Michael is Principal at Blackbird VC and helps uncover & invest in founders and innovation in Synthetic biology, Embedded commerce, Compute, Healthcare and Robotics.

In this episode #99, learn about:

• Sunrise in Melbourne having rich Italian heritage and influences, with his dad being a chemical engineer and mum starting out as a high school teacher and then becoming a financial planner and always being there for Michael and his younger brother.
• How speaking different languages is he perfect way to see through a clear window into a culture
• How he started his career in law and then utilised an inspiring learning path to move to finance and then into Venture Capital with Playground VC in the USA (which also has a story behind it) 
• Specific learnings of these 3 transitions and now being back in Australia with Blackbird
• Why Deep Tech investing fascinates him
• Distilling misconceptions about founders in Deep Tech
• 3 key traits to be a successful VC
• How he spends his perfect day off work 
• Michael's one strength and one weakness

It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!

***

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter

Contact us via OUR WEBSITE or email  Vidit directly at [email protected] to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! 

Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on iTunes and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! 

Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on iTunes and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! 

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter

Contact us via OUR WEBSITE or email  Vidit directly at [email protected] to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! 

***

Welcome to episode #98 w Daniel Madhavan! It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy! 

We cover: 

• Learn about his sunrise in Melbourne, Australia in the most multicultural family with his dad being half Indian, half Chinese and mum being Dutch.
• Success at age 18 being to be financially independent which drove Dan’s successful 12+ year career in banking with JB Were rising to acting CEO
• Practical learnings that helped Dan be promoted every few years ("build bridges not boats")
• Specifics of the fascinating decision making process to leave the firm
• Funny story from early 20’s that was a big learning in hindsight
• Using capital to make a positive impact for the future of the planet
• Top 3 impact focused investors he’s the most impressed by

Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on iTunes and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! 

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter

Email  Vidit directly at [email protected] or contact us via www.curiositycenter.xyz to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! 

***

Welcome to episode #97 w Lauren Capelin! It’s now time to explore your curiosity. 

Please enjoy! 

• Learn about her sunrise in QLD with dad being a banker and mum working at Ansett and achieve her desire of sending Lauren and her sisters to private school. 
• Lauren candidly shares this private schooling experience and how it changed the family dynamic and also realising success tends to be more about happiness over status.
• We cover a lot and Lauren shares fantastic insights about how she discovered and built her career merging creativity, community and impact with the business world - working with global thought leaders like Rachel Botsman on building the sharing economy and collaborative consumption to then how she was the first person in a community and platform role in Venture Capital in Australia.
• How Lauren manages to be ahead of the curve on many trends?
• Moving to Noosa, QLD in 2020
• What people get wrong about relationship building? 
• How can Australia cultivate a successful women led VC fund?

Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on iTunes and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! 

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter

Email  Vidit directly at [email protected] or contact us via www.curiositycenter.xyz to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! 

***

Welcome to episode #96 w Dalton Henshaw! It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!

• Learn about his sunrise in Melbourne and having to grow up quickly as his parents separated when he was 6. His dad ran a fashion retail business and mum was Chief Family officer before moving into medical admin.
• Dalton shares his dream at 18 to play professional AFL which eventually turning into creating a prominent mens lifestyle publication called The Tailored Man, working with brands such as Tag Heuer, Hugo Boss and Mercedes Benz.
• I asked Dalton about the 3 successful people that he’s met that inspire him, how he prepares for client meetings, how he manages a team of 40, especially people older than him and 1% habits he and his wife Laura have added in the last 2 years. Stay tuned to learn about Dalton’s favourite fashion and running brands and lots more

Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on iTunes and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! 

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter

Email  Vidit directly at [email protected] or contact us via www.curiositycenter.xyz to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests and share how we can improve. 

***

Welcome to episode #95 w Joel Connolly! Please enjoy. 

***

TIMESTAMPS

01:50  - Where were you born and live now?

02:00 - What was your first job and now?

02:31 - High Flyer in Joel’s life

03:58 - Darwin and Copacabana

06:57 - Influences of family and public figures

08:53 - Being raised by a single mum

11:18 - First time he came across music and creative world

13:13 - Career plan at age 18

17:08 - Didn’t feeling like a creative till his mid 30’s

18:10 - We’re all born creative

19:36 - Creativity in podcasting

21:39 - The move from music to Venture Capital at Blackbird

28:05 - Unlearning and trying new things at Blackbird

31:50 - How Joel created the Blackbird brand strategy:

36:15 - Community and firm building

38:25 - Most painful learning

42:01 - Balancing creative role in an investment firm

45:13 - Blackbird 2.0

49:03 - What is brand building as an expression of who you are

52:20 - What does crypto have right and wrong about culture?

55:41 - How does Australia encourage Vitaliks (founder of ETH)?

58:31 - Joel’s thinking in themes and not pictures

01:01:12 - Rapid fire

Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on iTunes and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! 

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter

Email  Vidit directly at [email protected] or contact us via www.curiositycenter.xyz to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests and share how we can improve. 

***

Welcome to episode #94 w Jackie Vullinghs! Please enjoy. 

***

TIMESTAMPS

01:55 - Where were you born and live now?

02:07 - What was your first job and now?

02:26 - High Flyer in Jackie’s life

03:10 - Childhood in the UK w immigrant parents

04:21 - History teacher influence to learn about the world

05:22 - Cultural significance of studying history and connection to VC

07:40 - Success at age 18

09:07 - Do small things and chase curiosity

10:40 - Growth between high school and university

12:54 - Painful learnings

14:50 - Working in investment banking and why she left?

17:42 - Learning more in a startup vs investment banking

19:09 - Building confidence to change professional path

21:07 - Moving from the UK to Australia

22:50 - Applying to Airtree a second time after being rejected

26:25 - Setting up for success in first 6 months at Airtree

29:30 - How did bouncing around help form a world view?

31:01 - Filtering through information

33:12 - How to get to know a company from scratch?

35:22 -  Investing in consumer

37:50 - Airtree playing a leadership role beyond B2B SaaS investments

39:40 - Becoming the first second generation fund in ANZ

41:57 - Decision making adjustment now vs boom times

43:41 - Unpacking MILKRUN

47:23 - How becoming a mother has changed Jackie?

50:08 - Rapid fire

Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on iTunes and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! 

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter

Email  Vidit directly at [email protected] or contact us via www.curiositycenter.xyz to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests and share how we can improve. 

***

Welcome to episode #93 w Kelly Godfrey! Please enjoy. 

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TIMESTAMPS

02:02 - What was your first job and now?

02:40 - High Flyer in xx life

03:34 - Family memories

05:16 - Mum’s influence

07:19 - Gymnasts training 4x a week

08:46 - London and Brighton

10:41 - Success at age 18

12:03 - Painful learning

14:48 - Becoming Marketing Director within 6 years

18:09 - Building social capital

21:52 - Agency to in house marketing

25:33 - Leading marketing for ancestry.com

29:15 -  Role of marketing in customer discovery

30:35 - Moving roles and countries at same time

35:15 - Success in first 3 months of new role

40:34 - Taking a sabbatical in 2018

46:57 - Exploring opportunities post sabbatical

50:47 - Learnings about growth in new markets

54:00 - StockX being at the cutting edge of culture

56:07 - Rapid fire

Explore your curiosity with Elise Kennedy, who leads the Australian equity research team covering tech and internet stocks at the investment bank, Jarden. I really wanted to have Elise on because equity markets, inflation, interest rates, and the general economy are a hot topic of interest.

Learn about the status of current markets and why we’re in this position, how are companies rated as under or over valued, the role of M&A and leveraged buyouts during volatility, geographical impact, tourist investors perhaps exiting the market and more. 

Please enjoy! 

***

Find out more about Curiosity Center, including 90+ episodes at www.curiositycenter.xyz 

Find out more about Jarden at https://www.jardengroup.com.au/

Share your feedback and discuss sponsorship opportunities with us by directly emailing [email protected]

Follow the show on Linkedin / Instagram / Twitter

***

TIMESTAMPS

01:46 - Elise’ path into investment banking

02:56 - Life as an associate

03:52 - Life now as Vice President

04:32 - Perception vs reality of titles like Managing Director

05:15 - Overview of current markets (public and private)

07:18 - Tech companies seeing sell offs despite strong fundamentals

09:09 - How do investment banks rate a stock as under or overvalued?

11:55 - Tech pull back vs broader economy

14:12 - Inflation impact on the consumer

16:07 - Geographical impact and correlation between Australia and the US

18:18 - Does Elise’ role change in an up vs down market

19:29 - The role of M&A and leveraged buyouts in volatility

21:32 - Opportunities for VC’s deploying capital at better valuations

23:51 - “Tourist” investors leaving the market

25:14 - Super funds tightening capital allocation

26:56 - Cross over funds requiring re-alignment of exposure

27:36 - Metrics of EBITDA, Price to earnings ratio, CAGR

29:09 - Filtering through speculation

32:30 - Structuring work week and reports Elise reads

34:05 - Elise using her recreational pilots license to switch off

36:00 - Personal areas of investment interest

Explore your curiosity with Gael Aitor, one of 5 hosts of the largest teen mental health podcast in the world called Teenager Therap, based in the US. We connected a few months ago through a mutual friend and this was great fun.

Learn about how they started this podcast and movement in their quest to talk about and Improve mental heath, their 3 biggest learnings to date, actionable insights on how we can all improve our mental health and we went deep into the state of podcasting, media and some of the innovation and trends we’re excited to see. 

Please enjoy! 

***

Find out more about Curiosity Center, including 90+ episodes at www.curiositycenter.xyz 

Find out more about Teenager Therapy at https://teenagertherapy.com/

Share your feedback and discuss sponsorship opportunities with us by directly emailing [email protected]

Follow the show on Linkedin / Instagram / Twitter

***

TIMESTAMPS

01:46 - Moving to the US from Mexico at age 16

02:30 - Starting the largest teen mental health podcast (globally)

02:50 - Discovering podcasts for the first time

04:18 - Biggest learnings about the root cause behind mental health issues

08:30 - Core root causes of a lack of mental health amongst all age groups

10:40 - how to improve your mental health space

14:38 - Balancing performance with inner relaxation

15:51 - How mental health differs based on culture and country

18:26 - The role of social media in vulnerability and connection

22:45 - Seeking approval as a creator based on likes and comments

24:07 - Most exciting trends over next 12 months in podcasts and media

27:35 - Changing landscape of media and discovery limitations

31:15 - Building a niche vs generalist show

33:21 - Vidit & Gael riff on what they’d love to have in podcasts 

Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on iTunes and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! 

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter

Email  Vidit directly at [email protected] or contact us via www.curiositycenter.xyz to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests and share how we can improve. 

***

Welcome to episode #90 w Dom Pym! Please enjoy. 

***

TIMESTAMPS

03:09 - Where were you born and live now?

03:33 - What was your first job and now?

05:20 - High Flyer in Dom’s life

07:34 - Growing up in the mountains

09:25 - Rich dad poor dad

13:33 - Always being a bullet train

16:46 - Meeting now wife when they were 6 yrs old

19:20 - 3 traits for his kids to have

22:00 -  First trip overseas, to South Korea

27:37 -  Getting through bad days and pain

30:01 - Setting goals monthly, quarterly and annually

38:43 - Importance of healthy body and mind to be successful

41:25 - How to scale Dom to have the most impact and get the rest he deserves?

43:19 - How to build trust from scratch?

46:11 - Inspiration for the creativity of Up Bank

51:30 - Biggest commercial difference between physical and digital bank

54:46 - First time investing in startups and how it happened

1:00:52 - How to add value beyond capital

01:01:48 - Final sprint