Three Young Kings: Who are Australia’s top entrepreneurs under 40?

Summary 

• Shopping from home has become a necessity in these COVID-19 restricted times, and Ruslan Kogan – of Kogan.com - has wasted no time capitalising on this trend.
• Jack Bloomfield is publicly touted as Australia’s youngest millionaire, having made his first million before finishing high school.
• Afterpay – a BNPL company - has exploded, with its customer BASE jumping to more than 11 million people worldwide at the end of September 2020.

The twenty-first century is perhaps the most exciting time in history to be alive. Things are moving at a frantic pace, and those that provide services are finding out that there are appetites that the public, themselves, didn’t even know they had.

The internet – only still in its infancy – is growing wider every minute with incredible innovations. The media business is discovering that audiences are moving away from mainstream entertainment towards somewhat of a niche marketplace. Our desire for energy is moving away from traditional fossil fuels to something more beneficial for our planet. There are a plethora of ways a young entrepreneur, anywhere in the world, can innovate and deliver a useful service or product the world has never seen before.

While opportunities are plentiful in an ever-expanding marketplace, being a young entrepreneur in 2021 is certainly not without its challenges, as the last 12 months has demonstrated. Lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have extended into 2021 as Australia struggles to roll out its vaccination program nationwide. These lockdowns have put unwanted pressure on businesses hoping to meet sales targets. For many of the entrepreneurs mentioned here, they’ve had to implement a complete overhaul of their business model to capitalise on new opportunities presented by a changing market.

But this is the crux of entrepreneurship. Adaptability. Perseverance. And Creativity. If there’s ever been a better time to demonstrate these three noble skills, it’s indeed now.

Better still, if one can take these three key aspects and not only survive but come out better than before, that’s true entrepreneurship.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines an entrepreneur as ‘one who organises, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise’.

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The following are those Australians under 40 who’ve done just that.

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Ruslan Kogan - Kogan.com

If ever there was a time to be in the e-commerce business, it’s 2020/21.

Shopping from home has become a necessity in these COVID-19 restricted times, and Ruslan Kogan – of Kogan.com (ASX:KGN) - has wasted no time in capitalising on this trend.

The business model is nothing new, of course, as Jeff Bezos has pioneered that particular platform for years with his giant Amazon company.

The 38-year-old Ruslan has mimicked Amazon’s model, and it’s paid off many times over, with gross sales increasing 71.2 per cent in the second half of 2020.

Kogan’s extensive catalogue has expanded into branding home goods and tech, with fridges, TVs, and computers sold in the Kogan marketplace.

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Jack Bloomfield – BloomVentures

With many professions, one is required to complete years of tertiary study before entering the workforce. However, one of the best things about being an entrepreneur is there’s no age limit.

This has been proven part and parcel by Brisbane-born Jack Bloomfield, who created his first app at age 12 – an online gift card company.

Now aged 19, Bloomfield is publicly touted as Australia’s youngest millionaire, having made his first million before finishing high school.

Bloomfield has made his millions via e-commerce stores through his company, BloomVentures and now sells e-commerce courses through his website.

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Nick Molnar – Afterpay

Buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) companies have really taken off in the last eighteen months as the Covid pandemic has ignited an e-commerce boom.

One of the big players in the e-commerce market is Afterpay  (ASX:APT), co-founded by Nick Molnar along with Anthony Eisen.

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At just 30-years-old, Molnar heads the largest BNPL company in Australia, and he recently stepped back into the role of Managing Director, having moved back to focus on the US market in 2019.

Since then, the company has exploded, with its customer BASE jumping to more than 11 million people worldwide at the end of September 2020.

Furthermore, Afterpay’s sales cracked AU$11.1 billion in 2020, more than doubling its previous year. It is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), priced at AU$127.850 as of 3 August 2021.