From PhD to VC: My Blackbird Internship Experience
Alissa Robbins shares her experience as an intern with Blackbird’s Melbourne office.
A couple of months ago, I responded to an ad for the Women in VC internship at Blackbird Ventures and was lucky enough to be offered the position of working part-time in the Melbourne office with Blackbird’s with Mason Yates and Nick Crocker.
This internship was a step out of my comfort zone — I’m normally a PhD student in medical research, working on harnessing the body’s immune system to treat diseases such as cancer. However, for the last few years I’ve been exploring career paths outside academic research. I’ve created this post to share what I learnt through the internship, and some of the similarities and differences I noticed between academic research and venture capital, for anyone thinking about a similar career pivot.
Why VC?
Venture capital ticked a lot of the boxes I was looking for in my ideal career — working with crazy-smart and passionate people who are constantly learning and pushing the boundaries of what is possible. So, I applied for the internship with the idea of testing the waters.
The Application Process:
This was the most fun I’ve had applying for anything, ever. Blackbird uses Applied (one of their portfolio companies) for all their job applications. For starters, it doesn’t require a CV or cover letter. Instead applicants write short responses to a series of questions that are then blinded by Applied (to eliminate subconscious bias) and assessed by several people from Blackbird. After the scores are combined, the top applicants are then invited to interview. From there, the process was more like what you’d expect, but the initial screening of applicants is designed to pick out those that have the skills required for the role, rather than the applicants with the best-looking CVs or university averages. A couple of positions were posted while I was doing the internship, so I was lucky enough to see it from both sides.
Jumping In:
Actually, it was more like being thrown in the deep end. My second day (!) was spent in Auckland at Sunrise — Blackbird’s annual conference — meeting the rest of the Blackbird team and startup founders from all over Australia and NZ. Along with hearing great talks from the likes of Mel Perkins (Canva) and Jodie Fox (Shoes of Prey), I had a privilege of meeting heaps of founders from Blackbird portfolio companies, such as Sadaf and Milad from See-Mode (just after they found out their software, which predicts strokes in patients, received regulatory approval). One theme that cut through all of the talks on the day was that you could have a hugely successful business, without compromising any of your values. It was an inspiring start, to say the least.
After the headline opening, most of the internship was analysis based; looking into the Blackbird ‘VC funnel’ for the year and building a profile of ownership growth in portfolio companies. For most tasks, I was given the raw data (or told where I could find the information) and a rough idea of what it should look like at the end. How to get to that end product was mostly up to me; although Mason was always there to bounce ideas off or provide feedback.
In many respects, the process is not too different to my experience in research. You start with a premise based on what’s already published and know the end product will be a paper or thesis, but the path you take to get there depends on you and how you approach the problem.
Your network is the best investment:
I’ve never felt entirely comfortable with networking, so my goal for this year is to be more like Nick. I’m pretty sure Nick knows every person in Melbourne that has anything to do with startups. And for a good reason, it helps with every stage of VC — from building a team, and finding investors to attracting the best companies to pitch for you.
If you’re interested in getting into VC or raising money for your startup, your best bet is to be introduced or recommendation from someone in your network. So put yourself out there, go to networking events, ask to meet people for coffee and lean on their networks.
When networking be prepared to explain your ‘why’. It was the most frequently asked question over the course of my internship (why leave research? Why Blackbird?). I also found it became the most common question I asked people I met as well (why did you get into startups? Why build this product). Everyone is just genuinely curious, but if you don’t have anything off the top of your head, it’s not the best look. In research we’re always told to prepare an elevator pitch so you can explain your project to everyone from a person in a cafe to a Nobel Prize winner, it’s no different in startups, so be prepared to talk about both.
If you look for a reason to say no, you’ll probably find it:
I was fortunate to sit in on a few pitch meetings during the internship and was surprised by how little the discussion afterwards focussed on data-driven metrics such as market analysis or MRR. The key factors seemed to be more about the intangibles, such as the potential of the founder(s) and team or how awesome the product sounded. From a research background where all decisions are made based purely on data, this approach was disconcerting.
In a sense, it’s a little like a startup founder determining what their minimum viable product (MVP) is. There will probably never be the perfect product and there will never be the perfect venture investment either. The Blackbird team are values-driven, so it fits that they invest in founders who share those values and will bring value to the community they are helping to build.
I can’t thank the Blackbird team enough for this experience, especially to Mason and Nick for welcoming me into the Melbourne office.
If anyone would like to know more about my internship, please feel free to reach out via LinkedIn
