about yes auSTRALIA
YES Australia is a social venture supporting an innovative global competition developed to grow knowledge and skills, raising awareness among tertiary students and early career research & professional staff how ideas can be commercialised.
The global Yes Competition community, is the perfect way for people to develop their entrepreneurial spirit and bring innovative ideas to life.
happy birthday yes uk!!!
Our parent YES UK is celebrating their 30th birthday this year!
An amazing achievement with over 6,500 participants completing the competition.
What you need to know
What you need to know
Why take part?
By taking part, you will have the opportunity to hear from leading industry experts about the ways they go about making a business work. This competition has been devised for you to further understand the processes involved in bringing a service/product to market.
Teams, working in four or five, are given the task of developing a hypothetical business, and as part of the exercise, you are asked to pitch to demonstrate that the business could be investable and ultimately successful.
How do you come up with an idea?
You might consider whether the work of one of the members of your team has the potential to be developed as a new product or service. Alternatively, look in journals such as New Scientist or Nature for ideas with similar potential.
It is very important that if your idea is based on a piece of real research in your laboratory that is not yet in the public domain, you seek advice from your Supervisor/Head of Department.
As you will learn, disclosure of confidential information can prevent patenting the idea that has been disclosed. We would therefore suggest that your business idea be based on real science that is in the public domain, while ensuring that the product development is fictitious, so that problems regarding confidentiality can be avoided.
What are the benefits of taking part?
Create new knowledge
Understand how funding is sourced and managed
Gain project management skills in the context of business planning
Cultivate business acumen
Think creatively to produce innovative solutions to major challenges
Collaborate with peers and industry experts, developing your networking skills
Become a team player as well as fostering mentoring/supervisory skills
Discover how to communicate research with impact to diverse audiences
Overcome barriers by identifying problems and implementing the best possible option
Learn about ethical, legal and health and safety aspects
Other important Points?
The competition is not open to those who have an undergraduate or postgraduate business degree.
Individuals cannot take part if they have already participated in a previous YES Competition.
There is no limit to the number of teams that can enter from one university. Teams are allocated places on a first come first served basis.
There is no age limit.
WHat will we be tasked with?
The task you will be set in the YES competition is to produce a business pitch for a hypothetical company.
Establishing and operating a successful business needs careful thought and planning. A business must have objectives and plans to show how these will be achieved. The formulation of these various ideas is a business plan. In real life, as a company develops, the plan evolves to reflect this and it is always there for the directors of the business to use as their yardstick to measure the growth and progression of the company.
Business plans are also required when a company seeks funding to start up or to further its development. In this respect the plan is a “selling” document.
Your team’s pitch will describe your hypothetical business and will be presented to a panel of specialists, who represent hypothetical investors. The aim of your presentation is to convince the panel to invest in your team and company.
A bit about the process
YES Australia will be delivered in three parts starting this September and will conclude with a showcase event in January 2026.
Starting in September, online training sessions will give participants the know-how on all aspects of starting a new business.
Mentors will be online to answer questions, give advice and provide a focus for ideas throughout October and November with oral business plan pitches being delivered in November.
launching careers
Back in 2002, one of YES Australia’s Founders, Dr Denise Hodge took part in the YES UK Competition as “Team Inditex” which served as a vital step in creating connections with industry, learning leadership skills and launching her career….
(Video courtesy of BBC Look North UK)