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Esmond Ye was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug during a high shool hackathon run by Generation Entrepreneur, a not-for-profit that encourages entrepreneurship and innovation in Australian schools.
By the time he got to university, where he’s studying a Bachelor of Commerce and Law, he was already developing a network of contacts in the innovation and entrepreneurship space.
He joined Enactus, a community of student, academic and business leaders who promote innovation as a means to achieve positive social change, and Generation Entrepreneur appointed him their Partnerships Director.
When SSE launched, Esmond was encouraged to apply for The Navigator unit by a senior lecturer at UNSW involved in innovation and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
“SSE was the starting point for a lot of foundational thinking about entrepreneurship and innovation,” says Esmond.
Esmond believes SSE is the perfect meeting ground for young entrepreneurs and leading thinkers in the Sydney startup world.
The experience introduced him to Fishburners, a not-for-profit that supports scalable Australian tech startups. After meeting the team, Esmond later negotiated a co-working space there for Generation Entrepreneur.
He also flexed his “hustle muscle” at SSE itself. As a result, Generation Entrepreneur delivered and hosted a three-month incubation program at SSE’s new campus, in partnership with the NSW Department of Education.
“The interaction with my peers, as well as the emphasis on defining the market, understanding the customer and mapping out the start-up ecosystem, inspired the way I’ve approached three separate projects,” he says.
Recently, he’s started collaborating with an SSE graduate at another university, helping startup founders find other co-founders to work with.
Although he’s embraced the world of entrepreneurship, Esmond doesn’t see himself launching his own business just yet.
“My career dream is to join one of the Big Three consulting firms but my true purpose is to inspire and help people reach their full potential,” he says.
