2017 Pearcey Entrepreneur Award
The 2017 Pearcey National Entrepreneur Award was presented to Cyan & Collis Ta'eed at the ACS 2017 Digital Disruptor Awards gala dinner on 2 November 2017 at Sydney's Star Ballroom in Pyrmont. The Award was presented by Dr Mary O'Kane, NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer, and also the 2014 Pearcey Medallist.
Cyan and Collis were unable to attend the Awards presentation in Sydney on 2 November and Collis provided this response to the news of
receiving the award. A presentation of the Award will be held in Melbourne sometime before the end of the year to congratulate the
Ta'eed's in person.
We're thrilled and honoured to accept this award. In the decade since we started Envato, there's been so much innovation and change in the Australian tech sector. Every year the cohorts of Australians taking to entrepreneurship are growing, bringing real businesses and transformative ideas to the world. From self driving cars to consumer products to enterprise software, Australians are popping up all over the place. This kind of innovation and entrepreneurship is critical to maintaining Australia's leadership in world affairs. In the past we've had a resource boom from selling what came out of one great Australian asset. We're excited to see a new boom coming, exporting not what comes out of the ground, but what comes from the brains of entrepreneurs from Brisbane to Ballarat, Sydney to the Sunshine Coast, and everywhere in between.
Awards like the Pearcey's play a wonderful role in the tech ecosystem of encouragement. It can be tough starting a business, tough nurturing and growing it, and tough seeing it on its way. So every bit of encouragement, recognition and the odd pat on the back helps. Certainly for the both of us, we're really excited to be recipients of this award this evening, and wish we could be there to accept in person! We hope you all have a wonderful evening!
Collis Ta'eed, 2 November 2017
Cyan and Collis Ta'eed
Cyan and (husband) Collis co-founded Envato in 2006 with a friend Jun Rung. Now in 2017, Envato has become a one of the most successful Australian startups with over 300 staff and $100m in revenues. The Envato Market has more than 10,000 sellers and over 7 million members who buy music, photos, website templates, video and more.
Envato started in a garage in 2006 with borrowed money. Cyan was a designer and Collis a web designer. They saw the need for creative content, such a Flash and photography. So they started an online business (originally called FlashDen) to sell wider stock, and give better return to the creatives. Over the next 11 years they nurtured the business to its now stellar position of being in the top 100 websites in the world. Envato has over 300 staff with flexible working conditions (staff can work overseas for 3 months per year) and the staff also enjoy a profit sharing arrangement.
Cyan and Collis are an amazing team. Collis is CEO and is more of a behind-the-scenes person focussed on growing the business. Cyan (Executive director) is more vivacious and spends a lot of time building the communities of creators that provide the Envato content and handling the public facing aspects of the company. They have always had a great vision for their platform and an innate understanding of building the ecosystem for the buyers and sellers. They are also well known for their rich company culture with generous and inclusive values for all Envato employees.
Cyan is passionate about women entrepreneurs and social enterprises. She is founder of NewDayBox, a company that mobilises volunteers to give gifts on Christmas Day to women in crises. She likes to give presentations and visit schools to talk about careers in technology, especially for women. Her latest venture (to be launched in November) is "Hey Tiger" which makes chocolates using ethically sourced cocoa.
