Airwallex CEO & Co-Founder, Jack Zhang: The Angel That Turned $1M into $1BN

I don't know what is financial discipline. So, I don't have a budget. I'm just like, hire as fast as possible, just blow it all up. (explosion) And then I realize at one point that we running out of money. Every month I'm raising money, basically. So, we went from 0 to a billion dollar transaction volume within, like, nine months. And so we basically never grow below 100% from 2015 to 2023. We went to, like, 500 million dollar AR in August last year, then hit like 600 in November, 700 in January and Feb.

Ready to go? Jack, dude, I'm so excited for this. Listen, we walked around the park and I heard your story, and respectfully I was like, this is such an incredible story that I don't think many people know quite how awesome it is. So, first, thank you so much for joining me.

Thanks, Harry. It's a, it's a great pleasure to, uh, join this show.

Dude, I want to start with going... And normally I don't love the whole like, "Oh, take me back to your childhood," 'cause it's normally like, you know, going back to the early days of Stanford. But you started in Australia, and I want to start actually very young, 'cause you started... Was it working in a petrol station? Can you just take me back to the first job and, and that early time?

I came to Australia when I was, uh, I guess 15-ish. Um, and, and this, you know, I went basically started high school and, um, my family basically lost, um, most of their money and I lost financial support when I was 16. And I had to basically figure it out how to survive, uh, in a foreign country by myself. Uh, and that's why I started, uh, work in a restaurant, uh, work in lemon factory. Um, and-

You worked in a lemon factory?

Yeah. That's during summer. You know, I, uh, go, uh, basically go take, uh, few hours of train and buses to get on the mountain every day and, uh, to literally carrying lemon, uh, boxes. Um, you know, thousands of lemon boxes a day, uh, under the s- you know, 40 degrees and, uh, for two hours a day without even eating lunch.

How much did they pay you at the lemon factory?

Uh, they actually pay okay. They pay like 14 bucks, uh, Aussie, an hour. Um, and, uh, because you kind of can work over the 20 hours limit during the holiday, and it's actually a pretty decent income. But it's just a really, really tough job.

Were you nervous/scared? You're 16, 17 at this point, on your own, in a foreign country without financial security. It's a pretty intimidating place to be.

Well, I guess, uh, just situation that you don't have a, have a choice. Um, you, you know, I left China where I was born and, you know, come to Australia. By that time, I already in Australia for over a year. I couldn't go back to China to do the, uh, exam to the universities, uh, 'cause I would- wouldn't be that competitive anymore. I don't even know how to return to the education system by that time. And literally, you have to figure it out how to, you know, survive and how to pay for the tuitions, um, you know, i- which is very expensive for international students. Uh, I remember it was 24,000 a year. Uh, and then you have to, you know, figure out the, the living expenses, you know, help to, to fund my study. And, um, you know, I have to do my part, just really work as many jobs as possible to figure out how to live on my own.