Profiles
The engineers behind rapid-growth mattress startup Sleeping Duck dived into the Shark Tank this week, but surfaced without a deal, after knocking back offers, worth half a million, from both Andrew Banks and Steve Baxter. As they told Dynamic Business, the ‘deal breaker’ wasn’t the equity each shark demanded; rather, they weren’t convinced either could […]
Despite being in the online job market for just one-tenth the time of SEEK, Found has begun nipping at the heels of the incumbent platform. Established by Andrew Joyce and Peter Marchiori in April 2015, the Sydney-based start-up has attracted a total of $4.5 million in funding for its mobile platform, most recently closing a […]
In the course of developing technology to generate efficiencies in their own ‘fragmented” sector, the co-CEOs of Scooter Tutor, Cameron Schmidt and Sam Robertson, have been helping organisations from other industries to better manage remote workforces and customer service. Scooter Tutor is a software-driven tutoring organisation that enables the parents of primary and secondary students […]
In my first business, SE Net, I balked at going to industry conferences interstate. They were expensive, there was no airline competition – Adelaide-Sydney on special was $700 return and you HAD to stay a Saturday night due to local tourist board subsidies! And in general, whilst I had a hand in helping the local Internet […]
Despite operating in an era where data-driven strategies are the norm, the founders of rapid growth start-up Pet Circle have come to realise that trusting one’s instincts can often lead to better results. Launched in 2011 under the name ‘Paws for Life’, Pet Circle (as it is known today) is the brainchild of Michael […]
With between three and four million visits per month, finder.com.au is Australia’s most frequented comparison website. According to co-founder and director, Fred Schebesta, to stay ahead of the game, he and his business partner Frank Restuccia have had to be penny-wise, people-focused and paranoid. In 2002, Schebesta, then aged 22, co-founded digital agency Freestyle […]
At the end of this month, Stevan Premutico will step away from Dimmi, the online restaurant booking platform he founded in early 2009. Under his leadership, Dimmi has withstood “well-funded” international competitors and wooed TripAdvisor, which acquired it for a reported $25m two years ago. In conversation with Dynamic Business, the departing CEO reflected on […]
Named one of Australia’s ten coolest tech companies, two years running, Buzinga App Development was co-founded by Melburnians Graham McCorkill and Logan Merrick to build a mobile app that had failed to attract a technically capable developer. While that particular app has yet to be realised five years on, the start-up’s success is anything but […]
Daunted by the prospect of a life spent working for others, one-time lawyer Martin Halphen quit a stable job to become the master of his own fate. Propelled by ‘blind courage’, he purchased a modest fruit delivery business for $100,000, believing, hoping, it would play to his strengths. Despite some ‘hairy moments’, including a seven-year […]
‘Give’. It’s the four-letter word that makes Steve Baxter’s blood boil when he’s being pitched to by a start-up in search of capital. The investor, tech entrepreneur and Shark Tank star discussed his pet peeve at Intuit QuickBooks Connect Sydney 2017, earlier this month, during an entertaining and candid interview with event MC Rove McManus. […]
Marketer and award-winning entrepreneur Lauren Fried certainly knows how to keep busy. She heads up Pulse Collective, a marketing and communications agency she founded in late 2003. She also sits on the boards of several businesses, including reward points consultancy iFLYflat and the female entrepreneur community Inspiring Rare Birds. Of course, you might know Fried […]
Founded in 2001, Big Ant Studios is arguably Australia’s most prolific developer of sports-related video games on console and it is a proving ground for entrepreneurial game makers. Located just a stone’s throw from the Yarra River in Southbank, Melbourne, the company surivived its ill-fated first title as well as the ‘bushfires’ of the GFC […]
To stop a leakage of bright, entrepreneurial minds from Australia, chartered accountants Domenic Saporito and Gerard Holland have partnered on a venture that makes it easier for international students and graduates to break into the local start-up ecosystem. Holland has previously worked with middle-market and early-stage companies as a business advisor, while Saporito has a […]
Having sold WME Group for $39 million, this week, serial entrepreneur Nick Bell caught up with Dynamic Business to discuss why it was time to leave the digital marketing agency he founded in 2008, the lessons he learned at its helm, and what he’ll do next. DB: How did the sale to Melbourne IT come […]
Believing the traditional law firm model to be ill-suited to the needs of entrepreneurs, Demetrio Zema founded legal practice start-up Law Squared, determined to offer a better client experience. Since launching out of Cluster, a co-working space in Central Melbourne, in March 2016, the firm – Zema’s sixth business – has been named ‘Australia’s most […]
Recently named one of Australia’s nine most influential female entrepreneurs*, Melbourne businesswoman and start-up advocate Dominique Fisher has made a career out of developing products to assist university students successfully transition into employment. That is the core business of CareerLounge, which Fisher co-founded in 2008 with her son John Collins. Launched in March 2016, Paddl […]
Since separating from its parent company, last year, and undergoing a digital evolution, Damstra Technology has wasted no time in proving an SME from a country town can go global. The cloud-based, end-to-end workforce management solutions provider was today named as one of Australia’s 20 ‘high-potential’ Businesses of Tomorrow by Westpac. According to Damstra Technology […]
A winner of this month’s Business News 40Under40 awards, WA solicitor and entrepreneur Sarah Mateljan spoke to Dynamic Business about creating and running two successful EduTech start-ups and the utility of eLearning in countries experiencing conflict. In 2008, Mateljan joined forces with her husband Vincent and their friend Lee Goldsworthy to develop LawCPD, an online […]
A new, home-grown social platform is helping people instantly bond over shared hobbies, with the possibility for real-life catch-ups. Although Hobspot is being touted as ‘Tinder for Friendships’, it’s also a forum for budding entrepreneurs to hash out ideas with like-minded peers… and perhaps even recruit talent to their start-ups. Founded in July 2015, […]
Tom Caesar co-founded Positive Group, a financial services provider, with his father Mark in 2009. The duo, both veterans of the industry, initially operated the start-up out of their home office in Adelaide. Rather than take out a loan or engage investors, they resolved to bootstrap the operation. This decision, together with the company’s transformation […]
