A billion-dollar fund and why VC isn't for everyone, with Phoebe Harrop Meadows

This bite-sized episode of Grounds Up was filmed at the inaugural NZ Tech Expo on 18 September. It's the perfect length for a coffee break ☕ Court sits down with Phoebe Harrop Meadows, partner at Blackbird, the trans-Tasman venture firm that closed its sixth fund at more than NZ$1.25 billion in August. Phoebe explains how Blackbird decides to back someone before there's a product or even customers ("it's investing in the slope of learning and testing"), and tells the story of backing former Blackbird scout Hardy Michel before he'd settled on the idea that became Marloo. She talks about why more than half of Blackbird's early-stage capital over the past year went to New Zealand-founded companies, what actually gets her attention when a founder gets in touch, and why founders should think hard about whether they need venture funding at all. "We're annoying to take money," she says. "The clock starts ticking." She also shares what makes a good venture investor, why New Zealand's small ecosystem keeps people honest, and why she's excited about people with deep domain knowledge building their own products for the first time.