Ep039 – Nick Crocker (Venture Partner – Blackbird Ventures) on people, culture and products

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep039 – Nick Crocker (Venture Partner – Blackbird Ventures) on people, culture and products March 7, 2017 rohitbhargava Podcast In episode 39 of The Startup Playbook Podcast, we did a live podcast interview with Nick Crocker, the Melbourne Venture Partner of Blackbird Ventures. Nick was the founder of We are Hunted, a digital music chart which sold to Twitter in 2012. He then co-founded Sessions, a digital health coaching program, which sold to MyFitnessPal 2 years later. After MyFitnessPal was acquired by Under Armour for $475M, he went on to lead their Product Strategy and Operations in San Francisco. Nick is now back in Australia and is the Melbourne Partner at Blackbird Ventures, a $230M Venture Capital firm that counts companies such as Canva, Red Bubble, Shoes of Prey, Culture Amp and Edrolo as part of it’s portfolio and runs the Startmate Accelerator program. In this interview we talk about the importance of proving your business on a small scale, what the best companies focus on, what to do when you first meet with an investor and the importance of culture and values in building a successful company. Audience questions: 1. What does a company like Blackbird look for in startups? 2. What are some of the biggest mistakes that people make when they are pitching? 3. Do we miss founders who don’t match the typical startup founder profile? 4. What does Startmate bring to Melbourne? 5. How important are valuations when making investment decisions? Show notes: Musicadium The 9 ways to ride the digital music age We are Hunted Boxee Zach Klein Vimeo College Humour CabinPorn authored by Zach Klein Steven Leckart Spark Capital Union Square Ventures Sessions MyFitnessPal Under Armour Blackbird Ventures Startmate Niki Scevak Rick Baker Rock Health Ben Hartney Albert Lee Mike Lee Culture Amp Shoes of Prey What Blackbird is Looking for in 2017 Mike Cannon Brookes Safety Culture Michael Fox Zoox Andrew Denver Didier Elzinga Atlassian Melanie Perkins Cliff Obrecht Canva Matta (Matt Allen) Startup Playbook TV is now on Youtube!!! Australian Podcast Awards – Voting Feedback/ connect/ say hello:  [email protected] @playbookstartup (Twitter) @rohitbhargava7 (Twitter – Rohit) Rohit Bhargava (LinkedIn) Credits: Intro music credit to Bensound A big thank you to Matt Allen and the team at Teamsquare for hosting The Startup Playbook Live session. http://traffic.libsyn.com/startupplaybook/Playbook_Ep039.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=text]::-moz-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=url]::-moz-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=email]::-moz-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form textarea::-moz-placeholder { color: #4d4d4d; } .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=text]::-webkit-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=url]::-webkit-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=email]::-webkit-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form textarea::-webkit-input-placeholder { color: #4d4d4d; } .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=text]:-ms-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=url]:-ms-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=email]:-ms-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form textarea:-ms-input-placeholder { color: #4d4d4d; } Copyright © 2015 - Live Composer The post Ep039 – Nick Crocker (Venture Partner – Blackbird Ventures) on people, culture and products appeared first on Startup Playbook.