QUT’s best and brightest visit one of Australia’s top start-up companies

Lucky QUT students were treated to an exclusive look inside one of Australia’s top 25 start-ups for 2022, right here in Brisbane.

QUT entrepreneurship scholar Coby Lee Davis (left) visits VALD management and QUT alumni Laurie Malone (second from left), Caragh Kelly-Nixon and Sam James. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Two dozen lucky QUT students were treated to an exclusive look inside one of Australia’s top 25 start-ups for 2022 VALD Performance, as part of the university’s Inside Innovation initiative.

VALD co-founders Laurie Malone and Sam James this week welcomed the undergraduate students into their global headquarters in Brisbane’s Newstead, talking them through what is needed to be successful in business.

As a QUT alum himself, Mr Malone said giving back and guiding the next generation of entrepreneurs is an important part of the company’s ethos.

“We started at our kitchen table with no staff, and after seven years of hard work we now have 80 countries and employ over 180 people,” he said

“Now we enjoy mentoring and helping the next generation of QUT innovators become the VALDs of tomorrow.”

VALD is a musculoskeletal assessment and rehabilitation technologies company, established in Brisbane 2015 from a research and design collaboration at the Queensland University of Technology, with high-profile clients from the English Premier League, NBA, Major League Baseball, AFL and NRL.