2015 ACT Telstra Business Awards

Local tech start-up Red Robot have won the 2015 ACT Telstra Business Awards outright by revolutionizing the photo booth for the digital age, and securing a global market for their innovative products.

Red Robot started from humble beginnings when friends Duncan Amos and Phil Preston began building photo booths from their Canberra garage in 2007.

“This award confirms that if you dream big and stick to your vision, achievements will follow. We can’t believe that an idea we hatched in a garage has become the global success story it is today” Red Robots’ Phil Preston said upon accepting the award.

Over the past eight years Red Robot has helped over 300 people start their own business using their booths which are engineered to be easy to transport and setup – meaning more profit for their customers.

Red Robot has become the largest photo booth manufacturer in the Southern Hemisphere with customers in the US, UK, Europe and nationwide, providing a range of booths that are social media and green screen enabled, as well as providing the traditional printed photo-strip experience.

Duncan Amos, Red Robot’s Founding Director, said on accepting the award “I consider myself pretty unemployable due to my entrepreneurial nature, so I created something that I knew I would really enjoy turning up to everyday. With a team of people who share my passion, we love nothing more than innovating and creating better experiences for our customers each and every day”,” Duncan said.

The Red Robot team currently produce ‘off the shelf’ portable, modular or pop-up photo booths, as well as fully customized and branded options. They have built customized booths for brands including Lipton and Lotto West, and even a Dr Who inspired Tardis photo booth for the BBC.

Red Robot has collected several major design awards for their photo booths including both the 2014 Sydney and Melbourne Design Awards, the 2014 Canberra Business Point Awards for both High Growth and Overall Business of the Year, and the Australian Startup Awards Product Business of the Year 2014.

Red Robot credits their success to a fabulous team of dedicated staff, support from the ACT Government Innovation Connect Grant (ICon) and wisdom from ACT Business Angel Peter Walsh.