Driverless buses could be an innovation emerging from the start-up hub boom in south-east Queensland, with Springfield tipped as the area to produce such ideas.
Hundreds of residents, each with their own innovative idea, have set up space in the city's hubs as they try to take their idea from concept to success.
Little Tokyo Two founder Jock Fairweather is the brains behind four of Brisbane's start-up hubs and labelled Springfield as the region to watch.
"There's a lot going on out there and in five to 10 years I can see some crazy innovation coming from this region," he said.
"Springfield are trying to develop a true smart city, with talks of full building automation, driverless buses and integration between the hospital and the community.
"We've also, of course, got The Capital in the heart of the [Brisbane] city now which is going gangbusters and was able to come to fruition because of the generous support of the Brisbane City Council."
The council and the Queensland state government have collectively invested millions of dollars in the city's start-ups and small business.
The council made a $5 million commitment towards The Capital and also include start-ups as priority in its Brisbane 2022 New World Action Plan.
"Tech start-ups are important to the Brisbane economy as they create jobs – technology-based jobs have a larger multiplier effect than jobs in any other sector," the Brisbane 2022 report said.
"Non-tech start-ups are significant, too. In health, games and entertainment, fashion, start-ups are changing business models and reaching global markets.
"These, and the tech-start-ups, create jobs, develop specialised talent and skills, enrich the business culture of the city and export to global markets."
In May the Palaszczuk government announced the Advance Queensland Hot DesQ initiative to lure successful start-ups to Queensland to create jobs.
The Advance Queensland Hot DesQ initiative offers visiting start-ups a maximum of $100,000 equity-free funding to relocate to Queensland.
Ideas in the making
The council has financially backed individual residents to help them develop their idea.
The following ideas have been proposed by residents:
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Wooloowin resident Mia Hickey is the entrepreneur behind Estate Space - a platform for people to sell their home with the help of an agent, minus the commission.
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Hunter Stark, of Holland Park, developed Pure Go Pro Hire, that allows residents to access top-range cameras without the need to purchase.
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IDU digital identification designed by 15-year-old Carina boy Mitchell Robinson would allow people to carry their ID digitally on their phone.
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EventCipher created by West End's Bon Tin and designed to make event planning easier and accessible by connecting organisers with suppliers, venues and vendors.
What makes a successful start up?
Mr Fairweather said timing and luck were important when it came to creating a start-up.
"Some brilliant ideas have failed because they were launched at the wrong time," he said.
"Then there's some super simple ideas which became crazily successful, for no reason - fidget spinners are a good example."
The three questions to ask if you have a start-up idea:
- Research – as it been done in Australia or overseas?
- Crunch the numbers – can you make it work?
- Talk – discuss the idea with 300 people, would they buy your product?
"You'll learn so much from your prospective customers and that way the first product you launch can have the best chance of success, and you'll save some time," Mr Fairweather said.
"Don't be afraid of someone stealing your idea, just be quick to execute it once you've validated your product."
Mr Fairweather said everyone had an app idea these days.
"I'm sure there are some which are still amazing. But a lot have been done already," he said.
"It's important to do your research to find out what already exists. It's amazing how many people don't do enough research before they start getting into it.
Successful Brisbane start-ups
Long-range mapping drones and global-first legal products have been created by Brisbane start-ups and both have set up permanent office spaces at Little Tokyo Two to continue expanding their ideas.
Droneit
Lee Carseldine said he "stumbled" across the idea of using drones to create a new business through his love for photography and he was now preparing to launch something that hadn't been used before.
"I just wanted to find other angles of photographing and videoing surfers, so I got into that as just a bit of a hobby," Mr Carseldine said.
"From there I just got request after request from real estates and different jobs here, different jobs there and that's where I formed a partnership with Darren Lockyer and another business partner to form Droneit."
Mr Carseldine said as the idea transformed he went and obtained certificates and licences for flying drones and got an office space at Little Tokyo Two in the city.
With the initial idea developed, Droneit is continuing to progress.
"We're actually really excited, we're about to deliver an online training program, it's something that hasn't really been utilised all that much in the drone space," Mr Carseldine said.
"We're about to be granted our training licence ... and we're going to take a lot more education online for people, we know people are time poor."
Lawcadia
In September, 2015, Warwick Walsh quit his job in law and the next month he started working on his start-up concept, Lawcadia – a legal-tech business that manages pricing and spend for the public and private sector.
Mr Walsh said he wanted to work in an innovative environment with a competitive edge.
"Once I started thinking like that my mind kept coming back to the legal industry and the problems, the issues clients have that law firms haven't really responded to in a way that was addressing the client's issues," he said.
"I just wanted to start a business ... ultimately I think I've always liked business."
The product Lawcadia launched on February 29, 2016.
"It was quicker than anticipated, to be honest," Mr Walsh said.
"We had in mind what we wanted to do and we got it to market and first revenue came in in March through a Queensland government matter.
"At the time the platform only really allowed what we call market tenders, so companies using it to find and engage law firms.
"But very quickly we started to see the opportunity was not connecting for individual matters but implementing as a system to manage all of it.
Since its launch Lawcadia has been used in both the public and private sector including by government and financial services.
"We have worked incredibly hard to get Lawcadia to where it is at but it still has got a huge amount of potential," he said.
"In the legal industry we're actually unique at the moment, globally, not just in Australia, so we're really proud of the product that we've built.
"It takes up 100 per cent of my time at the moment, I'm not thinking of anything else."
Mr Walsh said creating a successful start-up was extremely challenging.
"I think that there are really exciting businesses ... there are a lot of other people who have had really successful careers but want to do something differently are are identifying issues within large, well-established industries.
"I'm not quite sure what people thought when I said I was going to do a start-up, but I think having done it ... there are a lot of people who have good careers, seen an opportunity to do something different and built a successful business off the back of it."
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