Backing generational companies with Blackbird’s Samantha Wong

Samantha Wong was employee #1 at Blackbird Ventures, the largest shareholder in design software giant Canva and one of Australia’s most influential venture capital firms. When Sam joined Blackbird in 2015, the Australian VC ecosystem was in its infancy - a cottage industry with just a few hundred participants. The landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade as companies like Atlassian, Afterpay, SafetyCulture, and Canva have captured investor attention and created a thriving breeding ground for innovation. In this episode of The Rules of Investing, Sam discusses the rapid evolution of the VC landscape in Australia and New Zealand, why backing the right founders is essential to early-stage investing, and the next generation of companies growing at unprecedented rates.