On the 18th of August 2025, 9 individuals aged 16-19 met at The SET to kick off the Future Founders Youth Entrepreneurship program. The program aimed to cultivate entrepreneurial skills and foster innovative thinking among young participants.
The introduction session was led by Natasha Teakle, who encouraged the group to introduce themselves and their ideas, refine their ‘why’ statements, and identify their ideal customer. Once the nerves were tamed (with the help of Zoe – pictured below), the room began to buzz with energy as participants shared their passions, discovered common ground, and started shaping the first building blocks of their entrepreneurial journeys.
"I loved being able to openly discuss ideas in a group with no judgement only positive input and being able to communicate collectively and collaborate with peers about ideas."
Key activities/workshops included:
Design Thinking: Led by Mohinder Jaimangal, founder of Jupiter AI and a robotics engineer with 20+ years in tech. Mo explored how design thinking can transform your product into something customers love, as well as sharing insights on developing user-friendly health technologies.
"My favourite point was Mo sharing some of his life experiences and gave a really good step by step process of his thinking in creating his projects such as HeadCheck."
Money School: Led by Lacey Filipich, business entrepreneur and author/founder of Money School. Lacey joined online and shared her knowledge of financial literacy, smart money habits, and practical strategies to help young people make confident financial decisions.
"Lacey provided good insight into the financial side of business while also sharing personal finance insight as well."
Get Investment Ready: Presented by South West Angels (SWA) members Amy Carter-James and Natasha Teakle, the Future Founders cohort joined the SWA online webinar to learn about all things investing.
Communication Skills & Presenting with Confidence: This session was run by Myles Pollard, actor, writer, director, producer and teacher. Myles guided the cohort through communication strategies, practical presentation tips, and interactive activities designed to help manage nerves with confidence.
"Myles was excellent in making the uncomfortable comfortable."
AI Automation: The final entrepreneurial guided session was with Brooke Wright, strategist, speaker, and creative technologist who focusses on helping women and neurodivergent founders to use AI to build businesses that work with their brains (not against them).
Emergence Creative Collision PitchFest:
Future Founders Shine at PitchFest
Day one of the Emergence Creative Collision closed with an inspiring showcase of youth innovation. During the PitchFest session, six Future Founders aged 16–18 took to the stage to pitch their business ideas to an audience of creatives, entrepreneurs, and investors.
Each young founder presented their business idea, developed through the Future Founders Youth Entrepreneurial Program, sharing not only their concepts but also their journeys of learning how to think like business owners. The Future Founders presented their business ideas, including novel skincare, fitness apps, and new tourism experiences.
The speed-pitch format gave the audience a glimpse into a diverse range of early-stage ideas, all backed by the energy and creativity of the next generation of entrepreneurs. Their confidence and clarity on stage reflected the depth of what they had learned during the program, turning abstract ideas into actionable business models.
The Future Founders PitchFest highlighted the value of investing in youth capability building. It showed that with the right support and mentorship, regional young people are ready to embrace innovation, think entrepreneurially, and contribute to the future of Western Australia’s startup and creative ecosystem.
The final debrief session wrapped up the 5-week program and encouraged the Future Founders to reflect on their learnings and focus on applying this understanding to their future business development. The also finished with a little bit of fun and strategy by competing in the Marshmallow Challenge.
A huge thank you to the incredible mentors of The Future Founders program. Your guidance, generosity, and wisdom have inspired the next generation of innovators. Simona Hughes, Mat Lewis, Amy Carter James, David Barton, Steph Kirchhofer, Natasha Teakle, Emma Willis, Abby Murray, and Mohinder Jaimangal.
This program has been made possible through the support of our sponsors Meshpoints, Curtin University, South West Development Commission, South West Angels, Creative Tech Village and Creative Corner.
Meshpoints is an initiative supported by Lotterywest and Spacecubed, which exists to build a stronger culture of entrepreneurship and innovation in WA.
