From Valedictorian to Forbes acclaim: How a young alum is making waves

After graduating as Valedictorian with a Bachelor of Commerce in 2018, University of Melbourne alum Andrew Pankevicius has steadily carved a niche for himself in the tech world.

His early career achievements culminated in his naming in 2024 in Forbes Australia’s 30 Under 30 list, recognising his work as the co-founder of Redactive AI, a start-up that tackles the challenges of deploying advanced technologies in enterprise settings.

Building a strong entrepreneurial foundation

While studying for a Bachelor of Commerce, Andrew edited the student economics journal. He said the experience was “the most valuable time” he had at university.

“I was able to go to people who worked at banks or in private equity or trading firms and be like ‘Hey, I’m a student. I don’t know much. What do you do?’ Through that, I started to understand how to describe who I was as a person, and it gave me a sense of what industry was looking for, and what sounded interesting to me to pursue in my career.”

For his degree, he travelled to San Francisco as part of a summer subject, working for design company 99 Designs. “I loved it,” he said. “That was an experience I could not have had if it wasn’t for the University of Melbourne.”

He said he would not have been able to seize the opportunity if it wasn’t for the generosity of donors, who supported the Melbourne Global Scholars award and a Global Management Consulting Travel Grant that funded his trip.

“The recognition from the University that this was something they wanted to chip in for and support was critical, it made the financial burden a lot easier.”

Contrasting the internship at 99 Designs with his day job in government taught him that he did not want to pursue a “really structured” career, he added. “Experiencing a taste of two different things in my undergrad meant I realised I wanted to do a lot more in the developmental, early-stage space, rather than the super-structured, theoretical space.”

A dynamic, impactful career

While he has achieved a lot at Redactive AI, Andrew said that being a founder also comes with challenges, thanks to the fact there are “spot-fires every week” that he needs to help put out.

“I have to think about things like investor relations, our HR policy and organisational governance. These aren’t things that you’re taught, they’re challenges that you encounter and quickly get to grasp with. You’re always focused on learning, as much as building an effective product to be marketed.”

But Andrew has also been “less stressed than ever in this role”, he says, because he works in an “incredibly purpose-driven environment”. It also helps that he has been friends with his co-founder for more than 15 years.

“We took that jump into starting a business together and it’s now like we’re an old married couple,” Andrew said.

As for budding entrepreneurs who are still at university and want to take the plunge with their own start-up to launch their career, Andrew has a simple piece of advice.

“Don’t! You’re probably not ready. There are very few cases of young people successfully navigating the challenges of running a start-up, and also being a trusted executive on teams where you have significant venture capital backers involved.”

Instead, working for others first can be an invaluable way to gain experience and witness first-hand the problems that organisations are looking to solve.

“It’s actually really important to go work for a start-up or a large corporate and understand the challenges that those organisations are facing. If you can get an internship, take it. You’re going to learn a lot. Don’t feel that you have to anchor yourself to start-ups on day one of your career.

“Actually doing something more traditional, like working for a large consultancy or a bank, for example, and then pivoting does give you a good grounding and unique skills to become a better founder or early-stage member of a founding team."