Up to $20,000 is available from Young Starters Fund to deliver events and activities that build entrepreneurial and startup skills in young Queenslanders.
Young Starters Fund
The Advance Queensland Young Starters’ Fund is designed to:
- promote entrepreneurship as an alternative employment pathway
- to grow numbers of young entrepreneurial talent in Queensland
- provide opportunities for Queensland’s young entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas to the world through the Young Starters’ competition
- help turn the ideas of young entrepreneurs into a business with high-growth potential.
Funding will be available to organisations to help the Queensland startup community conduct capacity building activities aimed at Queenslanders aged 15-24.
Background
The Advance Queensland Young Starters program is designed to build, attract and retain young entrepreneurial talent, build the startup ecosystem to position Queensland as an attractive investment destination with a strong innovation and entrepreneurial culture
The Young Starters program consists of two elements:
- the Young Starters Fund
- an annual state-wide pitching competition
Objective
The Young Starters Fund aims to build and attract young entrepreneurial talent in Queensland, and retain early stage entrepreneurs and highperforming university graduates. The program will provide a pathway for young founders, researchers and social innovators to gain entrepreneurial and commercialisation experience and skills through experience-based learning in incubators, accelerators, co-working spaces, research organisations, and other service providers.
This Fund aims to assist universities, TAFEs, incubators accelerators, co-working spaces, and high schools to deliver:
- practical information and advice
- increased collaboration and networking opportunities
- connectivity and transformation entrepreneurship to young Queenslanders.
Funding
The Advance Queensland Young Starters Fund will provide funding up to $20,000 (excluding GST) to eligible organisations to deliver events and activities that build entrepreneurial and technology startup skills.
Eligible Activities
To be eligible for the Young Starters Fund, your activity must:
- be conducted on a not-for-profit basis and demonstrate broad benefit for the Queensland startup community
- align with the Advance Queensland principles
- cover one or more of the following:
- improve capability and capacity
- access to capital
- collaboration, building networks and connectivity
- access to markets
- leadership
- skills development
- culture and promoting success.
Collaboration with other organisations will be favourably considered.
Eligible activities include youth (aged 15-24) focused events such as:
- startup weekends
- startup bootcamps
- startup meet-up groups or networking activities
- startup webinars
- startup workshops
- startup forums.
Eligible costs include venue hire, travel and accommodation for presenters, catering, promotion, and fees for external speakers and consultants.
Eligible Applicants
- funding is open to profit and not-for-profit organisations
- applicants must have an ABN and be registered for GST
- if not based in Queensland, applicant organisations must partner with a Queensland based organisation
- applicants must be 18 years or over
- all staff and volunteers working with children under 18 must hold a current Blue Card
- Organisations already receiving other Queensland Government funding are eligible to apply for this funding. The 30 per cent matched funding contribution from these organisations cannot be sourced from existing Queensland Government funding.
- funding cannot be provided for any activity that has received funding through another Advance Queensland program.
Timing
Applications close 15 September 2017.
Young Starters Fund Round 2 Recipients
Recipient | Project outline | Project dates and Location | Funding amount (GST excl.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upper Coomera P12 State College | Startup Apprentice Eight Week Accelerator Program delivered as part of the Year 10 curriculum. An action based entrepreneurial education programs teaches the ‘Silicon Valley’ lean approach to starting a business. | August to November 2016 Upper Coomera | $17,000 |
| Townsville Region Indigenous Business Network | Academy for Young Entrepreneurs in Thuringowa and Kirwan State High Schools. The program encourages students to create ideas, which solve a problem, with a strong learning experience to equip them later in life. | February to April 2017 Kirwan and Thuringowa | $19,000 |
| Time Masters (Australia) Pty Limited | ‘Open Your Eyes to Cash’ forum event, marketed and promoted for a youth audience to inform and connect them with funding and support services. An officer from the Small Business Division, Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games will also attend to promote Advance Queensland initiatives. | 23 August 2016 Loganholme | $11,500 |
| The SPACE Australasia Pty Ltd | FNQ Schools Startup Summit 2016 – startup bootcamp is a chance for students, teachers and parents to come together and learn exactly where they can best position these new found skills being developed in STEAM education models. | 5 to 7 October 2016 Cairns | $4,233 |
| Southern Downs Regional Council | Southern Downs INCubate Twilight Startup Workshop specifically designed to build the entrepreneurial skills and mindset of young people aged 15 and over. | 22 October 2016 Warwick | $7,000 |
| Southbank Business Association | The Big 5 – 5 Big Learnings from Industry Experts startup forum which will explore the professional journeys of industry experts within the creative, tech and startup space. | 20 October 2016 South Bank | $7,500 |
| Queensland University of Technology | Startup Hatch Disrupting Law Weekend—a 54-hour innovation workshop meets ‘Shark Tank’ competition over the course of the weekend to develop a concept that innovates an aspect of access to justice or the legal profession | 5 to 7 August 2016 Brisbane | $14,000 |
| Marist Youth Care Limited | Deliver the 2016 ‘IMPACT National Conference’ and startup weekend designed to bridge a gap between socially conscious youth and the social enterprise sector. | 5 to 7 August 2016 South Bank | $10,607 |
| Kixstaart Indigenous Business | Australia’s First Indigenous Startup Weekend to promote and build Indigenous entrepreneurship capabilities within Queensland by helping 18–24 year old Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people acquire skills, opportunities and support to identify business opportunities. | 26 to 28 August 2016 Brisbane | $13,500 |
| Hope Centre Services | Academy for Young Entrepreneurs education program aimed at empowering secondary and senior primary students in entrepreneurial pathways. | August to November 2016 Banyo | $9,500 |
| Helensvale State High School | Startup Apprentice Eight Week Accelerator Program An eight week startup business program delivered as part of the Year 10 curriculum. The award winning, action based entrepreneurial education program teaches the ‘Silicon Valley’ lean approach to starting a business to high-school students. | August to October 2016 Helensvale | $18,500 |
| Griffith University | Mentor Revolution – Get Started to create and deliver online webinars and a networking forum to inspire young startups through sharing stories of other young entrepreneurs who have achieved success. | From June to October 2016 Southport and St Lucia | $20,000 |
| FSG Australia | Intro to Start-Up Accelerators for Senior School Students—this education program provides interactive one and a half day workshops for Year 10-12 Gold Coast High School students in the classroom, to simulate the experience of participating in a ‘startup accelerator program’. | September to December 2016 Southport | $17,356 |
| Fifty Six Creations Pty Ltd | To interact and work with approximately 200 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Mackay, Bowen and surrounds to introduce them to STEM and computer technology. Participants will be gifted 100 Fifty-Six computer tablets and Planet 56 software to undertake the activities in collaboration with Little Tokyo2 and the Foundation for Young Australians. | 30 June to 1 July 2016 Mackay and Bowen | $20,000 |
| Agapeflows Pty Ltd | Academy for Young Entrepreneurs startup workshops project is aimed to empowering secondary and senior primary students in entrepreneurial pathways. | August to November 2016 Blackwater | $9,500 |
Young Starters Fund Round 1 Recipients
Recipient | Project outline | Location/Suburb | Funding amount (GST excl.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canvas Coworking Inc | Founderfest 2016 – a Startup Weekend for Youth in Toowoomba where teams will group into areas of interests and strengths in the areas of sales, business, technology and design. | Toowoomba | $20,000 |
| Fiftysix Creations Pty Ltd | Startup workshops to interact and work with approximately 200 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Cairns to introduce them to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and computer technology. The students will learn to put together their very own tablet computer, teaching them about the wonders of STEM, computer science and entrepreneurship. | Cairns | $19,500 |
| Generation Innovation Ltd | A startup bootcamp – GI Challenge 2016 supports young entrepreneurs to both create and cultivate a business venture in the real economy. The program comprises two one-day workshops two weeks apart, followed by a development phase where teams and mentors develop their ideas to a ‘pitchable’ product. | Sunshine Coast | $16,450 |
| Marist Youth Care Limited | We can be heroes program consists of seven startup workshops to identify and build entrepreneurial and startup skills in young Queenslanders. This project targets disengaged youth and their collaborators including the Brisbane Youth Service, Edgeware Creative and Little Tokyo Two. | Brisbane | $19,270 |
| Mountain Creek State High School | Startup-ED, a two-phase project incorporating lean startup principles and lean launchpad methodology, with a two day innovation bootcamp, followed by ongoing coaching support for teachers over the following eight weeks. | Sunshine Coast | $20,000 |
| Palm Beach-Currumbin High School | ‘Entrepreneurial Education Program’ consists of an eight week program comprising two 70 minute sessions per week for approximately 110 students in a startup workshop format. The program is aimed at Year 10 students in partnership with Startup Apprentice and Startup Creative. | Palm Beach-Currumbin | $20,000 |
| Queensland University of Technology | Startup Hatch – Bringing Ideas to Reality, a 30-day project startup bootcamp focused on student workshops, pitching ideas and resulting in a future startup forum. | Brisbane | $20,000 |
| QUT Creative Enterprise Australia | Startup Weekend Brisbane – Creative Tech event combining creative and technical skills to create cross-disciplinary business ideas in a fun and interactive way. | Brisbane | $4,085 |
| Startup STEAM Inc | Startup Weekend for Youth (Sunshine Coast) 2016 provides an avenue for students to further develop and increase awareness around the commercialisation options for the skillsets they will develop in schools and at home around the new Digital Technologies course being implemented in Queensland from 2016. Participants will also be introduced to startup methodology. | Sunshine Coast | $7,500 |
| Tech Girls Movement Pty Ltd | ‘2016 Showcase for the Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero’ one day event at QUT Brisbane. The showcase is the culmination of one of the core activities of the Tech Girls Movement, which is a youth entrepreneurship program in which they promote entrepreneurship as an alternative employment pathway to a career in STEM. | Brisbane | $20,000 |
| Time Masters (Australia) Pty Limited | Open Your Eyes To Cash’, Gold Coast startup workshop aimed at youth. This youth event connects startups and small business to funding and resources that will accelerate their growth and improve their chances of success. | Gold Coast | $12,000 |
| University of the Sunshine Coast | The Empowering Young Entrepreneurs program consists of a series of experiential entrepreneurship activities, including Startup Weekend Sunshine Coast, a series of informal meetups, two full-day capacity building workshops and an online bootcamp. | Sunshine Coast | $20,000 |
More Information
- Source
- Fund Guidelines
- Fund FAQs