2013’s Hot 30 Under 30: 6-10

Mitchell Harper Company: Bigcommerce Age: 30

In 2003 at age 21, Mitchell Harper launched his first software business Interspire alongside business partner Eddie Machaalani. While setting up an online store for selling computer hardware, he discovered a gap in the market – there was no service to help small retailers set up an online store. Fast-forward to 2009 and Bigcommerce was created.

As of March this year, Bigcommerce had secured $35 million in venture capital funding and helped 30,000 small businesses in 65 countries, and in Australia there are over 4000 businesses using Bigcommerce. The company now has a 200-strong team and is one of the fastest growing e-commerce platforms in the world. Total lifetime sales for Australian SMBs using Bigcommerce now exceed $100 million.

The business is based in two offices, one in Sydney and one in Austin, Texas. The stores which use BigCommerce have made $1.5 billion and Bigcommerce continues to hit its growth projections. By July 2014, Harper would like to see Bigcommerce on the NASDAQ.

The telecommunications industry has been in a huge state of flux over the past few years, with the construction of the National Broadband Networking representing a huge shift in the way companies do business.

This change has caused trouble for many companies, which is all the more reason why Andrew and Richard Branson’s IF Telecom is such a success story. The brothers spotted an opportunity to start the business when it saw smaller companies were being overlooked for telecommunications services.

The company is now turning over more than $6 million a year. The brothers partly credit their success to staff, who are able to provide input into the business. With such importance placed on good workers, the two bothers hire all the staff themselves and shun recruitment companies.

The pair’s age hasn’t hindered them. In fact, both Bransons have told SmartCompany their relative youth has enabled them to approach a very old industry with some new ideas.

Tom Waterhouse Company: Tomwaterhouse.com Age: 30

A few years ago you may not have heard of Tom Waterhouse, but thanks to several gambling-related controversies this year, he’s become a household name.

The son of bookie Robbie and trainer Gai Waterhouse and the grandson of bookmaker Bill Waterhouse, Tom comes from a long line of gamblers. He started his betting business in late 2010, and has already reportedly reached revenue of $500 million – his family plays a large part in running the company.

Yet Waterhouse and his family have stolen much of the public attention this year, and not all for the right reasons. Commentators have taken issue with his company’s practice of showing live betting odds during TV sports broadcasts.

Waterhouse has already agreed to cut back on advertising for gambling during sporting matches, saying he will “dramatically” cut his presence on television. While an industry inquiry also conducted hearings this year to determine whether he had passed on any insider information about John Singleton’s horse, More Joyous.

Richard Chua Company: Talent100 Age: 27

Starting a successful business in your 20s is no easy feat. Richard Chua has not only been able to build an education company with more than $1 million in turnover, but he’s done so while working at Google.

Chua was given a challenge during his final year of high school, to beat his sister’s scores and earn a car from his parents. But along the way, Chua found that he could slightly game the system – he only needed to achieve a certain score in each subject to get a good, overall mark.

His company, Talent100, is built on this idea. Students identify what final score they need and the company helps break that down into manageable goals. The company has been a success, turning over more than $1.5 million.

Chua doesn’t even run the company from Australia. He works for Google in strategic matters from the company’s Mountain View headquarters.

But it doesn’t mean he’s slowing down his efforts. He recently told SmartCompany there needs to be more innovation in the education space, saying his own business is trying to “push the boundaries of what can be done”.

Peter Moriarty Company: itGenius Australia Age: 24

From a young age Moriarty was Mr Fix It for all things IT-related. At 15, he started his business itGenius Australia, predominately helping friends and family with their tech problems, such as making their computers run faster or synching their Mp3 players with their music libraries.

After finishing high school Moriarty worked in a small business for a year with one of his clients and ran itGenius on the side, but a year later he decided to run the business full-time and he’s continued to do so for the past four-and-a-half years.

itGenius now provides businesses with between five and 200 employees an IT helpdesk service and helps businesses move from traditional servers to the cloud. In the 2011/2012 financial year the business had a turnover of just under $1 million and this year caught Google’s attention, with the search engine giant now mentoring the team.