Posts tagged "Smart50 2014"

2014 has already been a big year for Punters.com.au. In February, the business packed up its home in Maroochydore on Queensland’s idyllic Sunshine Coast and moved south to arguably the horse racing capital of Australia, Melbourne.

Nick Grinberg admits he and business partner John Vlasakakis took a gamble when they launched their search engine optimisation business GMG in 2010. The SEO sector was, and still is, a crowded space so the duo introduced a “don’t pay until results are achieved” approach, which was unheard of in the local industry at that point.

Nick Bell’s search engine optimisation business has doubled its revenue, and its number of staff, in the past 12 months. “We’ve just continued to reinvest in our backend and in research and development,” says Bell, who founded Web Marketing Experts from his home in 2008.

The motto of Costumes.com.au is to “deliver fun” and as one of Australia’s leading costume retailers, that’s exactly what it is doing. The pure-play online retailer was founded in 2010 by Nathan Huppatz, Brendan Taylor and Ian Slinger, who, as the former operators of an online fishing business, were looking for other opportunities in the e-commerce space.

Sam Bashiry and Brad Hughes founded their internet service provider with just $1000 in 2005. In nine years, Broadband Solutions has grown by 110% and now turns over more than $9.6 million annually.

The managing director and co-founder of telecommunications provider the Fonebox Group not only wants to acquire other businesses, he’s also thinking about expanding internationally and at some point, listing the company he founded on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Wolfgang “Pitzy” Folk is no stranger to the Smart50 Awards. Last year, the coffee wholesale business Folk founded in 2001 came in at number 23 on the Smart50 list.

Victorian-based health and fitness business the KX Group is built on, and takes its name from, a Japanese philosophy called the Kaizen Experience.

The founders of Bronze Snake had to wait five years from when they first started Bronze Snake to make a wage payment. “Never give up,” they say of the fast fashion business’ slow start.

Like a number of other companies in this year’s Smart50 Awards, the rollout of the National Broadband Network has been a game changer for Universal Communications Group.

Simon Crowther wants to create a $1 billion company. As the chief executive of Australian aerial mapping provider Nearmap, which turned over $21 million in the 2013-14 financial year, Crowther says it is a goal he thinks he can achieve within the next three years.

Anna Carosa and Stewart Koziora were successful entrepreneurs in their own right before they met, married and launched their own business in 2007.