Winner: Start-up Hero<\/div>\n
Energy Intelligence provides a range of energy management services to large energy users. Services include the procurement of electricity and gas contracts, network tariff optimisation, emissions reporting and bill validation.<\/p>\n
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It also provides specialist consulting services within the embedded network sector, helping landlords of multi-tenanted buildings on-sell electricity to their tenants.<\/p>\n
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\u201cMy wife and I lost our life savings in the collapse of Opes Prime in early 2008\u2026 Our only assets after the collapse were a few thousand dollars in the bank,\u201d Regenspurger says.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWith no mortgage and no money, I decided to leave paid employment and step into an abyss to start my own business.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI had nothing to lose, having already lost everything, and worked on the basis that all I had to do was bring in enough money each month to feed my family and pay the rent.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Regenspurger had previously worked for a small start-up providing billing services for embedded networks, so he saw a need to offer independent consultancy services in this area.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI also saw that many of our corporate clients had no idea about managing their energy accounts and needed professional advice,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe most challenging part of starting the business was attracting new clients\u2026 I had to overcome my fears of cold calling prospective clients to promote my services.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe biggest thing I learnt from battling my fears was that if you show passion with the service you are offering then people will see that and give you an opportunity.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThere is so much confusion with the energy market and so I made a point of educating prospective clients about the market rather than just trying to sell them my services.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Chris Coulton, chairman of DFK Australia, chose Regenspurger for the Start-up Hero award, which recognises achievement in the face of adversity.<\/p>\n
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Coulton says Regenspurger\u2019s experience of losing everything in the Opes Prime disaster in 2008 brought a \u201ctear to my eye.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cAlong the way he has had a son born with a physical handicap who needs ongoing surgery and then less than 12 months ago his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer,\u201d says Coulton.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI feel that this particular fellow sums up what Australians are all about; he gets thrown a lot of obstacles which you have to overcome and the bottom line is you have to keep on keeping on.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cHe has been knocked down but has got up again. He\u2019s has a motto of passion, determination and persistence to achieve his goals and I think that he is an inspiration to all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Founders: David Regenspurger Revenue: $1.17 million Started: 2008 Head Office: Victoria Employees: 9 Industry: Other Website: www.energyintel.com.au David Regenspurger Winner:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}