Junkbird is what happens when a software founder looks at the waste sector and realises every truck on the road is still being dispatched by clipboard.
Australia generates e-waste at three times the global per-capita average. Less than 20% of it is properly recovered. The companies meant to handle it run heavy depots, dispatch by phone, and quote by callback. The result is a sector that's slow to adopt technology, slow to recover material value, and slow to respond to customers.
We're building the opposite: lean urban sites, AI-routed dispatch, software-grade operations, and a recovery report on every job. No greenwashing — just the numbers.
AJ Smith builds companies that scale.
A serial founder operating across four jurisdictions — South Africa, Switzerland, New Zealand, and now Australia — AJ has a pattern of identifying overlooked sectors and rebuilding them with technology and discipline.
His most recent venture, TradeWindow, was founded in 2018, listed on the NZX in 2022, and achieved ASX foreign-exempt status in December 2025. Across FY20–FY25, the company compounded revenue at a 118% CAGR. Earlier, he founded MediFin, GreenFin and Bonds Africa in South Africa, and Commonwealth Finance Group in Switzerland.
He is an executive member of the Young Presidents Organisation.
Strategy, business plan, FY26-30 financials, gap analysis.
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