Melbourne has built one of the most exciting entrepreneurial scenes in the world. The founders coming out of this city are competing globally and building companies that reach well beyond Australian borders.
Here at Australian Business Magazine, we’ve spent years covering Melbourne’s most innovative business leaders. Our team has also explored the ecosystem that supports and drives their success.
In this article, we’ll cover:
- Who Melbourne’s top entrepreneurs are and what they built
- What makes Melbourne great for startups and founders
- The industries Melbourne entrepreneurs are dominating
- Programs and networking opportunities available to founders
- How to start a business in Melbourne
Ready? Let’s get into it.
Who Are the Top Entrepreneurs in Melbourne?
Melbourne’s top entrepreneurs include Janine Allis, Ruslan Kogan, Jack Zhang, and several other founders who built globally recognised companies. Some of them started their start-ups from garages and kitchen benches, while some others identified gaps that bigger companies had missed for years.
We’ll have a look at the founders who put Melbourne on the global business map.
Janine Allis (Boost Juice)
Ms Allis built one of the world’s largest juice brands without formal business training, and she did it from her kitchen bench in Melbourne. She had worked over 30 jobs before launching Boost Juice in 2000.
The banks wouldn’t even touch Janine Allis’ idea at first, but she didn’t let that stop her (most people probably would’ve taken that as a no and moved on). Boost has since grown to 900+ stores across 20+ countries. That kind of scale doesn’t happen by accident.
Allis researched her customers obsessively before opening a single store. She even stationed her father-in-law outside a potential Adelaide site with a pen and paper to count foot traffic. This kind of attention to real-world data helped her build a kitchen concept into a global brand.
And if you’ve ever grabbed a Mango Magic on your lunch break, you know what we’re talking about.
Ruslan Kogan (Kogan.com)
Most people don’t know that Ruslan Kogan started Kogan.com from his parents’ Melbourne garage in 2006. Initially, the site sold direct-from-manufacturer electronics. He was 23 years old back then and was fresh out of a consulting job at Accenture. He began operating on a simple idea: cut out the middleman and pass the savings on to Australians.
Mr Kogan built Kogan.com into Australia’s largest online retail platform. It got listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in July 2016 and finished 2017 as the best-performing stock on the ASX All Ordinaries Index with a gain of over 300%.
The principles of starting lean, staying focused, and scaling fast run through every chapter of Kogan’s journey.
Andrew Bassat, Paul Bassat, and Matt Rockman (SEEK)
Did you know that SEEK started as a basic job board in 1997? It’s now a multi-billion-dollar global employment marketplace.
The three Melbourne co-founders, Andrew Bassat, Paul Bassat, and Matt Rockman, built SEEK at a time when no one inside the company had any real experience in technology. They started their company with a clarity of purpose.
SEEK was listed on the ASX in 2005 at a market capitalisation of $587 million. Today, it operates across Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and beyond, with revenue of over A$1 billion in 2025.
This trajectory shows what happens when you identify a market shift early, commit to it fully, and execute without overcorrecting.
To sum it up, print classifieds were going online, and the SEEK founders saw the opportunity. They backed their plan and built something that’s still standing nearly three decades later.
Jack Zhang and Co-Founders (Airwallex)
Four Melbourne founders identified a broken cross-border payment system and built an $8B fintech, Airwallex, to fix this problem. Jack Zhang, Lucy Liu (not to be confused with the actress), Max Li, and Xijing Dai were frustrated by how expensive and slow international payments were for small business owners.
They came up with the idea while running a Melbourne coffee shop.
Airwallex launched in 2015 and raised $330 million in its December 2025 Series G round at that $8B valuation. It’s one of Australia’s most successful fintech startups, built in Melbourne.
While this is a fintech story, its core idea applies much more widely: people who understand a problem themselves often find the best solutions.
Solomon Lew (Premier Investments)
Through Premier Investments, Solomon Lew built one of Australia’s largest retail groups by acquiring brands with growth potential and helping them expand. Over time, the company assembled a portfolio of some of the country’s best-known retail names.
Premier Investments today oversees Just Jeans, Peter Alexander, Smiggle, and several other brands with a presence across Australia and international markets.
Lew’s career has stretched across decades of change in the retail sector. His longevity reflects an ability to adapt to shifting market conditions while staying focused on long-term growth.
Tania Austin (Decjuba)
Tania Austin built a 140+ store fashion retail brand across Australia and New Zealand without a single dollar of outside investment. She purchased Decjuba in 2008 when it had just a handful of stores, and she grew it entirely through reinvestment.
And the company used its own profits to grow, rather than relying on external funding. It required patience, discipline, and a clear sense of direction.
Ms Austin’s story shows that outside investment isn’t the only path to success. A strong product and steady growth can be just as effective.
Katy Barfield (Yume)
Large volumes of usable food go unsold every year, even though other businesses are looking for the same products. Katy Barfield launched Yume Food to bring those two groups together.
The platform helps businesses sell surplus stock before it goes to waste. It’s one of Australia’s most recognised food tech startups, and it tackles a real supply chain problem that affects producers, retailers, and consumers across the country.
Yume Food’s growth shows that sustainability and commercial success can go hand in hand. Businesses had a clear problem, and Barfield built a service that addressed it.
Poppy King (Poppy Lipstick)
Poppy King launched her lipstick brand at 18 and became one of Australia’s most talked-about young founders almost overnight. Fresh out of high school in 1992, she borrowed $40,000 and launched Poppy Industries because she simply couldn’t find a lipstick she liked.
By 1995, the company was turning over $6.5 million annually, and King had been named Young Australian of the Year. She’s one of Australia’s most recognised next-generation early-stage founders, and her story resonates because it’s so simple.
And Ms King didn’t have a business degree, a mentor, or a roadmap. Rather, she identified a gap in the market, had curiosity, and commitment. It turned out to be enough for her success (the willingness to learn can take you a long way).
What Makes Melbourne Great for Entrepreneurs?
Melbourne gives innovators access to funding, talent, industry connections, and startup support within a single ecosystem. The city’s ecosystem brings those elements together in a way that supports businesses at different stages of growth.
Here’s what actually makes Melbourne one of Australia’s strongest cities for building a business:
- Strong Government Funding: LaunchVic has deployed millions in grants, VC establishment funds, and accelerator support across Victoria. In January 2025, it released a further funding round offering grants of up to $300,000 for new VCs and angel networks.
- A Tight-Knit Startup Community: Founders, investors, and operators here tend to know each other. Your reputation travels fast, and the right introduction can open doors that cold outreach never would.
- World-Class Universities: The University of Melbourne, RMIT, and Monash produce research talent, commercialisation programs, and startup pipelines that feed directly into the city’s broader entrepreneurial ecosystem.
- Diverse Industry Base: With strong footholds in fintech, life sciences, AI, and retail, there’s real cross-sector collaboration happening here that you don’t always find in more specialised startup cities.
- Global Connectivity: Ranked sixth globally in the 2025 Oxford Economics Global Cities Index, Melbourne attracts international investors and skilled founders who bring fresh networks and ideas into the local startup scene.
These advantages create the conditions for companies in Melbourne to test ideas, find support, and grow with fewer barriers than founders might face elsewhere.
What Industries Are Melbourne Entrepreneurs Dominating?
Melbourne entrepreneurs are leading mainly in fintech, retail, e-commerce, food tech, and sustainability-driven innovation. They have established themselves with strengths and have globally recognised companies behind them.
Let’s go through a breakdown of the three industries where Melbourne’s entrepreneurial output is most visible.
Fintech and Cross-Border Payments
No Australian city has produced more globally recognised fintech companies than Melbourne in the last decade. Airwallex alone put the city on the radar of international investors. As we mentioned earlier, they raised $330 million in their December 2025 Series G round at an $8B valuation.
This kind of success attracted more capital and more founders into the space. In fact, Melbourne fintech startups have pulled in much investor funding in recent years. The city now hosts a growing cluster of companies solving real problems in payments, financial infrastructure, and cross-border transactions.
Future Outlook: As global commerce becomes more interconnected, businesses that simplify international transactions are likely to remain at the centre of innovation and investment.
Retail and E-Commerce
Melbourne’s retail entrepreneurs built businesses that compete on a global scale. You already read that Boost Juice, Kogan.com, and Decjuba all started here and grew into operations that reach well beyond Australia’s borders.
But it’s worth noting how differently each of them got there. For example, Allis built her business through franchising, whereas Kogan built his company through a direct-to-consumer online model. Meanwhile, Austin built Decjuba through pure reinvestment with no outside capital.
E-commerce growth has since created real pathways for small business owners to follow similar models. And now, new entrepreneurs don’t need the resources those early founders had to piece together from scratch.
Food Tech and Sustainability
Food waste and sustainability challenges are creating new opportunities for Melbourne founders to build scalable businesses. For one, Yume Food has been connecting surplus commercial stock with buyers across Australia’s supply chain.
What makes this sector interesting is how government support and university research institutions are actively backing it. The University of Melbourne‘s commercialisation programs, combined with LaunchVic funding, are giving food tech founders real infrastructure to build on.
To sum it up, sustainability here in Melbourne is a genuine commercial focus with money, research, and talent behind it rather than just a pitch angle for a new company.
What Mindset Do Successful Melbourne Entrepreneurs Share?
Successful Melbourne entrepreneurs share a practical mindset centred on problem-solving, persistence, and long-term thinking. Those qualities show up across industries and company sizes.
Capital and experience can help, but continued success often starts with how founders approach challenges before the business gains traction.
We’ll now get into more detail about these mindset traits.
Problem-First Thinking
The strongest Melbourne founders started with a problem they couldn’t ignore. For instance, Janine Allis couldn’t find healthy fast food, so she built Boost Juice. Katy Barfield couldn’t accept how much good food was going to waste, while Poppy King couldn’t find a lipstick she actually liked. Each of them built a business around a gap they had personally identified.
We’ve found that founders who lead with a real problem tend to attract customers who feel the same frustration, which makes early traction far easier to build. Chasing trends, on the other hand, puts you in a crowded room with no clear reason to be there.
Starting Before Feeling Ready
Most Melbourne founders launched with limited resources, incomplete plans, and no guarantee of success. Let’s take Ruslan Kogan again, for example. As you know, he started Kogan.com from his parents’ garage with no retail background. And Tania Austin bought Decjuba with no outside funding and a handful of struggling stores.
The thing is, only a few founders begin their journey with perfect timing, unlimited resources, or complete certainty. In reality, the entrepreneurs who make progress are usually the ones who start anyway and refine their ideas as they go.
Market Lesson: Customers often reveal opportunities that founders never considered during the planning stage.
Building a Strong Team Early
Do you know that collaboration is a common feature of many successful Melbourne startups? We’ve seen that with SEEK, which was founded by Andrew Bassat, Paul Bassat, and Matt Rockman. Meanwhile, Airwallex launched with four co-founders from day one.
In both cases, the businesses benefited from a mix of complementary skills and perspectives.
Founding teams also bring greater capacity in the early stages of growth. Startups can often move faster than a single founder working alone, with multiple people driving different parts of the business.
What Programs Support Founders in Melbourne?
Melbourne offers founders a strong range of programs at every stage of growth, including university-backed accelerators and government-funded support networks. You can access most of these programs easily because they aren’t just reserved for founders who already know the right people.
Below are 5 programs worth knowing about if you’re building a business in Melbourne:
- Melbourne Accelerator Program (MAP): The University of Melbourne runs the MAP. They select a small cohort of high-performing early-stage startups each year and put them through a structured program of mentorship, investor access, and founder development.
- Melbourne Entrepreneurial Centre (MEC): Incubators, accelerator programs, and innovation resources all sit under one roof at Melbourne Connect. It’s one of Australia’s most comprehensive university-based startup support hubs.
- EO Melbourne: In EO Melbourne, membership is by invitation only and reserved for established entrepreneurs. Peer forums, leadership events, and global networking help members grow personally alongside their businesses.
- RMIT Activator: This program provides entrepreneurial training to The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) students, alumni, and staff at the earliest stages of a venture. They also provide hands-on mentorship and the resources needed to validate an idea before committing fully.
- LaunchVic: The Victorian government backs this agency to fund startups, establish new VC firms, and support angel networks across the state. Its grants have directly activated millions in early-stage capital for Melbourne founders.
Strong support networks often shorten the learning curve, which can be a noticeable advantage in competitive markets.
Where Can Melbourne Entrepreneurs Network?
Melbourne entrepreneurs can network through casual founder meetups and large-scale investor summits. When you know the right people in this city, it genuinely changes what’s possible for your business. And most of these communities are far more welcoming to newcomers.
Let’s walk through the best networking options available to Melbourne entrepreneurs right now.
The Entrepreneur Club Melbourne
The Entrepreneur Club is one of Melbourne’s most inclusive communities for founders, consultants, and small business owners at any stage. But you have to keep in mind that it’s not a formal networking event with name badges and elevator pitches.
These events are designed to encourage meaningful discussions rather than surface-level networking. That’s why entrepreneurs at different stages can learn from each other’s experiences.
So if you’ve been sitting on an idea and want to be around people who actually understand that feeling, this is a good place to start.
Global Entrepreneur Summit
The Global Entrepreneur Summit is a full-day Melbourne event designed to connect founders directly with investors and business leaders. It brings together startups, established companies, and capital under one roof.
More specifically, there are curated sessions and pitch arenas built specifically for founder-investor introductions.
The Summit also creates private networking spaces where real business conversations happen. It’s one of the more exciting upcoming events on Melbourne’s entrepreneurship calendar, and it draws attendees from well outside Victoria.
Entrepreneur Exchange Events
Did you know that Entrepreneur Exchange runs bi-monthly events across Melbourne? They combine practical workshops with genuine peer networking, where each session focuses on a specific growth topic. For example, it can be about funding, marketing, or scaling operations.
The series is open to business owners across Melbourne’s south and east.
There’s also a workshop or masterclass component at every event, which means the networking happens naturally around content people actually care about. That tends to produce far better connections than a room full of people exchanging business cards.
Practical Tip: Before attending the event, identify one challenge you’re currently facing. You’ll get far more value from the event if you know exactly what questions to ask.
How Do You Start a Business in Melbourne?
When you’re starting a business in Melbourne, you need to choose the right structure, register correctly, and connect with local support early. The city has no shortage of resources for new founders, but knowing the right steps before you launch can save you from a lot of issues.
Here are some steps to get your business off the ground in Melbourne:
- Pick a Business Structure: Your choice between sole trader, partnership, company, or trust can affect your tax obligations, personal liability, and long-term growth options. So we recommend speaking to an accountant before committing, as the wrong structure can create unnecessary complications down the track.
- Register Your Business: Through the Australian Business Register (ABR), you’ll need to lodge your Australian Business Number (ABN) and register your business name before you start trading. You can complete these tasks online, and you need to finish the process before signing contracts or issuing invoices.
- Find Local Support: Programs like LaunchVic, local accelerators, and co-working hubs across Melbourne offer mentorship, funding pathways, and communities of fellow founders. Early involvement in the startup community can provide access to people with valuable experience and practical advice.
- Understand Your Tax Obligations: Once your projected annual turnover exceeds $75,000, GST registration becomes mandatory for you. Accurate financial records can help with tax reporting and provide greater transparency as the company grows.
Put simply, a well-structured business is often better positioned to handle growth, investment, and new opportunities.
Start, Build, and Grow in Melbourne
Melbourne’s startup scene is built by people who got on with it. The founders that we discussed in this article didn’t have perfect conditions. Rather, they knew what they wanted, committed to it, and got started. This approach helped them build successful businesses in Melbourne.
If you’re an early-stage founder with an idea or a small business owner ready to scale, Melbourne has the programs, the community, and the industries to support your next move. Explore more stories and resources at Australian Business Magazine to keep building.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Melbourne’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is constantly evolving, and founders often have questions that go beyond funding, networking, and startup programs. Below are answers to some common questions about entrepreneurship, growth, and building a successful business.
What is Research Entrepreneurship?
Research entrepreneurship involves turning academic discoveries and emerging technologies into commercial opportunities. It helps bridge the gap between innovation and real-world business applications.
Why is Personal Growth Important for Long-Term Business Success?
Many founders discover that personal growth directly affects leadership, decision-making, and resilience. As a business grows, the entrepreneur often needs to grow alongside it.
Why Do Successful Founders Stay Curious?
Curious entrepreneurs tend to spot opportunities earlier, adapt faster, and learn from a wider range of industries. This mindset often becomes a competitive advantage over time.
Why is Google Visibility Important for New Businesses?
Strong Google visibility can help customers find your business organically. Combined with the right tools, it can create a steady source of traffic without relying entirely on paid advertising.
Why Do Some Startup Programs Receive a High Number of Applications?
Many startup programs attract a large number of participants because they offer valuable resources. As a result, organisers may not respond to every request individually.
What Does It Mean When a Business is Community-Powered?
A community-powered business is fuelled by engaged customers who love the brand and actively recommend it to others. This type of support can be just as important as traditional marketing. A clear contact channel also helps strengthen those relationships and keeps customers excited about the business.
