Two Bega Valley entrepreneurs have been named top 10 finalists in a nation-wide regional business award.
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Founders of an innovative crowdfunding solution to supplying consumers with organic meat, Crowd Carnivore’s Zachary Sequoia and Dan Tarasenko have turned heads at Google and the Regional Australia Institute (RAI), with the announcement on Thursday the duo will be heading to Google’s Sydney headquarters for what has been described as a “money-can’t-buy masterclass”.
The Regional Online Heroes awards announced three finalists from NSW, four from Queensland, and one each from Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, selected from thousands of entries.
“We’d love to hear their thoughts on how to manage fast growth,” Mr Tarasenko said over the phone on Thursday while on his way to meet with potential investors in Canberra.
“It’s good to get as many perspectives as possible, and growth is our focus right now.”
With his background in eCommerce Mr Tarasenko launched Crowd Carnivore with Mr Sequoia, who has extensive design experience, earlier this year.
“I’m sure at the masterclass people will share their growing pains and there will also be the potential for collaboration as well,” Mr Tarasenko said.
“There will be a few people there like Jane Cay from [Cooma online fashion business] Birdsnest on the judging panel, so there will be people there who have grown their businesses successfully from regional areas.”
Ms Cay said the 2016 entries had “lifted the bar”, adding she found it “heart-breaking to separate out the top 10 from the many outstanding organisations thriving in unexpected pockets across the regions”.
Mr Sequoia said he was excited the awards are “shining a light on innovation in the Bega Valley”, and the duo have plans to expand the agricultural technology sector, or AgTech as it it is known, in the region.
“We would really like to see the Bega Valley become an AgTech hub for ideas,” the Tathra resident said.
“Asia, and China in particular, are really investing in AgTech, but in Australia it is still very fractional.
“We have Canberra so close with two large universities and the CSIRO.”
The overall winner will be announced on December 6.
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