We sat with Sam, the co-founder of HBL, to trace the path from eBay side-hustles to a clinical empire.
Imagine the grind of a university student importing products just to keep the lights on. For Sam, this was not just a side-hustle. It was an early masterclass in margins, supply chains, and the unsentimental reality of the market. But like many high achievers, the promise of the corporate dream eventually pulled him away from the hustle and into a prestigious graduate role.
On paper, he had made it. He was suited up and climbing the ladder. But within months, the view from the top felt hollow. Sam hit a professional rock bottom, finding himself in a system that offered security but stifled his motivation. He did what most risk-averse professionals fear. He walked away from the dream to find a new beginning in the grit of the tech trade.
"Sam has this scrapper mentality. He sees a market gap like a broken circuit board and rewires it for maximum output."
Sam’s path back to autonomy started with a return to his roots. He began sourcing and selling second hand computers, refurbishing hardware, and finding value in the discarded. He spent nights in the high-voltage world of crypto mining, learning the brutal lessons of infrastructure, overheads, and the volatility of digital frontiers.
These were the trench years that served as his real-world MBA.
They taught him how to scale a system from zero and how to manage risk when your own capital is on the line. But while he was mastering the hardware, he was looking for a venture with a human pulse. That opportunity arrived when he partnered with Emily, a senior ER nurse who was staging her own rebellion against the public health system.
In 2021, the pair launched HBL from a tiny home based studio in Beverly Hills. While Emily provided the elite clinical safety she honed in the emergency department, Sam focused on the engine room. He took every lesson learned from eBay importing and tech flipping and applied it to clinical infrastructure. They bypassed the fancy CBD rents and corporate bloat. Instead, they passed those savings directly to their clients, focusing on a results driven model with genuine warmth. Within six months, the little studio was bursting. They were proving that a boutique, personal model could outperform the corporate giants by simply caring more.
"He is the architect who turned my clinical vision into a scalable, bulletproof machine."
As they scaled from Balmain in 2024 to their flagship headquarters in Arncliffe in 2025, the stakes transformed. They were no longer just running a clinic. They were building a statement. Sam’s focus turned to proving that cosmetic medicine could operate with hospital level governance while feeling like a sanctuary.
However, scaling a clinic exposed a secret in the industry: the training for new practitioners was broken. Sam watched as nurses entered the private sector through crash courses with zero hands-on confidence. He saw the frustration in the market and knew they had to build the solution themselves.
This led to the birth of HBL Academy. Based in their Arncliffe headquarters, the academy is a boutique training space that prioritises one-on-one mentorship over ballroom PowerPoints. Sam engineered the business side of the curriculum, integrating a dedicated IV therapy program and teaching the unspoken essentials: AHPRA compliance, product sourcing, and the commercial infrastructure required to turn a nurse into a CEO.
In 2025, when HBL won the Outstanding Beauty Services Award, it was more than a trophy for Sam. It was validation for the years of side-hustles, the rock-bottom moments, and the audacity to leave the corporate ladder behind.
Today, HBL is a movement of nurse-led authority. For Sam, the journey from eBay importer to co-founder of a clinical empire is proof that the most stable ladder is the one you build yourself. The corporate world teaches you how to be a component. The market teaches you how to be the machine. By helping nurses reclaim their autonomy, he is not just building a business.
He is helping an entire profession break its chains.
