StartupSmart Awards 2015 – Phase3 – StartupSmart
Till Event
ABOUT THE STARTUPSMART AWARDS
The StartupSmart awards are an annual celebration of Australia’s new companies with big dreams and smart plans. With new businesses launching every year and spanning every industry, the awards are an opportunity to showcase the variety and vibrancy of Australia’s start-up sector. With a range of prizes, including business advisory packages with start-up experts DFK ANZ and a $10,000 advertising package with Private Media to be presented on the night, it’ll be an evening not to be missed!
We’ll be naming the leading start-ups at a ticketed event where an exciting group of panellists including BlueChilli’s CEO Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin, AirTree Ventures Investment Manager Paul Bennetts, investment director at Blue Sky Venture Capital Elaine Stead and Partner at DFK Gooding Partners Adrian van Dam, will be discussing ‘the state of the Australian Start-up Ecosystem.
Proudly brought to you by StartupSmart and DFK ANZ.
Key Dates
Entries Open
Tuesday January 13th 2015
Entries Close
Friday March 13th 2015
Finalists Selected
Friday 20th March 2015
Winners Announced
Thursday April 16th, 2015
Awards Ceremony & Event
Thursday April 16th, 2015
2015 Email Notification Sign-Up
For the latest updates and news about the StartupSmart Awards, register for the StartupSmart daily email.
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Prizes
DFK ANZ is providing business advisory packages to all entrants, finalists and winners so you can tap into the experience, expertise and connections of their members across Australia and the world.
A Private Media advertising package worth $10,000
Featuring in the ‘finalists’ yearbook, shared with industry and investors
Categories
Best Start-up
Demonstrate significant growth in terms of customers/users and financial over the past few years. Have an innovative product or business model, disrupting a particular industry and be already well on the way to achieving global scale.
Best New Start-up
Launched after January 1 2014, the Best New Startup will have an innovative product or business model that will have already achieved significant traction.
Best Start-up Idea
Identifies a unique problem and applies an innovative solution, with a huge potential market.
Best Disruptor
The startup most disruptive of the industry it services, that has ongoing potential to significantly change the industry or problem space it’s focused on.
Best Social Change Entrepreneur
An innovative approach to solving a significant social issue in the community.
Fastest Growing Start-up
Demonstrate the highest percentage revenue and/or user growth over the past four years.
Best Regional Start-up
Demonstrate success outside a capital city while overcoming challenges of distance from major population centres and startup hubs.
Start-up Hero
Goes to a start-up founder with an inspiring story behind them and their business.
Stephen Bushell
Chairman of DFK ANZ
“Our independent firms are all SMEs too, so we understand what’s required to successfully operate and grow a business in this space. The enthusiasm, commitment and vision of the business owners involved in the awards last year was inspiring and we’re looking forward to providing support to this year’s entrants and winners too.”
Best State start-up
Australia is full of innovative, interesting and creative start-ups. To celebrate this and to ensure that all start-ups get the recognition they deserve, we are introducing state based categories for the first time.
Speakers
We’ve gathered some of the biggest movers and shakers in the startup sphere to participate in our first ever panel discussion. Moderated by StartupSmart’s editor-at-large Bronwen Clune, the panel will examine the ‘state of the Australian startup ecosystem.’
Andre Eikmeier
Andre launched online wine site Vinomofo with brother in law Justin in 2011, which has grown to one of Australia’s Startup success stories, growing in 3 years from 2 people in a garage in Adelaide to a team of over 50, with 300,000 members and over $50 million in revenue.
Paul Bennetts
AirTree is a $60m VC Fund that launched in 2014. Since launching, AirTree has met with approx. 250 startups and made five investments. Paul has a host of experience working with and building startups as an investor, board member and founder. Paul has also established a small but successful retail operation and co-founded an education marketplace.
Elaine Stead
Elaine is the Investment Director at Blue Sky Venture Capital and is responsible for the management of the Blue Sky venture capital fund and portfolio for Blue Sky. Elaine has worked as a venture capitalist and management consultant to the venture and industry across Australia and the United States.
Adrian van Dam
With over 14 years’ experience in commerce and public practice, Adrian works with both start-up and well established businesses in his role as Partner at DFK Gooding Partners, assisting with capital raising, business advisory, deal structuring, valuations and information memorandums for potential sale of businesses.
Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin
Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and 3 time 30-under-30 winner Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin is the founder and CEO of Venture Technology BlueChilli. With a mandate to empower entrepreneurs, BlueChilli has invested in 39 startup businesses, providing technology solutions and support to entrepreneurs who have identified a commercial need but don’t know how to realise it technically.
Judges
Stephen Bushell
Chairman at DFK ANZ
Stephen is a Chartered Accountant and has extensive experience advising the SME sector across a broad range of topics. As a Partner of the Perth based DFK member firm, Gooding Partners, Stephen has assisted many clients to grow from start ups through to mature, profitable businesses.
Laura McKenzie
Chief Executive Officer, Scale Investors Ltd
Laura is the inaugural CEO of Scale, a female focused angel network with 60 investors. She has 15 years experience in corporate finance, microfinance and venture capital across three continents.
Bronwen Clune
Editor at Large, StartupSmart
Bronwen Clune is the editor-at-large at StartupSmart. She has extensive experience in startups having run her own, worked at Australia’s leading startup incubator and as digital director at a local VC fund.
Rick Baker
Co-founder, Blackbird Ventures
Rick is a co-founder of Blackbird Ventures, a new venture capital firm in Australia. Blackbird invests in Internet and software companies forming in Australia. It has been built around a group of Australia’s most successful tech founders, combined with close ties to Silicon Valley.