A Dandenong manufacturer is leading entrepreneurs across the state.
Georgia Beattie, Lupe Wines and Single Serve Packaging founder, was announced as the new Startup Victoria chief executive on Tuesday 26 July.
It’s one of the country’s largest entrepreneurship groups and is entering a new growth phase.
Ms Beattie first came across Startup Victoria through a networking event in 2014 and became a regular attendee.
She was a nominee for the Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce Premier Regional Business Awards in 2013.
Ms Beattie studied entrepreneurship at RMIT University and Babson College in Boston – ranked number one in entrepreneurship internationally – and while at university was made an honorary member of the Golden Key International Honour Society 2008 for receiving marks in the top 2 per cent.
The bar manager at a Melbourne music festival told her wine was too hard to serve at outdoor events and “beer or lolly water” were her only options, so Ms Beattie came up with a single serve of white wine in a PET plastic cup.
Her family has a history in wine, and she’d just returned from studying entrepreneurship in Boston, USA, so she sought a solution.
Ms Beattie considered cans, but wine in cans requires a much different chemical compound.
After also considering pouches, she ran with a single-serve, recyclable PET glass with a robust but easy to remove seal.
She expanded the start-up into six countries in five years, and it was acquired earlier this year.
