Ben Grabiner
Co-Founder & General Partner at Side Stage Ventures
Ben Grabiner is co-founder and general partner of Side Stage Ventures, an Australian early-stage venture fund. Before moving into Australian venture capital, he was an investor at London-based LocalGlobe and co-founded Platoon, a talent platform that helped launch Billie Eilish's career, which Apple acquired in 2018. At Side Stage, Grabiner applies a product mindset to venture investing, building metrics to track fund performance despite the long feedback loops typical of early-stage investing. He has appeared twice on First Cheque with Cheryl Mack & Maxine Minter to discuss why Australia produces more unicorns per dollar invested than most markets.
In their own words
From Why Australia Builds More Unicorns per Dollar Than Anyone (Replay) | Ben Grabiner, Side Stage Ventures · First ChequeAustralia is this underestimated, underappreciated opportunity sitting right in front of us.
Career
- Now Co-Founder & General Partner · Side Stage Ventures
- From 2018 Operator (post-acquisition of Platoon) · Apple
- 2016–2018 · Startup Co-founder · Platoon
- Earlier Early-stage investor (first employee) · LocalGlobe
- Earlier · Startup Co-founder & Head of Product · Pollonize
Sources: techcrunch.com, startupplaybook.co
Key moments
Jump straight to the part of Why Australia Builds More Unicorns per Dollar Than Anyone (Replay) | Ben Grabiner, Side Stage Ventures you want.
- 0:00 Cold open: more unicorns per dollar than anywhere
- 4:48 Ben's first investment: 250 pounds in Tottenham Hotspur
- 7:01 The headline stat and what drives Australia's capital efficiency
- 9:24 Why constraints breed efficiency, and why it's good for VCs
- 12:31 Decacorn creation: Australia on par with Israel and India
- 14:35 40% of seed capital comes from overseas
- 16:24 What needs to happen to close the capital gap
- 20:41 Can startups scale globally from Australia?
- 26:14 What global LPs need to understand about Australian venture
- 28:28 The rise of second- and third-time founders
Heard on
Side Stage Ventures on Day One
Side Stage Ventures is an Australian venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology startups. 3 people · 4 episodes → Connections
Spot something wrong? Suggest a correction Updated 25 September 2026
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