| Date | Title | Description |
| 26.02.2024 | Articulating your corporate philosophy | In the early days of my start-up, Conversant Media, I struggled to succinctly articulate our expense... |
| 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 ... |
| 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... |
| 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 man... |
| 23.12.2022 | 2022 Christmas Celebrations | In December, Shearwater hosted its annual Christmas party at East Village in Darlinghurst. It was a ... |
| 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... |
| 22.07.2022 | Storipress joins Startmate | Shearwater’s overarching mandate is to invest in founders who are passionate about building generati... |
| 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 co... |
| 28.03.2022 | Shearwater’s investment in Buildxact | Construction tech company Buildxact has closed its $18.5 million oversubscribed Series A funding rou... |
| 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 t... |
| 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... |
| 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... |
| 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... |
| 27.10.2021 | Our new HQ | Over the past year, Shearwater has been busy. We’ve renamed ourselves, hit the three-year mark and i... |
| 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 M... |
| 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. ... |
| 10.04.2021 | Our investment in Fuel50 | We’re excited to join the Fuel50 journey as investors, supporting two amazing founders in Jo Mills a... |
| 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 e... |
| 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 ... |
| 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 ... |
| 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 confi... |
| 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 afte... |
| 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 i... |
| 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... |
| 13.01.2020 | The S&P shows staying on top is getting harder and harde... | If you want real evidence that we’re in an era of technological upheaval, look no further than what’... |
| 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... |
| 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 hittab... |
| 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... |
| 09.10.2019 | Venture equity versus venture capital | Here’s an interesting chart showing the difference between venture capital (left) and venture equity... |
| 27.09.2019 | The natural movement of a business is to be operating at pro... | I saw a quote recently from a founder following a funding round which said: “Always raise money befo... |
| 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 valu... |
| 09.09.2019 | Mega-rounds now account for nearly half of the venture dolla... | Venture capital in the States is back to the levels of 1999. But the gain is not evenly spread: the ... |
| 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 ... |
| 27.08.2019 | When SAFES aren’t all that safe | In late 2013 Y Combinator released its innovative Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) investme... |
| 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 E... |
| 02.08.2019 | Launching our Shearwater private dinners with the founder of... | As the managing partner of Shearwater, I frequently find myself thinking about the quality of our ow... |
| 13.07.2019 | Understanding the various business models when raising capit... | At Shearwater we often say to founders that if there’s strong demand for your round, that’s the best... |
| 02.07.2019 | Passive Investing | J.P. Morgan released data this month that $90 billion has been pulled from active funds in public eq... |
| 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 worldwi... |
| 20.06.2019 | Some thoughts on ESOP | As investors in high growth tech businesses, it’s typical that our portfolio companies have an emplo... |
| 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 b... |
| 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 ... |
| 06.05.2019 | What No from Shearwater really means | Entrepreneurs should realise early that a rejection from a venture fund typically says everything ab... |
| 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. |