Steve Baxter (entrepreneur)

Last updated

Steve Baxter
Born1971 (age 52–53)
Cloncurry, Queensland
NationalityAustralian
Occupation(s)Investor, entrepreneur
SpouseEmily Baxter
Children3

Steve Baxter is an Australian investor and entrepreneur. He was one of the 'sharks' on the Australian television series Shark Tank .

Contents

Early life

Steve Baxter was born in the remote town of Cloncurry, Australia, and raised in Emerald in Queensland's Central Highlands Region. [1] He moved to Rockhampton and attended North Rockhampton State High School. [2] He left school at 15 and joined the army, [3] enlisting in its apprenticeship program. There, he became an engineer working in the field of electronics, telecoms and guided weapon systems.

Career

Baxter's career in the Australian Army spanned nine years from 1986 to 1995. [4] In 1994, at the age of 23, Baxter put his life savings of $11,000 on the line to launch his first start-up, an internet service provider, SE Net from the spare room of his Adelaide home. Servicing more than 35,000 customers, SE Net was eventually acquired by OzEmail/UUNet under the stewardship of its founding Director and future Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.

In 2001, Baxter teamed with schoolmate and Australian technology entrepreneur Bevan Slattery to launch his second start-up, PIPE Networks. On 30 June 2008, Baxter resigned as Chief Technology Officer of PIPE Networks and moved to California to work with Google as a Technical Program Manager [5] leading a project to deliver high-speed telecommunications systems across North America. Baxter remained a non-executive director of PIPE Networks until it was later sold to TPG in April 2010. [6]

In March 2012, Baxter launched River City Labs in Brisbane, a leading co-working community to encourage entrepreneurs in Queensland. [7] In 2013, he co-founded Right Pedal Studios, a mobile gaming accelerator, and StartupAUS an advocacy group for Australian tech startups. [8]

In October 2014, Baxter became a major early-stage investor in Australian start-ups, helping to launch a host of companies which together boast a valuation of more than $100 million. [9]

In 2014 and 2015, Baxter funded the Startup Catalyst program, [10] in which 20 young Queenslanders with the potential to be the next globally successful tech entrepreneurs, are sent to San Francisco to be immersed in the startup and entrepreneurial culture. Says Baxter of the program, "I love the term 'startup ebola.' It speaks to the contagious nature of what we are trying to do. We want the 20 young people we took this year to infect another 20 each on their return." [11]

In November 2014, Baxter was announced as one of the "sharks" on Network Ten's Shark Tank . [12] The series premiered in February 2015. [13]

In October 2017, Baxter became Queensland's chief entrepreneur, replacing Mark Sowerby. [14]

In October 2023, Baxter supported the No campaign in Australia's Voice to Parliament referendum which sought to recognize First Australians in the constitution. [15] Baxter donated $20,000 to Advance through his company Pesca Aviation [16]

Personal life

Baxter has three daughters with his wife Emily. [17]

In 2023, Baxter opposed the Albanese government's proposal for Indigenous Voice to Parliament. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockhampton</span> City in Queensland, Australia

Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, the population of Rockhampton was 79,293. A common nickname for Rockhampton is 'Rocky', and the demonym of Rockhampton is Rockhamptonite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy Slater</span> Australia international rugby league footballer

William Slater is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. Slater is the current coach of the Queensland Maroons, whom he coached to victories in the 2022 and 2023 State of Origin series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Heighington</span> England international rugby league footballer

Christopher Heighington is a former professional rugby league footballer. An English international, Country New South Wales and NRL All Stars representative, his positions were lock, second-row and prop. He played for the Wests Tigers and Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, winning a premiership with each, before finishing his career with the Newcastle Knights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnathan Thurston</span> Australian rugby league footballer

Johnathan Dean Thurston is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the National Rugby League (NRL). Thurston was an Australian international, Queensland State of Origin and Indigenous All Stars representative, playing at halfback or five-eighth, and was a noted goal-kicker. Thurston has been an assistant coach of the Queensland rugby league team since 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Browne Park</span>

Browne Park is a rectangular football stadium located in the Rockhampton suburb of Wandal, Queensland, Australia. The venue has been the home of rugby football in Central Queensland since 1890 and today also hosts rugby union and soccer matches. It hosted a match of the 2008 Rugby League World Cup. The ground was named Browne Park in 1958 as a posthumous honour to long serving president of Rockhampton Rugby League, Jack Browne who died in office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Todd Carney</span> Australian rugby league footballer

Todd Carney, also known by the nickname of "Toddy", is an Australian former professional rugby league player who played in the 2000s and 2010s.

North Rockhampton State High School is a co-educational State High School at Beserker Street, Frenchville, Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia. It currently has over 1000 students enrolled and over 80 teaching staff. North Rockhampton High School is currently an academy of excellence in hockey.

<i>Shark Tank</i> American reality television series

Shark Tank is an American business reality television series that premiered on August 9, 2009, on ABC. The show is the American franchise of the international format Dragons' Den, a British TV series. It shows entrepreneurs making business presentations to a panel of five venture capitalists called "sharks" on the program, who decide whether to invest in their companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Stefanovic</span> Australian television presenter and journalist (born 1974)

Karl Stefanovic, also spelt Karl Stefanović, is an Australian television presenter and journalist for the Nine Network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edrick Lee</span> Australian rugby league footballer

Edrick Lee is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays in the National Rugby League (NRL) as a winger for the Dolphins.

Uber Carshare is an Australian company that facilitates peer-to-peer car rental, a system by which individuals may rent privately owned vehicles on an hourly or daily basis to other registered users of the service. Established in 2012 as Car Next Door, it currently operates in all Australian capital cities as well as the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Newcastle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naomi Simson</span> Australian businesswoman

Naomi Simson is an Australian businessperson, entrepreneur, podcaster and blogger. After launching the Australian online success story RedBalloon in 2001, Naomi went on to co-found Big Red Group with partner David Anderson in 2017. Headquartered in Sydney's CBD, Big Red Group is the largest marketplace of experiences in ANZ, and home to leading brands including Adrenaline, Experience Oz, Experience Oz Local Agent, Lime&Tonic, and RedBalloon. 

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Harris (journalist)</span> Australian presenter and journalist (born 1981)

Sarah Harris is an Australian television presenter and journalist. She is currently a co-host on Network 10's The Project and previously co-hosted the morning talk show Studio 10.

OrionVM Wholesale Pty Limited is an Australian infrastructure as a service provider and white-label cloud platform. Resellers present customers with a rebranded interface for deploying virtual machine instances, which are only billed for what their customers use. Cloud Harmony benchmarked the OrionVM Cloud Platform's InfiniBand-backed network storage as the world's fastest in 2011.

<i>Shark Tank</i> (Australian TV series) Australian reality competition television series

Shark Tank is an Australian reality competition television series that premiered on 8 February 2015 and aired until 7 August 2018 on Network Ten, in which aspiring entrepreneur-contestants made business presentations to a panel of "Shark" investors. Shark Tank was filmed at Disney Studios Australia.

Bevan Andrew Slattery is an Australian technology entrepreneur who has built a number of businesses that handles data and telecommunications.

The first season of Shark Tank aired on Network Ten on 8 February 2015 and concluded 7 June 2015. The series was confirmed on 1 September 2014.

The second season of Shark Tank aired on Network Ten on 8 May 2016 and concluded 7 July 2016. The series was confirmed on 9 June 2015.

The fourth season of Shark Tank aired on Network Ten from 15 May 2018. The series was confirmed following the opening of auditions in August 2017.

References

  1. ↑ Conway-Dodd, Zhanae (19 October 2017). "Shark Tank star set to head back to his CQ roots". The Morning Bulletin . Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  2. ↑ Gately, Michelle (8 March 2017). "Rocky's top business export shares secrets to success". The Morning Bulletin. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  3. ↑ Waters, Cara (14 September 2017). "It's not about the idea for Steve Baxter as he looks to award one business $50,000". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  4. ↑ "Swimming with sharks: Steve Baxter". CEO Magazine. 13 April 2017. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
  5. ↑ "PIPE Networks 2009 Annual Report" (PDF). PIPE Networks. 30 September 2009.
  6. ↑ "PIPE Networks ASX Release RE:Acquisition Timeline" (PDF). 17 March 2010.
  7. ↑ Jabour, Bridie (14 July 2012). "A testing ground for entrepreneurs". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  8. ↑ "Right Pedal Studios – home to current and future game developers". Right Pedal Studios. 20 August 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  9. ↑ "Novices bitten by start-up bug" . Retrieved 9 August 2017.
  10. ↑ "Steve Baxter". Steve Baxter. 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  11. ↑ D'Arcy, Francesca (29 October 2015). "'I want to spread startup ebola': Steve Baxter and 20 coding kids from Queensland share what they learnt in Silicon Valley". BRW. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  12. ↑ "Shark Tank 'Sharks' and Host Announced". Tenplay. 13 November 2014. Archived from the original on 15 April 2015. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  13. ↑ Cooper, Amy (5 February 2015). "Shark Tank judge and start-up millionaire Steve Baxter says get the skills and give it a go, Australia". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  14. ↑ "Palaszczuk Government announces Queensland's new Chief Entrepreneur". Queensland Government. 31 August 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  15. ↑ "Gina Rinehart lights up the secretive No campaign party". 14 October 2023.
  16. ↑ "The heavy hitters behind Australia's biggest conservative lobby group". Australian Financial Review. 1 February 2024. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
  17. ↑ "Shark Tank's Steve Baxter gets two for the price of one this Father's Day with baby twin girls". Herald Sun . 2 September 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  18. ↑ https://www.news.com.au/national/shark-tank-star-lists-eight-reasons-he-opposes-voice-to-parliament/news-story/6b75c1cc9d47418507e7e09a9860450a [ bare URL ]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.