Eloise Monaghan from Honey Birdette

Founder and owner of Honey Birdette ‘Sensuality Boutiques’ – www.honeybirdette.com.au

Eloise is the founder and co-owner of Honey Birdette “sensuality boutiques”, up-market adult stores for women.

Honey Birdette was founded in 2006 by friends Eloise and Janelle. The pair met while both working in the United Kingdom and discovered they had a mutual interest in the lingerie available in European high streets. It wasn’t until Monaghan, had returned to Australia and went shopping for a friend’s hen’s night that the idea for Honey Birdette began to grow.

Tired of not being able to find provocative lingerie and luxury bedroom toys they set out to inject a sense of sensuality into the Australian bedroom. With their lingerie inspired packaging and suggestively named products, Honey Birdette boutiques are flirty, playful and unapologetically sensual.

What began as a one off boutique in West End has become a multi-store chain for two Brisbane businesswomen. With 3 stores in Brisbane, Honey Birdette is set to open two more stores later this year as part of a plan to grow the business’s nationally.

Eloise is also working on Honey Birdette’s own lingerie label  that will hit the shelves this month.

Far from having a background in the adult industry, Eloise started in marketing, and made the jump to entrepreneur when she realised how far the Australian market was lagging behind the UK and how good the opportunity was to start her own store.

A well known Brisbane entrepreneur, Eloise is a stand out example of someone who has taken a good idea and adapted it to a new market, persevering and putting in the hard work to make it a success.

* Register Free at http://www.thehive.org.au & Become a Fan of The Hive Brisbane on Facebook *

See you there!

Mike Boyd, Nick McIntosh & Walter Haas
The Hive Brisbane Team

If you’re on Twitter make sure you follow @TheHive & tweet using the #HiveBris hashtag.

Hatem Saleh of Atlantic Group V

A restaurateur-turned-businessman with true entrepreneurial flair, Managing Director of the Atlantic Group [v], Hatem Saleh’s  drive to succeed was evident even during his teenage years.

Hatem soon went into his business venture opening a seafood restaurant called Atlantic in St Kilda.

At around about the same time Hatem noticed there was a gap in the market for event spaces catering for 500+ people. With the then derelict Shed 7 becoming available at South Wharf, Atlantic (the event space) was born in 1999 followed by Sumac (a smaller intimate event space) and Alumbra (a waterside bar and nightclub) in Shed 6 2002.

In July 2006, the State Government announced plans to redevelop South Wharf. At the same time, Hatem’s Atlantic Group won a highly competitive tender to redevelop Central Pier and as such the Atlantic Group [v] relocated existing businesses Atlantic, Sumac and Alumbra plus introduced Peninsula and Sketch as new venues.

In 2008 Hatem was a finalist in the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards. Since  Atlantic Group [v]  won 9 prestigious awards- the City of Melbourne’s Melbourne Awards, Restaurant and Catering Associations’ Best Overall National  Caterer and Telstra’s State and National Business awards.

Today Hatem’s entrepreneurial vision has seen Atlantic Group [v] extend its brand, launching an outside catering arm Atlantic On Site plus has successfully developed a new restaurant brand- The Atlantic- which will see the company’s return to the superlative restaurant game  when the seafood restaurant opens at Crown Entertainment precinct in January 2011.

Sponsors

www.smsglobal.com.au

Guy ‘Yug’ Blomberg

Creator and owner of the Mana Bar – http://www.ManaBar.com.au/

The first cocktail and console video game bar in the world – Guy ‘Yug’ Blomberg has managed to bring his passion for drinking and playing video games out of the lounge room and into the public conscious. Makes sense now, but the creation of the Mana Bar is an epic tale of hopes, dreams, conflict, romance, danger, and entrepreneurship.

Not just the pretty face of the Mana Bar however, ‘Yug’ has been a graphic designer for the better part of a decade – working his way up from the depths of the adult industry to the suit & tie respectability as a Creative Director, and everything in between.

He also created and operates one of the largest independent video game websites in Australia – www.AustralianGamer.com, and has been through the highs and lows of bringing a video game network TV show to life – www.GameDamage.net.

Respected as a gaming journalist, acknowledged as an accomplished graphic designer, embraced as a champion for the local game development industry, and unanimously toasted for his crazy ideas that somehow become reality – he guarantees at the very least some entertaining stories and will shout you a drink at his bar!

* Register Free at http://www.thehive.org.au & Become a Fan of The Hive Brisbane on Facebook *

See you there!

Mike Boyd, Nick McIntosh & Walter Haas
The Hive Brisbane Team

If you’re on Twitter make sure you follow @TheHive & tweet using the #HiveBris hashtag.

Nat Duncan from QLD Film Locations

Nat Duncan started her own film locations company in 2006.

With little knowledge of the film industry but a strong desire to test her abilities and “jump off the deep end” she has managed to develop a strong company with an impressive database.  Queensland Film Locations services overseas, interstate and local production companies. Nat is very interested in young entrepreneurs and the approach they take in business and digital life.  She recently co-managed Upload – Young Entrepreneurs Camp in January andJuly 2009 and January 2010.

Blog: QLD Locations

Project: Precinkt

Twitter: @NatDuncan

Web: www.qldfilmlocations.com.au

* Register Free at http://www.thehive.org.au & Become a Fan of The Hive Brisbane on Facebook *

See you there!

Mike Boyd, Nick McIntosh & Walter Haas
The Hive Brisbane Team

If you’re on Twitter make sure you follow @TheHive & tweet using the #HiveBris hashtag.

Asuka and Jarrod founder of Kinfolk

Kinfolk is Melbourne’s latest and most exciting social enterprise project. Kinfolk operates as a premium café, serving quality espresso and fresh, healthy produce, all the while redirecting its profits to various worthwhile international and local development projects.

Kinfolk’s mission is to be an avenue for city-goers to seamlessly integrate ethical consumption into their daily purchasing, as they are given the opportunity to decide where their monies will be directed and furthermore, presented with a selection of high-quality products that maintain a responsible relationship to the supply chain. This is a café environment where consumption is intrinsically linked to contribution & giving, not just receiving.

Jarrod Briffa has been working in a range of social projects after graduating from RMIT’s entrepreneurship program. After being involved with YGAP he is now the co-founder of the Kinfolk cafe.

Sponsors

www.smsglobal.com.au

Yaro Starak from Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

Yaro Starak is a professional blogger, best known for www.Entrepreneurs-Journey.com, a blog that teaches people how to start a successful Internet business, read by over 90,000 subscribers.

A true entrepreneur, in the last ten years Yaro’s started an English school, an online proofreading business, bought and sold websites for profit and consulted on Internet businesses.

Today, Yaro is focused on his passion – blogging.  He consistently earns over $20,000 per month from his blog and coaches others how to earn a living from blogging.

Yaro spent 8 months of 2008 traveling around the world, visiting 25 different cities including London, Paris, Amsterdam, New York, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, Dubai and Singapore, all the while writing to his blog from each city and running his business.

Yaro truly lives the 2-hour work day lifestyle, with ample freedom to enjoy life while making a well above average income thanks to the Internet.

* Register Free at http://www.thehive.org.au & Become a Fan of The Hive Brisbane on Facebook *

See you there!

Mike Boyd, Nick McIntosh & Walter Haas
The Hive Brisbane Team

If you’re on Twitter make sure you follow @TheHive & tweet using the #HiveBris hashtag.

Franz Madlener founder of Villa and Hut

Franz Madlener owned his first retail store at the age of 18 and built it up into a small chain of stores specialising in surf and denim before accepting a buy-out. Franz went on to work for the Australian Retailers Association as their Senior Retail Consultant, working with clients such as British American Tobacco, Giants Liquor, and The Federal Governments’ Business Development Forum.

In 1999, Franz invested just $12,000 to buy a container of handcrafted furniture from Java, and Villa & Hut was born. By 2001, the business had gone global with stores in the UK under a licensing structure, and by 2003, Villa & Hut’s ‘Kafe’ branded restaurants opened, using the same Global theme offering live music and food. By 2008, 30 Villa & Hut stores had opened around the planet such that annual turnover of the brand is exceeded $20 million, with over 3000 people directly or indirectly employed by the brand.

In 2007 Franz was nominated as a finalist in the prestigious Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” award, and his Brand recognized by BRW magazine as one of Australia’s fastest growing companies, as well as one of Australia’s top rated Franchise brands on the BRW Fast Franchise list. His Villa & Hut brand has also been awarded as a finalist in the smartcompany.com top 50 businesses 3 years in a row, and named as one of Australia’s Coolest Businesses in the Anthill top 50 Cool Company Awards. A Smart Fast & Cool Upstart Entrepreneur!

In May 2009, Allied Brands Ltd, one of Australia’s leading retail public companies & specialty franchise organizations took notice, and by June 2009 the Villa & Hut Brand was acquired by Allied Brands, with Franz staying on as Chief Executive Officer of the Villa & Hut Group.

Sponsors

www.smsglobal.com.au

Lenard Poulter founder of Lenards

With 191 franchised stores in his back pocket, a reputation as one of the country’s foremost lateral thinkers and an insatiable passion for all things gastronomic, Lenard Poulter appears to have the world on a string.

As founder of the hugely successful Lenard’s franchise, Australia’s leading retailer has found a niche in the highly competitive fresh food market that satisfies the needs of today’s time short consumer. Lenard’s extensive range of pre-prepared, value-added meals and the “easyliving” pre-cooked range seems to have a taste for everyone.

With more than 35 years experience in the industry, Len continues to direct his knowledge and hands-on retailing skills toward ensuring the future growth and direction of his company. With Lenard’s now extensively positioning itself inside supermarkets and expanding at a rapid rate through Australia, Len constantly pursues his vision of “more Lenard’s chicken on more tables, every day.”

Len’s next major challenge is to expand the franchise into other lucrative overseas markets and to constantly look at any avenues that may better distribute the Lenard’s product and brand to a wider audience of consumers.

Above all else, Len is extremely passionate; passionate about his business, about experiencing the pleasures of good food and wine, about football and his beloved Brisbane Lions, in fact about all things Australian in general. Really you’d be hard pressed to find anyone more passionate about life.

* Register Free at http://www.thehive.org.au & Become a Fan of The Hive Brisbane on Facebook *

See you there!

Mike Boyd, Nick McIntosh & Walter Haas
The Hive Brisbane Team

If you’re on Twitter make sure you follow @TheHive & tweet using the #HiveBris hashtag.

Steve Sammartino founder of Rentoid
After working in consumer goods marketing for 15 years Steve Sammartino created rentoid.com in 2007.

A peer to peer rental website where people can rent items to and from each other. Being the first website of it’s type Steve gained alot of coverage quickly after the launch. With zero tech skills Steve managed to bootstrap the business with a tiny budget, learn on the job and used his marketing skills to get free prime time features in TV shows like A Current Affair. (no he wasn’t running from the camera!) Rentoid now has more than $50 million worth of items for rent. Items range from the humble lawn mower to uber luxury private jets.

Steve is the anti-geek and he says most of his on line success has resulted from what he does off line, busting the myth that we need to be stroking at a keyboard 24 hours a day. This resulted in numerous business model changes and the largest part of rentoid success has been working within the rental industry and bringing independent operators on line. Steve will share with us the off line methods to succeeding on line.

In addition to rentoid, Steve lectures Marketing at Melbourne Uni, blogs on startups (70,000 readers a month www.startupblog.wordpress.com) and he runs a once annual startup school – www.startupschool.com.au

For more information on rentoid visit www.rentoid.com.

Sponsors

www.smsglobal.com.au

Tom Potter founder of Eagle Boys Pizza

Tom Potter, founder of Australian owned Eagle Boys Pizza, left school at 15 and found himself jobless at 23. He opened his first pizza shop in Albury, New South Wales in 1987 and proceeded to build the business to become Australia and New Zealand’s largest privately owned pizza company.

Tom is a country boy, starting his business with a minimal education and very little money behind him. Tom built Eagle Boys to become one of Australia’s home-grown retail and franchise successes, through radical change, innovation and at times unusual business and marketing tactics. Along the way, Eagle Boys won various National Franchising Awards and Tom was awarded with the Australian Financial Review’s Young Business Person of the Year. He was chosen to give the valedictorian speech at his graduation class at Harvard Business School.

Tom is one of Australia’s most outstanding retailers, entrepreneurs and inspirational leaders and his straightforward, no nonsense approach endears audiences to be inspired to change and cut through the clutter to achieve higher results at all levels.

Tom’s website is: www.tompotterspeaker.com

We invite you to join Tom and The Hive team at our March event at Greystone Bar (Little Stanley Street- South Bank) on Tuesday, March 30 at 7pm (Sharp!). This event is FREE but you buy your own drinks.

* Register Free at http://www.thehive.org.au *

See you there!

Mike Boyd, Nick McIntosh & Walter Haas
The Hive Brisbane Team

If you’re on Twitter make sure you follow @TheHive & tweet using the #HiveBris hashtag.

In 2003 Michelle Matthews created Bar Secrets Melbourne a guide to find the hidden bars in the CBD. The guide sold out three times in the first six months and has gone on to sell well over 100,000 copies. There are currently 26 titles in the series spanning the US, Europe, UK, Asia and home.

The deceptively simple product is the result of many good, bad and fun things learned along the way producing the Shopping Secrets book series, the short lived, but much loved A7 magazine and playing cards, the game of 500 to be specific.

More recently Michelle teamed up with Shaun Ervine, a local developer who taught himself the iPhone app language faster than most. Together they developed and released DRINK. Melbourne the iPhone app version of Bar Secrets Melbourne within the first five months of the app store opening putting it in the first 10,000 apps to come online. Apple has worked with Deck of Secrets to promote the iPhone through the apps and as such they have appeared in print and TV commercials.

For more information on Deck of Secrets visit www.deckofsecrets.com.

If you’re on Twitter make sure you follow @TheHive & tweet using the #HiveMelb hashtag.

We would like to thank our national sponsors:

Deloitte Digital http://www.deloittedigital.com
RMIT University http://www.rmit.edu.au

Who: Fedele Crisci from

The Sit Down Comedy Club

• Founded Comedy Club with Business Partners at age 21
• Now boasts 20+ venues QLD wide including 3 PNO Oceanliners
• Attracts headline acts from around the globe

At the young age of 21, Fedele Crisci and his business partners founded the Sit Down Comedy Club at Snug Harbour – Dockside Bar & Restaurant, which was begun in an effort to provide alternative entertainment mid-week for a six-week trial, however it proved so successful, it never stopped!

The Sit Down Comedy Club opened in 1992 and was produced as a Thursday night show by entertainment producers and friends Fedele Crisci, Roger Beames, Jenni Kubler and Tony Auckland.

The Sit Down Comedy Club relocated in July 2000 to a larger venue – McGuire’s Paddo Tavern, where it continues to produce high quality comedy shows.

Fedele, Kelli, Anj & Roger

20 years later, Fedele Crisci and his only remaining founding partner, Rodger, now manage over 20 comedy venues around Queensland including 3 permanent shows on PNO Ocean liners.

From a young age Fedele had the entrepreneurial spirit and knew that if he wanted something he had to go out and get it. Starting work at a local Paddington deli at age 12, Fedele, grew to be the first manager of the iconic LA Dolce Vita Restaurant on Park Rd at Milton. Working the hospitality industry was his life outside of university, where he studied degrees in Maths, Drama and Teaching.

The Sit Down Comedy Club presents a new show every week with Local, National and International performers that have featured on Radio or Television. Some of the acts that have graced the Sit Down Comedy stage are Carl Baron, Dave Hughs, Jimoein, Judith Lucy, Mick Molloy, Wil Anderson and many more.

We invite you to join Fedele and The Hive team at our February event at Greystone Bar (Little Stanley Street- South Bank) on Tuesday, February 23 at 7pm (Sharp!). This event is FREE but you buy your own drinks.

*Register Free at http://www.thehive.org.au

See you there!

Mike Boyd, Nick McIntosh & Walter Haas
The Hive Brisbane Team

If you’re on Twitter make sure you follow @TheHive & tweet using the #HiveBris hashtag.

We would like to thank our national sponsors:

Deloitte Digital http://www.deloittedigital.com
RMIT University http://www.rmit.edu.au

You can watch the podcast of the event here

Sal Malatesta opened his first cafe as a law student and at the age of 36, Salvatore has bought and sold over 65 cafes, his most recent new venture being the soon to be opened, Outpost in Yarra Lane, South Yarra.

A specialist retail cafe powered by St Ali, Outpost is where customers can select their coffee profile of choice – Outpost will be a distillation of the ‘third wave’ concept, but located in the heart of South Yarra. Interior designers, Hecker Phelan & Guthrie (HP&G) collaboratively worked with Salvatore to capture the essence of St Ali’s reclaimed “Brooklyn dumpster chic theme” and translate it into a retail bean store with a South Yarra context. Outpost is scheduled to open mid September 2009.

Internationally, the St Ali concept of coffee labs and fresh single estate coffee roasting outlets will launch in the United Arab Emirates and Singapore through an alliance with much loved Australian gourmet food brand, ‘Jones the Grocer’.

A self described ‘third wave’ coffee guy, Salvatore believes: “Coffee should not be viewed as a commodity susceptible to the forces of the market but as an artisan high end product. Instead of buying low and selling high, we must buy higher and sell higher. We must also from start to finish, care from growers to cup which means building direct trade relationships with growers, hosting growers in Australia so that they can meet their end users, seasonality of crop, storage techniques, transport and so on. The list is endless.”

• Started CarAdvice as a blog with $35
• Now Employs 10 staff
• Largest Independent Auto website in Australia

Having made his first $250 at the age of 12 from selling advertising on his hobby website, Alborz spent the next 10 years running over 20 different websites, a webdesign company and even an internet cafe.

He finally came to the conclusion that in order to be happy and successful he has to mix his love of cars with his specialty in creating online businesses and hence CarAdvice.com.au was born.

Three and a bit years later, CarAdvice now receives over 1,500,000 unique visitors per month and has become one of the largest independent Australian publications for automotive news, reviews and advice. The business has been independently valued at over five million dollars and continues to grow on a monthly basis.

In that time Alborz has flown all over the world and driven the world fastest and most exclusive cars, having his videos aired on discovery channel and free to air TV in Australia, plus over 1 million views on youtube. The business currently has offices in Sydney and Melbourne with other staff also based in Brisbane and Perth.

Alborz says his desire to do what he loves came from an underlying fear of being stuck in an office every day! He now spends his days further developing and expanding the business whilst also test driving his favourite cars.

Mike Boyd, Nick McIntosh & Walter Haas
The Hive Brisbane Team

If you’re on Twitter make sure you tweet using the #hivebris hashtag.

In 1997 David established Sculpture by the Sea with the idea of creating a free to the public event visual arts event for Sydney held annually along the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk. The first show was put up, on and pulled down in just one-day and was run by volunteers working out of David’s lounge room with no budget – yet with a $400 marketing budget 25,000 people visited. This led to the Artistic Director of the 1998 Olympic Arts Festival, Andrea Stretton, to commission David to produce 5 Sculpture by the Sea exhibitions around Australia with Darwin (NT), Noosa (Qld), Albany (WA), Tasman Peninsula (Tas) joining the Bondi show. But the Olympic money was a one off and the early years were very hard as costs mounted with the need for full time staff and the show growing in length, size and complexity each year as the artists got more and more adventurous.

Managing (just!) the financial tight rope Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi quickly became the largest and most popular sculpture exhibition in the world. Staged annually over three weeks in late October/early November the Bondi show attracts an estimated 500,000 visitors each year to view over 100 sculptures along the 2km Bondi coastal walk (www.sculpturebythesea.com).

In 2003 Sculpture by the Sea Incorporated was established as a not for profit incorporated association listed on the National Cultural Register with tax deductible gift recipient status. This move was designed to provide a legal and financial entity suitable for the long term management of the Australian Sculpture by the Sea exhibitions.

In 2005 Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe was established as an annual exhibition on the Indian Ocean at Perth’s most popular beach. Staged over three weeks in March the exhibition attracts over 140,000 people and is now one of Perth’s major annual events.

The first international edition of Sculpture by the Sea was held in June 2009 in the City of Aarhus in Denmark. The Aarhus exhibition featured 60 sculptures by artists from across the world including 26 from Australia making it the largest international exhibition of Australian sculpture to date – and the Danes loved it with an estimated 600,000 visitors over 4 weeks.

This year in Sydney, Sculpture By The Sea commences on 29 October through until 15 November with over 100 artists being represented.

• Want to find the cheapest flight from Melbourne to Sydney on an evening next?
• How about escaping from Melbourne to “anywhere” in October for under $150?
• Or where can I go overseas for $500?
• If I take some time off in late January can I get to Thailand for under $420?
• Or maybe you just want to find the cheapest fairs to a nice beach?

Tom Howard and Fenn Bailey met as colleagues in the helpdesk at the pioneering Australian ISP OzEmail in 1999. A common bond was formed over their interest in internet piracy, outlandish business ideas and the Hurstbridge train line. They launched their first startup together in 2002, a billing system for ISP’s called “Hostexchange”, leaving the safe confines of full time work in 2003.

The business soon diversified into website development for a range of businesses from rock festivals to motorsport tracks and Christian TV evangelists.

In late 2006 Tom and Fenn took a trip to Thailand just as the age of discount airline price-wars was gathering pace. The experience opened their eyes to the inadequacies and opportunities in flight search for budget travel. Tom was yet to be sold on the concept but Fenn took it upon himself to build a working prototype for a new style of flexible flight search engine in his spare time through 2007.

In January 2008 Adioso was launched from an internet cafe in Hanoi, Vietnam, quickly establishing a loyal following of backpacking enthusiasts and grey nomads, and building just enough traction to make the idea worth pursuing seriously.

Cut to earlier this year where after being accepted to a startup funding & mentoring program in Mountain View, California, Tom and Fenn moved the USA for three months to work on Adioso full time. At the end of the program in March they presented the second beta version to a room full of leading Silicon Valley identities, quickly securing a further round of seed funding from a range of prominent angel investors.

Now back in Melbourne they continue to develop the site and prepare for a full public launch and a return to Silicon Valley later in the year.

You can follow the exploits of Tom and Fenn in building Adioso here and book that next holiday now.

http://adioso.com/au
http://twitter.com/tomhoward
http://twitter.com/fennb
http://twitter.com/adioso

Originally named Urban Boomerang, the business started in a garage as a hobby in Tasmania selling a single product from a card table at Salamanca market. The business re-branded as haul in 2004 and now has retail outlets in two states, an online store with 5000 unique products and wholesales to design stores locally and afar.

In 2007 haul began making products for companies from their used advertising campaign vinyls. Corporate gifts ‘embedded with their brand’. Clients include SEEK, BP, Jetstar, AGL & Virgin Mobile. In August haul will spin off the corporate gift arm as a new business called RIVETING, which will also offer creative services & logistics for clients. It is the only company of it’s type in Australia to be Good Environmental Choice Certified.

Later in 2009 the company will open a new store – TOWNhaul in Melbourne’s laneway precincts. In 2008 haul kept 35 tonne of billboards, rubber and number plates from landfill. This year the projection is 51 tonne. In a past life Scott was a bouncer, personal trainer & ran a chain of bars in the USA. Having been lured into an entrepreneurial life he is now unemployable. Scott is @ScottKilmartin & the brand is @haul on twitter.

• Mike O’Hagan – Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2004 & 2007.
• Started MiniMovers with just $200 and a Ute.
• Annual turnover now exceeds $30million employing 400+ staff.

After being raised on a Dairy Farm in New Zealand, at the age of 18 Mike arrived in Australia with a few hundred dollars in his pocket and a pack on his back. Over the next 8 years he worked for 35 different employers. In his words “I’m a product of the many really bad, and the few good, employers I worked for”.

This background helped to influence Mike to “do it differently” in business.

His business career started with buying and selling goods as a second-hand dealer. Four years later the entrepreneur in Mike surfaced when he launched a short distance furniture removal business. This evolved into MiniMovers.

MiniMovers has evolved into an innovative market leader, growing from an initial investment of $200 and a Ute, to an annual turnover exceeding $30 million with over 400 employees. Now 22 years old, MiniMovers currently moves over 1200 homes and offices a week in Southeast Queensland, Melbourne and Sydney.

Through various government sponsored assistance/mentoring programs Mike has helped many hundreds of businesses. As a result Mike has developed some very alternative views of the success factors that drive people and businesses. Mike sees his strengths in his basic commonsense approach – “out of the box” thinking, leadership, systems, marketing, people management skills, workplace culture, innovative products, and creative customer service strategies.

Peter is an entrepreneur. But it took him a while to get there. To find his calling Peter spent seven years at university, six years in the Army and two years at Ericsson. Peter’s first start up company was Southern Innovation – a company established to commercialize land-mine detection research from The University of Melbourne. RedBubble is Peter’s second start up company – which he co-founded in April 2006 with Martin Hosking and Paul Vanzella.

Peter is a graduate of the Royal Military College (Duntroon) and has Bachelor and Masters degrees in Engineering and Masters of Business Administration (with Distinction) from The University of Melbourne (he likes to learn).

RedBubble is an online community for artists, but it doesn’t stop there – RedBubble take the artist’s digital files and take care of the production, shipping and customer service for them. In the last two years they have shipped 232,800 items of art to over 71 countries.

As she set about establishing her home office, Kristina struggled to find beautiful and stylish products which she had grown used to in her native Scandinavia. So she designed her own.

From first identifying a gap in the home office market, Kristina’s journey included a buying trip around the world, and extensive market research. Findings overwhelmingly revealed that Kristina wasn’t the only one having trouble combining form with function in her home office. While decorating one’s home in stylish products and furniture was a priority, the home office was so often forgotten. This was about to change.

By 2005 there were kikki.K boutiques in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The following year saw incredible growth with eight new boutiques opened, including the first foray into the international market in Auckland, New Zealand. And the business continues to expand each year.

kikki.K’s success has not been lost on the Australian business community. Kristina has twice been a finalist in the Telstra Business Woman’s Awards, has been named Young Entrepreneur of the Year by Women Chiefs of Enterprise International, was named Most Successful New-Comer in the Swedish Business in Australia Awards, and was recently named Best Small Business in the Ethnic Business Awards.

So seven years after her original idea, Kristina has her home office sorted.

Download the podcast of the event here.

Have you ever wondered:

• Can you make millions – and still help save the planet?
• Can you build an successful business – from a garage?
• Can you partner with the big guys – when you are only a little fish?
• And can you play like a girl – in a boy’s industry?

Green transport entrepreneur Monique Conheady, has shown that you can. Monique will share insights that you can apply to your business, gained during her journey to date as co-founder and CEO of Flexicar. Launched in Melbourne in 2005 with just three cars, Flexicar now has 70 vehicles in inner-city Melbourne and Sydney, over 2,000 members and boasts record performance despite a recession.

Beyond running the successful Flexicar business, Monique is a key player in the sustainability industry, including being a Committee Member of the Moreland Energy Foundation and a Fellow of the Centre for Sustainability Leadership.

In addition to sharing her story, Monique will provide insight on how to gain government support for a business, how to attract grant funding and angel investment, how to partner with the big end of town, and how to educate a market about an entirely new concept.

If you’re on Twitter make sure you tweet using the #hivemelb hashtag. You can find Monique at @moniqueconheady and @flexicar.

Download the podcast of the event here.

Have you ever wondered:

• How do you go about building a cool consumer brand?
• How does it feel to have only 10 days worth of cash left in the bank and lots of bills to pay?
• Is it better to have smart investors, dumb investors or no investors?
• What do you do when you realize that your business model and strategic plan are stuffed?

Sahil Merchant has perspectives and experiences around all of these questions, and more. While he is likely to be wrong about many things – which is why he is more broke than you could ever hope to be – he is happy to share his experiences of starting and building his company, Mag Nation. After giving up a budding corporate career at consulting firm McKinsey & Company, Sahil now enjoys juggling being a dad to 3 kids, working 27 hours a day as the head of Mag Nation (which, in addition to six stores sells magazine subscriptions online), and living life with no financial security. But boy does he have some stories…

If you’re on Twitter make sure you tweet using the #hivemelb hashtag. You can find Sahil at @sahilmerchant and @mag_nation.

Download the podcast of the event here.

Pete Williams is recognised as a global thought leader on Innovation. A Chartered Accountant by background Pete moved into the Web space in 1993. He has a unique perspective on how business can profit from using web technology.

Pete is CEO of Deloitte Digital, which is a new business that delivers professional services online. Prior to his role in Deloitte Digital, Pete was CEO of Australia’s largest web development firm, Eclipse.

Pete has worked with many high profile clients such as BHP, Telstra, AFL, NAB, ANZ and the Federal and Victorian Governments. Over the last five years Pete has been voted by his peers and staff as the most inspirational partner at Deloitte.

The Hive Brisbane is very excited to be kicking off the year with guest entrepreneur Richard Eastes from Vroom Vroom Vroom!

Richard took a risk when he spent his life savings on VroomVroomVroom – a travel startup that was booking a mere 20 online car rental reservations per day. He quickly grew it from his Brisbane bedroom into Australia’s fastest growing travel company. Winning various business awards such as Deloitte FAST50, it now generates close to $5m in sales each month. The company is expanding globally and is poised to becoming a great Australian export.

As a project to compliment VroomVroomVroom.com’s carbon neutral car rental, Richard started GreenLogo which has calculated that the internet produces approximately 1200 tonnes of CO2 per hour. GreenLogo reduces this by tracking the CO2 produced by a website and then pays for its carbon credits using sponsors.

Richard loves networking nights, innovative employees, touch rugby, social media sites and is addicted to Twitter. Follow him on twitter at @eastes

Read Ross Hill’s review of the event here, and watch the podcast on Youtube.