Since being hailed amongst the three best young entrepreneurs, Shubham Kandel’s hunger and ambition has only grown. He’s now dedicated to building a portfolio of business’ across a range of industries supported by a central growth and innovation engine.
But, true to the traditional entrepreneurial story, Kandel’s success wasn’t always smooth sailings, and he ended up selling his agency before orchestrating a merger between agencies into a new unity called What Works Global, of which he is now the founder and managing director. Since being crowned the entrepreneur champion, What Works Global has soared up 50 per cent in business revenue across marketing and tech.
The night of nights for emerging young leaders is fast approaching, and to celebrate the lead up we sat down with Kandel to discuss how the award win has catapulted his career and what emerging trends in 2026 and beyond excite him.
B&T: What’s happened in your career since being recognised as part of B&T’s 30 Under 30?
Shubham Kandel: What Works recognised me as a finalist for the 2025 Chief Ministers Export Awards, I became the official innovation partner for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, and I judged on a panel in the latest round of ICON grants of up to 30k for startups.
Since being recognised I’ve also had strong growth in business revenue across marketing and tech (50 per cent +) and three new hires (two of which were senior), I’m also currently finalising the acquisition of a small health services business to add to our group portfolio, and have launched a unique service model, partnering with five business’ so far in a shared risk and reward setup where we support them across all areas of strategy, tech, marketing and sales to fuel new growth and innovation.
B&T: What are your career ambitions? Has this changed after being recognised this year?
SK: My career ambitions have only grown since 30 Under 30, I’m looking to build a portfolio of business’ across a range of industries supported by a central growth and innovation engine (What Works). This includes partnering with established business’ to help them innovate and grow with our new service model.
Eventually, I’ll look to personally invest in and mentor other business’ that I believe in, sitting on their boards and helping make key decisions. And one day I’d love to work on physical products that blend great design with the latest tech. I’ve been playing in the digital world a lot so would love to explore this later in my career.
B&T: What trends/ opportunities are exciting you in the industry?
SK: I’m making a big bet on the below three trends/opportunities. I truly believe they’re going to have a massive impact over the coming decades.
AI is not a bubble, it’s just getting started. As the tools evolve, how I use them does too. The other day, I was running short on time so I spoke to an AI to help me review an important contract while driving to meet the client. It worked surprisingly well! I think AI is going to massively disrupt a lot of knowledge based work.
Self driving cars are already here, so robots aren’t too far away. It sounds crazy but they’re going to disrupt a lot of the labour market. It’s a huge opportunity and I’ll try to ride this wave through investments.
It feels like we’ve reached late stage capitalism and global tensions are higher than ever. It’s worth taking an early punt on alternative financial and digital infrastructure like blockchains that has the potential to run our future.
B&T: Why did you choose to enter this year’s 30 Under 30?
SK: I was turning 30 this year so it was my last chance to and our marketing director told me I should give it a shot.
B&T: What advice would you give to other emerging leaders in the industry?
Pay attention to market signals, where is a lot of the attention, effort or money going? Move where the world is going and try to be early.
Look for big problems and figure out how you can be uniquely positioned to solve them.. easier said than done. Finally, build a strong team and network—staff, contractors, mentors and advisors. Pay them well, share your challenges, and listen to them.
Ready to take a leap of faith? Enter B&T’s 30 Under 30 Awards now!
