Jack Zhang, the co-founder and CEO of fintech powerhouse Airwallex, has declared that the word “burnout” simply doesn’t compute in his world. In a recent CNBC interview, the executive revealed he’s been clocking 80 to 100 hours a week since age 16—over two decades of what most people would call “a schedule”—and he still doesn’t get the fuss about exhaustion.
His company, built on that relentless engine, now boasts an $8 billion valuation as of late 2025.
While the rest of us debate four-day workweeks and “quiet quitting,” Zhang’s approach has turned a coffee-shop frustration into a global payments platform processing billions and serving thousands of businesses.
It’s the kind of success that makes you wonder if the secret to unicorn status is treating sleep like an optional DLC pack. Employees everywhere might eye their bosses nervously, suddenly calculating how many lemon-packing shifts equal one Series G round.
Zhang’s story starts in Qingdao, China, at 15, when he relocated solo to Melbourne with limited English and a host family. Soon after, family finances back home took a nosedive, leaving teenage Jack to fund his own computer science degree at the University of Melbourne. Options were stark: head home or hustle. He chose hustle.
He stacked jobs like a Jenga tower of survival—dishwashing days, bartending nights, overnight petrol station shifts, and summer factory work packing lemons. Eighty to 100 hours weekly, plus classes. “Survival mode doesn’t leave room for burnout,” he quipped, as if burnout were a luxury item only the comfortably employed could afford.
Post-graduation in 2007, he moved into insurance and banking, but side hustles kept calling. He exported olive oil and wine to Asia, dabbled in real estate, and even ran a Melbourne coffee shop with university buddy Max Li. Money piled up—millions by his 20s—but fulfillment? Not so much.
Fatherhood at 30 flipped the script. Staring at his newborn daughter, Zhang realized bank balances don’t earn “proud dad” points. He quit the corporate gig in 2015 to chase something bigger: passion that makes alarm clocks irrelevant.
That coffee shop’s endless international wire transfers. SWIFT fees stung worse than bad espresso. Why not build a better way to move money across borders? With friends Lucy Liu (who dropped the first $1 million), Jacob Dai, Ki-lok Wong, and co-founder Li, Airwallex launched late 2015.
A decade of 80-hour weeks later, the platform hums along with over $1 billion in annualized run rate revenue by late 2025, fresh off a $330 million raise that pushed valuation to $8 billion. Zhang eyes $10 billion in revenue by 2030, because why stop when the machine is purring?
In an era where “work smarter, not harder” is gospel, Zhang embodies the contrarian gospel: work harder, then work some more. Most founders chase balance; this one chases borders, bytes, and billions—proving that for some, the grind isn’t a phase, it’s the feature.
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