Naomi Henn

Business Name: ZappQ

Age: 19

State: Western Australia

Naomi Henn has three passions – entrepreneurship, sport and positive youth development.

The 19-year-old is already making a mark on the entrepreneurial scene with a number of start-ups behind her, including catering order platform ZappQ, which was born out of a Startup Weekend in Perth earlier this year.

ZappQ allows people to order meals from food providers and then be notified when they are ready to be picked up.

Henn, a champion hurdler, says the idea came from going to many sporting events and football games.

“You come to support a team, you pay good money to be there and you don’t want to miss a crucial part of the game,” she says.

“It just makes sense to have an option as simple as ZappQ to enhance your experience.”

She says the team behind ZappQ have met with catering services at major sporting venues in Western Australia and are also looking to expand the application to busy city centres where large corporates can pre-order meals and staff can work at their desks until they’re ready.

“Our next step we believe is actually focusing on silver service restaurants as the entry point is easier and profit margins are higher. Then seeing how it organically grows from there,” she says.

Henn is also behind Dreamap, a not-for-profit company that mentors young people and HandShk, a start-up that allows users to exchange data in real time through a wearable device to a smartphone.

Her advice for other young entrepreneurs is to “let yourself grow”.

“The awesome thing about being an entrepreneur is that we have the ability to create something and put a piece of you in it,” she says.

Henn also says entrepreneurs should set milestones to evaluate where they’re going.

“At the same time leave yourself room for growth, fun, adventure and time to give back to others.”