Chris Owens

Govt Affairs ANZ @airwallex

[Chris Owens @snewoc]

Want a friend in politics? Get a dog....

Done.

Meet Bonnie. Instant bestie.

[Chris Owens @snewoc]

Can relate

[Bret Taylor @btaylor]

I deeply resent that AI has forced me to eliminate em dashes from my writing for fear of signaling slop

[Jack Zhang @awxjack]

"The only defensible companies will be the ones built on things that are hard to get."

AI is collapsing the things that were hard to do but can't compress regulatory permission. The only moats remaining are the ones constrained by regulators, physics, and time.

[Shannon Scott @scott_shannon]

A lot shipped at @Airwallex this month.

We launched Airi, made it possible to run Airwallex workflows through AI agents, and rolled out new updates across cards, expenses, and checkout.

A few highlights ⤵

[Chris Owens @snewoc]

Championship winning F1 teams are built with culture first. 👇

[Jack Zhang @awxjack]

My conversation with @ZBrownCEO, CEO of @McLarenF1, on how to build a winning team.

00:00 Intro
01:51 From F1 to CEO
04:43 Fixing culture first
07:15 Starting with the fan
08:52 Picking the right partners
11:20 Designing for performance
14:16 Making work worth showing up for
16:38 Building a winning mindset
17:30 How race weekend runs
19:37 Deciding with data
21:30 Where AI fits
23:47 The power of marginal gains
24:49 Staying hungry after success

[Financial Review @FinancialReview]

The founder and CEO of Airwallex talks about his early mistakes, the secret to staying friends with co-founders and how AI is transforming the company’s plans. https://t.co/4ARhOibyOF

[Chris Owens @snewoc]

Regulatory sandboxes have emerged globally as an important tool to help innovation in fin services, while also managing consumer protection and market integrity.

This report a good step to improving set up in 🇦🇺 👇

https://t.co/5bPO6OozT4

[Chris Owens @snewoc]

It's no small feat to get politicians from across the political spectrum to agree. But that happened this week in Canberra, as they got behind the Democracy Counts campaign.

🇳🇿’s democracy is stronger than most. But, you've got to keep working at it to maintain trust.

Find out more at https://t.co/KRNmhU4t2b

[Milton Dick @MiltonDickMP]

Great day celebrating democracy with the Parliamentary Friends of Democracy, with Co-Chairs @dai_le Senator Richard Colbeck and Democracy Counts

[CommBank Socceroos @Socceroos]

Hold your heads up high boys, Australia is proud of you 🫶😢💚💛

#Socceroos #FIFAWorldCup

[Chris Owens @snewoc]

I love a bit of Amy Remeikis. She’s great.

But on this one, I don’t quite get it…

Is the argument that politicians shouldn’t allow themselves to be commodified and attend events where a central group controls the invites? If yes, the likes of the CEDA State of the Nation event is in trouble.

Or is the argument more nuanced, and the real problem is journalists should not run a ticketed event that corporates buy tables at and politicians attend on their invitation? That journalists should be at arms-length from this kind of stuff…. But that’s exactly what happens at the Press Club several times a week.

Perhaps it’s that the event isn’t televised and access is controlled? There are many events like this… The Lowy Institute, CEDA, the BCA to name just a few, organise events where business leaders, politicians and journalists gather behind closed doors.

Is the problem that not enough backbenchers get to attend? Maybe that’s a thing? But, many many many more backbenchers attend Midwinter than any of the other ticketed events mentioned above.

If the argument is simply politicians shouldn’t have private conversations with anyone, then that’s a big change. Importantly, it’s not how journalism works in Australia. Unlike 🇳🇿, where every conversation is on the record, that’s not the case here.

I’m just confused 🫤

[Chris Owens @snewoc]

There's nothing worse than people who just want to occupy the space.

@awxjack is the opposite. He’s an outsider who just gets on with building something new, no matter how hard it is.

[Financial Review @FinancialReview]

Jack Zhang says he always feels like an outsider, but his company is charming investors despite pushing back a float and facing claims it is too close to China. https://t.co/tIacLZC4TQ

[Chris Owens @snewoc]

Which head of state wouldn't like this kind of reception? Much @Socceroos fan love for 🇦🇺's GG ❤️

https://t.co/HiNIcgMnG0

[Chris Owens @snewoc]

@tarakeeney This was soooo good. 👍https://t.co/kvo0ig7rQl

[Tara Keeney @tarakeeney]

From broke to building a multi billion dollar fintech 🤯

I walked with @awxjack, founder of @airwallex ⁠ 🚀

Follow @tarakeeney to see who’s next 🎤

[Chris Owens @snewoc]

@lancectk I used to have a love-hate relationship with month-end... I think now, it might just get to love-love. 💕

[Chris Owens @snewoc]

@RachaelRad @metalntwx Just a quiet day...

[Chris Owens @snewoc]

I remember working late into the night at monthend... 😅
Manually matching spreadsheet A to B, trying to work out why my labour reports didn't match my labour costs, and what exactly that weird invoice was on the 1st... 🤦‍♂️
Monthend might just be enjoyable now... 👋 T:0

[T:0 @t0finance]

Today, we're introducing T:0.

T:0 is an AI-native finance platform that replaces a fragmented stack of bookkeeping, reporting, revenue recognition, monthly close and finance ops with one always-on system.

Now available in private preview.

[Chris Owens @snewoc]

So many good things here...
🎙️ @twentyminutevc = epic podcast
👨‍💻@awxjack = epic boss
👏 @airwallex = epic fundraise & valuation

[Harry Stebbings @HarryStebbings]

I could do some bland fundraising congrats tweet for Airwallex and Jack Zhang today with their raising $320M at an $11BN valuation.

But I am not going to.

The reason I love doing 20VC is because I learn from the smartest minds in the world and they often become friends.

@awxjack is a big brother to me, a dear friend, a permanent fixture at every birthday party of mine and a firm favourite of my mother.

Jack, I am so proud of you and the team today. This is just the start. LFG. ❤️

[Jack Zhang @awxjack]

We’ve raised $320M at an $11B valuation, led by Addition.

AI is changing how companies are built. Teams are smaller, global from day one, and using agents more. We’ve spent 10 years building the financial rails for that world.

We’re now building the intelligent layer on top.

[Airwallex @airwallex]

Meet Airi: a consumer wallet, built directly into Airwallex Payments.

Early merchants are already seeing up to 14% higher conversion and 3x faster checkout with no extra cost or setup required.

Live now globally with agent-led checkout coming soon.

[Chris Owens @snewoc]

👀 👇

[Airwallex @airwallex]

A new chapter for Airwallex. Coming soon.