Overview
Steve Sammartino is an Australian futurist, author, technologist, and keynote speaker focused on how technology reshapes business, work, and everyday life. Official materials position him as a media commentator and stage educator who has delivered hundreds of keynotes, written widely translated business books, and built experimental tech projects that make the future feel concrete.
For SUCCESS readers scanning the future-of-work and entrepreneurship calendar, Sammartino is a practical futurist: less sci-fi prophecy, more “what does fragmentation, platforms, and DIY tech mean for operators now?”
Why SUCCESS readers care
Leaders who feel behind on technology often need translators, not more jargon. Sammartino’s books—The Great Fragmentation and The Lessons School Forgot—argue that small, agile players can win when markets break into niches, and that self-directed learning beats outdated schooling for tech-era careers. His media and keynote work turns those ideas into actionable talks for business audiences.
Career path
According to published profiles, he launched Rentoid in 2007—an early peer-to-peer online hire marketplace in the sharing economy—later sold to an ASX-listed company (2014). Experimental projects include a Lego Space Shuttle balloon launch into the stratosphere (with Raul Oaida) and a life-sized compressed-air Lego car covered by Wired and ABC. In 2020 he co-wrote and co-hosted The Rebound, a business and technology TV show on Australia’s Nine Network.
What he teaches / explores
- Future of business in fragmented, platform-driven markets
- Technology literacy for leaders who did not grow up coding
- Sharing-economy and collaborative-consumption lessons from early marketplace building
- Experimental making as a way to understand tech capability
- Keynote storytelling that connects futurism to commercial decisions
Who it's for
- Australian and international business audiences needing future-of-work clarity
- Founders exploring marketplace and platform strategy
- Conference buyers seeking a futurist who has built and shipped
- SUCCESS readers connecting tech change to entrepreneurial action
Frequently asked
Futurist or entrepreneur first?
Both—his credibility pitch is builder + communicator, not analyst-only.
Book start?
The Great Fragmentation for market structure; The Lessons School Forgot for personal tech-era learning.
Events?
stevesammartino.com speaking pages and SUCCESS Events listings.