{"id":38371,"date":"2023-10-20T14:56:03","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/startups-and-young-talent-key-to-tackling-social-issues-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:56:03","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:56:03","slug":"startups-and-young-talent-key-to-tackling-social-issues-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/startups-and-young-talent-key-to-tackling-social-issues-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Startups and young talent key to tackling social issues &#8211; StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"443\" height=\"352\" itemprop=\"image\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/l_crayons-600.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"l_crayons-600\"\/><\/div>\n<p>Startups are well-placed to tackle social issues and more of them are doing so as younger generations enter the tech scene, according to the co-founder of a startup shortlisted for the 2015 StartupSmart<i> <\/i>Awards.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Jordan O\u2019Reilly is the co-founder of HireUp, a Sydney-based digital platform aimed at connecting people with disabilities with support workers in their local community.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He launched the startup towards the end of 2014 and says he has been inspired by the number of companies tackling social issues \u201ccoming through\u201d the startup ecosystem.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy generation, I think, are very socially aware,\u201d O\u2019Reilly says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s coinciding with this unprecedented ability to take action. It\u2019s easier than ever now to create a website and gain support and I think in that eventually the good ideas rise to the top. People need the focus the dedication and the hard work and if it\u2019s good enough it can survive these days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Reilly started for-profit social enterprise HireUp because his brother, who passed away in 2009, found it difficult to find disability support workers.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had a younger brother with a disability and I noticed with him in his life it was very hard to find great support workers at an affordable rate and in an effective manner,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe idea came that we could build an online platform building the power of social, the power of matching and the power of a recruitment platform that can empower people with disabilities and allowing them to choose who they work with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>HireUp is undergoing limited beta testing. O\u2019Reilly has experience in both the not-for-profit and startup sectors and says it can be \u201cincredibly challenging\u201d to try to balance the two.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cComing from a non-tech background it\u2019s been an amazing journey to move into web development and starting in that space,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust to find a great tech co-founder is an important lesson I learnt and I was really fortunate to have a partnership with a really wonderful guy who\u2019s working on the tech side of things, which not only teaches you a great deal but helps you market it better \u2013 which is a big challenge for the startup community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Joining O\u2019Reilly as a finalist for the Best Social Change Entrepreneur category in the 2015&nbsp;StartupSmart<i> <\/i>Awards are the founders of car monitoring startup GoFar and social platform Research Linked.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The winners of the StartupSmart Awards will be announced at an event in Melbourne on April 16. You can buy tickets&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eventbrite.com.au\/e\/startupsmart-awards-2015-tickets-15171663855\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><i>Follow&nbsp;StartupSmart&nbsp;on <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StartUpSmart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Facebook<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/startupsmartnow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a><i>, and <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/startupsmart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>LinkedIn<\/i><\/a><i>. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Startups are well-placed to tackle social issues and more of them are doing so as younger generations enter the tech<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61693,"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\/38371"}],"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=38371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}