Two Sydney teenagers are building AI startups before they finish school

OpenAI handed Australian founders $5.5 million in free credits, here’s who’s using it

Sydney just hosted one of the more unusual startup gatherings you’ll see this year. In one room: two Year 12 students who haven’t sat their HSC yet, and established founders who’ve already raised serious money and built real companies. The common thread was OpenAI, and more than A$5.5 million in API credits the company says it has handed to Australian founders so far.

The occasion was OpenAI’s Sydney Founder Day, where more than 150 founders, entrepreneurs and builders turned up to talk about what they’re actually building. The guest list ranged from Relevance AI co-founder Jacky Koh and Ignition co-founder Dane Thomas, down to Peter Starodubtsev and Steve Zhu, two Sydney school students running their own AI ventures before graduation.

Peter’s the founder of Petrex, a gaming and advertising startup that’s already landed six-figure pre-seed funding. He’s using OpenAI’s Codex tool to build branded experiences into games, rather than interrupting them with traditional ads.

“Traditional advertising interrupts the experience; we build brands into games in a way that feels natural and adds to the fun,” Peter said. “I started working on the idea three years ago, and since then we’ve partnered with brands like Samsung and NBC Universal Studios. Raising funding was a huge learning experience, but what I enjoy most is building the product, testing new ideas and growing our team.”

Steve, meanwhile, is building something a lot of small business owners will recognise the need for. His platform, Workwise, is designed to help Australian SMEs coordinate the tangle of tools most businesses end up running on, without the owner having to keep the whole operation in their head.

The idea came from watching his own family navigate that exact mess. “Watching my mum build her e-commerce business, I saw how easy it was for founders to get lost in the minutiae,” Steve said. “We’re building Workwise so running a business doesn’t require the owner to constantly hold the whole business in their head, giving them more time and space for the decisions that actually move the company forward.”

Wulfie Bain, OpenAI’s International Applied AI Lead, was in Sydney for the event and said the calibre of founders on show, students included, stood out to him. “Australian founders have always built with global ambition. What’s changing is how quickly a great idea can become a real product,” he said. “Whether you’re an established founder or still at school, AI is lowering the barriers to building and giving Australian entrepreneurs new ways to compete on the world stage.”

Bain also pointed to the practical side of that equation, cost. “For Australian founders, that opportunity also depends on getting more useful work from every dollar they spend,” he said. “OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 family gives startups the flexibility to choose the right model for their needs, from complex tasks to fast, cost-effective work at scale. Recent improvements in efficiency have also reduced API pricing for GPT-5.6 Luna by 80%, helping founders stretch their budgets further as they build and grow.”

According to OpenAI, Australia now ranks among its top 10 global markets for developers building on its platform, though that figure comes from the company itself rather than independent data. Earlier this year, OpenAI expanded its startup program to offer eligible Australian companies up to US$50,000 (roughly A$70,000) in API credits, plus 10 free ChatGPT Business seats and access to Codex, a program still open to founders who qualify.

Founder Day itself wasn’t just speeches. There were live product demos and hands-on sessions covering legal services, fintech, customer support and automation, giving attendees a look at how founders across very different sectors are actually putting these tools to work day to day.

Keep up to date with our stories on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.