44. Milan Industries

Founder: Milan Rajkovic

Revenue: $357,456

Year: 2009

Head Office: Victoria

Employees: 4

Industry: IT & Technology

Website: https://www.m-i.com.au

Milan Industries founder Milan Rajkovic was just 18 years old when he launched Melbourne-based information technology services company Milan Industries.

The image of a young computer whiz might have worked for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, but it didn’t exactly give Rajkovic the flying start he was looking for. He says his age was the biggest challenge he faced during the start-up phase.

“People with large companies didn’t want an 18-year-old to take care of their IT,” he says simply.

Undaunted, Rajkovic pressed on and in 2009-10 the company posted revenue of $357,456. Milan Industries’ office in the suburb of Northcote is now home to four employees.

There are three separate divisions under the Milan banner – M-I IT Consulting Services, which provides IT support and managed services for SMEs; M-I Corporate services, which offers a range of outsourced services including asset and financial services; and M-I Cloud Hosting, which focuses on corporate and government clients.

Rajkovic says he is proud of the manner in which he has managed to build the business in a few short years at the age of just 21.

He already has his first national client (a registered training organisation called Skillup Australia) and says he is on the path to reaching his goal – to become the biggest IT&T firm in Australia and New Zealand.