SHOW NOTES

Published 26th June 2024.

Our guest this week is Craig Blair, Co-Founder and Partner at Airtree, a globally renowned Venture Capital firm with $1B+ funds under management.

Before AirTree, he was a partner at Netus, a venture fund with a global top decile track record. He has also been a founder of three software businesses -- two of which were successful and one of which was a painful learning experience.

Craig was born in Ontario, Canada and now lives in Sydney, Australia.

In this conversation, we discuss Craig growing up in regional New South Wales in Australia, influences of his family, being the eldest of 6 siblings and father who is a professor of agronomy. You might be surprised to hear that Craig spent time in Indonesia and Alabama in the US during his early years thanks to his dad’s work. We connected over our anti-establishment view of the world, unpacking his time building a company in Prague and how that funded his MBA to INSEAD, Why one of the three startups Craig has built were a painful learning experience.

Our host, Vidit Agarwal enjoyed asking Craig topics we don’t believe he has shared before including why chasing social validation can be an achilles heel, what prompted his career transition to investing and co-founding Airtree, how he manages his inner monologue, his refreshing views on the role of post investment support from a VC fund and why Airtree has one of the biggest support teams and the 5 people he would invite to his metaphorical learning room.

+ listen in to hear the one thing he’s learnt from Daniel Petre, his one pet peeve, and the t-shirt he was given at his wedding with a quote that his kids laugh at.

It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!

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💥💥 LINKS MENTIONED:

--> Apply for KPMG's 2024 Global Tech Innovator Competition: https://kpmg.com/au/en/home/insights/2023/04/kpmg-global-tech-innovator-australia.html

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Past guests include: Anil Sabharwal, Mark Suster, Ahmed Fahour, Holly Ransom, Daniel Petre, Paul Bassat, Simon Holmes a Court, Michael Traill, Osher Gunsberg, Ed Cowan, Carol Schwartz, Wyatt Roy, Jack Zhang, Martijn Wilder, Holly Kramer and more.

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The High Flyers Podcast re-imagines the traditional notion of a "high flyer" and is a premier product of the Curiosity Center. The podcast showcases the journeys of relatable role models from their sunrise (childhood) to today. Listeners love the unique and direct inside access to these relatable role models, companies and industries in every walk of life to help us all be 1% better everyday, together.

166+ guests have joined Vidit Agarwal on the show from around the world including Heads of state, Olympians, Business and cultural leaders, Social Advocates, Investors, Entrepreneurs and more.

The Curiosity Center is widely recognised as a leading on-demand intelligence network for founders, investors, executives and students with an audience of over 200,000 across this podcast + Association Series Newsletter and 7-Star Events. Find out more at www.curiositycenter.xyz

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