David Booth

Mission: help the world's most ambitious people find and work on the world's most pressing problems. Method: blend technology, capital, and community in innovative/unique ways. Constantly experiment and learn. Pay it forward. Earn trust & respect.I'm a Founder in Residence at Blackbird - that means a couple of days per week, I hang out with the team in Auckland, helping find - meeting with, and supporting ambitious Kiwis doing their life’s work, wherever in the world they may live today. My personal investment sweet-spot is pre-seed... like, "barely even started the company" early investing, but we're a multi-stage investor and can do anything from pre-seed to pre-IPO. I'm a community builder at heart, and get a kick out of making connections. For nearly 7 years I did this at extreme scale as CEO of On Deck — where we've helped 1000+ companies get started, find their first customers, hires, and investors, and raise over $2bn. I stepped back to Chairman in Jan '24 to make way for a new chapter - for me, and for the company.