20VC: The Most Insane Story in Startups: Airwallex: The Angel That Turned $1M into $1BN | The Fund That Pulled a Term Sheet & Lost $1BN | Rejecting Stripe's $1.2BN Offer | Scaling to $1BN in Revenue & 100% YoY Growth for 8 Years with Jack Zhang | The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch | Podwise
20VC: The Most Insane Story in Startups: Airwallex: The Angel That Turned $1M into $1BN | The Fund That Pulled a Term Sheet & Lost $1BN | Rejecting Stripe's $1.2BN Offer | Scaling to $1BN in Revenue & 100% YoY Growth for 8 Years with Jack Zhang
In this episode of the 20VC podcast, Harry interviews Jack Zhang, the co-founder and CEO of Airwallex, a global payments and financial infrastructure company. Jack recounts his early life, marked by financial struggles and working various jobs in Australia, which instilled in him resilience and a strong work ethic. He details his entrepreneurial journey, including multiple side businesses before founding Airwallex, driven by a passion for technology and solving cross-border payment issues. Jack shares the challenges Airwallex faced, such as initial product failures, almost running out of money multiple times, and turning down a $1.2 billion acquisition offer from Stripe. He emphasizes the importance of vision, perseverance, and building a strong team, highlighting Airwallex's impressive growth, reaching a billion-dollar transaction volume within nine months and maintaining high annual growth rates.
