Some of Queensland’s most successful entrepreneurs enthralled and inspired with their personal stories in Mount Isa on Thursday.
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They were appearing at a breakfast session at the Buff’s Club as part of a four-day, ten-stop tour through regional Queensland to encourage others to take the leap, change their lives and become entrepreneurs.
Organised by the Office of the Queensland Chief Entrepreneur, the tour is designed to inspire future trailblazers to start their own businesses.
Led by Mark Sowerby, Queensland’s Chief Entrepreneur and founder of Blue Sky Alternative Investments, the group included two entrepreneurs with local links.
Stephen Phillips, co-founder of We Are Hunted acquired by Twitter in 2012 and CEO of Mawson Ventures, an Australian ventures firm investing in AI, robotics, materials and renewables, was born in Mount Isa.
Fellow entrepreneur Steve Baxter, investor, 'shark' on Network Ten's Shark Tank, and founder of River City Labs, Startup Catalyst and RiverPitch, was born in Cloncurry and grew up in Emerald.
They were joined by Rockhampton’s Patrice Brown, 2016 Telstra Business Women's Queensland Entrepreneur and founder of CQG Consulting and two startups and Brisbanite Lucas Patchett, co-founder of social enterprise Orange Sky Laundry and Young Australian of the Year in 2016.
Stephen Phillips, then an IT programmer recalled when he met Wotif mogul Graeme Wood for lunch in Brisbane and the pair hit it off as country boys. But when Wood offered him big money to create a music app, Phillips was taken aback.
"He gave me $3 million over lunch. We did a handshake deal at that lunch and decided to work together,” he said. The result was app We Are Hunted which measured social media music sentiment across the world and eventually led to a move to California where he was snapped up by Twitter.
Lucas Patchett said the idea of Orange Sky Laundry came when he and a friend decided they wanted to help the community by doing laundry for homeless people.
“We're a charity run purely by sponsors and donations. Each van costs $110,000, and each load of washing and drying costs $6,” he said.
Mark Sowerby said regional entrepreneurs had a distinctive edge. “The drive and tenacity needed to succeed from rural and remote areas creates unparalleled resilience, problem solving skills and persistence,” he said.