Jack Zhang is the co-founder and CEO of Airwallex, a global payments and financial platform valued at $5.5 billion. Founded in Melbourne, Airwallex processes billions in cross-border transactions and serves businesses expanding internationally. Jack shares his journey from starting the company to competing with giants like Stripe, navigating the complexities of global payments infrastructure, and building across multiple regulated markets.
What you'll learn:
- Why cross-border payments remain broken despite decades of fintech innovation
- How Airwallex competes against Stripe and other established payment platforms
- The challenge of building financial infrastructure across multiple countries and regulations
- Jack's perspective on fair competition versus FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) tactics in business
- Why Airwallex is deploying $1 billion in the US market over the next three years
- The reality of being a foreign founder building in America during geopolitical tensions
- How payment infrastructure for global businesses differs from consumer fintech
- The trade-offs between growth velocity and sustainable business building
- Jack's philosophy on money, success, and what matters after achieving wealth at 30
- Why he chose to stay in Melbourne instead of relocating to San Francisco
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Introduction to Jack Zhang and Airwallex
(02:34) Early days of Airwallex and the founding story
(05:12) The problem with cross-border payments
(08:45) Competing with Stripe and other payment platforms
(12:18) Building in regulated markets and compliance challenges
(16:23) FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) tactics in business competition
(19:13) Raj's experience with FUD at Lyft vs Uber
(22:47) Navigating geopolitical tensions as a Chinese-Australian founder
(25:36) The $1 billion US market investment commitment
(27:41) Product philosophy and fair competition
(31:15) Going upmarket vs staying with SMBs
(35:22) Life choices: Melbourne vs San Francisco
(37:49) Perspective on wealth - "not about the money"
(42:18) The future of payments infrastructure
(45:30) Advice for founders building in competitive markets
