The impact entrepreneur: Shane Muller on building businesses for social good and shaping tomorrow

Entrepreneur, philanthropist and now author, Shane Muller talks career, philosophy, and leveraging his position for positive social change.

Shane Muller is an influential entrepreneur, mentor and philanthropist renowned for his involvement in over 300 businesses worldwide. Founder of Paladin AI Ventures, InspED, SafeWatch and The Destiny Foundation, his ventures are diverse, ranging from technology innovations to community-focused initiatives.

A man who prefers to shine the spotlight on his ventures, team, clients and projects rather than himself, Shane’s approach to business is uniquely centred on fostering growth and potential in others.

Recently we talked to Shane in order to discover the roots of his entrepreneurial philosophy, uncover the motivations behind his remarkable career, and explore how entrepreneurship can be leveraged for broader, social impact and lasting change.

Hi Shane. What inspired you to venture into the realm of technology and entrepreneurship?

My journey into entrepreneurialism started at age ten when my sister got a computer for a gift and I swiftly claimed it. I had the opportunity to write a payroll program for a company with 370 security staff. I wrote a whole program when I’d never touched a computer or programmed before. It was my first venture into entrepreneurship, collaboration and experimentation.

Once I built the program, I moved onto simple data entry every month and I was getting a handsome monthly salary. Although I wasn’t motivated by money, that’s what got me started in technology and gave me the freedom to experiment a little more.

What do you think drives you?

I think there’s two key aspects to me: the entrepreneurial aspect and the impact aspect. That would be the best way to summarise me.

There are many businesses and ventures that interest me or I have a vision for. Some are embryonic, some have been operating for 25 years plus. Entrepreneurship is my craft; it’s the way I’m wired to achieve an impact.

My upbringing also had a huge influence on me. I was born and raised in Sri Lanka and there, my family was relatively well off, but the neighbours were not. Australia is different, you are segregated in terms of class for the most part.

In Sri Lanka, someone with wealth could be next to someone who sleeps on the street. This really solidified my belief that if someone is blessed with means, they have a responsibility to empower others. This is a huge driving force behind my work.

Can you share a little more about your professional journey and how you moved through the tech space to where you are now?

When I came to Australia as a teen, I experienced some serious culture shock. I struggled with school and academia and ended up leaving in year ten. From there I had numerous jobs in the tech space. One job I had, I worked an average of 100 hours a week for a few months, but I didn’t mind – my DNA is all about getting things done.

In 1999, I set out to build OBT, a cloud computing business, nine years before it really hit the scene in Australia. It was a huge investment and staff were expensive. Statistically, it shouldn’t have lasted. At that time around 90% of these types of businesses were closing, year-on-year over five years of projections.

After years of success and learning some expensive lessons, OBT expanded to Singapore and the USA. We reached our 20-year anniversary in 2019 and celebrated it as one of the most prolific cloud computing operations in the Asia Pacific Region. It wasn’t easy.

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Around the 19-year mark at OBT, we identified a lot of industry problems. In reviewing all our losses and missed goals, we realised there were opportunities to fill in the gaps and turn these into strengths. That fuelled the launch of ArchITect Consulting, our tech transformation consulting business.

Instead of running things in our own data centre, we were consulting with businesses to the top end of town – what I like to call billboard companies – helping them transform – rapidly. Those companies were some of the top brands in the telco, banking and airline industries.

What inspired you to transition from your previous businesses to founding Paladin AI Ventures?

After twenty years doing anything, something shifts over time.

Whether you like it or not, your identity gets embedded in what you do, your title and your business. While there was nothing wrong with my business, and the last thing I wanted was to run away from my ventures, I wanted to separate my identity from them. I chose to spend time getting to the core of me, and the core of my abilities and my craft.

I asked myself – what have I done over the last twenty years?

Well, I had created around 50 products and services and I realised my passion was innovating new products and services, and pioneering new paths.

So, in 2021 I set up Paladin AI Ventures. The venture is a fusion between an incubator and pre-venture capital, or more accurately, pre-seed. Essentially a birthing machine of ideas for businesses that solve community problems and make an impact.

It’s for when someone has something in their head, a glimpse, but no name or concept. I wanted to help others with the entrepreneurial side, getting ideas out and into movement. Paladin AI Ventures is about taking ideas from glimpses to an MVP or prototype.

What inspired the initial concept behind SafeWatch, and how has its mission expanded in response to global mental health challenges?

One of the first businesses to come out of Paladin AI Ventures was a mental wellness app. I took a personal interest in this concept after I saw research that showed self-harm and choosing to exit life is a silent cancer. You can’t always tell what’s happening inside people, and that’s what ended up driving me.

Little did I know the statistics in 2019 were quite low compared to what would happen over the ensuing three years as we saw mental health take a huge hit worldwide in the throes of the pandemic. In 2020, I started doing more research into mental health and that became my focus.

As a result, we decided to craft a platform and support app so people never have to say “I had no idea that person, friend or family member was suffering”.

In 2021 I assembled a team, to cover the who, why and what. Vision and values took shape until the concept reached MVP. The concept eventually became SafeWatch, and we transferred all value and IP into a dedicated and separate company.

Since 2023, Paladin AI Ventures has been working on a new and disruptive service called Secure My Digital, that effectively would render the risk of ransomware redundant!

What foundational principles guide the Destiny Foundation, and how do these reflect your ultimate objectives?

I have been fortunate and blessed that I have always asked my “why” early on in life. Constant questioning of the ultimate purpose sowed the seeds of The Destiny Foundation, which was established in 2001.

It is my ultimate objective and an outward expression of the fruits of all my entrepreneurial ventures. Businesses come and go, but the work of The Destiny Foundation is a lifelong passion and pursuit.

While some ventures will in themselves become impact businesses, like SafeWatch, the concept of the foundation is that I can answer how and why we’re motivated to make profits and where they go. The Destiny Foundation is centred on four impact principles:

• Reinvigorating the value of the family: Emphasising family units as essential building blocks for societal development.
• Supporting children: Impacting children’s futures positively, including supporting NGOs that help develop children from the womb to the workforce.
• Elevating single mothers: Providing coaching, training, and mentoring programs to empower single mothers, who may face significant disadvantages.
• Nurturing to restoration abuse survivors: Creating recovery programs for individuals who have endured any form of abuse, aiming to address and heal generational trauma and help restore lives.

Through the Destiny Foundation, we hope to impact millions of people.

You’ve recently written a book. Could you tell us a little more about it and what you hope readers will take away from it?

The book is titled “Your Unique Edge: Living Your Masterpiece”, published under the InspED brand, which was created as a blend of inspiration and education.

The objective of the EdTech business is to facilitate the ongoing learning and growth of those who “don’t fit into the box of normal” in a positive way.

I have found that if you don’t fit into the majority box of learners, you get labelled, diagnosed and marginalised. We need to remember, these people have amazing skills, so we need to find ways to address these issues and bring the usually labelled and marginalised into the fold. Research and history shows that many of the world’s substantial changes have been made by those who didn’t “fit in the box of normal”.

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The book shares insights into my own experiences and lessons, and discusses long term goals, the power of silence, the personality of wisdom, many of which have been instrumental in shaping my various ventures.

Throughout the book, I’ve focussed on writing to six different audience groups: families and parents, children, single mums, people who have experienced abuse, entrepreneurs, and people suffering with mental illness.

By talking to different personas specifically, I hope to inspire and enlighten the readers as they navigate their own unique journeys.

Readers can learn more about Your Unique Edge: Living Your Masterpiece at the InspED website.