We built Impact10X from the ground up in partnership with James Cook University, through the Queensland Government’s Regional Enablers Grant. Our directors, Omer Bernstein and Santiago Parra, have co-led the program since, working with JCU’s Graduate Research School to take founders from first idea to investment-ready venture.Ā
The program began as a small start-up simulator delivered by Dr Samantha Horseman, JCU’s HDR Innovation & Industry Lead. It was strong at its core but invisible to the region it was built for, with no marketing behind it. We believed it deserved a bigger stage, so we volunteered our expertise through JCU’s Founders in Residence program before any funding existed. When the grant was awarded in late 2024 to Mindesigns, we rebuilt the program from the brand up and relaunched it in January 2025 as an AI Simulator and Venture Builder for Far North Queensland.Ā
With no brand, platform, or blueprint to begin with, our challenge was far greater than building a website or running events. We set out to create a digital foundation capable of powering an entirely new ecosystem, integrating online registration, application workflows, brand identity and multi-channel marketing into one platform.Ā
We delivered the full digital foundation behind Impact10X, covering UX/UI design, branding, API development, web development, and web analytics. Every part was built in-house and designed to work together, from the brand identity people see to the systems running behind it.Ā
The mission behind Impact10X was clear. Ignite entrepreneurial energy in regional Far North Queensland by creating a launchpad for bold ideas with the ultimate goal to stimulate the local economy. From nothing, we built the tools, systems and support to empower local founders and help reshape Cairns into a vibrant centre for innovation.Ā
We set four goals with the Queensland Government and JCU.Ā
The real challenge was the market itself. In bigger cities, a start-up program can promote itself to a founder community that already exists. Far North Queensland did not have one yet. The people we most needed to reach were tradespeople, tourism operators, health professionals and JCU graduates. They already have good ideas, but they did not see themselves as entrepreneurs. So before we could market the program, we had to help our community see that innovation was for them too.Ā
Our core deliverables focused on designing and delivering a three-stage entrepreneurial pathway. The funnel became the architecture of the program itself, concentrating the deepest resources on the most promising ventures while keeping the entry point open to anyone in the region with an idea.Ā
Stage 1. Expert Sessions (Connectivity CafĆ©). A deliberately low-barrier monthly hybrid event built around topics of immediate use to regional business owners. Someone hesitant to apply to a full start-up program will still come to a free session that solves a problem in their business.Ā
Stage 2. AI Simulator. A three-day immersive experience where founders pressure–test their concept and identify practical next steps.Ā
Stage 3. Venture Builder. Tailored mentorship and expert guidance for ventures with validated concepts, preparing for growth and investment.Ā
We defined four audiences and spoke to each one differently.Ā
We put the people first. Our marketing focused on telling raw stories, highlighting the journeys of emerging entrepreneurs who are creating meaningful change in their communities.Ā
We created a guided entrepreneurial journey. A three-part funnel that moved participants from events to the simulator and into the venture builder.
We led with value. Every event was built around relevant insights for entrepreneurs and small business owners.Ā
Our Venture Builder campaigns were fronted by founders who came through the program themselves. Albert Jindra of Celsi and Claire Hadfield of KidMaps shared what changed for their businesses, in video-led case studies we ran across paid social advertising and email campaigns.Ā
We never left the results to chance. Every event and intake had monthly targets set in advance, which we tracked through monthly reports covering cost per conversion, total participants and channel-level performance. After every event, we collected participant feedback through a dedicated tool, which let us spot gaps in messaging within days and adjust the next month’s campaign. Each year, we reported outcomes to the Queensland Government for formal assessment.Ā
This feedback loop is why the results kept compounding. Each month, the data showed us what to improve, and each adjustment made the next campaign perform better than the last. Those small monthly wins added up over the past two years, and they are the reason behind the numbers below.Ā
We exceeded every target we set with the Queensland Government and JCU. The figures below came straight from the government’s own innovation platform, published in December 2025.Ā
Intakes now book out in advance, with waitlists of more than 30 ideas per round, and the program has run 33 cohorts. The simulator itself was not new. What changed was the structured funnel we built around it, and the numbers above show what happened once it was in place. Dr Horseman’s own assessment, published by the Queensland Government, was that the volume of applicants was a clear sign our marketing had reached the right audience.Ā
Today, Impact10X reaches twice as many people while paying for far less of that attention.Ā
On LinkedIn, we grew followers by 400% in twelve months. Organic impressions rose 466% to 45,360, and engagement averaged 16.9% for the year, well above the low single digits most pages see. Our strongest month came in July 2026, when a wrap-up post led by founders from our Townsville cohort hit 69% engagement and drove 1,530 clicks. Google noticed too. Search impressions grew 516%, and our average position climbed from 20 to 11.Ā
The website tells the same story. Sessions grew 136% year on year, from 4,612 to 10,903. At the same time, paid social shrank from 30% of all traffic to just 9%, because organic search more than doubled, direct traffic tripled, and email traffic jumped from 12 sessions to 459. Conversions rose 159%, from 321 to 832. In short, we reached more than twice the audience while buying less of it, and that is why our cost per conversion dropped from $16 to $3.Ā
Our email database grew from zero to nearly 1,000 unique contacts, generating more than 1,400 event registrations across 22 events. We now have our own audience that we can reach organically any time.Ā
The stories we created for Impact10X did not stop at our own channels. Because we built our campaigns around real founders and real results, journalists began picking them up, and the program started earning media coverage by itself.Ā
ABC Far North covered the program and interviewed Tony Trafford, the founder behind Just Bananas. Cairns Local News ran a feature on the same venture. CityLife magazine published a long-form story on Albert Jindra of Celsi, showing regional operators how far a Cairns venture can go. Cairns Regional Council now promotes Impact10X events through its own business newsletter, putting the program in front of established local operators every month.Ā
The biggest endorsement came last December 2025, when Advance Queensland published Impact10X as an Innovation Story on the Queensland Government’s innovation platform, laying out our funnel model, goals and results in full. It is the government’s own assessment of our work, and it now presents the program as an example of what a Regional Enabler can achieve. Impact10X is funded through to 2027, and we will continue to lead its creative strategy, coordination and delivery into the next phase.Ā
Marketing metrics only tell half of the story. The other half belongs to the founders who moved through the funnel we built. Our marketing efforts brought them into the program, our consultancy and mentoring supported their growth, and the region kept the benefit. Here are two ventures that showed what it looks like.Ā
Celsi. Albert Jindra builds temperature monitoring for food service. Between November 2025 and April 2026, active customers grew from 177 to 240 and major contracts won rose from one to four, including Guzman y Gomez Singapore, Salt House and Sooshi Mango. That passed the venture’s full-year goal of three contracts within three months, and Celsi hired its first employee in the same period. A humble Cairns venture is now supplying an ASX-listed national brand into an overseas market.Ā
Just Bananas. Tony Trafford runs mobile banana trailers. Ipswich revenue grew from $900,000 to $1.15 million annually while a new Logan operation reached $900,000 in its own right. Jobs grew from three casual positions to six across two cities, trailers in operation rose from 8 to 25, and the business is now in expansion trials with Brisbane City Council. All of it achieved without raising capital.Ā
Between them, these two ventures account for seven new jobs, a national contract into an overseas market, and more than $2 million in combined annual trading revenue. That is what a regional innovation program exists to produce. We continue to work hands-on with ventures across the program, including KidMaps and Lenaion Labs, on strategy, product, design and go-to-market.Ā
One of the clearest ways to help founders is to give them tools that make big decisions easier. As part of the Impact10X ecosystem, we designed a Business Valuation Calculator, a simple, guided tool that helps entrepreneurs understand what their business is worth and what drives that value.Ā
We led the experience from the ground up. Starting with wireframes, we mapped out a clear, step-by-step flow that takes founders through the valuation process without the jargon or complexity that usually surrounds it. We designed tailored paths for different business types, service-based and product-based, so the questions and results feel relevant to each user’s reality.Ā
From the first rough wireframes to the final development-ready designs, we tested every design with one question in mind. Could a founder with no finance background get through this without feeling lost? With each round of design, the tool became simpler and easier to follow, until the valuation process felt straightforward from start to finish. Founders finish with a number they can trust and a better sense of where their business stands.Ā
Far North Queensland now has something it never had before. A permanent, reachable community of founders and a program that keeps growing on its own momentum. For us, this is just the beginning.Ā
With funding secured through to 2027, we’re focused on taking the program further. We want to reach more people with great ideas, help them shape those ideas, and turn them into real ventures. We want to run more cohorts across the region, building on our expansion into Townsville, and see more ventures like Celsi and Just Bananas creating jobs, winning contracts, and keeping that growth in the region.Ā
This has been the goal since day one. A Far North Queensland where ideas are built, funded and grown, without founders having to leave for a capital city. Every campaign we run brings that closer, to founders deciding where to build, to talent deciding where to live, and to organisations deciding where to invest.Ā
There’s a reason why we chose to build our business in Cairns. Our marketing is now part of the reason others are choosing the same.Ā
