Name: Aulay Macaulay
Business name: Roster Plus
Age: 24
State: Victoria
Roster Plus is the brainchild of Aulay Macaulay, who became inspired after watching his girlfriend struggle to juggle work shifts and university classes due to an ineffective roster system.
Macaulay was already in charge of a web development company, which was routinely building successful start-ups for other people, so in 2009 Roster Plus was set up as a side project.
“By 19, my web development company was turning over $400,000 per annum and I was able to run it while travelling around Europe,” he says.
But by 2010, Macaulay had become obsessed with Roster Plus, which had taken over all of his time as he pushed it towards becoming an internationally successful start-up.
Within the first six months of setting up the business, Macaulay had signed up World Vision Australia as a client, along with more than 20 other Australian businesses across multiple sectors.
Roster Plus is now used by more than 400 managers, and completed a rollout for the Telstra retail network earlier this year.
The company has also launched a “revolutionary approach to time and attendance” as an extension of its product, with Telstra keen to implement the system already.
Rather than shy away from innovation because of his age, Macaulay makes a point of building solutions for his generation with his generation. And he’s not stopping here.
“There is no doubt in my mind we are going to absolutely shake up rostering in Australia, then globally. While this might not be the start-up that defines me as a ‘future maker’, the next one will be,” he says.
