Tom Humphrey

About Me

I sit in Blackbird's investment team. Prior to investing, I spent 8 years operating. I first got into startups by joining OurDeal, a D2C ecommerce company based in Sydney that grew fast to 80 FTEs and an exit to News Corp (4x to investors) just 12 months in. I then headed to the USA in 2011 to launch a company with my sister called Kanopy, a B2B video streaming company that eventually exited to private equity (13x to investors). Returning to Australia in 2021 after 10 years in the USA, I was blown away by how much the ecosystem had grown - venture investment was ~$100M in 2011 versus $10B in 2021 with so many incredible success stories to point toward, Surry Hills had become a hub, and there was a heightened degree of ambition.

I spent one year working in the Pilbara on a mine site. Average temperature in summer was 55 Celcius and I slept in a refurbished shipping container.

What do you do at Blackbird?

I sit in the investments team in our Sydney office. I seek to partner with the most ambitious of Australia's founders to build world class businesses.

What did you do before Blackbird?

Spent 8 years building two companies - first as COO of Kanopy, a B2B video streaming company based in San Francisco and OurDeal, a D2C ecommerce website based in Sydney. Immediately before joining Blackbird in 2021, I spent 2 years with a US-based VC fund called Access Ventures.

What do you believe that others do not?

Possibility > Probability

What ideas are you excited by right now?

I geek out on new innovations in sales and go-to-market models (see the Blackbird blog!). I love new market-making and category defining businesses where the competition is non-consumption (eg. Forage defining a new category of recruitment of "pre-skilling"). I love companies with "trojan horses" - doing something today that becomes a beachhead for something huge down the track (eg. Canva starting with presentations as a beachhead for their full creative suite). The best companies start as features, then become products, then become platforms. I love customer and product obsessed teams that orientate around customer love and strong "north star" metrics. I love businesses that can compound value over time through flywheels, whether via data, network, or other effects. The future of work, education, consumer, automation, robotics, sovereign capabilities,... so much to be excited about right now!