Brisbane crypto kings passing on knowledge to youngsters

The 27-year old founders of Swyftx started the $3bn Brisbane crypto exchange after meeting at a science camp a decade ago. Now they are passing on their knowledge to a new generation.

Alex Harper and Angus Goldman founded cryptocurrency powerhouse Swyftx in 2018

Swyftx founders Alex Harper and Angus Goldman founded their $3bn business after a chance meeting at a science camp a decade ago.

Harper and Goldman are now passing on their own knowledge by offering internships at their company where university students can learn not only about the technical side of the business but marketing, business plans and strategy.

“We are teaching them not only about things like coding but how to actually build a business,” says Goldman. The story of how the men founded Swyftx is featured in Amazon Web Services’ new Billion Dollar Napkin podcast hosted by Australian comedian and mathematician, Adam Spencer.

The 27-year-olds have come a long since their teenage encounter and have big expansions plan after sealing a $1.5bn deal in June to merge with Sydney-based finance firm Superhero. Harper recalls his entrepreneurial journey began selling fruit juice at the local market to earn money before starting a computer repair business as a teenager.

He later developed a credit payment platform before teaming up with Goldman to trade bitcoin. Goldman was a computer coding whiz before he could ride a bike, a skill that stood him in good stead as crypto trading took off. 

Swyftx founders Angus Goldman and Alex Harper. Pictures supplied.

Harper says that unlike other start-ups, Swyftx is profitable with growing revenue. “We have bootstrapped the business from the start,” says Harper. Over the last year, the business has gone from a mere 50,000 customers to half a million clients. The increasing acceptance of cryptocurrency by funds, big banks and investors was driving growth of the business.

On the podcast, which launched last week, Harper and Goldman describe the pace with which the company, and their roles in it, grew. “We went through the four stages of a startup very quickly. A lot of businesses and leaders have time – years – to go through each of those stages and grow their teams and themselves. We did that on fast forward,” Goldman says.

He notably describes the shift from taking customer service calls from the dinner table, to helping build infrastructure to manage customer calls.

According to the pair, the hardest thing about that swift growth is keeping ahead of that change, and “being the leader for tomorrow, not just today.”

“You go from doing the thing or making the thing, to being the person who’s steering the ship; hiring people that are better, smarter and more capable and experienced than you to grow and learn from every day,” they say.

You Beauty

Gold Coast beauty company Roccoco Botanicals has won one of the world’s most prestigious cosmetic awards at a global industry ceremony in New York.

Roccoco Botanicals won the gong in the C&T Alles Awards on September 28 for its Ruby Crystal Cleanser. Previous winners include global beauty powerhouse brands Yves Saint Laurent Beauté, L’Oréal and Shiseido. Founder Jacine Greenwood-Drummond says she is still “pinching myself” over the win for the firm that she literally started over her kitchen sink.

In world often stereotyped by 20-year-old instagrammers in the beauty space, it’s been a long haul for Greenwood-Drummond who is a trained chemist and started her journey after her children developed skin issues. Founded in 2013, the firm now has annual revenue of $3.6m

“It’s especially gratifying and humbling to be named the winner by a judging panel which includes scientists from industry royalty like Chanel and Estee Lauder,” says Greenwood-Drummond.

Roccoco Botanical founder Jacine Greenwood-Drummond in New York with her award.