A brief summary of my time at Blackbird
I was an Associate at Blackbird from 2021 to 2024. I would recommend the fund if you’re a truly ambitious founder with a tie to Australia or New Zealand looking for investment. Blackbird is the best VC fund in the Antipodes by a long shot, not only in terms of returns (ha) but also in terms of investor integrity and founder-friendliness. They invest early, often into ideas and people that others will not. They care deeply about the founders and companies they back, and put that care to work through the most messy and difficult company-building situations. They are thoughtful about the impact they have on the world.
In my time there, 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.”