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A brief summary of my time at Blackbird

I was an Associate at Blackbird from 2021 to 2024. In that time, I:

• Sourced 3 successful new investments,
• Ran point on 21 successful new and follow-on investments amounting to >$100M investment from pre-seed to post-Series D,
• Did some work with LPs (e.g. for coinvestment opportunities), and portfolio support things (e.g. board shadowing work and fundraising support), and
• Started and ran Foundry for a couple of cohorts.

Companies I was involved with include:

• PsiQuantum
• Redactive
• Remedy Robotics
• Spaceduck
• Syenta
• Vexev
• Vow
• Aquila
• Open Star
• Nomad Atomics
• Opto Biosystems
• Gilmour Space
• Multitudes
• Baraja
• Inventia
• SunDrive Solar
• Cortical Labs
• VeVe
• Soul Æether

Some media that documents my time at Blackbird:

• Capital Brief’s article “Blackbird’s deep tech doyenne Clare Birch takes flight” on my departure—“A well-liked and highly regarded Blackbird investor who served on Innovation Minister Ed Husic’s quantum computing advisory board is leaving the firm for pastures new.”
• Cosmos Magazine’s article “Why would a company need a scientist-in-residence?” from sometime around when I started.

Some choice quotes from founders with whom I worked:

• “Thank you for how supportive and collaborative you’ve been. I still think the input you gave us in terms of [a key fundraising item] was some of the best feedback we’ve received in ages.”
• “For us, [selecting a lead for] this round came down to relationship, and you were a big part of that.”
• “You have been a pleasure to work with, but more importantly you are a great friend and a wonderful and wise person to talk to.”
• “It’s such a pleasure to work with a person who is brilliantly smart as well as effortlessly witty…truly one of the best executors we work with.”
• “Clare is one of the best hires Blackbird has made.”