Zara McDonald and Michelle Andrews met as journalists at news publication Mamamia. The pair went on to start Shameless Media in 2018 (on a bedroom floor) to fill a gap in celebrity news and reality TV podcasts. Initially a side-hustle, the duo have since turned their podcast into a fully-fledged media company with 15 staff, and launched two more podcasts: Style-ish and Everybody Has a Secret. The new podcasts are part of the pair’s two-year diversification strategy, and they’re already off-platform with a popular newsletter. Their podcasts boast 100 million downloads in total, they have 1.3 million social followers across their channels and 110,000 newsletter subscribers. 

Tap here for full profile

Zara Seidler and Sam Koslowski co-founded news outlet The Daily Aus back in 2017, after being fed-up with the way news was presented to young Australians. And it’s hit the mark: today, 70% of its 565,000 Instagram followers are under the age of 34. But with looming threats from Meta to pull news from its platforms, Seidler and Koslowski have embarked on a diversification strategy. Initially just an Instagram page – which has since grown to 565,000 followers – The Daily Aus has grown off-platform to launch newsletters and a podcast. Its podcast has about 130,000 monthly listeners, and its daily newsletter has an audience of more than 220,000.  

Hannah Ferguson is the co-founder and CEO of independent news commentary platform Cheek Media, and the co-host of leading news and culture podcast Big Small Talk. The podcast is consistently ranked top #3 for news in the country. In 2023 Hannah released her debut book Bite Back which was a smash-hit, and continues to be a best-seller. She has written for the New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, the Sydney Morning Herald, and Crikey. Her second book will be published late 2024. 

Tap here for full profile

Natasha Etschmann started investing at 18. She says she buys-and-holds ETFs long-term, and is aiming to achieve financial freedom in the next 15 years. Now, she’s a content creator best known under her profile TashInvests, providing finance tips and tricks for her 200,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok. She also recently published her novel How To Not Work Forever.