Business name: Apex Hunting
Age: 25
State: NSW
Shrestha heads up Apex Hunting, which supplies archery equipment for everyone from beginners to professionals via a website and an eBay store. It was founded in January last year.
Since then, revenue has climbed to $900,000. But it’s been a bumpy ride for Shrestha, who became inspired to start her business while juggling a job and a fulltime university course.
“Things were especially harder for me being an international student, paying my uni fees by myself while also supporting my living expenses,” she says.
“I realised I did not want to work for someone else, ever… My hobby was to own a successful business. Me and my partner, Jonas Rohrl, started looking very hard.”
“We realised there was a huge potential for archery supplies in Australia so we flew over to see our manufacturer, convinced them to give us an exclusive distributorship, and since then there’s been no looking back.”
It appears not only are barriers such as technology and start-up capital coming crashing down for young Australian entrepreneurs, but also attitudes. In compiling this year’s Future Makers – our annual selection of the most promising Aussie entrepreneurs aged under 25-years-old – one message came through time and again: Investors, business partners and customers just aren’t that bothered about age any more. Maybe it’s the ‘Facebook effect’ of continual publicity of the fresh faced billionaires in Silicon Valley. Or maybe we are just ditching unnecessary prejudices regarding age. Maybe both. Whatever the reason, it’s clear that it’s not startlingly unusual for someone to start a business while at university, gain a legion of customers via social media and raise seven-figure sums in investment before they are out of their teenage years. So which tyros are at the vanguard of Australia’s young entrepreneurs? We’ve picked out 10 start-ups we believe are destined for great things based on their innovation, passion and success to date. To meet the class of 2012, click on each of the profiles below:
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