Young Starters Competition supporting young entrepreneurs
Supporting Young Entrepreneurs
Following its success last year, the Advanced Queensland’s Young Starters’ Competition returns with up to $45,000 worth of prizes for Queenslanders aged 15 - 24 years old who want to launch or take their business idea to the next level.
The competition is aimed at helping Queensland young entrepreneurs to build business skills and develop their startup ideas to get them investor-ready. Successful applicants will have the opportunity to experience what life is like a founder, to be a viable business and pitch ideas to investors and be a part of Queensland’s entrepreneur community.
The competition officially launched on April 5th with an evening of celebrating Young Starters on the 13th of April leading into Youth Week. Organisers River City Labs, welcomed over 100 attendees as they heard stories from some of Queensland’s young entrepreneurs, including;
Scott Millar, Founder Bop Industries and MC for Let’s Celebrate Young Starters’ event
Megan Short, Project manager of the GenIn challenge
Timothy Barraud, Deputy Principal of Indooroopilly State High School
Rob Joseph, Founder of AntiOrdinary
Rosanna Relton, Founder of Pegasus App
Yash Dutt, Co-Founder of TechFlow
“Following on from the success of last year’s competition, we anticipate an increase in applicants both in Brisbane and Regional Queensland. We’re excited to also have on board Scott Millar, a finalist from 2017 Young Starters Competition, to provide guidance to entrepreneurs starting in this field” said River City Labs Tarryn Thiele.
Young Starters 2017 Winner Grant Sampson gained a valuable experience from entering the competition. “Before the Young Starters Competition in 2017, I had the very limited knowledge and scope of what I had to do to take my startup to the next level. Over the course of the weekend, I was able to receive more feedback, knowledge, and skills that I had already gathered through previous courses. This didn't stop there. The support I have received since the competition has helped me to grow and bring my idea to a reality. I now have a small team helping me finish my app, BragTag. I would highly recommend to everyone with either a small idea or a progressing startup to enter as no matter what stage your idea is at, you will gain so many knowledge and business skills” said Sampson.
Applicants are required to progress through a series of stages throughout the competition, including submission of pitch videos and selected to attend a pitch bootcamp. Ten teams will then be chosen to present a live pitch at the Young Starters Competition Pitch Breakfast held on the 23rd of July, and the winners will be announced.
The winners will share in the following possible prizes;
An entrepreneurial skills program for your school
Up to $5,000 for your startup
Co-working space for your startup
Participation in the Startup Catalyst Technical Youth Mission.
Applications to the Young Starters’ Competition is open until 31st May at 4pm.
About Young Starters Competition
The Young Starters’ Competition is a competition aimed at connecting, growing and rewarding Queensland’s growing community of young entrepreneurs. This competition is sponsored by Advance Queensland and will provide 20 of the state’s top young entrepreneurs, aged 15-24, the opportunity to travel to one of Brisbane’s premier startup hubs, the Precinct, to compete in a weekend of business development, pitching and networking.
About River City Labs
River City Labs fosters the growth of startup companies wanting to solve big problems. We provide resources to empower, support and connect entrepreneurs. Central to everything we do is a focus on collaboration and connection.
Since 2012 over 460 entrepreneurs have called RCL home. Through our events program we have welcomed more than 16,000 guests into our community by hosting over 500 events aimed at supporting founders on their entrepreneurship journey.
River City Labs powers a range of programs, events and engagement opportunities, enabling our corporate partners to innovate differently and embed their teams within the start-up community.
River City Labs is a human-led organisation ensuring founders always come first and every engagement is underpinned by our core values of ‘Give Learn Grow’, ‘Take Action’ and ‘Always Challenge’.