Michael Ragavan: The Founder Rewriting the Rules of Wealth in Australia

Michael Ragavan was born in Australia to parents who had fled genocide in Sri Lanka, arriving with little more than resilience, hope, and an unshakable belief in opportunity. That belief would become the foundation for Our Leg Up, a bold venture reimagining home equity as a tool not just for building wealth, but for widening the path to ownership and opportunity. In this conversation, Michael shares the grit it took to challenge the system, the years spent learning the rules well enough to rewrite them, and why innovation and fairness must go hand in hand if we want to change the future of wealth in Australia.

Key Highlights

~ From family sacrifice to founder’s vision – How his parents’ escape from genocide in Sri Lanka shaped his worldview and gave him a deep understanding of financial insecurity and opportunity.

~ Reimagining home equity – Why Our Leg Up is more than a financial product; it’s a new category designed to help aspiring homeowners buy years sooner and give existing owners a way to put their equity to work.

~ Fighting “impossible” – The candid reality of being told no by banks, lawyers, and advisors and the relentless persistence it takes to turn a system-wide “no” into a workable “yes.”

~ Learning the rules to change them – The years Michael spent in the trenches studying regulations himself, developing the expertise to create a compliant and scalable model where none existed before.

~ Purpose as fuel – Why anchoring his business in fairness, inclusion, and real human impact has been the most resilient driver through setbacks and long timelines.

Michael’s story is a reminder that change rarely comes from those who accept the rules as they are; it comes from those willing to challenge them, learn them, and rewrite them for a fairer future. Our Leg Up is still in its early chapters, but its potential to reshape the way Australians think about wealth, ownership, and opportunity is already clear. This is more than a business story, it’s a blueprint for purpose-driven innovation in one of the country’s most entrenched systems.

 

Connect with Michael Ragavan: LinkedIn 

Our Leg Up: LinkedIn |  Instagram | Website 

This episode is brought to you by: Naturally Glutenfree 

Connect with Kirsty Gee:  LinkedIn |  Instagram | Website