Entrepreneurship is Booming at QUT!

With the rise of numerous support initiatives, there has never been a better time to start a new venture as QUT student, alumnus or staff! Student groups QUT Starters, QUT Code and IDEA Network QUT are passionate about fostering a culture of entrepreneurship, and helping like-minded peers to turn their innovative ideas into successful businesses. qutBluebox, the university’s knowledge transfer company, has awarded $ 100,000+ in prizes during its second Innovation Challenge to propel entrepreneurial ideas from drawing board to the marketplace. 2015 winner is video file compression start-up Clip Champ, which has gained half a million users since founding in August last year “with virtually no marketing”. Runner-up Fantasy Insider is a statistics platform with new and easy-to-use tools to analyze and project Australian sports data. In addition, qutBluebox operates a 3-month seed accelerator program, assisting QUT start-up teams to realize their full market potential through coaching, mentoring, training and access to finance. Annelore Huyghe, research fellow at ACE, acted as a learning facilitator in the 2014/2015 program, which was ranked in the top 10% of university business accelerators worldwide by UBI Global. Residents – Vald Performance, Blucore, Hypometer, RigidAir, ALM-Healthtech, Keypark and ProtoGym – have collectively raised $ 1.2mio with a further $ 0.8mio under negotiation, and their products are currently sold in over 35 countries.