Face the Waste emerge as champions at ‘Shark Tank’ entrepreneurship gala
01 September 2022
Sacred Heart College students Josie Hunt, Angel Babu, Emily Logan and Charlotte Selth emerged as champions at the recent ‘Just Start It’gala, bringing them one step closer to their dreams of producing an app that will make communities more sustainable.
A collaboration between Catholic Education Western Australia, Curtin University and West Tech fest, the ‘Shark Tank’ style event took place on 2 August at the Catholic Education Western Australia’s (CEWA) Leederville office.
Attendees witnessed the top ten finalists pitch their business models to a panel of judges in the hopes of taking away the trophy, $5,000, and an opportunity to attend tech events throughout the year.
Safe Streets from Rossmoyne SHS and Tabletop Dev from Comet Bay College were the runner ups. All three teams won invitations to three West Tech Events and the opportunity to pitch in front of the West Tech Fest Delegates – a startup fest run by Curtin University in partnership with 32 Degrees South in Australia.
“The initial purpose of the program was to fix the problem of School of Information Systems at Curtin University getting more calls for graduates than they could supply. After our first run in 11 schools, we soon found out that we ticked all the boxes of the new school buzz word STEAM.”
Lainey Weiser, founder of Just Start It.
Just Start It founder Lainey Weiser congratulated all participants and explained the purpose behind the program.
“The initial purpose of the program was to fix the problem of School of Information Systems at Curtin University getting more calls for graduates than they could supply. After our first run in 11 schools, we soon found out that we ticked all the boxes of the new school buzz word STEAM,” Mrs Weiser said.
“By the end of 2014 Just Start It was set up as a business with Curtin University’s support and was running in 24 classrooms. Today the program runs in 25 to 40 classrooms a year. We are partnered by Catholic Education Western Australia.
“The program starts off with over 1,000 teams each year. And by the end of the 20 weeks ten teams pitch their ideas at the gala event,” she said.
The finalists included iViddle (Servite College), Tabletop Design and The Light House (Comet Bay College), Safe Streets (Rossmoyne SHS), Eco mates and Report X (Como Secondary College), Med ID Translators (Iona Catholic College), Edren Sports (Newman College), Quit E (Seton Catholic College) and winners Face the Waste (Sacred Heart College).
Winner’s profile
Face the Waste is an online platform that offers teens the opportunity to collect containers from households and businesses in an area designated to them and to take them to container for change depots for reimbursement. The platform is an Uber meets Paper Route type system. Face the Waste currently has the support of various City Councils, WARRRL, and will be supported by the Just Start It Team to roll out their product to market.
