Going long NZ tech — joining the Blackbird.vc flock
Tl;dr: I’m back! and joining Blackbird as an EIR on the investments team in NZ, backing global Kiwi founders, supporting and launching products and communities for founders and ambitious talent.
Since stepping back from On Deck in late 2023, I’ve been doing some hardcore recharging, reflecting on the future… banking lots of time offline with the family, books, new baby. It works, people… The energy is back!
Sometime in late Jan I took a few baby steps of my own towards getting reacquainted with New Zealand’s “startup ecosystem” and the founders who make it tick. I liked what I found.
So, today I’m jumping in with both feet: joining the Blackbird Ventures Investments team as an Entrepreneur in Residence (“EIR”).
I want to share a little about why… and why I’m excited for the path ahead.
—
I was last truly “active” here in 2014. I’d had a whirlwind few years, launching two startups while studying in Otago, joining the first “Lightning Lab” accelerator cohort in Wellington as an EIR, joining the incredible team at Movac as an intern, and then GD1 as an Associate in quick succession.
I learned a lot, very quickly. Mostly, I learned there were fundamental, structural problems with how “tech startups” were founded, capitalized, and scaled in NZ, and that I was going to have to look further afield to fix them. I left for San Francisco in October of that year, and jumped straight in the deep end with a role running “investment operations” for AngelList's new "syndicates" product — at the beating heart of Silicon Valley. I worked harder than I ever thought possible, and in subsequent years carved out a deep, niche expertise at the intersection of early stage investing, product management/growth, and securities law. I supported fund operations at 500 Startups, then went deep into corporate-backed VC at Jaguar Land Rover and Founders Factory in London. Back to Palo Alto in 2017 to lead international product/growth at Carta, and then built the first Regulated Investment Advisor for the cryptocurrency industry at CoinList in NYC in 2018.
I’d built a career building products that help startups and funds scale, raising capital and managing stakeholders… and had been learning a lot, but it still didn’t feel like the “impact” I was looking for...
On Deck — the world needs more founders
I first bumped into Erik Torenberg in 2016, attending one of his original “On Deck dinners” in San Francisco. I loved it, and started hosting dinners, building a community of my own back in London shortly after. Every month or two I would gather 20-25 talented people thinking about taking the leap to start something new... we'd enforce strict values around confidentiality, "paying it forward", and help the group “break the ice” in unique ways. Attendees would connect with co-founders, early customers, advisors, backers, and more.
By late 2018 momentum was building, and I went “all-in”… co-founding and leading the company that would, over the next 6 years help thousands of founders take the leap to start up, raise $100M+ USD over four equity rounds + two venture fund LPs, scale a “modern education institution for the internet” to the pandemic locked-down world — and back again, as we rode the startup rollercoaster to volatile extremes that make my head spin to this day.
In late 2023, I stepped back to Chairman at On Deck and moved my family back to New Zealand, opening the way for a new chapter — for me, and for the Company, which has been thriving under Julian Weisser's leadership.
And so here we are… It feels great to be back.
A lot has changed, but there’s a lot more to do…
Antipodean Dynamism
I’ve worked with thousands of founders from all over the world, yet there’s something special about the best Kiwi founders.
As a population, people complain about New Zealanders’ “lack of ambition”
I think our population's ambition is just unfairly distributed… because those who have it, have it in spades.
NZ is a very remote country, miles from anywhere. It's safe, beautiful, and relatively easy to have a high quality of life... if you're going to make a dent in the universe, you have to work smart as well as hard, and be in it for the right reasons. The best Kiwi founders are resourceful, think from first principles about how to solve hard problems, and often land on novel approaches as a result. They bulldoze through problems, and don’t expect others to help them. Our egalitarian culture and “underdog” mentality fosters a sense of “why not me?!” rejecting the conventional hierarchy, more willing to challenge conventional wisdom… if only from a perspective of “minimum viable naiveté.”
The result: a small, yet powerful niche of high potential talent — both onshore NZ, and distributed around the world across our NZ “expat” network. Sometimes a little rough around the edges, often overlooked by the world… but once you see it – a genuine unfair advantage.
But not all is well down-under. The past five years have seen more people and VC capital flow into the market than ever before… but the next few years will dictate whether it’s here to stay.
This is the place I choose to raise my family, build a life, and where I have to imagine what the next 30-50+ years have in store.
Similar to our Australian cousins “over the ditch" — our economy relies heavily upon primary industries, digging things out of the ground, or in our case growing things/animals upon it. As the world rearranges itself around new technologies, paradigms faster than ever before, we have to accelerate to keep up — build a future we want to live in, or risk getting left behind.
So — with a little “tongue in cheek” I’m calling this next phase of my life “Antipodean Dynamism”
This next chapter is about finding, connecting, and supporting the best Aussie and Kiwi talent, wherever they live around the world.
It’s about ambition, resilience, working with optimists, builders, with belief in the future… out there in the arena saying “f* the cynics, let’s build a better one.”
It’s about the "long term talent cycle", helping to nurture a future generation, develop young ambition, raise aspirations, retain/recycle expertise, supporting founders who are also parents — thinking about these themes for their own families.
It’s about the long term capital cycle, getting the right resources to the right people, places, and technologies, and the liquidity to reward those who create value over time.
So, why Blackbird?
Blackbird is into its 12th year, and has become a force to be reckoned with in Australia, New Zealand — and increasingly, around the world.
I’ve met a LOT of VCs, but I’ve never seen one invest so much heart and soul into the ecosystem around it… Blackbird communities like Giants help future founders connect and validate their ideas; while Foundry connects deeply technical talent with experienced company-building mentors. Sunrise is the largest gathering in the startup ecosystem on each side of the Tasman; while a series of small, intimate retreats bring founders and leaders together for deep connection. Blackbird Foundation’s “protostars” hands out non-dilutive grants to young talent, to help them “unleash their creativity”, while Startmate Fellowships and Lillypad bring communities together to jumpstart and develop careers.
And that’s all before you get to the actual investing… as comfortable writing the first check as they are the last one pre-IPO, Blackbird invested $250k in Canva when it was just an idea — and has deployed more than $270M over the 8+ rounds since. In a week on the job, we wrote a $300k pre-idea “talent check” one day — and $30M to lead a breakout Series C the next. Returns, you say? how about ~5x DPI (32.6x TVPI) on the first fund, 38% net IRR across all funds.
I was in no hurry to get a "job" — I'd planned to take 2024 to explore, host events, contemplate the future of venture + startup building, and probably start a fund in 2025. But the deeper I dove, the more I liked... as I described it to my wife — joining BB basically short-cuts 10-15 years of building what I want to exist in the world... it truly feels like I’ve found my flock.
What’s ahead:
I’ll be working with the investment team out of Auckland, leading deals (pre-seed/first check is my sweet spot), supporting and learning a lot from the epic local team of Sam, Phoebe, James — as well as drawing on the extensive collective experience of the Aussie team over the ditch.
👉👉If you're thinking about building something soon, drop me a DM.
I’m also moving forward with a handful of my own projects, which i’ll share more about soon... teasers:
Bringing On Deck dinners down under — I’m kicking off a series of dinners and events in NZ’s main centers, and will be coming to a town near you soon. Also excited to support + maybe sponsor founders to join ODF cohorts and get them plugged into San Francisco. Sign up here and I'll let you know when it goes live.
Launching a new season of the “Diaspora.nz” Podcast… profiling the founders, innovators, and leaders of the great Kiwi expat community. Sign up on Substack, and ping me if you have recommendations (DMs/Linkedin mail open).
I’ll remain involved in On Deck, will be visiting the U.S. every quarter or so... next trip April 4th-12th, so give me a shout if you're about!
Shoutout to
for the timely intro to Blackbird team earlier this year.Thanks to everyone who helped make the last decade so much fun... looking forward to working with you in this next one 💪🚀🇳🇿