Role: Founder and Managing Director
Rhys Cooper has more than 5 years experience working on programs to integrate adults with disabilities into the community. He has had great success in delivering meaningful and active life options for his clients however when Rhys tried to organise mobile phones for some of his clients he found that there we're no suitable products on the market. Out of frustration Rhys decided to put pen to paper and design a mobile phone from the ground up, focussing on simple, user friendly functionality.
Early in 2008, Rhys reached boiling point and decided that he had to do something about this issue when he arrived at a client's home to find that no-one was there. After many phone calls and with the assistance of Translink Transit Authority and the local Police this missing person was finally tracked down. Rhys' client had been travelling home from a TAFE course and had got off at the wrong bus stop. He was stranded only 2kms from his house for 7 hours not knowing how to get home and not being able to contact anyone for help. If Rhys' client had access to a mobile phone he could have been found in minutes.
Rhys was presented with an opportunity to further develop his idea for a simple, user friendly mobile phone through the mobile enterprise growth alliance (mega). mega is an intensive 12 week development program with the goal to grow the capacity and capabilities of the Australian mobile industry by encouraging and fostering ideas for mobile content and applications. Rhys' participation in mega lead to him build a company around his product and culminated in being awarded the 2008 Sydney pitch panel prize for his invention and business proposal.
As the founder of Orange Dot Pty Ltd, Rhys is looking forward to having the opportunity to make significant changes in the way people access mobile communications technology.
Rhys is 25 and lives in Brisbane.
