We're so excited to introduce you to the September 2020 Cohort of the SBE Evolve Program. The program helps early stage businesses in achieving investment, planning the growth and taking the next step in their business' journey.
The program is running in a virtual format allowing a global depth of mentors and experts to take part in the program, and to assist the founders. To say we are excited for kick off is an understatement.
We'd love to introduce you to the incredible cohort of 13, representing 10 different businesses.
Anna Barwick is a Pharmacy Practice Lecturer in the School of Rural Medicine at the University of New England, NSW, Australia. Anna is currently working on her PhD, holds a Master of Clinical Pharmacy, is a practising pharmacist, a researcher, a pharmacist immuniser and is Mental Health First Aid trained. Anna has served as the NSW State Vice President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia from 2014 to 2018. Anna is also the past Chair of the NSW Early Career Pharmacist group. Anna serves on a number of profession and academic-related committees, and is fully committed to the pharmacy profession. She is passionate about improving the health of all Australians through education, advice and advocacy in her role as a medication expert.
Anna is the founder and director of PharmOnline, an online advisory service offering video telehealth consultations, podcasts and video content that aims to provide Australians with remote access to registered, experienced pharmacists. People can book in with a pharmacist in the comfort of their own home for advice on safe medication use and assistance with medical conditions. Appointments are available from 6-8am and 7pm-12am on weekdays and from 6am-12am across the weekend. When you need indispensable advice, go to PharmOnline.
Meena Tharmarajah, Wriveted Pty Ltd Meena Tharmarajah is an award winning UX designer and researcher and the founder of Wriveted. An avid reader as a child, she wasn’t expecting her son to find it challenging to find a book he enjoyed. She combined her skills creating some of Australia’s most popular childrens apps and her years of experience working with big data and machine learning engineers at CSIRO to create Wriveted.
The Wriveted bookbot makes it fun for children to find books they will love - even if they don’t know what to look for. This child friendly conversational interface can be accessed on the web, or within a fun interactive library kiosk that dispenses a printed list of recommended books.
Kara began her working career at Optus Communications in 1994 working as a Personal Assistant. She moved to London in 1999 where she worked as an Executive Assistant in banking/finance for 4 years. After returning to Australia she pursued her dream on starting her own business. Her nail salon, French Pink opened in the CBD of Melbourne in 2006 and she operated this for 11 years. The inspiration for Miss Frankie grew from the increased demand Kara saw from her clients wanting a non toxic polish that could deliver high quality results. After 11 years of operating a service based business Kara made the choice to close her salon and focus on building her new business venture in Miss Frankie.
Created by Kara Jeffers, Miss Frankie began in July 2017, entering the market with 16 nail polishes and treatments. Located in Melbourne, Miss Frankie's products are all Australian made as well as being vegan and cruelty free. Miss Frankie has been successful in securing 150 stockists over the last 3 years made up predominately of boutique homeware/giftware stores, day spas and beauty salons. We also sell direct to consumers via our online business, which has seen year on year growth. We currently sell into Australia and New Zealand but have plans to expand into overseas markets. Our product range has grown to 28 polishes and treatments, with our latest product being our natural nail hardener, RESTORE ME. We also have plans to introduce and expand on our products offering with scrubs, moisturisers and tool kits for hands and feet.
Kate Forrester, Lychee
Kate Forrester is the Founder of lychee and marketing agency kafandco. Kate started her career in Melbourne working for a boutique PR agency where she managed luxury brands including Chanel, Swarovski, Diesel and Louis Vuitton. Kate founded kafando in 2015 to help lifestyle brands grow with strategic marketing, public relations and creative content in Australia and the United States.
Lychee is a modern wellness brand founded in 2020 offering a selection of wellness supplements for men and women, formulated by a team of leading naturopaths and chemists in Melbourne and Byron Bay. Our formulations and products are produced in Australia and registered and approved by the TGA (Therapeutic Goods Association of Australia). All our products are vegan and cruelty free (not tested on animals). Lychee’s objective is to offer the most effective wellness formulations in market. We blend chemistry with natural innovation to provide proven combinations that work for your physical, emotional and mental well being. Our formulas are free from toxic preservatives, additives and flavours. Our ingredients are responsibly sourced and our packaging is recyclable.
Kate Darvill & Magdalena Velevska, REbornn Pty Ltd
Kate Darvill and Magdalena Velevska met at university studying fashion design.
Fast forward twenty years and Kate has successfully juggled a family with 5 little kids under 5 years and a career as a fashion editor, working on titles such as Vogue, Marie Claire, and In Style, and styling celebrities and models around the world. Meanwhile, having gained experience working in fashion design for established brands like Lisa Ho and Nicola Finetti, Magdalena launched her own successful eponymous fashion label, that saw her clothes stocked in Myer and boutiques from New York to Dubai, and is mother to two little girls of her own. After a fortuitous meeting in 2019 to discuss a potential new fashion venture, they became intrigued by the staggering environmental impact of disposable nappies and their passion quickly turned from fashion to poop! They discovered that over 4 million nappies are going into landfill every day and the current market did not have a 100% compostable plastic free option.
Welcome to the birth of REbornn. A nappy that is 100% plant based, 100% compostable and 100% great for Planet Earth.
REbornn is re-engineering the disposable nappy to be the world’s first 100% compostable and non-toxic of its kind. Through their closed loop nappy service, they are composting and redirecting nappies from landfill, solving the problem of polluting plastics, toxic methane levels and overflowing landfills. They are very passionate about their mission. They are a start-up and because of this see great advantage in having the agility to redefine how nappies are produced, used and disposed of. They are looking to launch our product in 2021 and are currently in the later development stages of their nappy and compost strategy.
Nina Deng, Savanna Cosmetics
Nina is the founder of Savanna Cosmetics who initially created the skin care brand out of her own personal needs, being a recent University graduate with a little more time and disposable income to properly care for her skin, she became more aware that very few skin care brands were targeting skin care issues such as hyperpigmentation and acne scarring, skin concerns she has dealt with since her teenage years. Nina resorted to researching ingredients to figure out what would and wouldn’t work for her and soon she had much more knowledge on the right solutions for these common skin concerns. Working with formulators to create the product range, she is now dedicated to making it easy for women of varying colours and skin concerns to become more confident in their own skin.
Savanna Cosmetics is a skin care brand for young millennial and generation Z women looking for skin care products that truly serve their skin care needs. The products cater to individuals of varying skin tones and conditions such as hyperpigmentation, skin sensitivity and acne scarring. Issues that many skincare brands don’t create products for or market properly. The products are clean, sustainable, cruelty free and formulated with science backed sustainable ingredients. Likewise, the brand works to align itself with women that are not commonly represented or spoken to within the skin care industry and is looking to bridge this gap. And therefore, the brand is bringing a fresh perspective to skincare that has been long overdue in Australia and globally.
Julie Dal Santo, My Career Capital
Julie is an experienced HR professional and coach, with a budding interest in the application of User Experience across employees’ interactions with workplaces. Highly driven, action orientated and leads with a positive optimistic approach. Julie’s purpose -led approach is driven by passion and connection with community and creating a better experience for people, which is evident from the success she has had in building an extensive network and achievements throughout her career in Human Resources, and serving time as a non-executive director for not-for-profit, Hands on Learning.
My Career Capital broadens the focus of traditional performance management systems in the market. It provides a resource for individuals to own, manage, organise, store, share career performance, skills, feedback and development information over their lifetime with the multiple employers or jobs that one may encounter. The term ‘Career Capital’ refers to the unique and valuable skills, connections, and credentials that allow a person to have impact in their job. Actively managing and building career capital is one of the most important ways a person can have impact over the course of their career, and enable them to successfully navigate changes across their working life.
Jen Wilks, Our Eco Bee Jen has in excess of 30 years’ experience advising business clients in finance and strategy. She consults directly for and on behalf of clients as an outsourced Chief Financial Officer and is passionate about helping iconic Australian brands navigate their way on the global stage. During her career, she has worked with top-tier accounting firms & financial institutions in the areas of Tax and Business Advisory and in Corporate Finance Advisory, dealing with Australian public companies and high-growth family businesses in the FMCG, health and tourism industries. Professionally, Jenny has served on committees of affiliated Industry bodies including Chartered Accountants Australia & NZ and the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia and is a SheEO Activator. Together with husband Neil, she has invested in Our Eco Clean, and today this is her core focus. Having secured a foothold for the company in the US, she is now leading Our Eco Bee's sustainability project to commercialise some globally significant R&D we believe will help save our bees and create a global grass-roots regenerative agriculture community.
Our Eco Bee believe's there are deep structural problems with the global beekeeping industry. Their Innovation will facilitate a resilient market that will reshape industry and entice a new generation of beekeepers. The concept of traditional Langstroth hive has not changed since 1851.... Their reinvention will transform the industry! They can significantly increase honey yields, reduce pest infiltration, mitigate risk of diseased broods, reduce costs, and make beekeeping safer for beekeepers and bees. Our Eco Bee Garde addresses bee foraging habitat loss and food security issues. Our Eco Beekeeping Products will revolutionise the art of beekeeping.
Laurie Critchley, Georgia Woodward & Cathrine McVeigh, Foreseeable
Laurie Critchley is the CEO of Southern Pictures, one of Australia’s leading independent broadcast companies, which she established in 2009. She has enjoyed a thirty year-career, spanning Australia, the UK and Southeast Asia, as the creator, writer, director and executive producer of original award-winning primetime and multi-platform content for a global audience. Her many broadcast clients include the ABC, SBS, Nine Network, Discovery Channel, BSkyB, BBC, PBS as well as free-to-air and cable broadcasters and distributors in Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, and Austral-Asia; international companies such as Warners and Universal; and institutions ranging from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to the AFP.
Laurie's many credits include six seasons of the Logie award-winning history format, Dynasties (ABC, BBC, BSkyB); the AACTA-award-winning, Hawke: The Larrikin and the Leader (ABC); the acclaimed New York television awarded series, The Mosque Next Door (SBS, TRT, Discovery Asia); the ratings-busting travelogue, Miriam Margolyes Almost Australian (ABC, BBC; Discovery); and Slim and I, winner of best feature film (2020, Gold Coast Film Festival).
Laurie began her career as a communications executive working in radio and print, including at Fairfax (AFR; SMH), The Guardian and the BBC World Service, before moving into book publishing as a commissioning editor at Penguin Books and The Women’s Press (where among other things she re-launched its Young Adult imprint to massive commercial success) followed by an eight-year stint as an Executive Producer with ABC Television. She excels at guiding and empowering diverse creative and administrative teams towards the realisation and delivery of successful blue-chip projects for multiple stakeholders.
Georgia Woodward is a producer and content strategist. She has delivered multiplatform content and campaigns for some of the top local and international brands including Qantas, Mattel, Salesforce, Seek, Oracle and Amazon. She has worked in production for children’s, lifestyle and reality programming for broadcasters such as Seven, ABC, and the Nine Network. In 2016, Georgia launched Barking Mouse, an award-winning production company specialising in short form digital content.
In 2019, Georgia was approached by Australia’s largest regional university, Charles Sturt Univerisity, to design their social media and digital content strategy. The university went from being at #59 to being in the top ten in Australia for brand and social strategy in less than 12 months and experienced increased and sustained cross-platform audience engagement.
An agile and progressive content creator, Georgia is passionate about producing content strategies that respond to the demands of a modern audience.
Cathrine is an innovator and strategic thinker adept at Relationship management, leadership, business operations and content management. With more than fifteen years of media experience. With a comprehensive understanding of multiple platforms, including digital, audio, television and events, Cathrine is a passionate creator and consumer of broadcast content. A leader who empowers her team to dream, Cathrine thrives at managing complex stakeholder relations, transforming teams from the inside out. As a creative problem-solver Cathrine exceeds business goals by using agile solutions to drive innovation. Her multi-platform experience has been integral in allowing her to develop and implement strategic plans to deliver content and audience opportunities, drive engagement, and maximise operational efficiency while enhancing commercial opportunities
Foreseeable helps commercial storytellers know what’s going to work. Using the latest media and audience technology, we help commercial storytellers apply insightful data to the creative process and effectively connect with their audience.
Foreseeable helps save time, money and heartache by showing upfront what audiences want, where they want it, and who they want it with. The data-led audience insights we uncover provide our clients with a roadmap to success. You can’t rely on a hunch, but you can count on the facts.
Foreseeable. Know now.
Comments