SBE’s Evolve Program is designed to provide founders with the knowledge, skills, and networks needed to accelerate business growth and successfully scale their business. Over the course of 8 weeks, our founders will gain valuable insights, refine their strategies and skills, and leverage their full potential to create impactful businesses.
Our second National Evolve Cohort of 2022 is made up of 12 inspiring founders who are passionate about making a difference to their communities and sharing their innovation.
Alice Evans, Founder of Evidence for Exercise
Over the past 20 years, Alice has worked as a leader, clinician, and educator in the e-learning space. At the age of 25, she purchased her first business, a chiropractic practice. This was developed into a multidisciplinary health care clinic with chiropractors, massage therapists and a Pilates studio. She went on to become Founder and Director of Evidence for Exercise, training close to 3000 practitioners by providing engaging online content. This has involved collating the best evidence-based practices and converting them into videos, downloads, and quizzes for an optimal learning experience. Recently, Alice developed an innovative, customisable exercise prescription software and e-learning platform. Evidence for Exercise has achieved a strong brand name with a reputation for teaching excellence, building a firm foundation for growth and acceleration. Alice is actively engaged in the start-up process, overseeing all business operations while constantly learning and adapting in this rapidly evolving industry.
Amanda Clements, Founder of The Collective Lab
Amanda’s mission is to accelerate positive change in workplaces so people and organisations can thrive. With over 17 years’ experience in a range of large diverse, multi-faceted and innovative companies, Amanda has witnessed the many ways in which organisations and industries struggle to achieve impactful change for their employees and the communities they work in. The Collective Lab has been created with the purpose of making it easier, faster and more efficient for organisations to find and implement effective strategies that will have a positive impact on people and organisational performance. This is achieved through translating evidence into practical applications (the learning lab), breaking down the barriers between professions/organisations/industries to improve collaboration (the community lab) and facilitating thought leaders to creative innovative solutions (the innovation lab).
Ariella Heffernan-Marks, Founder of OVUM.
Ariella is a final year medical student who has first-hand observed the downstream effects of the data and accessibility gap for women. This led to the idea of developing a software which aims to aid national and global public health goals for women’s health, by increasing women’s access to her own health data, whilst also integrating this information to look at longitudinal data patterns and the impacts of this on overall health outcomes for women. OVUM. will allow women to collect their health-care data from primary, tertiary, and allied health care providers, and to centralise it into one accessible platform. This allows for visualisation of diagnostic longitudinal data trends across her reproductive life, whilst empowering her to take charge of her own reproductive health. The aim will be to then feed this data back into research and A.I in order to improve diagnostics and treatments in areas as PCOS, endometriosis, contraception and sexual health, fertility, antenatal care, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. OVUM. will transform women’s health care into a lifespan approach, whilst giving women the right to understand their own reproductive health.
Georgia Fairbairn & Georgie Houston, Founders of STYLE SYNDICATE
Georgia Fairbairn’s experience spans 6+ years in Fashion & Retail, most recently coinciding with 3 years in Marketing Management for a global Ecommerce Platform Solution. Georgie Houston’s experience is rooted in Leadership Consultancy, with a passion for consumer behaviour, customer-centricity, and building organisational capability. STYLE SYNDICATE is helping women combat the rise in clothing prices via a platform to list and seek peer co-financing prior to purchase. We guarantee an upfront discount on a new season item when you successfully receive co-financing from our network. As an all-female team with complementary skill sets, we are driven by our joint determination to sustainably extend your garment's life cycle through co-sharing, and make co-financing the way of the future.
Joanne Jakovich, Founder of Wonderchums
Wonderchums is creating a subscription-based digital education app for children ages 4-7 to learn through their strengths with the aid of magical talking characters - the Wonderchums. Our delightful characters engage children (and sometimes their parents) in life-like conversations about more than 20 research-based ‘superpowers’, helping parents to unearth and nurture unique talents and strengths in their children, and supporting parents to raise a generation of party-lover-planet-changer, unstoppably kind, big-hearted kids. The Wonderchums vision is that children of all abilities all around the world will be able to grow and learn through their strengths and become their best future selves. Joanne has a background as an architect, academic, design-thinking and innovation consultant to government. She previously launched a tiny-house off-grid startup, and is passionate about women supporting each other to do awesome work with their untapped superpowers.
Kristy Stark, Founder of CrewHQ
CrewHQ enables film and television producers to search for and book freelance crew, automating the tedious aspects of the current hiring process to leave more time for creativity and human connection. Founder Kirsty Stark has spent the past 15 years working in the film and television industry, initially as a freelancer in the camera department before starting her own production company, Epic Films. She has worked with some of Australia’s most talented cast, crew and production companies. Kirsty's credits as a producer include Emmy award winning children's series First Day, 13x AACTA award winning drama series Stateless (co-producer for Matchbox Pictures), feature film A Month of Sundays (Madman Production Company) and ABC iview series Goober, Unboxed and Wastelander Panda. Alongside her producing work, Kirsty has presented at SXSW and TEDxAdelaide, and coached for Seth Godin's altMBA program. She is passionate about contributing to projects that positively influence the world, both on and off screen.
Kylee Stevens, Founder of ONNA
ONNA is a member-owned financial ecosystem at the intersection of digital payments, banking, social and climate giving. Taking care, in all manner and meaning, is a proven holistic approach. Global care can be accelerated when it is in the hands of people and businesses everywhere, which is why we give you ownership in the resources needed to participate daily in change. Collective change requires each of us to be in service to the whole, we all benefit by supporting one another to fulfil our roles. “Having spent 30+ years in Australia’s apparel sector, across global brand management, operations and retail financing, I saw the rise of digital payments and merchant banking create a unique economy and a crossroad of potential. A place where the daily exchange of money and looking after yourself, family, business and employees in the process, could equal taking greater social and environmental care.”
Monika Bunic, Founder of My Beauty PA
Sydney-based – but with a globally recognised career – Monika Bunic is an award-winning hair and make-up artist. With a career spanning more than two decades, Monika works with some of Australia’s top celebrities and business leaders on red carpets and shoots. Known for her versatility, she is equally at home with dramatic high fashion looks, right through to glowing, pared back beauty. Combining her vast experience with the latest trends Monika is currently developing an app designed to help women build confidence with their beauty routine. My Beauty PA is a unique concept using facial recognition and AI to recommend personal looks and make-up products, designed specifically for the individual woman who values her own authenticity and sense of style. In an industry that can be overwhelming, Monika’s vision is to support women who value self-care.
Sally-Anne McCormack
Sally-Anne McCormack is a Clinical Psychologist (and former teacher) who has worked in this field for over 18 years. For many years, Sally-Anne has been a prominent figure in the psychology field, from being a media commentator regularly interviewed on television, radio & print media, authoring several books, and producing “The Sally-Anne Show” on Foxtel in order to educate, inform and inspire the community. There is an urgent need for professionals to ensure that clients remain motivated and engaged between sessions, and also for a means of monitoring or triaging people on waiting lists. Not only will utilising technology to electronically graph and store a client’s progress assist mental health professionals to better manage their schedules, but will also assist in reducing administrative duties which increases efficiency and enables more clients to be seen. This app is intended to assist professionals and their clients, with the intention of further iterations having a large role in various organisations and businesses to ensure the improved management of the mental health of the broader community.
Samantha Copland, Founder of Perfume Playground
Samantha is the founder and scent designer of Perfume Playground. She holds a BSc in Pharmacology and Psychology and an Associate in Trinity College of London (ATCL) in Performance Flute. Perfume Playground designs natural fragrance for brands, people, and places who share a passion for scents' ability to inspire, connect and be wholly life-enhancing. Samantha immersed herself in the natural world studying Natural Perfumery, Flower Essences, Asia-Pacific Native plants, Aromatherapy, Plant shamanism, Medical Herbalism, Rongoa Maori Medicine and Cosmetic Formulations. She has designed custom fragrances and sensory workshops for a number of private clientele and brands such as Google, MYER, Tim Tam, Forever New, Bombay Sapphire, Lululemon, and many more. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experimental expertise to Natural Fragrance Design for brands, people and places all around the world.
Tania Blunden, Founder of Words to Grow
Communication. It has the power to create opportunities, empower people and strengthen relationships. In 2016, Tania founded Words To Grow to help children and their families, to build communication skills and confidence that will not only change the trajectory of their schooling, vocation, and relationships, but their life as a whole. In 2022, Tania launched "Growing Words" for Kindergarten Teachers; an online Professional Learning Experience that delivers culturally relevant communication strategies to develop children's comprehension, connection, and contributions so that they are school-ready. Tania is a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist and throughout her 20-year career, she has worked in private practices, education, and Indigenous health settings. Tania holds a Bachelor of Speech Pathology (Honours) and postgraduate degrees in Counselling and Education. She is a Casual Academic in Speech Pathology at the University of Queensland.