Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship is a leading centre for entrepreneurial training.
We deliver immersive education programs to accelerate learning, creation & connection.
Established in 2015 thanks to a $10 million gift by highly successful entrepreneur Peter Wade, we have created the ultimate training ground for high-calibre talent to build ideas, master the fundamentals and grow a lifelong network.
We support people to go further, faster. To learn from experts in a deeply focused environment committed to outcomes. To fail safely, with continuous feedback loops and guidance to test and iterate ideas. To find their people and get support from a powerful network of inspired and inspiring creators and industry leaders. The complete toolkit.
Young go-getter to tech entrepreneur
Sarah was set to study Law when she decided to give our startup bootcamp a try. In three days she’d met her future cofounder and found a business idea she loved.
Having officially caught the startup bug, Sarah enrolled in the University of Melbourne’s Master of Entrepreneurship program in 2016. She continued working on that idea from startup bootcamp, and before long, m-Time was a growing concierge service for busy parents.
M-Time is still going strong today, with recurring customers, staff and impressive revenue. Sarah has since re-joined Wade Institute as one of our Entrepreneurs in Residence.
Achievements
Corporate crusader with a side hustle
By day, Claire is climbing the corporate ladder at one of Australia’s leading private banks. By night, she’s the entrepreneur behind eco-glitter lifestyle business, Space Vivian.
It all started in 2017, when Claire secured a position in our startup bootcamp through our partnership with Credit Suisse. She, along with a group of her colleagues, immersed themselves in our entrepreneurial practice and a fire was lit. After the bootcamp, she joined forces with a friend and took our learnings to start an environmentally-minded eCommerce business that didn’t compromise on personality!
With customers domestic and international, Claire has developed a healthy side hustle to complement her corporate 9 to 5.
“Wade’s startup bootcamp opened my eyes to whole new methods of thinking and problem solving. It’s rare to come across experiences like this one that push you outside your comfort zone and allow you to do real “big picture” thinking in a radically new environment.”
Small business owner to serial entrepreneur
Gemeh spent 15 years in West African refugee camps before migrating to Australia in 2005. While studying and working as a social worker, Gemeh saw many non-English speaking mothers struggling with unemployment. He found a solution and set up a business for them to work as childcare workers, looking after their children and others in their own homes. A year later, he knew it was time to take his enterprise skills to the next level.
Gemeh enrolled in the 2016 University of Melbourne’s Master of Entrepreneurship program. His year of developing a solid entrepreneurial toolkit of skills has led to many more ventures, across varying industries.
Achievements
Vet student to AgTech entrepreneur
Growing up on a farm in semi-rural Victoria reared Sarah’s strong passion for animal welfare. On the path to studying veterinary science, Sarah began to feel she could do more good helping the herd.
After getting a taste for entrepreneurship at our 3-day startup bootcamp, Sarah joined the first cohort of the University of Melbourne’s Master of Entrepreneurship in 2016. She met her cofounder and started Mimictec, developing robotics technology to revolutionise commercial poultry farming.
Today, Mimictec has raised over $450,000 in funding and has helped the lives of over 90,000 birds in trials across Victoria. Sarah has since re-joined Wade Institute as one of our Entrepreneurs in Residence.
Achievements
Develop a complete toolkit to build and grow ideas, transferable to any industry.
Hands-on and fully-supported journey from inception to realisation.
Create a powerful lifelong network of collaborators, experts and investors.
Founder, Who Gives A Crap
Simon Griffiths is a Melbourne social entrepreneur and co-founder of Who Gives A Crap toilet paper and Shebeen bar. Who Gives a Crap toilet paper donate 50% of their profits to WaterAid to build toilets and improve sanitation in the developing world and 100% of Shebeen’s profits go to organisations tackling poverty in the developing world.
Co-founder, Envato
Cyan Ta’eed is the founder and director of Envato, a leading marketplace and community for creative assets and creative people – having paid out more than $400 million of earnings to its global community of creatives.
Based in Melbourne, Cyan and her partner Collis bootstrapped the business form the ground up. Cyan worked on everything from company direction and product development to design, marketing, and social media, to hiring and management.
In 2015, she was recognized as Telstra Victorian Business Woman of the Year and Envato was recognized as one of the top 20 BRW Best Places to Work.
She’s also the founder of New Day Box and an advocate for diversity in tech.
Follow Cyan on Twitter (cyantaeed) and Instagram (cyan.taeed).
Executive, Mint.com
As Senior Vice President for Revenue and Business Development, Anton is one of the key people in the success of the personal finance website Mint – regarded as the fastest growing start up in the history of Silicon Valley.
Mint was launched in September 2007 and by November 2009, had 1.5 million users and was sold to Intuit for $200 million.
Originally hailing from New Zealand, Anton has spent over 20 years in Silicon Valley and is widely regarded as one of the Valley’s leading experts on go-to-market strategy for new companies.
Co-Founder, Lord of the Fries
Amanda Walker is Co Founder and Owner of Lord of the Fries, makers of Australia’s favourite fries with a side of vegetarian burgers and hot dogs. Amanda brings a wealth of hospitality and retail experience to her role as the Director of Staff and Operations, ensuring the smooth day to-day running of the stores and its systems while overseeing the Lord of the Fries staff and training programs.
Hailing from Toronto, Canada (and moonlighting as ‘The Lord’ herself), Amanda’s journey to co-founding Lord of the Fries with her husband has seen her travel the world. Starting out as a teacher in Canada, Mandy met Mark Koronczyk (Co-Founder) in Taiwan teaching English as a Second Language. With a shared passion for their favourite food, french fries, and creating food made with love, not animals, Lord of the Fries was born.
Lord of the Fries boasts a 100% vegetarian menu with kosher, gluten free, vegan and halal options. Prior to owning her own business, Amanda had little executive level experience but used her passion for the brand and its mission, a determination to succeed and a desire to bring good food to the people as her guide. Now, 10 years on, Amanda, has supported the growth of the business to nine stores strong across Melbourne and Sydney and enjoys the challenge of evolving and improving the business so that the staff, suppliers, franchisees and customers can all enjoy the benefits of doing great work and creating great food.
Founder, Carsales.com
Greg is the current Managing Director and CEO (and original founder) of Australia’s #1 automotive Internet site: carsales.com Ltd. carsales.com Ltd. is a top 100 ASX listed business with a market capitalisation of over $2.8bn with investments in Mexico, Brazil; Korea and South East Asia. It operates market leading websites in cars; bikes; boats; trucks and equipment to name a few.
Greg has been in the Auto industry for over 30 years and prior to joining carsales.com Ltd in an executive role, was Joint Managing Director of Pentana Solutions – a supplier of software and services to car dealerships. Greg’s background is software development and describes himself as having the perfect job combining his passion for cars and technology.
Greg was named the EY Australian Entrepreneur of the Year 2009 and has spoken on a number of panels at the World Entrepreneur of the Year event in Monte Carlo.
Co-founder, Emma & Tom's
A successful chartered accountant with a fellowship of finance, Tom worked his way up through a diverse range of corporate advisory, investment banking and CFO roles in Australia and internationally. With a successful career road clearly mapped out, Tom made a decision in 2003 that would change not just his life, but the life of millions of Australian’s. When in 2003 Tom, along with his and childhood friend Emma Welsh, came together to combine their skills and passion for healthy living to tap into what they saw as an under-nourished wellbeing industry. From here their company, Emma & Tom’s, has moved from strength to strength, producing preservative free whole-fruit juices, smoothies and snack bars in over 5,000 retail outlets across Australia. Neither Tom or Emma have stopped there, and as part of their vision to see Emma & Tom’s as a leader in battling the nation’s obesity epidemic, the business also invest in a range of community health and support initiatives, such as The Unite Project, with plans to further increase this community involvement as the company expands and grows.
Partner, Blackbird Ventures
Nick is a Partner at Blackbird Ventures where he invests in Australian founders with global ambition.
He also runs Startmate, Australia’s premier startup accelerator.
Previously, he has worked on Product Strategy & Operations at Under Armour and Product Manager at MyFitnessPal, the world’s most popular health and fitness application.
In 2012, he co-founded Sessions, a health coaching company, which MyFitnessPal acquired in 2013. Sessions was backed by Collaborative Fund, Blackbird Ventures, SV Angel and Joshua Kushner. Sessions is a Rock Health company.
He also co-founded We Are Hunted, which was acquired by Twitter in 2012.
In 2010, he was a Product Manager at Boxee, helping to launch the Boxee Box.
He holds a Political Science and Law degrees from the University of Queensland. While studying, he worked as a journalist with News Ltd. His work has been published in Wired, Fast Company and Harvard Business Review.
Founder, Cupcake Central & CEO, League of Extraordinary Women
Sheryl Thai started her career in the IT&T industry. During the economic downturn her IT Consultant role was made redundant and as a result she sought out to achieve her dream of owning her own cupcake business and left the IT industry to do so. Starting modestly in September 2009, she started her online cupcake business and baked at home with little capital. The business started to flourish as name of “Cupcake Central” spread through word of mouth and orders starting flowing through.
As demand increased, the decision to open up her first cupcake store became imminent and as a joint venture with her business partner, Thin Neu, Cupcake Central’s first storefront in Hawthorn opened their doors in August 2010.
Over the last 5 years, Cupcake Central has grown to four stores around Melbourne with a fifth store scheduled to open in August 2016. With a social media following of over 70k people and strong customer base, Cupcake Central continues to grow slowly but steadily year on year. Sheryl has also won the Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 award by the Australian Startup Awards. She was also a finalist for the Telstra Business Women’s Award, entrepreneur category in 2016.
Since December 2015, Sheryl has taken onboard the role as CEO of the League of Extraordinary Women, an organisation she co-founded in 2011. The League has launched in 9 cities across Australia.
Entrepreneur and Benefactor
Peter grew up in Geelong and comes from a very entrepreneurial family.
He Founded Travelbag travel agencies in 1979 after completing a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Melbourne while at Ormond College. Travelbag grew to have 700 staff and 240,000 customers before he sold it in 2003.
Peter is passionate about the future of Australian businesses and the power of new enterprises to have a transformative impact on the global economy.
He has a continued involvement in tourism industry bodies and many businesses. Peter is a mentor to many young people starting on their business and career pathway.
Contact Peter – Enquiries@wadeinstitute.org.au
Director, Innovation & Enterprise
With more than 25 years’ experience and a leading global reputation, Nick is passionate about driving next generation entrepreneurship. As Director of Innovation and Enterprise, Nick leads Wade Institute, setting our strategic vision and delivering a range of activities, immersive education and training programs.
Prior to joining Wade, Nick served as the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the Sydney School of Entrepreneurship (SSE). During Nick’s tenure, SSE built its world-class reputation for supporting and inspiring a diverse community of next generation entrepreneurs and was awarded the prestigious Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centre’s (GCEC) Award for Outstanding Emerging Entrepreneurship Centre, recognising international excellence for a centre less than five years old.
Nick also served as the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship for a decade, and has served on boards and organisations globally in the innovation and entrepreneurship space.
Associate Director, Programs and Operations
Rachel is passionate about the transformational impact of education. She has extensive experience working in the education sector, most recently in graduate business and executive education at the Melbourne Business School and as Program and Engagement Manager for the Centre for Ethical Leadership.
Rachel has been involved with the Master of Entrepreneurship since its early days and is excited to now be a full-time member of the Wade team, helping to develop, support and deliver the next wave of entrepreneurship programs.
Rachel holds a BA (Hons) and Master of Arts (Research) in History from the University of Melbourne.
Contact Rachel at rjenzen@wadeinstitute.org.au
Program Director
Midsy has worked in education for twenty years, including Head of English at an international school in Thailand to alumni relations and business development in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at The University of Melbourne. He has a Master of International Business and a Bachelor of Arts. Midsy is passionate about bringing people together around topics of common interest and growing community engagement.
Midsy looks forward to meeting the next participants of the VC Catalyst and UpSchool Programs and following their respective investor and educator journeys.
Little known fact: he has been called Mids or Midsy since primary school when there were four Andrews in his Prep class.
Contact Midsy at amiddleton@wadeinstitute.org.au
Program Manager
May is passionate about supporting others to achieve their entrepreneurial aspirations and as a natural connector she’s keen to bring together like-minded people.
She plays a pivotal role for the Master of Entrepreneurship, managing the end-to-end experience spanning across recruitment, student experience, alumni and the interactions with the broader community.
Her interest in entrepreneurship started at a young age having had exposure to family businesses, and after graduating from university she took the leap herself in running her own business. Since then she’s continued to apply this entrepreneurial mindset in various roles working in the education sector across marketing, student recruitment and management.
Contact May on mchai@wadeinstitute.org.au
Executive Director, Engagement
Kim is a senior leader and team player with more than 12 years’ experience in higher education marketing and recruitment, 10 with the University of Melbourne. A creative problem solver and strategic thinker, Kim has been the project lead on internationally award-winning campaigns and enjoys stretching brands into new and unexpected places. She is an audience insights and product development specialist, and is passionate about designing great experiences and programs that meet audience and stakeholder needs.
Communications and Marketing Manager
Hedieh is a marketing communication professional with over 8 years of experience in the tertiary education sector. Her expertise includes integrated marketing communications, advancement, and marketing research. Audience-driven with an analytical and strategic mindset, she has a proven track record of developing end-to-end digital campaigns. With a PhD degree in Marketing Strategy from the University of Melbourne, she is also an experienced educator who enjoys using innovative tactics to co-create engaging learning experiences.
Marketing Lead
Joanna is an experienced designer and professional communications all-rounder.
Her skills range from strategic branding through to print design and integrated digital design for web, social and advertising channels. Ranging from projects for the government through to the arts sector, she has worked on philatelic design projects for Australia Post, rebrands for prominent architects and planning firms, and poster design for film and television.
Joanna holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Communication Design and Associate Degree in Graphic Design from RMIT.
The VC Moment is a new report on how venture-backed companies can transform Australia for the post-COVID era.
A deep dive into the Australian VC ecosystem, the report explores where the opportunities lie, and how investors can harness them to create a thriving technology export sector that will bring our innovation to the world. From Software-as-a-Service, to healthcare, deep technology, cybersecurity, space technology and agtech, the report shows that the startup sector is thriving, and investors today have a unique chance to break into the local VC ecosystem from its early stages.
There’s no time like the present for Australia’s VC ecosystem. The VC Moment demonstrates why investors have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape the nation’s economic future.
Whether you’re pivoting your current business or starting a new one, there are an abundance of tools available to help you focus your thinking and make a clear plan of attack. Our favourite is the Business Model Canvas (BMC) – a framework for establishing a clear and simple overview of your whole business idea.
We use the BMC at Wade Institute in teaching across most of
our programs, including the University of Melbourne’s Master of Entrepreneurship, UpSchool and Startup Sprint. It’s an integral part of any entrepreneur’s toolkit.
Behind Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship is the very successful, but low-profile, entrepreneur and Ormond alumnus, Peter Wade.
Originally from Geelong, Peter knows first-hand the changes that are sweeping though the Australian economy. He has watched the decline of manufacturing and heavy industry in and around his hometown and how Geelong has reinvented itself several times to meet the challenges it has faced.
Peter observes, “We need to create jobs and opportunities to replace those being lost. Traditional manufacturing is disappearing. Even service jobs, whether they are in call centres or law and accounting firms, are going offshore. Technology is disrupting existing business from media firms to retailers. Even those who work for others will need to be more entrepreneurial and innovative to help create Australia’s future.”
“We are a smart nation but still too few of our great ideas are generating the future of our economy.”
Peter goes on to say, “I have been involved in supporting education for a while now and it has given me enormous faith in the extraordinary talent of young Australians.” He is keen to see budding entrepreneurs equipped with the skills they need to take that talent and use it to create value, opportunities and jobs for Australia’s future.
Programs
