Thinking inside the box

James Chin Moody Co-founder and CEO of Sendle, the courier delivery disruptor Aged 44 and married with two children, he lives in Sydney

- ALAN DEANS

Fact file

First job at 14 was working at Bookworld in Stafford City shopping centre, Brisbane. “We got massive discounts, which was great.” His first savings were stashed in a hollowed-out book. “It was a top-secret thing. Eventually, I worked out you could take it to the bank and get interest.” Once, when his wife Geraldine accepted an attractive job offer from Virgin Australia, he became the primary carer for their two children. When they had a nap, he worked on his start-up ideas in the front room. He says he has learned something from every job, including about values-based leadership when at the CSIRO.

As a young man, James Chin Moody was deeply involved in advocacy as co-chair of the United Nations Environment Programme’s youth council. A core focus was sustainable consumption. Fast-forward 20 years or so, and the devoted campaigner is putting the beliefs he supported then into practice via a unique courier delivery disruptor called Sendle.

That business contracts mid-tier courier companies to collect parcels for Sendle’s clients, initially from the premises or homes of small business operators. Once the couriers delivered their regular loads for the day for other contractors, they had been returning empty to base. What better way to make an extra income than to backload Sendle’s parcels for despatch around the country?