Sydney-sider Zac Altman’s first legit startup was a taxi booking app called Taxi Pro that Zac developed and built in his final year of high school. Before Uber had hit the ground running in Australia.

Greater success was to come with his 2nd venture. Still in his teens Zac moved to San Francisco and created and co-founded with 2 new mates the travel startup called LoungeBuddy, which enabled travellers to discover, book, and access over 400 airport lounges around the world, via the LoungeBuddy website or app.

After 7 years of slogging it out building up the business, with myriad challenges along the way, the trio built LoungeBuddy to have over 100,000 users every month. In 2019, the young founders sold LoungeBuddy to global giant American Express, reportedly for in excess of $100million. Zac Altman was in his mid-20’s. So how do you build not 1, but 2, successful startups, and where to from here for Zac Altman? 1/2

Sydney-sider Zac Altman’s first legit startup was a taxi booking app called Taxi Pro that Zac developed and built in his final year of high school. Before Uber had hit the ground running in Australia. Greater success was to come with his 2nd venture. Still in his teens Zac moved to San Francisco and created and co-founded with 2 new mates the travel startup called LoungeBuddy, which enabled travellers to discover, book, and access over 400 airport lounges around the world, via the LoungeBuddy website or app. After 7 years of slogging it out building up the business, with myriad challenges along the way, the trio built LoungeBuddy to have over 100,000 users every month. In 2019, the young founders sold LoungeBuddy to global giant American Express, reportedly for in excess of $100million. Zac Altman was in his mid-20’s. So how do you build not 1, but 2, successful startups, and where to from here for Zac Altman? 1/2

Candid interviews with successful Self-starters. On Build It. They'll Come, you'll hear from some amazing Australian entrepreneurs who bet big to build great businesses. Journalist Helen Dalley interviews business innovators and visionaries on how they turned their lightbulb idea into a viable, sustainable enterprise. 

This podcast is about the human face behind taking a simple idea and turning it into a business or movement. It's the beating heart behind what it takes to build an empire, from concept to execution, and how they actually achieve it. Fuelled by blind faith and hard slog, how they transform their dream idea into concrete reality.

Journalist Helen Dalley interviews business innovators and visionaries on how they turned their lightbulb idea into a viable, sustainable enterprise.

Build It. They'll Come.

LoungeBuddy – teen Zac Altman co-founds an App that disrupts the global airport lounge bookings space. 1/2

David Tudehope left the finance world in the early 1990’s with a dream to service small to medium business who complained of poor service and overcharging by the monopolist at the time, Telstra.  Tudehope wasn’t a digital expert nor a highly trained computer engineer. But he understood numbers, and that customers wanted good service, not delays and obfuscation. So he had his brother Aidan started a small business they called Macquarie Telecom, back in 1992, with only the savings the pair could scrounge up, and forged headlong into the ultimately capital-intensive telco space. This is long before the internet and smart mobile phones. But they took on the slow-to-change Telstra and stuck to their mission of offering better customer service and cheaper prices to the business customer.  In just over 3 decades they’ve built (now named) Macquarie Technology Group into one of the Top 300 listed companies in Australia, with a market capitalisation of over $1.5 billon, offering major clients like the ATO, Officeworks and PayPal still telecom, but now cloud-based, cyber security services as well as massive investments in data centres to support the boom in AI.  David appeared on the Australian Financial Review’s Rich List 2024 alongside brother Aidan with an estimated net worth of over $900 million.

David Tudehope left the finance world in the early 1990&rsquo;s with a dream to service small to medium business who complained of poor service and overcharging by the monopolist at the time, Telstra.&nbsp; Tudehope wasn&rsquo;t a digital expert nor a highly trained computer engineer. But he understood numbers, and that customers wanted good service, not delays and obfuscation. So he had his brother Aidan started a small business they called Macquarie Telecom, back in 1992, with only the savings the pair could scrounge up, and forged headlong into the ultimately capital-intensive telco space. This is long before the internet and smart mobile phones. But they took on the slow-to-change Telstra and stuck to their mission of offering better customer service and cheaper prices to the business customer.&nbsp; In just over 3 decades they&rsquo;ve built (now named) Macquarie Technology Group into one of the Top 300 listed companies in Australia, with a market capitalisation of over $1.5 billon, offering major clients like the ATO, Officeworks and PayPal still telecom, but now cloud-based, cyber security services as well as massive investments in data centres to support the boom in AI.&nbsp; David appeared on the&nbsp;Australian Financial Review&rsquo;s&nbsp;Rich List 2024 alongside brother Aidan with an estimated net worth of over $900 million.

Macquarie Technology Group -  David Tudehope disrupts telco giant Telstra, building a phone, internet, cyber security, data centres and AI group to support business, now worth over $1.5 billion

Since Dr Sarah Crowe had her lightbulb idea, and invented her completely mobile, vision testing and glasses kit, then ran a trial in remote Papua New Guinea and started to show  the impact her OOXii Vision Kit could have, to medical professionals in India and Vanuatu, she was inundated with positive reaction. Here was a complete system not only offering mobile eye testing, but also durable glasses frames, with prescription lenses in them, were then dispensed on the spot to people in remote or under-served communities, thereby improving their vision right there and then, in their home communities. It was life-changing.  A fantastic entrepreneurial idea to fix a massive global problem.

But Sarah’s journey with OOXii Global and her mission to help fix the world’s vision has not been without its challenges and significant hurdles along the way.

Listen to Dr Sarah Crowe take up the story.

Since Dr Sarah Crowe had her lightbulb idea, and invented her completely mobile, vision testing and glasses kit, then ran a trial in remote Papua New Guinea and started to show&nbsp; the impact her OOXii Vision Kit could have, to medical professionals in India and Vanuatu, she was inundated with positive reaction. Here was a complete system not only offering mobile eye testing, but also durable glasses frames, with prescription lenses in them, were then dispensed on the spot to people in remote or under-served communities, thereby improving their vision right there and then, in their home communities. It was life-changing.&nbsp; A fantastic entrepreneurial idea to fix a massive global problem.
But Sarah&rsquo;s journey with OOXii Global and her mission to help fix the world&rsquo;s vision has not been without its challenges and significant hurdles along the way.
Listen to Dr Sarah Crowe take up the story.

OOXii Global – Dr Sarah Crowe helps more people see, with her mobile OOXii Vision Kit getting low cost, durable, prescription eye glasses to the millions who need better vision but cannot access eye glasses

While navigating Australia’s mental health system to deal with his personal assessment and ongoing care, entrepreneur Zac Altman felt frustrated and thought, quite simply, there must be a better way to help the huge number of adults with ADHD get the proper care and support they need. To help solve what he saw as a very large unmet demand problem, Zac created and built the start-up Kantoko, a telehealth service offering online assessments and ongoing care for adults with ADHD, but using an unusual business model – subscription services. Kantoko has been operational since early 2024, with patients accessing Kantoko’s team of experienced ADHD psychiatrists and GPs focusing on mental health.

While navigating Australia&rsquo;s mental health system to deal with his personal assessment and ongoing care, entrepreneur&nbsp;Zac&nbsp;Altman&nbsp;felt frustrated and thought, quite simply, there must be a better way to help the huge number of adults with ADHD get the proper care and support they need. To help solve what he saw as a very large unmet demand problem,&nbsp;Zac&nbsp;created and built the start-up Kantoko, a telehealth service offering online assessments and ongoing care for adults with ADHD, but using an unusual business model &ndash; subscription services. Kantoko has been operational since early 2024, with patients accessing Kantoko&rsquo;s team of experienced ADHD psychiatrists and GPs focusing on mental health.

LoungeBuddy – teen Zac Altman co-founds an App that disrupts the global airport lounge bookings space. 1/2

In 1 playlist(s)

Build It. They'll Come.

Social links

Follow podcast

Recent clips