TOP 40 UNDER 40: BRISBANE'S INFLUENTIAL YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS # 16 - 20

TOP 40 UNDER 40: BRISBANE'S INFLUENTIAL YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS # 16 - 20

Our top 40 UNDER 40 entrepreneurs from #16 - #20 features two of the founders of the world's largest online training marketplace, the developer of an innovative cloud platform, a young woman who runs a group of small businesses and startups.

It's rounded out by an entrepeneur who simply built a business around his favourite things - coffee, beer and good times! Here is our Top 40 Under 40 from number 16 to 20. 



 

16. Vu Tran & Andrew Barnes

GO1

THE DUO behind the world's largest online business training marketplace continues to dominate their industry worldwide by doubling their headcount and customer reach within every inhabited continent in the world.

Over the past 24 months, the company increased revenues from online training almost six times and secured significant investment from Silicon Valley investors and notable Australian investor and Shark Tank personality, Steve Baxter.

"We plan to double our sales and support teams in the next 12 months to cater for increasing expansion and customer demand," says Tran.

"GO1 is targeting Corporate HR, SME, RTOs and franchises in Australia, South Africa, Malaysia, US and the UK with teams on the ground in each region.

"Through ensuring courses are compatible with almost any third party learning platform in the world, we have transformed former competitors like Torata who now use G01 to provide training content to their 10 million users."

Despite their success, Tran and Barnes are preparing for the challenges ahead.

"Our key focus now is on growing the sales function of our business. This includes capturing new channel partnerships signed in the last 12 months," says Tran.

17. Braden Voigt

Cloud Ctrl / SixPivot

IN THE past year, SixPivot and Cloud Ctrl's customer base has grown from 200 companies to more than 1,000 globally resulting in a 300 percent increase in growth over the last financial year.

Founded in 2015, the innovative platform still has the most advanced projection logic based on Artificial Intelligence in any cloud management platform available around the world.

"It is a one-of-a-kind cloud analytics system that uses artificial intelligence to aggregate the multiple cloud providers, pulling it all together to help the customer understand what they are doing within the cloud ecosystem," explains Voigt.

"Over the next 12 months, we will be investing into further development in this space to create some additional features that will change the way users manage cloud computing."

The software is already running in four countries across Australia, New Zealand, the United States and in Europe.

Not just a technology provider, SixPivot is a consultancy to other IT providers it installs systems and helps their clients use them to their full potential.

18. Christophe Baptista

Homes by CMA


CHRISTOPHE Baptista has spent almost a third of his life working 14 hours a day, seven days a week in an industry foreign to anything he has ever known.

While he only built one new home in his first year of business, his tenacity over the long term has paid off with 130 homes being constructed under the Homes by CMA roof last financial year.

The former university student went into business with a goal of providing an alternative product and service to other builders.

"From the beginning, our goal was to be different because most builders are the same. They offer the same products, charge a fortune for extras like changing plans and some even hide costs from customers," says Baptista.

"We are completely transparent and are very price competitive. We specialise in 'turn key' homes with no hidden costs.

"My goal going forward is to grow our brand and oversee the construction of our brand new dedicated office and showroom in the North Lakes Business Park."

19. Pixie Weyand

The Lost Collective

We all know the classic adage "if you do what you love you'll never work a day in your life", but following through on that is another matter entirely.

In between running The Lost Collective, a group of small businesses and start-ups, Weyand finds time to invest energy into what she calls her "passion projects," and even does a bit of modelling on the side.

"It began with Lost Boys; a little, organic, vegetarian, carbon neutral café in Fortitude Valley and that naturally progressed into a small bar with a similar focus," says Weyand.

After selling Lost Boys, Weyand took ownership of the successful bar and venue The Zoo, which is synonymous with Brisbane's gig scene.

Weyand has been running the Zoo since last year, and she now turns to a new crusade in the form of 'Feed Music', an initiative which aims to alleviate some of the financial stresses of touring artists.

"Feed Music is a bit of a passion project for me," says Weyand.

"It's a platform where artists can access, ideally, free food while they're on tour."

After trialling the idea with the Lost Boys café, Weyand has since joined with several key partners and hopes to properly launch the service at Brisbane's Bigsound conference later this year.

20. Dan Pappas

Fonzie Abbott Coffee & Beer

BEER, coffee, and good-times are what you'll find at the Fonzie Abbott coffee roasters and cafe in Albion Brisbane.

Founder Dan Pappas passion for great coffee started when he was working for family in cafes and restaurants, but it was wanderlust which brought him to where he is today.

"Fonzie Abbott was born to feed my want to surf, travel and party - and of course, all the places I wanted to visit had great coffee too," says Pappas.

He's come a long way since 2011 when he was roasting 30kg of coffee a week and refusing to wholesale his product.

"I ended up making the commitment because I had confidence in the product and the brand," he says.

"In 2013, I got a warehouse in Albion, and within a couple of years we were producing around 750 kg of coffee a week, and then in 2017 we were roasting 2,000 kgs and distilling our own beer."

1-5     6-10     11-15     16-20     21-30     31-40

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