First Act

Richard Turner is a fountain of entrepreneurial knowledge. He’s founded four successful businesses in different industries from food distribution to labour hire to renewable energy – with three of those becoming multi-billion-dollar startups. One of them is ZEN Energy, the second-largest electricity retailer in South Australia, and soon to become Australia’s first Clean Energy Utility.

As a mentor to hundreds of early-stage startups, and as the former Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Adelaide, he’s got a wealth of experience to share about starting businesses, reinvention and industry disruption. His new book, The Essential Entrepreneur, is an essential guide. Take it away, Richard.

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PaperKrane flew into Zara Cooper’s life and brought the winds of change with it. The mum of three was a customer of the cult barefoot shoe brand when she approached co-founder Kate Corleison with a proposition to grow the brand from its baby shoe niche into a global footwear company. Leaving the law firm she’d founded, Zara embraced her new life as an entrepreneur and helped expand the brand from booties to children’s shoes and adult footwear.

That’s not the only change PKs (as PaperKrane shoes are known among their fervent parent followers) brought into Zara’s life. She met a woman whose child was wearing PKs – and fell in love.

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Rebecca Klodinsky is one of Australia’s most successful young entrepreneurs. She’s the founder of cult swimwear brand IIXIIST - which she bootstrapped herself with just $2000 at the ripe old age of 24.

Almost a decade later, IIXIIST has grown from a backyard brand to a global success story beloved by celebrities like the Kardashians and Rihanna. But that’s not Bec’s only startup - she’s also the co-founder of Prestwick Place, a jewellery brand, that’s shaking up the diamond industry with its lab-grown creations that give conflict diamonds the boot and provide instead, a sustainable alternative that's better on the wallet, people and planet.

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In 2010 Mark Dombkins and his wife Anna moved to Tanzania with their children in the hope of extending their family by adoption. Three years later, the couple returned to Australia as a family of eight and with a firm desire to help the women of Tanzania break the cycle of poverty. 

From this desire, Forever Projects was born, a not-for-profit whose dream is to educate Tanzanian women to become self-sustaining in the hope of keeping more families together. Several years later and Forever Projects has managed to save over 1000 families from being split apart, and Mark’s not stopping his mission anytime soon.

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Here’s a story worth giving a crap about. In 2012, Simon Griffiths sat on a toilet for 50 hours to raise money for Who Gives A Crap – a social enterprise that would sell toilet paper and give 50 per cent of those profits to communities in dire need of clean water and toilets. That’s around 2 billion plus people on this earth.

Who Gives A Crap became a sensation. A toilet paper disruptor. A saviour to many throughout the TP panic of the pandemic. Raising millions for charities, Simon and co-founders Jehan Ratnatunga and Danny Alexander are kicking lofty goals. And if you ask Simon, they’re only just getting started.

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Over the past five years, Sonia Majkic has made $25 million with her Australia-wide digital marketing company, 3 Phase Marketing. She’s been named on AFR’s Fast 100 List and won numerous accolades for her work helping businesses of all sizes grow and prosper.

But Sonia didn’t have money growing up. Immigrating from Serbia to Australia in the ’80s, Sonia’s family struggled with language, community and finding work without formal qualifications in Melbourne. At the age of 12, Sonia took it upon herself to sell ‘crafty things’ to her neighbours – an idea that sparked a rags-to-riches tale you’ll love listening to on First Act.

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Catherine Velisha is passionate about all things fruit and veg, but that wasn’t always the case. It was never her intention to run the family business, Velisha Farms. Yet since taking on the role of managing director, Catherine has taken the family’s market farm to new heights.

In a male-dominated industry, she is a force to be reckoned with. When she’s not busy navigating the ins and outs of the family business, she’s got her hands full with VEG Education - a support service for those in the fresh fruit and veg trade, and Food Futures, which is helping to train the next generation of food experts. Catherine is changing the face of the Aussie agricultural industry for the better!

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Like many great entrepreneurs, Man of Many’s Frank Arthur has two driving forces that kicked off his early career: a major passion and a job at Macca’s. The passion was for product design – which would later become his bread and butter. But not without some surprising career moves along the way…

Born in Ghana and raised in Dubbo, this ideas man found his calling when he and then-flatmate Scott Purcell started a digital platform to profile the latest trends in products, culture and style. In 2012, Man of Many was born. Years later, they quit their jobs and threw everything into what is now an award-winning men’s lifestyle media brand consumed by millions worldwide.

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Natassia Nicolao is on a mission to save the beauty industry from water waste. As the founder of Conserving Beauty, she has developed a range of waterless beauty products that are a real game changer for the sector. When you consider two-thirds of the global population will live with water restrictions by 2035 and that beauty products are usually made from 50-70 per cent water, you get some idea of the magnitude of her innovation. 

Natassia was recently crowned the 2022 Women of the Future winner for her achievement and she joins us to share how her passion for beauty and science have combined for the betterment of the planet.

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Does an apple a day keep the doctor away? Dr Vincent Candrawinata knows the answer. He’s the founder of Renovatio, one of Australia’s fastest-growing health and wellness brands specialising in anti-inflammatory relief. At the core (boom-tish!) of his operations are apples from Orange, NSW. Yes, apples from Orange.

The highly respected antioxidant researcher, food scientist and clinical nutritionist discovered how to extract bionic antioxidants from apples using only water – a process scientists globally had been trying to do for more than 80 years. Renovatio has since helped 1000s of Australians - here’s the story behind the brand.

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