Aonghus Stevens was 15 when his business got off the ground.

"I'd been sitting in a history class reading about how drones had been used in a military sense and thought they were an interesting piece of technology," he said. "I went home, did a bit of research and saw that they weren't really being sold in Australia."

Working from his bedroom and using his student email address, he began to sell drones. The operation grew into a million-dollar business.

Mr Stevens wanted to expand and offer drones as a service, using the unmanned aerial vehicles to capture images and data for clients. He was doing his HSC at The King's School in 2011 when he tried to raise capital for the venture; 40 or 50 pitches were knocked back.