First Cheque with Cheryl Mack & Maxine Minter 
About Tom Humphrey
Tom Humphrey is a partner on Blackbird Ventures' investment team, which he joined in 2021 after two years at Access Ventures. He spent eight years operating before moving into investing: as co-founder of Kanopy, a B2B video streaming company he launched in San Francisco that exited to private equity at a 13x return, and as chief operating officer of OurDeal, a Sydney direct-to-consumer ecommerce company that returned 4x to investors on its sale to News Corp. On First Cheque with Cheryl Mack and Maxine Minter, he discussed why Australia's AI opportunity is bigger than most people think.
- Talks about
- AI, Going Global, Venture Capital
In conversation.
2 episodes
Start hereWhy Australia’s AI Opportunity Is Bigger Than We ThinkHis first First Cheque conversation, which reframes Australia's AI ecosystem as an opportunity.
First Cheque with Cheryl Mack & Maxine Minter 
First Cheque with Cheryl Mack & Maxine Minter Why Australia’s AI Opportunity Is Bigger Than We Think
Go straight to the good bits.
Key moments from Why Australia Has More AI PhDs Than Anywhere | First Cheque.
- 1:12Hey, I'm Cheryl. I'm Maxine. This is First Cheque
- 3:45What was the first thing you ever invested in? BHP and the Canva vs BHP math
- 5:51Invest early and hold: learning compounding from his parents
- 6:52Invest America: what happens when every kid gets $1,000 to compound until 18
- 8:14Robinhood, retail, and the new CEO playbook
- 11:02Why aren't we more excited about Australia? The AFR talent piece
- 12:298 percent of Asia-Pac AI experts are in Australia and we have 6 of the top 100 AI universities
- 13:59The output story: 6 foundational models trained in Australia, Leonardo at number 5 globally
- 16:52Why Australia builds global-first: Heidi and Leonardo are 90 percent offshore revenue
- 18:20The cost of not celebrating: US pre-seed up 70 percent, Australia going backwards
The path so far.
- Now
Partner · Blackbird Ventures
- 2019–2020
Partner · Access Ventures
- Until 2018 · Scale-up
COO · Kanopy
- Earlier · Startup
COO · OurDeal
Sources: blackbird.vc
Blackbird Ventures on Day One
Blackbird Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in Australian and New Zealand start-ups from their earliest stages and keeps backing them as they grow.
4 people · 9 episodes
Across the network.
Spot something wrong? Suggest a correctionUpdated 29 October 2026
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