Young high-achievers head to VC land to hunt unicorns at Blackbird – The Australian Financial Review

Posted: November 28, 2021 at 9:57 pm

Max Meyer, 22, said he was inspired by some of the founders he met as charter guests during his five months living the Below Deck dream after high school.

Beyond hitting the high seas as a deckhand at 19, he is also the youngest law and commerce school valedictorian to come out of Queenslands Bond University.

Bond University law and commerce graduate Max Meyer says hell be looking for the most ambitious founders.Madeline Begley

Ill be looking for the most ambitious founders in sectors that are going to supercharge tomorrow, Mr Meyer said.

While the Australian venture scene is arguably best known for business-to-business software investment success, Mr Meyer said he was interested in finding founders working in clean technology.

For Silk Kadala, 28, her initial foray into the business world came through watching her parents run a gelato store.

Ms Kadala graduated from high school at 15, obtained three degrees from the University of Western Australia, helped to develop a university-to-industry consultant pipeline start-up called Western Australia University Consultants and, more recently, worked as a product analyst at a medical technology company.

In the last year, I took a step away from consulting to really reflect on what was next in my career, Ms Kadala said. I dived into researching the venture capital space, found out what they do on a day-to-day basis, and now Im super-excited to have a job in the area.

Nicole Marino cut her sales teeth selling off the plan houses at 19. Tash Sorensen

Consulting is a great job, its definitely accelerated learning, but you dont see your impact quite as much. You work really hard, you learn about a whole lot of industries, but I think on the investment side, you have multiple touchpoints, multiple founders and building multiple companies.

Ms Kadala said she was drawn to Blackbird because of its reputation, its technology investment mandate and the visibility of women such as Samantha Wong, Phoebe Harrop and Florence Doreen in senior roles.

Nicole Marino, 24, was the first person in her family to go to university. She learnt the art of sales and negotiation at 19 by selling off the plan houses often by pretending to be 25 at the time.

Ms Marino then studied economics at the University of Melbourne, graduating with first class honours.

She said Blackbirds contemporary branding was appealing and very tech.

At Blackbird, they said to me that they want to create a meritocracy, and while I dont yet know if thatll be the case, I did like the fact that they said theyd be open to my opinions, even if Im a junior, she said.

Christie Jenkins, 33, an elite athlete who learnt about the art of start-up investors as a partner at Athletic Ventures, is also joining the crew in Melbourne.

The final member of the contingent is Clare Birch, 25, a quantum chemist and former programs co-ordinator at Deadly Science, which teaches STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills to young Indigenous students.

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Young high-achievers head to VC land to hunt unicorns at Blackbird - The Australian Financial Review

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