30 Under 30

Hannah Ferguson really, really hated studying law at university. And that had nothing to do with the course material, but rather the culture she was suddenly surrounded by. 

Davie Fogarty is perhaps Australia’s most well-known young retail mogul, thanks to the viral success of his sleepwear brand, The Oodie. Now, with $600 million in sales, a coaching business, a Shopify course and a seat on Shark Tank Australia, he’s on hisway to becoming a household name. 

24-year-old mechatronics engineer Grace Brown has been building robots since she was just 15. But her hobby became a business in 2022 when she launched Andromeda Robotics with a view to deploying the first empathetic robotic throughout nursing homes in Australia: Abi. 

A tech-whiz-turned-bot-blocker, Sam Crowther, is behind Kasada, a tech platform that helps organisations mitigate bot risks. So far, the company has raised $39 million to continue its mission and was recently recognised as one of the most significant solutions in the industry. 

Computer science whiz Dylan Coyne sparked up an idea for a telehealth platform in 2021 when he realised working a 9-5 didn’t leave you with much time to see a doctor. Three years later, Updoc, the company he co-founded with Clifton Hodgkinson, has served more than 200,000 customers to date and banked $20 million in funding.

23-year-old Annie Liao has had a few careers in her young life: a data scientist, consultant, venture capitalist, community builder and now start-up founder. Liao talks about Build Club, a community-turned-accelerator-turned-AI-education-platform, which has just closed its first capital raise. 

From an Instagram story to a petition that garnered 44,000 signatures and eventually the launch of an NGO, Chanel Contos has championed change in consent curriculum across the nation. Now, with $3.5 million in grant funding, Contos and her 10-strong team are distributing social media resources that aim to reduce violence against women and children. 

Born in France and raised in Sydney’s west, Jessica Fox made her Olympic debut in canoe slalom in the 2012 London Games. Fox is now a reigning champion, having taken out gold in Tokyo, backing it up with two gold medals in Paris.

Young, talented and very, very fast: 23-year-old Oscar Piastri is one of the hottest drivers on the F1 grid – and he’s only in his second season.  

Melbourne-based journalists Zara McDonald and Michelle Andrews started Shameless Media in 2018 (on a bedroom floor) to fill a gap in celebrity news and reality TV podcasts. Initially a side-hustle, the duo turned their podcast into a fully-fledged media company with 15 staff. Their podcasts boast 100 million downloads, they have 1.3 million social followers across their channels and 110,000 newsletter subscribers.