Fourteen Gold Coast founders are driving a new job boom on the Gold Coast, attracting some of Australia’s top tech talent to relocate to the city as they hire for hundreds of jobs and elevate the Gold Coast’s reputation as a destination for high-growth startups.
Cohort Innovation Space Program Manager Dren Xerxa said he is blown away by the rapid growth of local Gold Coast startups, and said recent graduates and students will play a crucial role in filling these tech positions as the industry creates new career pipelines for the Coast.
“We’re constantly advertising on behalf of our Founders Club members who are hiring for a number new roles. We’re seeing technical positions for Data Scientists, Product Development Leads, UI/X Designers and Software Engineers, as well as industry roles for Chief Operating Officers, Business Development Manageres and Chief Marketing Officers.”
With lifestyle and work-life balance a key driver for talent attraction, the past five years has seen a dramatic increase of tech experts relocating to the Gold Coast, creating a new entrepreneurial wave that is powering the Gold Coast’s startup scene.
This Global Entrepreneurship Week, we’re highlighting fourteen entrepreneurs from the Gold Coast Founders Club who are leading high-growth startups, managing international teams and global expansions as they scale operations from the Gold Coast.
1. Desygner
From a living room five years ago, to a global workforce of 70+ staff across 20+ countries, scalable graphic design tool Desygner now operates their established company with over 20 million users worldwide, including international corporate clients Walmart, Amazon, BBC, Emirates, Accor and Woolworths group.
Over 60 thousand businesses globally are currently operating on the platform, with a self-service subscription model for the B2C market and enterprise deals for large companies.
Co-founder Alex Rich said the team are urgently hiring for Full-Stack and Front-End Software Engineers, Developers, UIX Professionals, HR Executives, QA Leads, Leads, Lead Designers, Automated Testing, Product Marketing, Business Analysts and Project Managers with marketing and design knowledge.
Visit: www.desygner.com
2. DreamSpace
From the team at SuperDraft, Dreamspace is a next-generation marketplace for homeowners to coordinate their renovation project from design to build.
The fast-growing tech company has become Australia’s largest Renovation Platform, having already captured over $2 billion worth in construction value through the projects that have been coordinated here in Australia.
With a fresh funding round under their belt, the team are scaling up their workforce and preparing for international expansion into the US and Asian markets. As a highly scalable digital platform, Dreamspace is positioned to capture a large portion of the residential AEC (Architecture, Engineering, Construction) market worth over $2T globally. The market is highly fragmented with ~90% of design professionals being sole traders and SME’s and is void of dominant digital platforms, particularly ones with a focus on end-to-end consumer project coordination which is the key to solve the industries systemic problems and positively disrupt it.
Co-Founder and COO Mark Deacon said he is committed to launching disruptive proptech software applications and becoming the world’s largest coordinator of residential building projects.
“It has been exciting to see our amazing team grow rapidly to over 60+ staff. If you’re looking to join us, we have current roles for Front-End Software Engineers, Back-End Software Engineers, Sales Consultants, a Recruitment Manager and a Partnership Manager.
Visit: https://dream.space and https://www.superdraft.com.au
3. Datarwe
Fast-growing AI company Datarwe is accelerating high-tech jobs for the Gold Coast, supporting over 20 staff and 35 PHD and student interns in their first 18 months of operations.
Datarwe was established in 2020 as a public-private partnership with the aim to partner with government, industry and healthcare providers to develop the world’s most comprehensive acute care medical research data platform. Co-Founder Kelvin Ross of national technology firm KJR, along with CEO Steve Woodyatt closed $1.5 million in Advance Queensland funding for their Precision Medicine Data Platform and subsequently opened a custom AI headquarters co-located within Cohort Innovation Space.
The Precision Medicine Data Platform encapsulates real-time ICU data such as that measured through electrocardiograms, as well as ventilatory, cardiovascular, antibiotic, renal, and neurological measurements. The Data Dashboard is a key communication tool for medical professionals to visualise unit bed capacity, patient status and care trajectory and supports a range of decisions regarding admission, discharge, staffing and care planning based on real-time clinical insights.
Datarwe is supporting 20 research projects, with a further 10 in the pipeline and offers a number of PhD scholarships and internship opportunities across artificial intelligence, data science, ICT, clinical research, engineering and business development.
Visit: https://datarwe.com
4. Beeline
Founders of Beeline set out in 2019 with one vision: to transform the entire home loan experience so worry, fear and uncertainty are replaced with simplicity, peace of mind, and excitement.
Fast forward to today, the new digital home loan lender is modernizing the home buying industry with real-time approvals that are more reliable than traditional pre-approvals.
Beeline uses both machine learning and personal “Loan Guides” (real humans) to reduce the headaches of loan approvals, giving peace of mind for prospective homeowners or refinancers in as little as 15 minutes and providing a single point of contact for the entire process. Better yet – the platform links directly to your banking, employment, and tax information, so you can spend less time filling out forms and more time picking out paint colors.
Beeline’s artificial intelligence and other tech integrations change the way people buy or refinance homes. Traditional home lenders would require stacks of self-reported paperwork, in-person meetings and dozens of follow-up calls from multiple people.
Beeline instead retrieves and verifies all that information for you using machine learning and provides everything in a comprehensive in-platform tracker. Collecting and verifying your actual bank, employment/pay and tax information instantly means you get a more certain outcome sooner, and alleviates the workload on prospective homebuyers hunting down old documents or pay stubs.
Beeline currently employs 120 staff across Australia and the US with Co-founder and CMO Jay Stockwell saying the company is consistently hiring up to 10 staff at any given time.
Visit: https://makeabeeline.com/
5. Surfstitch
Online retailer Surfstich is home to over 300 brands, including the big brands you`d expect and emerging boutique brands that represent a casual coastal and weekend inspired lifestyle. Anchored with a huge warehouse in Upper Coomera, and main headquarters in Broadbeach
Managing Director Justin Hillberg has spent the past 7 years leading the fast paced, high energy online business and has achieved a number of milestones including the recent announcement to partner with General Pants Co, resulting in a significant turnaround to profitability.
With a skilled team of 100 employees, Surfstitch are always looking for enthusiastic, motivated and talented individuals to join their team, including a current recruitment drive for a new Head of Marketing. Surfstitch also supports student engagement on the Gold Coast, offering a number of internships available in areas of Marketing, Design and Buying.
Visit: https://www.surfstitch.com/info/careers.html
6. Gilmour Space
Venture-backed rocket company Gilmour Space Technologies is on a mission to develop new launch vehicles powered by lower-cost hybrid propulsion technologies. Founded by two brothers in 2013, this Queensland startup is now one of Australia’s leading space companies pioneering new and innovative hybrid propulsion technologies that will offer lower cost access to space.
On June 30 the company announced that it had raised a $61 million Australian ($45.8 million) Series C round from a group of investors led by Fine Structure Ventures, a U.S.-based fund affiliated with Fidelity Investments. Other investors include Australian venture capital funds Blackbird and Main Sequence, which led Gilmour’s Series A and B rounds, as well as several Australian retirement funds.
To date, Gilmour Space has raised a total of $87 million Australian and are currently hiring for Manufacturing Engineer Managers, Aerospace Welders, Composite Manufacturing Engineers, Senior Turbomachinery Engineers, Mechanical Technicians, Quality & Reliability Lead Engineers, GNC Satellite Engineers and Software Engineers.
Visit: https://www.gspacetech.com
7. Mobile Digital
Since 2012, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Eibhlis Stuckey has backed the belief that the mobile phone would become the most powerful communication device available and would inevitably surpass television, radio, email and the phone as our primary communications device.
Software services company MobileDigital™ develops, sells and supports a unique mobile communications platform (CPaaS) solution that enables organisations with the in-house capability to design, personalise, deliver, track and manage visual and text communications direct to mobile consumers inboxes.
The software platform product named SNIPER™ is the first of its type in the world with its design processes carry an Australian innovation patent.
The company has successfully backed the right technologies and brings to market significant depth of understanding of capabilities of visual and text messaging, connectivity and the value mobile can bring as a channel.
Visit: https://snipermobile.com/
8. AutoGuru
With a team of 40 led by Founder Eden Shirley, AutoGuro is one of Australia’s fastest-growing and most innovative tech companies and is making some serious waves in the automotive industry.
AutoGuru combines high-tech smarts with down-to-earth service to connect customers and automotive service providers like never before. The cutting-edge tech platform makes booking auto services onlineas easy as booking a hotel or flight, making automotive services fairer, easier and more transparent for both motorists and automotive service providers.
In 2020 AutoGuru was listed in the Top 10 BOSS Most Innovative Tech Companies by the The Australian Financial Review, was named Australia’s 3rd fastest growing tech company by Deloitte in the Technology Fast 50 Australia Awards and is listed 49th on the Deloitte Technology APAC Fast 500.
Visit: https://www.autoguru.com.au/
9. Little Phil
Micro philanthropy platform, aptly named Little Phil, recently announced they have moved their headquarters to Cohort Innovation Space as the tech scale-up gears up to expand operations and revitalise the Corporate Social Responsibility space.
The move comes as the team takes the next step on their journey of bettering fundraising by democratising philanthropy and utilising emerging technology to make real-world impact from your smartphone like it were in person.
With a new round of funding and the recent recipient of Advance Queensland’s Ignite Ideas Fund, Little Phil is moving from strength to strength amidst the anticipation of their new platform addition, Company Giving.
Visit: www.littlephil.org
10. Cake
Gold Coast based fintech startup Cake are on a mission to simplify the way startups and scaleups raise capital, manage shareholders and grow their business.
The digital equity management platform helps small to medium-sized companies set up employee share schemes and manage their investors. To date, Cake has raised a total of $5 million AUD.
Co-founder and CEO Jason Atkins said the company has scaled to a team of 20 employees and is currently hiring for a number of roles, including People Ops Manager, Head of Product and Global Contract Lead.
This Gold Coast-based startup recently took out the Emerging FinTech Organisation of the Year Award in the 2020 FinTech Australia Finnies.
Visit: https://cakeequity.com/
11. SecureStack
Fast-growing DevSecOps startup SecureStack have been listed as one of the Top 20 Cybersecurity Startups To Watch In 2021 by Forbes Magazine.
The Gold Coast based team recently joined Cybermerc, Australian National University, Vault Cloud, Anomali and Countersight to build AUSHIELD Defend, a world-first Threat Sharing Platform with support from AustCyber’s $15 million Project Fund.
To date, Founder and CEO Paul McCarty has raised $1.5M AUD with the company about to commence a new round of funding for their seed round.
SecureStack are currently seeking a UI/UX Design Lead to evolve their product vision as they prepare for the company’s next growth stage.
Visit: https://www.securestack.com
12. BenchOn
BenchOn is a world first automated supplier matching platform, designed for enterprises to more effectively engage other businesses and independent contractors.
The unique algorithm intelligently matches organisational demand for contingent specialist talent, and products and services, to other businesses with the best capability to support them. BenchOn’s enterprise tools, including an advanced Business Intelligence (BI) dashboard, can create efficiency savings of up to 80% in project resourcing and supplier management costs.
These cloud-based tools provide an efficient platform that delivers a complete solution for managing industry engagement and supply and demand matching for enterprise programs.
Co-Founders Katie and Tim Walmsley were proud to recently announce their partnership with Disaster Relief Australia in launching the free Industry Volunteer Portal on BenchOn. Companies can now include volunteering to support disaster relief as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility Programs.
Visit: https://www.benchon.com
13. Synnch
Cloud-based software suite Synnch allows users to confidently report on all R&D activities which will increase the likelihood of achieving both AusIndusty and ATO compliance for the R&D Tax Incentive.
This assurance allows for clarity in forecasting and improved decision-making during the R&D phase based upon the time and money-saving capabilities of Synnch.
Synnch de-mystifies the complexities of the R&D tax incentive through Synnch’s intuitive user experience and uses simple language to provide an intuitive user experience, removing the complexities and time-wasting barriers that users often struggle with when completing claims themselves.
Founder, Andrew Antonpolous is also the Director and Founder of Burleigh-based ABA Legal.
Visit: https://www.synnch.com.au/
14. Eggy
Life admin tool Eggy is a mobile app that aims to make life unscrambled, allowing users to easily manage their life admin online.
After starting development of Eggy in 2019 and spending 3 months working with Suncorp in Brisbane, the first version of the mobile app was released into the App Store in 2020. In the same year, Eggy launched a crowd funding campaign and exceeded their Birchal funding target to raise $470,259 across 221 investors.
Co-founders Kate Morgan and Kirk Reynoldson have built their core team and advisory board of 10 people from the Gold Coast, with the vision to expand operations and take Eggy global in the coming years.
Visit: https://eggy.as/
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The above 14 startups are participants in the Gold Coast Founders Club, a 6-month program delivered by Cohort Innovation Space.
The Gold Coast Founders Club is a networking and learning club, designed for leading founders of Gold Coast startups and scaleups who want to share their experiences, learn from their peers, and connect with fellow entrepreneurs.
To enquire about the next intake of the Gold Coast Founders Club, please contact hello@cohortspace.com.au