43. Coreplus

Revenue: More than $1 million
Growth: 55.70%
Founders: John (Yianni) Serpanos, 42, and Mark Pirotta, 30
Head Office: Melbourne
Year Founded: 2009
Employees: 11
Industry: Health and community services
Website: Coreplus.com.au

Cloud-based software system Coreplus, which provides Australian health practices with online access to patient records, was the answer to a problem faced by medical practitioners across the county.

“A family member is a practising psychologist who was working from multiple locations and carrying around paper files for his patients,” says Yianni Serpanos, who founded the company alongside Mark Pirotta.

“We saw a need to provide patient records online that could be accessed anywhere, anytime via an internet browser.”

When Coreplus launched in 2009, cloud computing was a relatively unknown concept and Serpanos says he knew it would take a few years to gain traction.

“We were aware it would take time to understand the cloud,” he says.

“But we always knew this was the way forward.”

Fast forward four years and as cloud computing has become more ubiquitous, so too has the presence of Coreplus in the e-health sector.

Being well priced, easy to use and complying with all government regulations and e-health standards meant the product had a wide appeal.

The company almost doubled its revenue this year and picked up clients from a range of small clinics, semi-government, not-for-profit, franchises and large corporates across Australia.

But Serpanos says it was a hard slog for the company in the startup phase, as it battled with resource constraints.

“Anybody who’s been involved in startups knows how challenging it can be,” says Serpanos, who believes Australia is still developing its appetite for startup funding.

“We made a commitment early in the piece, we weren’t prepared to skimp on the most important thing – talent.”

Stretching themselves to find the best people was a gamble that paid off, says Serpanos, with the company establishing a strong culture early.

“It helped us establish all of those good things most startups think, ‘we’ll get there one day’. But it was critical setting up our growth.”

Serpanos says Coreplus is on track to continue its strong growth and has partnered with a number of tech companies to provide add-on services, including New Zealand cloud-based accounting software company Xero, to further expand its offering.

“We’ve got exciting stuff happening. We’ve grown very fast, but this year we are tracking for even more growth. The next three to five years will be very strong as the market wakes up and becomes aware of us.”