LOOK WHO’S ENTERED OUR COOL COMPANY AWARDS
James Tuckerman, Editor-In-Chief, Anthill Magazine
If you missed out on nominating your own organisation (or another ‘cool’ company) for Anthill’s 3rd Annual Cool Company Awards, don’t slap your forehead in dismay. Click here instead. We’ve responded to your requests (your demands, your pleas) and extended the application deadline until this Thursday 7 August 2008 (two days away).
In the meantime, we’ve downloaded some overview statistics about the companies that have completed applications so far.
So, who has entered Anthill’s 3rd Annual Cool Company Awards?
Largely, they are private enterprises (no surprises there). The majority have one to 50 shareholders. Only 45% have a board of directors and 36% plan to exit through a trade sale. A surprising 28% have no exit strategy at all.
Of our ‘cool’ company founders, 54% are male, 24% are female. The rest have more than one founder. Forty is the most common age for starting a ‘cool’ company. The slim majority (53%) relied on personal savings to start their businesses.
The most popular award category is the Innovation Award, followed closely by X-Factor and Online Business (clearly, our ‘call-to-action’ had its intended effect). The most poorly represented category is the Big Kahuna Award, not because big companies aren’t ‘cool’ but I suspect the outcome simply comes from the fact that there are less of ‘em.
So, will this blog post help those companies thinking of entering? Or frustrate those that have already completed the application form? Probably neither. But there’s always something intriguing about statistics, even if they can only ever tell us part of the story. To get the full picture, you might just have to wait until October. 
Until next time, best of luck to all you ‘cool’ Anthillians!
The winners of the 3rd Annual Cool Company Awards will be announced at a Gala Awards Ceremony, to be held at the Melbourne headquarters of Primary Sponsor PricewaterhouseCoopers in September. The full outcomes will be published in the Oct/Nov edition of Anthill Magazine, available in the first week of October. Companies wishing to enter the 2008 Cool Company Awards can do so by clicking here.
Tags: , awards, Cool Company Awards
August 5th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Given your recent editions focus on business people under 30, why do the Cool Company Award nominations specify ages starting at 32, and ending at 40? Is there something I’m missing, can you only run a ‘cool company’ if you are within this age bracket?
August 5th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Mm. ‘28′ is not within that bracket. Methinks you should become better familiarised with pie charts.
August 5th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
The pie chart features the top six most common ages… 40, 38, 28 etc. So, in fact, the third most common age for starting a ‘cool’ business was indeed under 30. Lucky you’re New T Bidness.
August 5th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
James, a brilliant idea, thanks for putting together the ‘cool company awards’. We’ve entered and even if we don’t make it to the podium, just the process was a great experience and answering those ‘difficult’ questions of ourselves was valuable in building on and reinforcing our culture.
The stats are also interesting…that fact that 53% of capital was personal savings and 24% female are two stats that I found really useful.
Thanks again
Jane
August 6th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Thankyou for the “Cool Company Awards” looking at the pie chart what I find amazing is the “I don’t know answers” especially after the end of the financial year where everything is usually taken into account from a business point of view.
And the 4% of “I dont know where the money came at startup”? I find it amazing that 4% of startup business’s would not know where there finance came from to start thier venture.
Thankyou for the pie chart it’s an eye opener. Lara