Best Blackbird Ventures Podcasts (2024)

1
#173 Sarah Nolet: Silicon Valley Roots, Multi-Sport Athlete, Building Tenacious Ventures, State of AgTech, and Making Vulnerability a Strength 1:07:36

12h ago1:07:36

1:07:36

Sarah is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Tenacious Ventures - Australia's first AgTech venture firm. Their $35M first fund was backed by Grok Ventures, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) with investors including primary producers, and agribusiness executives. Tenacious Ventures has so far backed 14 startups building a more sustainab…

1
#172 Scott Thomson: Becoming head of Innovation at Google, Navigating International Childhood, Why Engineers lead Tech Companies 1:15:40

14d ago1:15:40

1:15:40

Scott served as the recent Head of Innovation for Customer Engineering at Google. He worked at the company from 2015 through 2024 in the Ads Data Platforms, Analytics and Google Cloud product areas in ANZ and APAC. Before Google, Scott worked with Adobe on digital strategy and transformation. Scott is a also recent graduate of the VC catalyst progr…

1
#171 Jacqui Purcell, Adam Milgrom & Ashleigh Camm: Art of Zero to Great Relationship Alchemy 1:00:03

22d ago1:00:03

1:00:03

In this special conversation, hear from three relatable role models: Adam Milgrom, Partner at the VC Firm, Giant Leap; Jacqui Purcell, Operating Advisor at TDM Growth Partners (She's also ex CFO of two leading tech companies in Culture Amp + Deputy) and Ashleigh Camm, Board Course Director/VP of Labs at LUNA about how exactly Founders and Investors…

1
#170 Steve Baxter: Army to building startup with wife, Shark Tank Stardom, Ten13 + Defence Tech Investing 55:24

27d ago55:24

55:24

Steve Baxter is a Tech entrepreneur and Investor. He co-founded the Investing Platform, TEN13 and recently a VC Fund, Beaten Zone Venture Partners focused on DefenseTech. He has built and sold two startups: SE Net and PIPE Networks (for $373M). He was a 'Shark' on the hit TV series, Shark Tank for four seasons, showcasing his business expertise. Th…

1
#169: Silicon Valley to Aotearoa: Unfiltered debunking of NZ's startup myths with Blackbird's Phoebe Harrop & David Booth 1:23:17

1M ago1:23:17

1:23:17

Phoebe is a Partner in Blackbird’s NZ team with investments in Tracksuit, VeVe and Carepatron. Prior to joining Blackbird, she was a Director in the Growth Equity fund at Generation (Al Gore's Growth Equity Fund). David is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Blackbird NZ and previously an early employee at Angel List, Carta, and 500 Startups. He then b…

1
#168 Craig Blair: Co-Founder of the $1B+ VC Fund, Airtree in his most candid interview ever 1:17:54

2M ago1:17:54

1:17:54

Craig Blair is the Co-Founder and Partner at Airtree, a globally recognised Venture Capital firm with $1B+ funds under management. Before AirTree, he was a partner at Netus, a venture fund with a global top decile track record. He has also been a founder of three software businesses -- two of which were successful and one of which was a painful lea…

1
#167 Investment Memo: How CLT Toolbox is eliminating 39% of global carbon emissions from buildings ft. Adam Jones & Ringo Thomas 51:51

2M ago51:51

51:51

Welcome to installment #25 of the Investment Memo series and overall episode #167 on the show. Submit this EOI for your company to be considered in future episodes of this special series! *** Adam Jones and Ringo Thomas are the Co-Founders of CLT Toolbox, a software company building solutions for structural engineers and architects that radically s…

1
#166 Alasdair MacLeod (Rare Public Interview): Murdoch's Newsrooms to Soil Carbon Pioneer & Reshaping Agriculture 56:16

3M ago56:16

56:16

Alasdair is Executive Chairman of Macdoch, a private investment company with offices in Sydney and London. Macdoch comprises of Macdoch Ventures, investing in early stage tech startups, Macdoch Agriculture using capital to drive global climate solutions and the Macdoch foundation. Al was previously a senior leader at Newscorp for over 20 years and …

1
#165 Jillian Broadbent (Rare Public Interview): Trailblazing Board Director's Journey at Macquarie, Qantas & Beyond! 1:09:39

3M ago1:09:39

1:09:39

Jillian Broadbent is one of the leading Business and Industry minds, with extensive investment banking industry knowledge and markets expertise, including a deep knowledge of risk management and regulation. She has served on the boards of many organisations, encompassing finance, the arts, and other sectors. She is currently a Member of the Board o…

1
#164 Connor Archbold: Living in 28 homes, Unpacking the magic and learnings building 'Tracksuit', New York, NZ & Family! 1:13:18

3M ago1:13:18

1:13:18

Connor is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Tracksuit. Tracksuit provides always-on, beautiful tracking to measure brand health. Tracksuit today covers 1,300 brands including many household names and recently raised $20M dollars in funding from leading investors to fuel their next phase of Growth. Connor was born in California, USA and now lives in Auck…

1
#163 Grant Dooley (Rare Public Interview): Learnings as Counsul General in China + Indonesia, Inside the $2B fund, Breakthrough Victoria! 1:18:33

3M ago1:18:33

1:18:33

Grant Dooley is an experienced international funds manager and the CEO of the $2B Fund, Breakthrough Victoria, with prior roles at Hastings and heading ARA Infrastructure. Grant had a distinguished career as a Foreign Affairs and Diplomatic trade official for the Australian Government, including two years as the Australian Consul General in China a…

1
#162 Adam Jacobs: How he built 'The Iconic' and now 'Hatch', Learnings from selling kitchen knives, personal identity and dad's influence! 1:03:39

4M ago1:03:39

1:03:39

Adam Jacobs is the Co-Founder of THE ICONIC - A globally recognised online fashion retailer, and the Co-Founder of Hatch - a new venture whose mission is for all people to find meaning in work. Adam was born and lives in Sydney, Australia with brief stints living in Boston and Copenhagen. It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Click the links bel…

1
#161 Holly Ransom: Inspiring journey from Perth to working w Obama, Branson, Gladwell + world events, her grandma and more! 57:12

4M ago57:12

57:12

Holly Ransom is an internationally acclaimed leadership speaker and consultant – paving the way for leaders across the globe to turn knowledge into action for real-world change. She is CEO of Emergent Global and author of The Leading Edge. Holly was personally requested by Barack Obama to interview him on stage. She delivered a Peace Charter to His…

1
#160 Kell Reilly: First Ever Public Interview; Lessons from investing in Spotify, Uber, Atlassian 1:21:07

5M ago1:21:07

1:21:07

Kell is the newest Partner at the Venture Capital firm, Airtree. Before joining Airtree, he spent most of his career in Silicon Valley at renowned firms such as Dragoneer, D1 Capital Partners and General Atlantic, investing in some of the most interesting consumer and enterprise companies in technology (Airbnb, Appfolio, Atlassian, Gitlab, Gusto, S…

1
#159 Matteo Franceschetti: From Late English Learner to Building "Eight Sleep" with Khosla & Founders Fund Backing 1:07:44

5M ago1:07:44

1:07:44

Matteo is the Co-Founder and CEO of Eight Sleep, the sleep fitness company. Eight Sleep developed a proprietary technology which is redesigning sleep by developing cutting-edge AI and machine learning models to track bio signals during the night and optimising body recovery and rest while asleep. The end goal of the Pod is to compress sleep and sca…

1
#158 Judy Anderson-Firth: Source of "abundant giving" personality, becoming CEO w Dom Pym, democratising access to investing + personal news with her wife! 1:17:54

5M ago1:17:54

1:17:54

Judy is the Group CEO of Euphemia, the family office for Australian entrepreneur and technologist, Dom Pym. Together they manage ~$65m in investments globally, focussing on Fintech, ClimateTech, women-led startups and startup infrastructure. Prior to teaming up with Dom, Judy was the CEO of Startup Victoria, Australia’s largest network for entrepre…

1
#157 Jack Zhang: Airwallex's $5.6B Journey - From Coffee Shop to Global Fintech Giant (First Ever In-Depth Interview) 56:51

6M ago56:51

56:51

Jack Zhang is the Co-founder and CEO of Airwallex, last valued at $5.6B. Airwallex is a leading global financial platform for modern businesses, offering trusted solutions to manage everything from payments, treasury, and spend management to embedded finance, serving over 100,000 companies around the world. Jack is responsible for devising and impl…

1
#156 Ahmed Fahour (pt 2 of 2 - Rare Public Interview): How he became the highly acclaimed CEO of Citigroup, NAB & Australia Post 1:07:20

6M ago1:07:20

1:07:20

This is the second and final part of a 2 part special conversation with Ahmed Fahour in a rare public interview appearance. Ahmed is a prominent business executive who has held leadership positions in various organizations around the world. He moved to Australia from Lebanon at a young age, and is currently CEO of The Gurner Group. Previously, he h…

1
#155 Ahmed Fahour (pt 1 of 2 - Rare Public Interview): Early life influences, Lebanon, Adversity, Re-marriage + new CEO role! 1:16:58

6M ago1:16:58

1:16:58

This is part 1 of a 2 part special conversation with Ahmed Fahour in a rare public interview appearance. Ahmed is a prominent business executive who has held leadership positions in various organizations around the world. He moved to Australia from Lebanon at a young age, and is currently CEO of The Gurner Group. Previously, he has held well known …

1
#154 Larry Marshall: Loosing dad early, building 6 tech companies, 30 yrs in the US, transforming science & innovation culture 1:15:48

6M ago1:15:48

1:15:48

Dr. Larry Marshall is a distinguished scientist, technology innovator, and business leader with over 25 years of experience. He holds a PhD in Physics and As the longest-serving chief executive of CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, he led a transformation that resulted in the first growth in 30 years and the first emissions reduction in 10…

1
#153 Mark Suster: Battling ADHD, Selling to Salesforce, Good vs Bad Acquisitions, Venture Capital predictions for 2024! 1:15:42

7M ago1:15:42

1:15:42

Mark Suster is a globally renowned Investor, being Partner at Upfront Ventures, based in LA, California. He previously was the founder & CEO of two successful enterprise software companies, the most recent of which was sold to Salesforce.com where Mark became VP, Product. Mark was born in Philadelphia, and now lives in Los Angeles, California in th…

1
#152 Holly Kramer (Rare Public Interview): US Countryside to Board Director at ANZ, Woolworths & Fonterra 1:09:32

7M ago1:09:32

1:09:32

We're joined by Holly Kramer in a very rare public interview appearance. Holly is an experienced non-executive Director and Chief Executive. She is on the boards of leading companies such as Woolworths, ANZ, Fonterra and more. Holly is the former CEO of Best & Less and has more than 25 years’ experience in general management, marketing and sales, i…

1
[Replay] Daniel Petre: Insecurities, reporting to Bill Gates, founding Airtree, building a philantropic nation & more! 1:05:22

8M ago1:05:22

1:05:22

This is a replay of our very popular episode with Daniel Petre. He was one one of 5 global VP's under Bill Gates at Microsoft, Co-founded three Venture Capital firms including the globally successful Airtree, and is now building his non for profit in Start Giving. **** In this (replay) episode #113 w Daniel Petre, learn about: sunrise in Sydney and…

1
[Replay] Anil Sabharwal: Multicultural roots to leading THREE of Google's nine BILLION active user products! 1:09:45

8M ago1:09:45

1:09:45

This is a replay of our very popular episode with Anil Sabharwal (one of his only public interviews to date!). Anil is Vice President of Product Management at Google. The company has nine products that have achieved the coveted Billion active users goal, and Anil has built and led three of them in Google Photos, Google Chrome and Google Drive. He i…

1
#151 Sam Sicilia (Rare Public Interview): Humble roots, theorotical physics, Chief Investment Officer for $100B+ retirement fund, Hostplus! 1:10:32

8M ago1:10:32

1:10:32

We're joined by Sam Sicilia in a very rare public interview appearance. Sam is the Chief Investment Officer for the multi-billion dollar superannuation Fund (Retirement savings) Hostplus, often referred to as a 'giant' in the industry with around 1.7 million members and over $100b funds under management. *** Learn about Sam’s sunrise in Melbourne, …

1
Holly Cardew, Founder and CEO of Carted on connecting shoppers to every product on the planet 1:05:52

8M ago1:05:52

1:05:52

Forget what you think you know about building a new e-commerce experience because Carted sees the world differently. It’s a world where the merchant is no longer the only focus for commerce innovation. In this episode, we talk to Holly Cardew, Carted’s Founder, about how they are changing the future of shopping by standardising and organising the w…

1
#150 Simon Holmes à Court (First Ever In-Depth Public Interview): Life influences, tech, energy, politics, climate 200 and the "trim tab" 1:07:53

8M ago1:07:53

1:07:53

To celebrate this milestone episode 150, we're joined by Simon Holmes à Court in a very rare public interview appearance, and we believe his first about his own story! Simon has stood at the intersection of community, climate action and politics since May 2007 when he began chairing the community cooperative that set out to build Australia’s first …

1
#149 Roundtable musings w Barnaby Marshall + Vignesh Kumar: Demistifying the fast growing NZ tech ecosystem w Icehouse Ventures and GD1 54:55

9M ago54:55

54:55

We're joined by Barnaby Marshall, Partner at Icehouse Ventures and Vignesh Kumar, Co-Managing Partner at GD1 in this special "round table musings" demystifying the fast growing New Zealand tech ecosystem. *** Episode guiding points: Think of this conversation as a balcony view of the state of play in the tech ecosystem in NZ and a round table of mu…

1
Tom Brunskill, Co-Founder and CEO of Forage shares lessons from closing the biggest brands in the world, reshaping employment with education, building a successful salesforce, solving the cold start problem ... 1:19:47

9M ago1:19:47

1:19:47

Reshaping education and employment, with Tom Brunskill, Co-Founder of Forage Forage is on a mission to transform career education and employment. By offering job simulations from leading companies, they enable students to gain real-world skills and experience, enabling them to make more informed decisions about the career they pursue. This innovati…

1
#148 Martijn Wilder (First Ever In-Depth Public Interview): Book publishing family to building Pollination & the $15B National Reconstruction Fund 1:03:02

9M ago1:03:02

1:03:02

Martijn Wilder is the Founder & CEO of Pollination, a global climate change advisory and investment firm. He is also the chair of the $15B National Reconstruction Fund set up by the Australian Government and was previously Head of Baker & McKenzie’s global climate law and finance practice for twenty years working with governments and bodies to acce…

1
Kiki’s co-founder and CEO, Toby Thomas-Smith describes the beginning of unlocking a new way of living, the mistakes, the deliberate design decisions, growing up with Dyslexia and so much more 1:12:40

10M ago1:12:40

1:12:40

Unlocking a new way of living with Toby Thomas-Smith, Co-Founder of Kiki Kiki is on a mission to revolutionise the way we live and connect. By leveraging the power of existing social ties, their unique peer-to-peer subletting platform enables users greater flexibility to travel, helping unlock new lifestyles, friendships and savings. ✅Growing a “cu…

1
#147 Sarah Hamilton: Entreprenurial upbringing to building Bella Box + how she's now an investor and advisor to leading companies! 50:14

10M ago50:14

50:14

Sarah Hamilton is the co-founder of Bellabox, Asia Pacific’s market leading beauty box that she co-founded with her twin sister, and raised investment from leading investors including SquarePeg. Sarah is now an investor, and advisor to many of the leading companies and CEOs in the consumer and beauty industry, and a graduate of the Wade Institute V…

1
#146 Toby Hall: Early influences in the UK and South Africa to becoming a highly regarded healthcare and not for profit executive leader 59:15

10M ago59:15

59:15

Toby Hall is an experienced not-for-profit and healthcare executive, having most recently served for 8 years as CEO of St Vincent’s Health Australia, Australia’s second largest healthcare provider, until February 2022. Prior to St Vincent’s, Toby was the CEO of Mission Australia for nearly a decade, and during his time at Mission, Toby oversaw the …

1
#145 Beezer Clarkson: The untold story to becoming partner at Sapphire and unpacking the behind the scenes of global Venture Capital 1:01:35

10M ago1:01:35

1:01:35

Beezer Clarkson leads Sapphire Partners‘ investments in venture capital funds in the USA and internationally -- and is widely recognised as one of the most prominent LP's (Limited Partners) thanks to her decade plus time in the industry and initiatives such as #OpenLP. Beezer was born in London, UK and now lives in Austin, USA. *** Episode guiding …

1
#144 Piruze Sabuncu: The unique journey to joining Stripe in South East Asia as first hire, turkish influences + fascinating trials and tribulations! 1:10:47

11M ago1:10:47

1:10:47

Piruze Sabuncu is a Partner at the Venture Capital firm Squarepeg. She was born in Turkey and currently lives in Singapore. Piruze built and scaled the startup that's now a global juggernaut, Stripe -- in Southeast Asia as employee #1 in the region, following a stint as a founder and working at companies including Dell and Mckinsey. *** Episode gui…

1
#143 Aneetha De Silva: From Singapore to bridging worlds, relatable journey in law, infrastructure and people leadership 56:32

12M ago56:32

56:32

Aneetha De Silva is the managing director, government for Aurecon’s Australia and New Zealand business is a leading public infrastructure expert. She is also President of Roads Australia and sits on the boards of Aurecon Group, LaunchVic, the Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation and the North East Link State Tolling Corporation. *** Episode guiding …

1
#142 Carol Schwartz (Rare Public Interview): 3 siblings, victorious female advocacy, creating an institution of ideas, innovation and scholarship! 40:47

12M ago40:47

40:47

Carol is recognised as one of most dynamic business and community leaders with a diverse career across property, the arts, finance, investment, entrepreneurship, government and health. Her roles include being Board Member of the RBA, Founding Chair of the Women's Leadership Institute, Director of the Trawalla Group, Chair of the Climate Council and…

1
#141 Leigh Jasper: Service stations to Silicon Valley, unpacking the $1.6B success of Aconex, chairing Second Quarter Ventures & LaunchVic 1:01:18

12M ago1:01:18

1:01:18

Leigh Jasper is a leading entrepreneur, investor and business executive. Leigh previously co-founded Aconex, the world’s most widely used cloud collaboration platform for managing construction projects. As CEO, he led Aconex through multiple capital raisings, to an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 2014 and company sale to Oracle Ltd for $1.6 billio…

1
👩‍🎨 Dovetail's Head Of Design Lucy Denton, on design thinking, lessons from Atlassian, the “sacred rituals” of Dovetail’s design team, and so much more 1:07:09

12M ago1:07:09

1:07:09

❤️‍🔥Episode 6, Season 4 “Ship less, but better”, with Lucy Denton, Head of Design at Dovetail ✅Lessons from working at Atlassian ✅Detention & Sparring: “sacred rituals” of Dovetail’s design team ✅Balancing product simplicity with new features ✅Design thinking & the “double diamond” framework Dovetail is on a mission to help the world improve the qu…

1
#140 Ben Grabiner: UK upbringing, selling startup to Apple, building Side Stage Ventures and more 52:05

12M ago52:05

52:05

Ben Grabiner is a Partner at Side Stage Ventures, a newly formed Venture Capital firm in Australia. Previously he co-founded Platoon which was acquired by Apple. Platoon was created during Ben's time working at Local Globe, as an early employee at the firm. (Local Globe is now recognised as a leading seed stage VC fund in Europe). It’s now time to …

1
#139: For the First time ever, the combined $400B+ Telstra Super and Australian Super unpack powering your retirement growth through Venture Capital ft Amy Waite and Sheetal Cicutto 48:50

1y ago48:50

48:50

In this very special and rare episode, we're joined by Amy Waite and Sheetal Cicutto, the private equity managers for two of Australia’s premier superannuation funds in Telstra Super and Australian Super respectively, to discuss how super funds are powering your retirement growth through venture capital and driving innovation for the world. Please …

1
Marqo co-founder & CTO Jesse Clark, on the winners and losers of AI, searching the way we think, lessons from Amazon + Stitch Fix, defining 'developer first' and so much more 49:55

1y ago49:55

49:55

Searching the way we think with Jesse Clark, co-founder of Marqo ✅Lessons from working at Stitch Fix and Amazon ✅What it means to be truly “developer first” ✅The decision to make Marqo open source ✅Who will be the winners and losers of the AI revolution Marqo is building a revolutionary framework that provides search functionality to developers, al…

1
#138 Tom Humphrey: 3 siblings, scaling a successful startup with his sister to becoming partner at Blackbird & the economics of happiness! 1:15:28

1y ago1:15:28

1:15:28

Tom Humphrey is an Investor with Blackbird Ventures, a globally top ranked venture capital fund supercharging the most ambitious founders. Prior to Blackbird, Tom was a partner with Access Ventures based in Denver USA and was on the management / founding teams of two successful startups. Tom was COO of OurDeal, a “group-buying” ecommerce website in…

1
🤓 EdApp founder, Darren Winterford on selling education around the world from day 1, measuring the magic moment, the journey through product-market fit and so much more. 33:35

1y ago33:35

33:35

EdApp is changing workplace education and training with accessible and engaging mobile learning which leverages microlearning and gamification. By using a freemium model, and through their partnerships with NGOs such as the United Nations, EdApp is empowering and educating millions of learners around the world. ✅ Deciding to join SafetyCulture rath…

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