UNSW’s brightest startups, founders, and mentors honoured at the 2023 UNSW Founders gala dinner
UNSW Founders Gala Hall of Fame Recipients (L-R: Chris Baxter, Ho Jun Tang (Yellowbox co-founder), Michele Stansfield, Adrian Brossard (Yellowbox co-founder), Cydonie Greenaway (Program Coordinator, Innovation & Enterprise at The George Institute for Global Health, Australia), Ben Delaney (Yellowbox co-founder), Dr. Parisa Glass (Director of Innovation and Enterprise for The George Institute for Global Health), Brad Deveson)
Some of Australia’s best entrepreneurial minds came together on October 26 for the 2023 UNSW Founders Gala at the Art Gallery of NSW. A sold-out crowd gathered together to celebrate another wonderful year of innovation at UNSW Founders and honour the 2023 Hall of Fame recipients.
UNSW Founders Director of Entrepreneurship David Burt addressed the crowd, recognising the change-making donation which allowed for the biggest year for UNSW Founders to date.
“The purpose of tonight is to recognise and celebrate the founders that are building a better future for us, as well as the people that support them,” he said.
“When I think about the origin of the Founders program, even though it wasn't called that back then. In 2015 Michael Crouch made a donation. He was a successful Australian entrepreneur turned philanthropist. And he was trying to think about how he could use his wealth to create opportunities for others use his prosperity, to create opportunities for others.
“That original donation by Michael didn't just construct a building, it created a powerful example for the role that philanthropy can play in creating opportunities for others.”
Throughout the event, five recipients were inducted into the Hall of Fame. Each award was presented by a member of the UNSW Founders team with the Hall of Fame induction marking recognition of the impact each recipient has had on the community.
Hall of Fame Inductees
Startup - Yellowbox
Founder - Michele Stansfield (Founder and CEO of Cauldron)
Mentor - Brad Deveson
Supporter - Chris Baxter
Partner - The George Institute
The event, which was hosted by Fishburners CEO Martin Karafilis, saw guests treated to a keynote speech from one of UNSW Founders’ most successful alumni, Forage CTO Pasha Rayan.
”About seven years ago, I stood at an art gallery here in Sydney, in front of a crowd not too dissimilar to this. And we pitched our startup as part of the first batch of the 10x Accelerator program,” he recalled.
Forage provides accessible, cost-free virtual work experiences for students in collaboration with more than 100 companies and 300 universities. With a library of over 80 courses, Forage has enrolled over 1.7 million students worldwide to date.
“We are lucky to have revenue that we would have dreamed of seven years ago and we have offices here in Sydney, in London, New York, and San Francisco,” Pasha said. “ Some of the world's biggest banks and top law firms have over 30% of their hires coming from us now. Their hires from Forage are more diverse, they come from tougher socio-economic backgrounds, and because of our programs, they come more prepared for real-world work. We've been going long enough now to see some of these students become successful managers in these companies.”
Pasha credited UNSW Founders and the ecosystem the program has created with helping on their mission to provide better opportunities for students seeking to enter the workforce.
“[UNSW Founders] continue to innovate ways for people to start and make things better in reality,” he said.
UNSW Founders has had the privilege of supporting 5,000 individuals and 200+ startups each year through our entrepreneurship programs. Since 2017, the 109 startups that have graduated from our 10x accelerators have provided more than 500 jobs and raised more than $740M in investment. We have built a strong investment community of over 150 angel and VC investors. Through our Angel Investor Program, at least 16 of our angels have invested more than $2.5 million across more than 100 startups.
To learn more about UNSW Founders, click here.
