Our sister publication SmartCompany has crunched the numbers to deliver its annual Hot 30 Under 30 list of young entrepreneurs.
The list identifies some of the young guns at the helm of Australia’s fastest-growing SMEs, many of which are turning over more than $1 million a year.
They’re young, ambitious and leaving their mark on the world.
However, just seven women cracked the list of thirty, which covers high-profile and oftentimes controversial front-page makers like Nick D’Aloisio and Tom Waterhouse.
Nicole Kersh is the first woman to appear in the number three spot, with the 29-year-old still growing her innovative cabling business, 4Cabling.
She’s followed closely behind by Jodie Fox, the Shoes of Prey founder who recently received $3 million in funding from investors including Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon Brookes and US venture capitalist Billy Tai. Fox’s team has grown from 14 to 24 over the past 12 months.
Lorraine Murphy’s in the 16th spot. The 30-year-old’s talent agency for bloggers, The Remarkables Group, has gone from strength to strength since launching just over a year ago and covers clients including Woolworths, Commonwealth Bank and Testra. She recently told BRW she’s on track to make $1 million this financial year.
At number 17 is Jane Lu whose online fashion store Show Pony turns over $1 million in annual revenue, Priyanka Rao takes the 25th spot for bringing new innovative ideas into her family’s business Luxmy, and Kaylee Boccalatte fills the 27th spot alongside her brother and husband for their heavy duty water tanks business.
And at the tender age of 19, Taylah Hasaballah rounds out the list in the 30th spot, as co-founder of social media based fashion enterprise, Tiger Temple.
Check out more on the women who made SmartCompany’s Hot 30 Under 30 list below:
Nicole Kersh
Company: 4Cabling
Age: 29
Kersh cracked the cabling market in 2007, after realising traditional cable companies were “running on a stale business model”.
Kersh was innovative, making her own cables and becoming Australia’s first online cable distributor. 4Cabling now turns over $8 million a year, a 25% increase per year.
Over the past year, 4cabling has gone through a magnitude of changes.
“We’ve refreshed our website, migrated over to a new platform – just listening to our customers’ feedback and making it easier.
Currently, Kersh and her team are developing a range of e-commerce websites providing customers with more cabling services such as installation.
As for the future, Kersh’s ideas continue to be big.
“World cable domination!” she says.
Jodie Fox
Company: Shoes of Prey
Age: 30
Online retailer Shoes of Prey has gone from strength to strength since launching in 2009 and earlier this year it partnered with department store David Jones, giving the e-commerce site a bricks-and-mortar offering.
The partnership with David Jones has allowed both retailers to explore new ways of boosting sales, as Shoes of Prey set up a booth at its flagship Sydney store, allowing customers to access Shoes of Prey’s self-designed, custom-made products while in-store or design their own using tablets.
This time last year, Shoes of Prey raised $3 million in funding, including investments from Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes and US venture capitalist Billy Tai. The funds are being used to expand its team from 14 to 24 and publicise the site through a new marketing campaign.
Lorraine Murphy
Company: The Remarkables Group
Age: 30
The Remarkables Group is a first of its kind – a talent agency for bloggers. The first agency of this sort in Australia, the aim of the business is to create partnerships between influential bloggers and brands. Prior to launching The Remarkables Group, Lorraine Murphy had worked for eight years in PR before realising the potential for brands through working with bloggers in November 2010.
Having launched just over a year ago, The Remarkables Group already has 15 bloggers including Laura McWhinnie from thislandandlife.com and Andrea Zanetich from foxinflats.com.au. The Remarkables Group joins brands and bloggers together to help brands find a suitable ambassador, establish product integration on blogs, write sponsored posts, speaking engagements, talent for campaigns, guest posting and event hosting.
In just six months, the business has grown from one to six staff members and now has a list of clients including Woolworths, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Telstra and Gumtree.
Murphy told BRW she is on track to make $1 million this financial year.
Jane Lu
Company: Show Pony
Age: 27
Show Pony, an online fashion store, was established two-and-a-half years ago, but in the past year it has emerged as a “go-to” store for young females. When starting out, Lu launched the business with a partner, but a year in they had discovered too many differences in their visions and Lu bought out her partner.
In the next year, Lu turned Show Pony around and it is now leading the way in terms of Australian online fashion retail. Offering more than just a store, Show Pony has a “community” portal with lookbooks, YouTube videos, bloggers, recipes, information about photos from events, images from fashion shoots and a collection of media articles featuring the store.
As well as these features, it links to the brand’s Instagram account and allows consumers to shop by trend. Through its Facebook page the store now reaches over 150,000 people and it’s now starting selling to international markets including the United States. As its international market grows, Lu intends to develop other country specific pages, source directly from China and expand into other ranges, including sportswear.
Show Pony made about $1 million in annual revenue last financial year.
Priyanka Rao
Company: Luxmy
Age: 26
Priyanka Rao is busy extending and bringing new innovative ideas into her family’s business, Luxmy.
Luxmy currently turns over $13 million a year and this revenue has been boosted by Evolvex – a branch of Luxmy developed by Rao that specialises in customer designed flat-pack furniture.
Rao was inspired to develop this arm of the business when shopping for furniture with her sister.
“I came up with idea, we were shopping for flat-pack furniture and we couldn’t find exactly what we wanted. We had the idea of somewhere where you could design your own online and have control.”
Since successfully developing Evolvex, Rao has moved onto developing two new projects within Luxmy.
“I’m now more in the commercial furniture sector; more of my focus is now on wholesale and a different type off commercial operation.”
Kaylee Boccalatte (with Wesley Boccalatte and Stephen Trails)
Company: Nu-Tank
Age: 30, 27 and 25
The definition of a family business – Nu-Tank was started by Kaylee Boccalatte, her husband Wesley and her brother Stephen Trail.
The trio of third generation manufacturers discovered a niche in the market for heavy duty, reliable water tanks and exploited it.
Found in 2008, Nu-Tank’s founders have revolutionised the water tank business, developing and implementing an alternative to brass fittings that are prone to cracking and splitting. The poly-fusion fittings are fused onto the tank, eradicating problems with weak spots and providing the tank with extra strength.
“Nu-Tank has continued to grow, increasing our product lines and expanding our supply Queensland wide,” says co-founder Kaylee Boccalatte.
“We are now supplying our local Masters store amongst many other valuable suppliers.”
Taylah Hasaballah
Company: Tiger Temple
Age: 19
Taylah Hasaballah is the co-founder of the social media based fashion enterprise Tiger Temple.
Hasaballah secured a grant from University of Queensland’s ilab Germinate Program to grow her “style hub” and she’s successfully created an online destination for the Australian street fashion scene, stocking both men’s and women’s clothes.
Hasaballah’s site integrates many different multimedia elements including a lookbook, blog and soundcloud “mix tapes” put together by Tiger Temple.
The site also profiles fashion designers and their designs can be purchased through the site. Hasaballah is also a fashion designer and features her own creations on the fashion “hub”.
To build the brand’s identity, Hasaballah runs competitions through her Tiger Temple’s social media sites and throws events and shows to increase the engagement with the local Brisbane community.
Established in 2012, Hasaballah wants Tiger Temple to represent “the girls on the street, the bloggers, the ‘it girls’ and the ones who dare to push the boundaries”.