How does an entrepreneur get his brainchild from nothing to be worth more than $US100 million? Would you believe getting fired after being too drunk at a work Christmas party helped?
Earlier this month I was in San Francisco and New York. This was my first trip to the US as an angel investor and in spite of hearing all about how different and dynamic the market is compared to Australia I was still amazed.
As a child, Alex Bedwani desperately wanted a dog. When his parents said they did not fancy the prospect of such a long-term responsibility, 11-year-old Alex came up with a simple concept: start minding other people’s dogs for short periods of time.
DesignCrowd was founded in 2007 by Alec Lynch, an engineer by training, who started the concept after leaving his job and taking out $10,000 in savings to run the business from his garage.
Cameron Campbell had a simple goal when he and his wife decided to start-up their own business and that was to create a comfortable source of income for his potentially growing family.
It was passion that compelled Tim Thomas to start his own brewery in South Nowra and make a play for a slice of the growing craft beer market.
Over 50 per cent of Australians are dreaming of becoming entrepreneurs, according to Optus research.
Luke Baylis is a man with good timing – eleven years ago he managed to turn his own personal quest to eat healthy and improve his lifestyle into a successful and increasingly popular Australian food chain.
In several years, Nahji Chu has managed to turn what began as a small kitchen based catering business into a multimillion brand spanning locations across both Melbourne and Sydney as well as gaining a foothold in the UK.
It was a business inspired by the passion of its founder and the quest to provide a new sense of meaning and purpose in challenging times.
