| Date | Title | Description |
| 19.07.2024 | Our Investment in Vivi | Shearwater Capital has recently completed a founder secondary in Vivi, an edtech company from Melbourne.
Vivi’s innovative technology is trusted by over 2,000 schools, 100,000 classrooms and 625,000 teachers and students. Vivi is expanding ... |
| 14.06.2024 | How VCs Become Assholes – and why we try not to | Rayn Ong from Archangel Ventures recently posted an article on LinkedIn titled: How VCs Become Assholes. So much of what Omri touched on resonated with my own journey as an investor.
I’ve been a founder and I chose to invest with this exper... |
| 13.06.2024 | The case for natural growth | Venture investors prioritise revenue growth when considering investment in private tech companies. The thinking goes that if you’re not growing at 100% yoy or more then it’s not really a venture investment.
And it makes sense. If a company ... |
| 26.02.2024 | Articulating your corporate philosophy | In the early days of my start-up, Conversant Media, I struggled to succinctly articulate our expense policy. And then in 2009 I stumbled across Netflix’s corporate culture document. It was a lightbulb moment – it perfectly illuminated how I... |
| 17.10.2023 | SaaS growth rates: What is happening in 2023? | The technology sector has had a turbulent few years. Amongst the turbulence, McKinsey estimate that the global SaaS market will continue to grow, from an estimated $3 trillion, to $10 trillion by 2030. |
| 29.09.2023 | A trip to the Lyka factory | |
| 19.06.2023 | Team Shearwater at NZTE dinner | Three of the team at Shearwater are kiwis and we have invested in two fantastic NZ companies in Runn and Fuel50. So it was nice to suit-up for the annual NZ Trade & Enterprise dinner. Sorry to have missed Mike who’s the only non-kiwi ma... |
| 30.01.2023 | Our Investment in Runn.io | We are excited to announce that Shearwater has invested in Runn.io, a New Zealand based resource management platform that is simplifying the way organisations manage their workforce. |
| 23.12.2022 | 2022 Christmas Celebrations | In December, Shearwater hosted its annual Christmas party at East Village in Darlinghurst. It was a great celebration, where our portfolio companies, fellow Sydney based VCs and broader network came together to celebrate 2022. |
| 31.08.2022 | The challenge with Founder equity splits | When I launched my digital media start-up in 2007, I did it with my brother. We didn’t intentionally set-up a business, it was more a hobby that turned into a business. So when it came to the question of how we split the equity, we both jus... |
| 22.07.2022 | Storipress joins Startmate | Shearwater’s overarching mandate is to invest in founders who are passionate about building generationally great companies. As a result, we have invested across a broad range of industries, and across almost every equity stage. To date, we ... |
| 08.04.2022 | Our portfolio dinner – the Playground XYZ exit | Shearwater invests where we feel we can help a company. One of the best ways we can do this is to connect them to our broader network. And there’s no better network than the network of aligned founders. |
| 28.03.2022 | Shearwater’s investment in Buildxact | Construction tech company Buildxact has closed its $18.5 million oversubscribed Series A funding round. Shearwater Capital is pleased to have invested in this round alongside other investors including Regal Funds Management (as the lead inv... |
| 26.03.2022 | Shearwater sponsors the Bondi Open | Not quite something that will ‘move the needle’ on taking Shearwater global, but nice to give back to the community with our sponsorship of the Bondi Open Squash tournament. And you never really know where your next portfolio company will c... |
| 14.02.2022 | Shearwater joins Kepler Analytics’ $22m Series B round | Shearwater is pleased to have joined Kepler Analytics $22m (USD$15.5m) Series B funding round, which was led by OneVentures. We’re excited to be on the journey. |
| 08.12.2021 | 2021 Shearwater Christmas Party | After a trying 2021, it was great to get our founders and network together for the annual Shearwater Christmas Party. |
| 05.11.2021 | The VC model has been perfected… and is now obsolete | The sage thinker Benedict Evans notably observed: “A technology often produces its best results just when it’s ready to be replaced – it’s the best it’s ever been, but it’s also the best it could ever be.” Right at the point of obsolescence... |
| 27.10.2021 | Our new HQ | Over the past year, Shearwater has been busy. We’ve renamed ourselves, hit the three-year mark and invested in six new companies. |
| 13.09.2021 | Marking three years into the Shearwater journey | Shearwater Capital was born on a small boat sailing off the coast of Macquarie Island. That’s when Mike decided he wanted to spend his time supporting the best founders in Australia and New Zealand. |
| 06.07.2021 | Our investment in Lyka Pet Food | Shearwater Capital is pleased to announce our investment into Lyka Pet Food. |
| 26.04.2021 | Welcoming Natalie Chapman to the team | Shearwater Capital is thrilled to welcome Natalie Chapman to the team as our first Venture Analyst. She’ll be setting up the structures of the role before heading across to study her MBA at Cambridge University. |
| 10.04.2021 | Our investment in Fuel50 | We’re excited to join the Fuel50 journey as investors, supporting two amazing founders in Jo Mills and Anne Fulton. |
| 27.11.2020 | We’ve had a small name change: welcome Shearwater Capital | When we formed Shearwater in September 2018, we didn’t spend much time pondering the naming of the entity. We felt ‘Growth Equity’ more or less captured what we thought we would do – invest capital for equity in order to help grow a busines... |
| 20.10.2020 | Is a SAFE the same as priced round with a full full ratchet? | A Simple Agreement For Future Equity (SAFE) is a ‘simple’ way for founders to raise capital without necessarily pricing the company in the current investment round. A SAFE lets a founder get capital into the business without the usual argy-... |
| 09.09.2020 | $0 to $100m ARR in 3 years? Most likely a spreadsheet error | The fastest rate ever from $1m to $100m annual recurring revenue (ARR) was Slack, which achieved it in about 3 years of hyper-growth after they secured their first $1m in revenue (this typically takes two years in itself). Bessemer Partners... |
| 21.06.2020 | Why we don’t sign NDAs | The best place to document software is in the code. In the same way, the best place to enforce confidentiality when raising capital is in the term sheet. |
| 01.06.2020 | Not all gross margins are the same | We look closely at gross margins (GM) at Shearwater. Think of GM as what’s left of your revenue after you take out direct costs. If you’re a milk producer, then your GM is likely to be quite low once you remove the cost of the milk, bottles... |
| 06.05.2020 | A portfolio company moves into Shearwater Drive | In one of life’s serendipitous moments, our most recent portfolio company Diffuse Energy has moved into a new office…on Shearwater Drive. Has to be a good sign. |
| 23.02.2020 | The first Shearwater Growth Equity founder’s dinner for 2020 | |
| 13.02.2020 | Why we’re happy to receive cold-contacts at Shearwater | The standard line in venture is that the only way to get a meeting is via a warm-intro. Don’t bother with cold-contacting a VC, it’s said. The reasons for this are many and understandable: the best founders need to hustle… so demonstrate th... |
| 13.01.2020 | The S&P shows staying on top is getting harder and harder for incumbents | If you want real evidence that we’re in an era of technological upheaval, look no further than what’s happening to the S&P 500. |
| 21.11.2019 | Playground XYZ came 8th in the Deloitte Fast 50 | Four years ago the Shearwater Growth Equity team seeded the ad-tech start-up PLAYGROUND XYZ; joining the wonderful team headed by founders Rob Hall, Scot Liddell & Jonathan Mullins. Last night Playground XYZ came 8th in the Deloitte Fas... |
| 13.11.2019 | The fuel that startups run on is uncertainty | The fuel that startups run on is uncertainty. |
| 25.10.2019 | The courage of the anti-portfolio | Venture investing is said to be like baseball but with unlimited strikes. You can sit and let hittable balls sail past, but when you swing…you need to connect. |
| 11.10.2019 | Why unicorns aren’t always true unicorns | A whopping 31% of unicorns listed by CB Insights are worth exactly $1B. Jeremy Liew, from Lightspeed Venture Partners, noted in a tweet that it’s “potentially not a coincidence”. |
| 09.10.2019 | Venture equity versus venture capital | Here’s an interesting chart showing the difference between venture capital (left) and venture equity (middle) …and PE (right). |
| 27.09.2019 | The natural movement of a business is to be operating at profit | I saw a quote recently from a founder following a funding round which said: “Always raise money before you think you need it”. While I understand the sentiment, it’s worth pausing for a moment and questioning this strategy. |
| 17.09.2019 | WeWork’s IPO and the power of preference shares | Much the chatter surrounding the IPO of the We Company (aka WeWork) relates to the eye-watering valuation being sought. Yet recently there’s speculation that the IPO may end up closer to $20 billion, as opposed to the the $47 billion valuat... |
| 09.09.2019 | Mega-rounds now account for nearly half of the venture dollar flow | Venture capital in the States is back to the levels of 1999. But the gain is not evenly spread: the traditional VC market has only grown 14% per year and mega-rounds now account for nearly half of the dollars in the industry. Consider the d... |
| 30.08.2019 | How to assess a potential investor | A founder can change every aspect of their business except their shareholders. Anyone who has had a difficult shareholder knows the real truth in this statement. So founders should be equally thorough in diligencing their potential investor... |
| 27.08.2019 | When SAFES aren’t all that safe | In late 2013 Y Combinator released its innovative Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) investment instrument. The purpose of the SAFE was to allow pricing to be deferred in an early investment round, as early stage companies are somewh... |
| 06.08.2019 | Your ESOP plan requires wise management and clear thinking | Your ESOP plan requires wise management and clear thinking. An important consideration is how much ESOP to allocate to new staff. Fred Wilson from Union Square Ventures covered this in his classic 2010 post (https://lnkd.in/ds-fHYH). As he ... |
| 02.08.2019 | Launching our Shearwater private dinners with the founder of WiseTech Global, Richard White | As the managing partner of Shearwater, I frequently find myself thinking about the quality of our own ‘product’. One of the differentiators of Shearwater is that we’re three founders investing our own money to back the generationally best t... |
| 13.07.2019 | Understanding the various business models when raising capital | At Shearwater we often say to founders that if there’s strong demand for your round, that’s the best time to raise *less*. The demand lets you tap into extra funds later, when the valuation of your business is likely to be higher. |
| 02.07.2019 | Passive Investing | J.P. Morgan released data this month that $90 billion has been pulled from active funds in public equity markets in 2019, while $39 billion flowed into index-style funds. Passive funds (including quant funds) now control a whopping 80% of e... |
| 28.06.2019 | Why small TAMs can be good | n the early 1980s AT&T asked McKinsey to estimate how many mobile phones would be in use worldwide by the year 2000. Their conclusion was it would be a niche market of around 900,000 subscribers. They were off by 108 million. |
| 20.06.2019 | Some thoughts on ESOP | As investors in high growth tech businesses, it’s typical that our portfolio companies have an employee share option plan (ESOP) in place. ESOPs allow staff to feel ownership in a business and lets them benefit from growth in the value they... |
| 18.06.2019 | Understand the business model of the firm you’re pitching | Sun Tzu said: ‘If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles’. When seeking investment, it helps to understand the business model of the firm you’re pitching. @Scott Kupor, the founding partner ... |
| 17.06.2019 | Watch a pitch to the best | Ever wanted to sit in on a success pitch to a leading Silicon Valley venture firm? Well now you can (no, the TV series didn’t count!). a16z has released a video of a pitch from a company they invested in, including insightful comments at th... |
| 06.05.2019 | What No from Shearwater really means | Entrepreneurs should realise early that a rejection from a venture fund typically says everything about the *fund* and its internal issues, and almost nothing about your business and its likelihood of success. |
| 30.04.2019 | The Shearwater fund launch event [video] | Here’s a short video from our fund launch. Fun night with an awesome bunch of people in the room. |
