20 success stories

#20

Shainiel Deo – Net Worth: $65 Million

Shainiel Deo is the co-founder of Halfbrick Studios, who is responsible for the creation of the big hit mobile app Fruit Ninja. The game has racked up more than 300 million downloads since its mobile release in April 2010. Halfbrick Studios are now creating games for the Xbox & PlayStation.

#19

Damien Waller – Net Worth: $70 Million

In the year of 2000 Melbourne born Damien Waller founded the Health Insurance comparison search engine iSelect. iSelect is now running on full cylinders with over 500 employees and growing.

Damien has expanded his comparison services to home loans, energy, life insurance & broadband. If all goes well, we may see a big jump in Damien’s fortune for the year 2013.

#18

Zhenya Tsvetnenko – Net Worth: $70 Million

Russian born, but raised in Perth, Western Australia, Zhenya Tsvetnenko made his millions by coding and creating SMS software to deliver daily alerts, games, music and ringtones.

Zhenya’s ‘MPire Media’ company is breaking into the Latin & European markets at the moment and Zhenya also has his hands in the Chinese smart phone market as he joint ventures with the listed tech company SmartTrans to penetrate the fastest growing smart phone market in the world.

#17

Leigh Jasper Robert Phillpot – Net Worth: $70 Million

Leigh Jasper & Robert Phillpot hit the jackpot when they created a global document management firm back in 2000. Their company Aconex provides a web-based software system for the mining and construction industry, allowing builders and workers to share their documents, plans and changes.

They are now in the process of creating their own app for iPads and tablets, which will allow builders to work on project plans from any location in the world.

#16

Patrick Grove – Net Worth: $70 Million

Patrick Grove is no rookie in the online world, after creating two successful online businesses he is ready to start a $200 million US investment fund to encourage rich individuals to invest in Internet companies.

Patrick Grove has built a strong belief in doing online business since his company’s iCar Asia and iProperty Group aligned him with fame and fortune.

#15

Shane Wilkinson – Net Worth $72 Million

Melbourne Millionaire, ‘Shane Wilkinson’ is the #1 Aussie in the Property market, after making $67 million in 2011 Shane has proven that he is able to maintain growth in uncertain times.

Shane started his company Pace Development in the 1990’s and has proven that hard work and creativity really does pay off. Shane Wilkinson is currently focusing on some creative and funky apartment projects and the smaller end boutique projects around Melbourne for future developments.

#14

Phillip Di Bella – Net Worth: $75 Million

Brisbane born, Phillip Di Bella is the #1 coffee entrepreneur in Australia. Di Bella recently branched out to China & India for his expansion of operations and the hard work has already paid off.

We may see Phillip Di Bella climbing higher in the Australia’s youngest millionaire list for next year with a predicted high sales growth as his coffee is secured in some of the top café’s and restaurants internationally.

#13 

Bevan Clark & Guy King – Net Worth: $75 Million

These 2 blokes made $90 million when they sold their discount coupon website Retailmenot.com in 2010. Guy King has a software developer background which helped the pair to conceive this website in only a weekend!

Since then, they have been designing and growing their company Systems.com into 3 new businesses in hope that they will have as much success with these as they did in the past.

#12

Todd Hannigan & Tom Todd – Net Worth – $82 Million

Earning their millions while working for Aston Resources, after a reshuffling of the business, bothTodd Hannigan & Tom Todd found themselves without a job but gained 6 months pay and a $10 million share based pay out each.

Just 2 days after their departure from Aston Resources, stocks went down 18.5 percent of its value. It looks like the pair of them cashed out just in time, this goes to show that ‘timing is everything’.

#11

Matthew Tripp – Net Worth: $100 Million

Matt Tripp has been one of the driving forces in the Australian wagering industry in the last 20 years. He bought Sportsbet for $200,000 in 2002  and was CEO up until 2011. During his time atSportsbet, Matt grew the business from a small operation to be the market leader in online betting, setting a benchmark for the industry to aspire to.

After the sale of Sportsbet to Paddy Power, Matthew Tripp became the Chairman of the company.

#10

Sherman Ma – Net Worth: $105 Million

Melbourne Millionaire and residing in Las Vegas, Sherman Ma who was a Former Wall Street trader and Whiz Kid , came to Australia in 1990 working for a global management and consultancy firm.

In 1997, Sherman Ma, backed by some silent partners, funded Liberty Financials and owns a massive 40 per cent stake in the Melbourne based company.

#9

Mitchell Harper & Eddie Machaalani – Net Worth: $110 Million

Harper & Machaalani met in 2003 in an Internet chat room and it was only a year later they gave birth to their first company Interspire which provided software to allow people to sell online. Within the first few months Harper & Machaalani had already covered their costs and were making a profit from Interspire.

Last year they sold almost 10 percent of one of their software companys, Bigcommerce for $15 million.

#8

Bill McDonald – Net Worth: $135 Million

Bill McDonald, who is good at hiding from the spotlight, started making his millions through a Civil, construction and mining services company, MCG Holdings, which he established 10 years ago.

Wanting his own mines, Bill went on to start up his next venture,  Jingella resources. A subsidiary company that develops exploration leases. He then went on to borrow $360 million to buy a coalfield in Queensland. The Coalfield provided Bill with a few bumps in the road to begin with however it is now back on track earning him a place on our list!

#7

Ruslan Kogan – Net Worth: $145 Million

After launching one of Australia’s largest online electronic store ‘Kogan.com.au’, Ruslan Kogan has secured the spot to be ‘The Richest Australian Entrepreneur Under 30’.

Ruslan Kogan also owns 50% of the online furniture retailer ‘Milan Direct’. Kogan recently recorded more than $1 Million in sales in a day, not bad for someone who started on a dinky little computer in his parents garage.

#6

Hezi Leibovich – Net Worth: $155 Million

Hezi Leibovich is the founder of the retail websites ‘Catch Of The Day’, Scooopon.com, Grocery Run & Vinomofo, turning over nearly $250 Million last year. Hezi has had a large interest with a number of high end Australian investorssuch as James Packer & Seek.com’s chief Andrew Bassat who outlayed $80 million for a 40% stake in Hezi’s ventures.

Hezi is contemplating a public float or trade sale in the next 2 years, which should bring the value of Hezi’s empire to a whopping $600 Million. Not bad for an Aussie online retailer.

#5

Ashley Fraser – Net Worth: $195 million

Ashley Fraser from Mackay, QLD is yet another one to top the list with a hire business as his company ‘Orionstone’ proves to be a heavy weight in machine hire for Australia’s booming mining industry.

Ashley started his machine hire company back in 2003 with a $20,000 limit on his credit card.

#4

Simon Clausen – Net Worth: $230 million

Technology Entrepreneur Simon Clausen who was born in Sydney but has since made the big move to Geneva, Switzerland comes in at number 4 on the Austraia’s youngest millionaire list. Simon’s net worth of $230 Million makes him the second richest Aussie in the technology market for 2012. After selling his computer security software ‘PC Tools’ to Symantec for $300 Million Simon has since invested in the well known crowd sourcing website freelancer.com with an impressive return.

It looks to me that there will be a lot more of those in the technology sector performing well in the years to come as the computing world and the online web is proving to be a highly profitable market.

#3

Mark Ackroyd – Net Worth: $290 Million

High school dropout Mark Ackroyd who is based out of Brisbane recently sold his Machine hire company to a Japanese conglomerate ‘Mitsui’ for $150 million.

Mark left high school for an apprenticeship in plant mechanics where he believes he obtained a world of knowledge, which in turn has become his main leverage against competitors in the machine service market.

#2

Nathan Tinkler – Net Worth: $400 Million

Located in Singapore, with a net worth of $1.13 Billion in 2011 and a now net worth of $400 Million this 2012, you would say that Nathan Tinkler the resource magnate has seen better days. This is one of the risks in investment in the coal industry but Nathan believes he will be back on his feet in the next quarter.

#1

Mike Cannon –Brookes & Scott Farquhar – Net Worth: $480 Million

Mike Canon –Brookes & Scott Farquhar from Sydney, NSW, came out on top in this years Young Rich List of 2012 with a net worth of $480 Million all thanks to their ventures in the technology industry through their enterprise software company Atlassian. With over 530 employees, Atlassian turned over a massive $102 million in revenue in 2011 and expect an even bigger jump in sales growth by the end of 2012.