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The Horizon with Niki Scevak (Blackbird)
Blackbird Co-Founder Niki Scevak joins Tractor Ventures Co-Founder Matt Allen on the Hard Mode Podcast to talk about the history of starting Blackbird Ventures and the interactions with numerous founders shaping the trajectory of the AU/NZ technology ecosystem.
Blackbird is a venture capital firm with the mission to be a partner to the greatest business stories born from Australia and New Zealand. Prior to Blackbird Ventures, Niki founded Startmate, an accelerator that helps nerds with ideas become great CEOs and build global startups. Earlier, he co-founded two software companies.
Founded in 2012, Blackbird partners with founders at the very beginning and surrounds them with a community of other founders who have built successful technology companies before.
Talking points:
- Starting a VC fund akin to starting a business (aka Hard)
- An amalgamation of no’s
- An unlikely, but hugely rewarding partnership
- The early hard moments in Blackbird
- An eclectic bunch of folks in Blackbird Fund 1
- ‘Its hard to build big teams on management fees alone on small funds’
- Building Blackbird as a startup, with team members invested in the process.
- Working with a large amount of founders
- Hard mode company problems = people problems
- Indicators of a successful portfolio company
- Unlikely founders solving problems they don’t feel they are qualified to…
- Venture Capital not necessarily the model for all
- Hard Mode for first time fund creators
Links:
- Niki Scevak
- Blackbird
- Blackbird GIANTS
- Startmate
- Startmate Fellowship
- 500 Startups
- Accel
- Aconex
- Andreessen Horowitz
- Atlassian
- Benchmark Fund
- Campaign Monitor
- Cliff Obrecht
- Didier Elzinga
- Grabble
- Halfbrick Studios
- Luke Anear
- Melanie Perkins
- MLC
- Nick Crocker
- Redbubble
- RetailMeNot
- Rick Baker
- Rowan Simpson
- Samantha Wong
- Sequoia Capital
- Scott Farquhar
- Timely
- Vend
- Xero
Follow Niki Scevak on Twitter: @nikiscevak
Follow Blackbird on Twitter: @blackbirdvc
Follow Tractor Ventures on Twitter: @tractorventures
Online:
www.blackbird.vc
www.tractorventures.com
---
This episode was hosted by Matt Allen: @mattallen
View all episodes
By Tractor VenturesBlackbird Co-Founder Niki Scevak joins Tractor Ventures Co-Founder Matt Allen on the Hard Mode Podcast to talk about the history of starting Blackbird Ventures and the interactions with numerous founders shaping the trajectory of the AU/NZ technology ecosystem.
Blackbird is a venture capital firm with the mission to be a partner to the greatest business stories born from Australia and New Zealand. Prior to Blackbird Ventures, Niki founded Startmate, an accelerator that helps nerds with ideas become great CEOs and build global startups. Earlier, he co-founded two software companies.
Founded in 2012, Blackbird partners with founders at the very beginning and surrounds them with a community of other founders who have built successful technology companies before.
Talking points:
- Starting a VC fund akin to starting a business (aka Hard)
- An amalgamation of no’s
- An unlikely, but hugely rewarding partnership
- The early hard moments in Blackbird
- An eclectic bunch of folks in Blackbird Fund 1
- ‘Its hard to build big teams on management fees alone on small funds’
- Building Blackbird as a startup, with team members invested in the process.
- Working with a large amount of founders
- Hard mode company problems = people problems
- Indicators of a successful portfolio company
- Unlikely founders solving problems they don’t feel they are qualified to…
- Venture Capital not necessarily the model for all
- Hard Mode for first time fund creators
Links:
- Niki Scevak
- Blackbird
- Blackbird GIANTS
- Startmate
- Startmate Fellowship
- 500 Startups
- Accel
- Aconex
- Andreessen Horowitz
- Atlassian
- Benchmark Fund
- Campaign Monitor
- Cliff Obrecht
- Didier Elzinga
- Grabble
- Halfbrick Studios
- Luke Anear
- Melanie Perkins
- MLC
- Nick Crocker
- Redbubble
- RetailMeNot
- Rick Baker
- Rowan Simpson
- Samantha Wong
- Sequoia Capital
- Scott Farquhar
- Timely
- Vend
- Xero
Follow Niki Scevak on Twitter: @nikiscevak
Follow Blackbird on Twitter: @blackbirdvc
Follow Tractor Ventures on Twitter: @tractorventures
Online:
www.blackbird.vc
www.tractorventures.com
---
This episode was hosted by Matt Allen: @mattallen