21. Cyan Ta’eed

Company: Envato
Revenue: $94 million

Envato is a champion of doing things differently, regularly being named one of the best places to work in Australia because of the belief that staff should be able to work productively from anywhere in the world.

Cyan Ta’eed launched the business with husband Collis Ta’eed and Jun Rung in 2006, and as of last year Envato’s revenue hit $US74 million ($94 million), according to a 2017 SmartCompany profile on the business.

Cyan is also the founder behind New Day Box, a project that creates and delivers boxes of treats and essentials to women in crisis. Her social enterprise chocolate business, Hey Tiger, is also in the works.

The Ta’eeds entered the BRW Young Rich List in 2016, thanks to an estimated net worth of $184 million. In 2017, they broke into the top 10 of the list for the first time, coming in at number nine with an estimated joint net worth of $216 million.

The couple have rapidly expanded Envato over the past decade to more than 6 million members.

Ta’eed told StartupSmart in 2016 it doesn’t matter what location Envato’s staff work from.

“What matters are their skills, their entrepreneurialism and their eagerness,” she said.