Sydney School of Entrepreneurship’s The Navigator ignited an entrepreneurial flame in Erfan Karami. He’s now in the process of establishing Avestic, an online platform for artists of all disciplines to look for jobs and create and collaborate internationally.
Erfan heard about SSE from his friend Rosie Dawson, a University of Technology Sydney student who was a member of the first cohort of student entrepreneurs in 2017.
“I really loved the first day of the face-to-face part of the Navigator,” he says. “It was amazing for all the students to explore our strengths and weaknesses. I particularly enjoyed the MESH (scavenger hunt), meeting all these founders of local startups and talking to them about entrepreneurship.”
One of the main lessons Erfan learned was that entrepreneurship is a lifestyle to be lived, rather than an abstract theory to studied.
“I had the idea for Avestic about six years ago but it was more of a dream,” says the University of Wollongong student. “SSE has helped me turn that dream into a plan, and step by step into reality.”
Just weeks after graduating from the SSE unit, he felt equipped with the toolkit he needed to write a business plan for Avestic.
With a deep-rooted passion for creative arts and having started the Wollongong University Drama Society, his idea for Avestic travelled with him from Tehran, where he was born, to NSW.
“The more artists I met, the more I saw the need for an online platform to showcase individual artists talents, ideas and experience and provide them a way to connect and collaborate with each other to create art and attract investment.”
Erfan and his team are building the site and hopes to launch in coming months. He hopes to secure revenue from partners and sponsors and will scale it globally as soon as possible.
I didn’t have a clear idea of what entrepreneurship was about before I came to SSE. I never imagined I would be launching my own startup
Erfan Karami, BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG
