Ep159 – Niki Scevak (Co-founder & Partner – Blackbird VC) on raising ambition

April 21, 2022
rohitbhargava
Podcast

My guest for Episode 159 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Co-founder & General Partner of Blackbird Ventures, Niki Scevak.

Blackbird Ventures is one of the leading Venture Capital funds in Australia and NZ, counting companies such as Canva, Culture Amp and Safety Culture as part of its portfolio.

Niki and previous podcast guest, Rick Baker, Co-founded Blackbird in 2012 with an initial $29M. That initial fund proved to be hugely successful, with the fund selling 40% of fund 1 for $100M. The sale provided a guaranteed 3x return to all 96 investors who contributed to fund 1, while retaining an interest in the 12 portfolio companies with a carrying value of $6.50 per $1 invested.

In this interview we covered the story behind how Niki and Rick Baker first met and decided to launch Blackbird together, how the power law shapes Blackbird’s investing philosophy and how their approach to raising the ambition for their portfolio led them to change their own strategy from building the “Craigslist of VC” to growing from 4-60 people and raising Australia’s first $1B fund.

Timestamps

4:39 – An introduction to Niki
6:15 – The importance of being around the right people early in Niki’s career
8:10 – What led Niki and Rick to launch Blackbird together despite not knowing too much about each other at the time
10:50 – How founders can do their own due diligence on potential cofounders
14:22 – How Rick and Niki’s own background and experience helps their approach in “backing the hungry, not the proven”
16:50 – What Blackbird looks for when investing early in founders and ideas that haven’t got revenue or haven’t launched
23:00 – How Niki and Blackbird support their portfolio companies and help calibrate their founders
25:54 – Blackbird’s approach to ownership of portfolio companies and their follow-on strategy
30:35 – How Blackbird and Startmate builds an internal ecosystem of raising ambition
33:45 – A deep dive into Blackbird’s investment in Zoox, their first non-software investment that paved the way for a new approach Blackbird took to investing
39:49 – A reflection on Blackbird’s initial investments and how their approach has evolved as they have built up confidence
42:35 – The role that the power law plays in how Blackbird decides to invest in companies
45:45 – What led to the shift from Blackbird’s approach to building the “Craigslist of VC” i.e. small team/company to now growing from 4 to 60 people and raising Australia’s 1st $1B fund
51:15 – Blackbird and Startmate’s internal culture and environment to raise their own ambition
53:19 – How founders can recreate their own version of Blackbird’s culture
57:00 – How founders can identify their own team cultural values

Links Mentioned

A big thank you to our podcast partners for this episode

Lawpath

Lawpath’s Legal Advice Plan gives you access to lawyers on demand for one low monthly fee. Create legal documents, sign online and have a lawyer on-call to help you through any legal need for a fraction of the cost. Lawpath has helped Australian businesses save over $100 million in legal fees, and are offering Startup Playbook listeners up to 20% off their most popular legal plans. Visit lawpath.com/playbook for your exclusive discount and discover an easier way to get your legals sorted.

Scendar

We’re Scendar, an accounting and advisory practice better described as Finance as a Service (FaaS). We’re focused on founders, funders and startups. Clients that are ever-changing and adapting. We like fast movers. And as you might have guessed, we’re not your basic accountancy. We can take care of tax and the books whilst building a syndicate fund and a multimilliondollar exit strategy. At Scendar, we’re empowered by our client’s potential. Find out more at Scendar.com

Dovetail Studios

Dovetail Studios operates a venture studio and VC to transform ambitious ideas into unstoppable businesses. On top of being a renowned product development partner for startups like Afterpay, they also operate a VC fund to invest in early-stage companies that go through their venture studio program. So if you’re a non-technical, early-stage founder looking for a talented team to help supercharge your success, check out dovetailstudios.com

Links Mentioned

Niki’s Links

People Mentioned

Companies Mentioned

Resources Mentioned

Previous Episodes Mentioned

Special Thanks:

Special thanks to Rick Baker, Nick Crocker, Rayn Ong and Rory San Miguel for their help with research for this interview!

Feedback/connect/say hello:

Rohit@startupplaybook.co
@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)
/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)
@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)
My Youtube Channel

Credits:

Music: Paycheck

Other channels:

Don’t have iTunes? The podcast is also available on Spotify, Soundcloud & Stitcher Audio Player.

Find all links to the podcast here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

- admin
- January 1, 2014
Reply
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat
- admin
- January 1, 2014
Reply
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat
- - admin
  - January 1, 2014
  Reply
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

The Startup Playbook Podcast

Insights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors

Ep159 – Niki Scevak (Co-founder & Partner – Blackbird VC) on raising ambition

Timestamps

Links Mentioned

Lawpath

Scendar

Dovetail Studios

Links Mentioned

Niki’s Links

People Mentioned

Companies Mentioned

Resources Mentioned

Previous Episodes Mentioned

Special Thanks:

Feedback/connect/say hello:

Credits:

Other channels:

The Podcast Turns 150 and Todd Howard's on the show!

VGC: The Video Game Podcast

Outro

The AI-powered Podcast Player