surrounds agencies and the buzzwords people use. We keep it real. That seems to resonate really well with people.”
David Strangis and Anthony Sacco started their retail business Bronze Snake back in 2006 because there wasn’t a store that catered exactly to their tastes.
Now, Bronze Snake turns over more than $8 million and has been a Smart50 finalist not once, but twice.
The business has also recently opened its first New Zealand store.
As for what lies ahead for 2016, co-founder David Strangis says the business is aiming to consolidate its position in New Zealand and also focus on releasing its own line of activewear.
“We’re looking at opening up a New Zealand warehouse so we can ship the orders directly from New Zealand so they can have the same order time we have here in Melbourne,” Strangis says.
“We’d love to offer that to our New Zealand customers soon.”
Luc Pettett launched the first iteration of Punters.com.au back in 2008.
Back then, it was a simple horse racing blog but today, Punters employees 19 staff in its Melbourne office and turns over around $5.7 million – up from $4.2 million last year.
Pettett told SmartCompany something young entrepreneurs often overlook is the numbers.
Get the numbers right, he says, and you won’t have your business fall out from underneath you.
“If you’re starting a business from scratch, make sure your fixed costs are as low as you can get them,” Pettett says.
“Unless you have full confidence and you’ve done it before, that’s something to be mindful of. Beyond that, find good people that believe in your vision and have similar values.”
Ash Davies created Tablo – “a single home to write and discover great stories” – three years ago with $20,000 from Angel Cube.
“That feels like a long time ago,” he says.
Tablo has grown into a burgeoning community of writers and readers with published authors from more than 100 countries.
Millions of books have been read on Tablo, says Davies.
And this year, he’s planning to take it even further.
“Everything we’re doing is focused on providing our authors with more opportunities,” he says.
“We’re working with major publishers and libraries to create new partnerships and campaigns, all of which should make Tablo the best place to have your work uncovered and succeed as an author.”
Davies recently considered raising a series A round but decided not to pursue external funding, instead, working to build Tablo organically on its own backing.
“I’m proud of the culture we’ve built in our team and in particular our users,” he says.
And ultimately, that has always been biggest priority.
“Focus on your product and focus on making your users happy,” he says.
“There are a lot of distractions that come with building a company, but nothing matters more than this.”
Eamon Sheedy founded Big Red Packaging at the age of 17 with just a handful of products.
The packaging materials distributor now supplies hundreds of product lines to businesses and people across the country and turns over more than $500,000 a month thanks to Sheedy’s tough work ethic, which has seen him work hundred hour weeks at times.
Today Big Red Packaging boasts a heavyweight client portfolio including government, multi-national corporations, major export companies, universities, schools and more.
When Sheedy last spoke to Smart Company, he couldn’t help but laugh at the early days of growing Big Red Packaging.
“I went to get a loan at the bank after I’d just turned 18 and had done $50,000 turnover,” he says.
“I look back and laugh now, and think no wonder they didn’t approve it.”
Former engineering students Winston Wijeyeratne and Selvam Sinnappan created their online mattress retailer Sleeping Duck in 2014 after meeting in an ANZ graduate program.
In two years, the duo have grown Sleeping Duck to a team of about 20 who work out of offices in Melbourne and London as they ramp up efforts for international expansion.
“Over the last year I am proudest of our successful expansion into the UK,” says Wijeyeratne.
“Doing this early has created a platform for us to expand rapidly into other European markets as well.”
As Sleeping Duck tests its retail presence in Melbourne and Sydney, the business is also selling into the UK and mainland Europe, with future plans to localise their brand in countries like Germany and France.
Sleeping Duck is now growing at more than 100%, they report.
As the founders experience fast growth and new staff needs, Sinnappan says they are very conscious of the culture within the business.
“We haven’t rushed the [hiring] process, even though it’s meant we sometimes had to persevere with gaps for longer than we wanted,” he says.
“By doing this, we’ve created and fostered a strong culture, which has helped us scale without compromising on the things that made us successful when we started – the customer experience in particular.”
Ryan Ebert started his occupational physiotherapy and workplace training company PHW Group in 2013.
In just three years, the business has snapped up a number of corporate clients, including Allens lawyers, BUPA and St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne.
PHW Group also caters to small businesses and startups, with the aim of creating healthier workplaces.
Ebert, a trained physiotherapist, has also been asked to guest lecture at universities.
The 25-year-old entrepreneur told SmartCompany this year PHW Group will be focusing on creating healthier co-working spaces.
“Using our health-focused design, we are building a co-work space to combat sedentary work whilst improving productivity,” Ebert says.
“This is to be completed mid May 2016 and we will be running case studies in this space to show its effectiveness.”
With the ultimate aim of empowering small businesses, Peter Moriarty is working to make itGenius the go-to place for small businesses to get on Google.
Though itGenius is eight years old, Moriarty spent the past three years really honing down its focus to a specific market of small business customers.
The aim is to become the specialists in migrating customers with cloud to Google.
“It’s super niche,” he says.
“We said no to a lot of customers that weren’t perfect for us to work with.”
Operating out of Sydney and Philippines, itGenius is now a seven-figure company that saw 60% growth in the last financial year.
“We’ve been told by Google we’re in the top five of their small business partners of Asia Pacific,” says Moriarty.
He even acquired Locomote co-founder David Fastuca’s digital agency to create a new hosting platform HostGenius.
But Moriarty says his proudest achievement is the 130 businesses they’ve empowered in the last 12 months.
“Our business is all about giving business owners freedom and flexibility,” he says.
Anthony Lam began his career living in Melbourne on youth allowance, studying a double degree in law and commerce.
“I started with nothing,” Lam says.
Now, that nothing is Punchy Digital Media – an online video production company specialising in animated explanation videos for companies.
The company is set to bring in about $400,000 in revenue this year and has produced videos for more than 100 businesses.
Punchy Digital Media produces videos for Australian and US clients and Lam says the business is close to securing a major partnership to expand from internet to TV.
“We’re hoping to be doing a lot more animated TV ads in Australia and the US, and a lot more content marketing for our clients,” Lam says.
As of April last year, Lam had four people working for the company.
This year, he’s expanded to ten, with people in Melbourne, Sydney and the US. Lam is all about speed, stating he’d tell his younger self to work faster when starting the company.
“Move a lot faster, focus on sales and move as fast as you can,” he says.
At 15, most of teens are probably slacking our way through high school and playing video games.
Not Nick D’Aloisio, who decided to create Summly, an app that condenses news into easily read summaries.
Two years later, at the age of 17, Yahoo bought Summly for $30 million, making D’Aloisio one of the youngest self-made millionaires ever.
D’Aloisio went on to work with Yahoo as a product manager of Yahoo News Digest, which had evolved from his Summly technology and won Apple’s 2014 Design Award.
He also began studying Computer Science and Philosophy at Oxford University.
These days, 20-year-old D’Aloisio is no longer working for Yahoo, instead preferring to focus on his studies.
With $30 million in the bank, D’Aloisio could comfortably retire for the rest of his life, but according to social media there’s no chance of that.
A tweet from him in March stated, “exciting things are coming soon!” and his twitter bio mentions he is “building in stealth”.
As to what those exciting things are, we’ll have to wait and see.
Meet the SmartCompany Hot 30 Under 30 class of 2016.
This group of entrepreneurs are aged 30 years and younger and are drawn from 30 of Australia’s fastest growing SMEs.
Smart Company is the leading online publication in Australia for free news, information and resources catering to Australia’s entrepreneurs, small and medium business owners and business managers.
