Dean McEvoy

Co Founder and CEO, TechSydney

Sydney

Dean has had a varied and interesting career starting in business consulting, marketing and advertising with big business. Translating business strategy into code with Australia's best web development agency during the dot com boom of 1999 to 2001, learning about local business first hand when he owned, managed and successfully sold his own bar and restaurant.This is where he came up with an idea which he developed and patented. He commercialised and patented Booking Angel with customers, revenue and a global presence. It was during a year living in Silicon Valley that Dean came across Groupon and the group buying model. With his understanding of local business and technology background they launched Australia's first group buying site Spreets. It went live in Feb 2010, the company grew very quickly and maintained a market leadership position which attracted the interests of Yahoo7 who acquired the business for around $40 million just 11 months later.

Dean's earn-out period finished in June 2012, he has been investing in startups through startmate.com.au and his investment company Binary Investments. He co-founded another startup IconPark which was about optimising the value of retail commercial property by using crowdfunding to select optimal tenants and recently teamed up with a group of successful entrepreneurs to start TechSydney. An organisation focussed on driving the initiatives that will make Sydney a top 10 ecosystem for technology companies globally.