Tom Humphrey is an Investor with Blackbird Ventures, a
globally top ranked venture capital fund supercharging the most
ambitious founders. Prior to Blackbird, Tom was a partner with
Access Ventures based in Denver USA and was on the management /
founding teams of two successful startups. Tom was COO of
OurDeal, a “group-buying” ecommerce website in Australia that
over 12 months scaled to a team of 80 and a successful exit to
News Corp, and then became COO of Kanopy, a B2B video streaming
platform that he guided to an exit in 2018 delivering a 14x
return to investors.
In this episode #138 w Tom Humphrey, learn
about:
Tom’s sunrise in Sydney, Australia being the youngest of 4
siblings, with his mother a high school teacher and then business
executive and dad an architect. I loved his reflections on how
his older sister, stayed up at night and sometimes missed school
because she was looking after Tom, and then their journey later
in life building Canopy for nearly a decade to now being one of
the top 10 M&A exits for a tech company out of Australia. 14x
return on investment
I asked Tom about the key differences between Australian and US
culture given his 10 years living, studying and working in the
US, his reflections on his time in Bhutan and learning about the
economics of happiness, his insecurities and how he manages them,
how he’s learn what good looks like in sales and go to market for
startups, the concept of deposits in the care bank to be a great
manager and his balancing act on decision making with analytics
and gut feel. We also cover his transitions from consulting to a
a startup at a time when startups weren’t the buzz they are today
and his reflections on what he would change if he could start his
career today.
It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!
(Timestamps below)
***
Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter
Contact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities,
recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to
improve!
Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts
and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come
on the show!
***
This episode is brought to you by Fullstack Advisory, Australia's
top tech accounting firm, designed specifically for innovative
tech founders and investors. They provide founder-friendly
support across Accounting & Tax, R&D Tax Incentives,
Bookkeeping, and CFO Advisory -- so you can focus on what you do
best, innovating and growing your business. Get in touch with
Stuart and the team today!
***
03:30 - Where were you born and live now?
03:57 - What was your first job and now?
04:57 - High Flyer in Tom’s life
07:09 - Youngest of 4 children
09:01 - Sports, Studious and Adventure
10:29 - Australia vs USA friendship culture
13:04 - Hungry not the proven
14:08 - Falling into Law due to a timetable clash
16:33 - Should you join a startup straight out of university?
19:40 - FullStack message
22:13 - 7 to 85 people in 10 months
24:46 - Economics of happiness
28:05 - Learning how to lead people
31:04 - Joining his sister in building a startup in the US
33:34 - Experiences taking VC capital money
36:06 - Door knocking universities in the US
39:13 - Learning sales and go to market
41:40 - Chip on his shoulder
44:39 - Learning from founders
45:45 - Slack vs HipChat vs Microsoft teams
47:18 - Strength of talent in Australia vs the world
52:44 - Most valuable career experiences
56:38 - Perception of self worth and happiness
58:52 - Deposits in the care bank and connection to leadership
01:01:54 - Building trust with a new team member
01:04:34 - Balance with analytical and intuition muscle
01:08:30 - Being a VC or working at a startup?
01:10:55 - Final sprint rapid fire
***
Kommentare (0)
Melde dich an, um einen Kommentar zu schreiben.