The High Flyers Podcast with Vidit Agarwal
00:45:58 · Jack Zhang
[00:45:58] S1: I think as any company gets scale, one of the biggest challenge is how do you make your go to market as efficient as possible? And it all come down to brand and brand building. It's come down to the company's brand, the founder's brand, and the employer brand as well. And as a key sort of phase of Airwallex in the next decade, that if you wanted to be a bigger company than the lack of HSBC and Citibank, if we wanted to be the platform to allow modern businesses to operate and then grow globally, we need to have a much, much bigger brand and a trusted brand by millions of businesses around the world. I think partner with McLaren will help us accelerate in that journey. We align from a core sort of philosophy point of view that engineering for excellence and the core of Air Wallace is we really engineering product driven company that obsessed with our customers, obsessed with operating speed, the efficiency, the craftsmanship, and just the mentality of never settle, just keep improving ourselves to go faster and to win. And then just from a culture point of view, there's a massive alignment between the two organizations. They have like 10s of millions of followers around the world. And as a lot of people see the show of Strive four Survive, and that really expanded the impact of F1 beyond just racing. And we, a company that's scaling globally, we would love to be associated with McLaren build the next phase of Airwallis. And they're also using Airwallis product to operating that internal financing, right? So they start using Airwallis to making vendor payments or promoting that treasury management, using Airwallis infrastructure. We're powering the new merchandise platform they are building on payments, credit card processing. So that's all like really exciting initiative to see like the brand that we sponsor to become a customer and then just adopting more than financial technology to operating FRM team because they travel around the world, they're paying people around the world, they're paying vendors around the world. Is what Airwall is doing, right? It's empower this global businesses to operating with much better technology and efficiency. So we're super excited for that sponsorship. And also the driver Oscar is from Melbourne and, you know, love to sponsor a fellow Aussie driver and help them to build in their career in the world stage.
00:48:33 · Vidit Agarwal, Jack Zhang
[00:48:33] S0: Yeah. No. Congrats. And are you a f one fan? Do you watch it? [00:48:37] S1: I only become a f one fan after the Netflix series. [00:48:40] S0: Oh, cool. Cool. Because they've got three races in The US now. Right? I think they got Vegas, Miami, and Austin. So I'm sure you'll get a chance to go next year or this year. This year when they start. [00:48:50] S1: Yeah. Well, Grand Prix in Melbourne is coming up in a few months. I already got a lot of ping for tickets. So I'm sure that you will see a lot of startup founders in Australia coming to our events. [00:49:00] S0: Yeah. They're very cool. And then maybe two other quick topics before we go to final sprint and finish is one of the partnerships you did was with the University of Melbourne for supporting international students, and you talked about your own experiences as an international student. Maybe just give us a quick summary of what is that partnership and how's it going?
00:49:00 · Vidit Agarwal, Jack Zhang
[00:49:00] S0: Yeah. They're very cool. And then maybe two other quick topics before we go to final sprint and finish is one of the partnerships you did was with the University of Melbourne for supporting international students, and you talked about your own experiences as an international student. Maybe just give us a quick summary of what is that partnership and how's it going? [00:49:18] S1: I think it's a multi year partnership that for Airwallet is supporting students going to Melbourne. I think we spent, I think more than $3,000,000 to sponsor a scholarship program for students, I guess, academic excellence. Probably the first scholarship program that are inclusive of international students. So most of the scholarship programs I have seen when I was about to go to university, I go to college, I don't have a lot of options. There's no full scholarship exists at that time for me to apply to. Cause I had the financial difficulties when I was in the college. That'd be great to have a scholarship program actually not just only offer to citizens and Australian PRs. So our program is inclusive of everyone. So regardless whether you are Australian citizen or PR or international student, you can apply the scholarship, our program. We very inclusive from that front. And just as long as you fulfill our criteria of the program and with the engineering, like with sort of academic excellence, we able to support you.
00:49:18 · Jack Zhang, Vidit Agarwal
[00:49:18] S1: I think it's a multi year partnership that for Airwallet is supporting students going to Melbourne. I think we spent, I think more than $3,000,000 to sponsor a scholarship program for students, I guess, academic excellence. Probably the first scholarship program that are inclusive of international students. So most of the scholarship programs I have seen when I was about to go to university, I go to college, I don't have a lot of options. There's no full scholarship exists at that time for me to apply to. Cause I had the financial difficulties when I was in the college. That'd be great to have a scholarship program actually not just only offer to citizens and Australian PRs. So our program is inclusive of everyone. So regardless whether you are Australian citizen or PR or international student, you can apply the scholarship, our program. We very inclusive from that front. And just as long as you fulfill our criteria of the program and with the engineering, like with sort of academic excellence, we able to support you. [00:50:35] S0: I think on that point, one thing I'd love to see in Australia is more people like me and you that are founders in Australia. I think there's not enough ethnic diversity, right, that hopefully scholarships like this promote is give more people from Asian backgrounds the confidence to go build a startup. [00:50:53] S1: Yeah, well, there's plenty in The US and I wish to see that more in Australia, of course. [00:50:59] S0: And then talk about, is it Capital forty nine, your fund?
00:50:59 · Vidit Agarwal, Jack Zhang
[00:50:59] S0: And then talk about, is it Capital forty nine, your fund? [00:51:03] S1: Yeah. So I have a personal fund, so like 100% owned by myself called Capital forty nine that invests in early stage fintech and software companies around the world. [00:51:13] S0: And you actively invest, like founders reach out to you or do do you invest in [00:51:19] S1: particular Yeah, made we made closer to the investment in the last two years and and we will continue to to seek opportunities around the world. [00:51:26] S0: Well, are coming to the end, I want to move to rapid fire final sprint to close us out. Is there one non work investment, ideally of time and energy that you've made that you consider the best in your life? [00:51:40] S1: I found golf is probably the most difficult spot to get better. So I would would continue to invest my time into improving my games. [00:51:51] S0: Nice. Is there one thing you wanna learn in the next six months? [00:51:55] S1: I had a, like, a new year resolution. I wanna meet, like, 10 influence people in the world this year. So let's see who I meet, and and I'll be able to learn from them. [00:52:05] S0: Oh, wow. Is there anyone you've met this year that that meets your criteria? [00:52:10] S1: I'm hoping to meet Taylor Swift next month. [00:52:15] S0: Oh, wow. That's incredible. That's She [00:52:18] S1: had a concert in in Singapore, and I'm working on the opportunity to to meet her. [00:52:24] S0: That'd be a great brand ambassador for AOLX if you can if you can secure that. Is there one pet peeve that you have that really annoys you?
00:52:24 · Vidit Agarwal, Jack Zhang
[00:52:24] S0: That'd be a great brand ambassador for AOLX if you can if you can secure that. Is there one pet peeve that you have that really annoys you? [00:52:35] S1: I hate arrogant people. Although like a lot of people think I'm arrogant, I I don't think. I don't think so. I think I I may look like hard to approach, but I'm actually fairly easy to approach. And I've met great founders around the world, but I also met very arrogant founders. You could be very successful, but if you're not a very nice person or not willing to help others, I mean, are you? [00:52:59] S0: Yeah. That's so true. Yeah. I think I think introverts... I'm an introvert too, and introverts get get considered to be arrogant because we don't talk as much. We sit at the back or stand in the corner and people think that's arrogant. So I I I get that as well. And then last one, is there a person or quote that inspires you? [00:53:16] S1: I I think what I really like the moment is what my my friend Rob told me. Wealth is fluid, but but time start. And I've been really sort of focused on getting the best life experience for me and for people around me.