Samantha Wong

General Partner at Blackbird Ventures

Partner
2015 - Current
Generational ownership of the most ambitious tech companies founded by Aussies & Kiwis including Canva, CultureAmp, Safety Culture and many more. I am a director on the Boards of Harrison AI, Halter, First AML, Vow Foods, Partly, Foundry Lab, Tracksuit and Workyard.

Partner
2016 - 2018
Mentoring the next generation of great Aussie & Kiwi tech founders www.startmate.com

CEO & Co-Founder
2014 - 2015
CapacityHQ is a marketplace of legal consultants that helps firms and corporates deal with surge capacity requirements. CapacityHQ was part of Startmate 2015 cohort. As CEO and Co-Founder, I was responsible for defining the product vision and roadmap, financial modelling, marketing and recruitment for the platform. CapacityHQ was acquired by LegalVision in June 2015.

Product & Strategy
2010 - 2013
SurfStitch is the world’s largest online action sports retailer listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, with businesses in the US, Europe and Australia. I was responsible for leading cross-functional (engineering, marketing, design and operations) teams during the high growth phase of the business when it grew from 40 to 300+ employees on 2 continents. My role spanned product management, operations and strategy. Led the team that established SurfStitch’s European business in France, including managing release of its multi-lingual, multi-currency desktop and mobile sites. This permitted the business to go from $0 to $1M+ in revenue within 12 months in a highly competitive retailing environment. I was also accountable for the rollout of e-commerce for brands including SDS.com.au and twoseasons.co.uk (large multi-brand retailers in Australia and the UK respectively), Billabong, Nixon, Element, Tigerlily Swimwear, Dakine and Von Zipper in Australia and Europe. This involved matrix management across several brands, divisions, teams, locations and multiple third party suppliers to a very aggressive timeline. In total, I managed 14 web, mobile and iOS projects from business case creation and solution design through build, implementation and closure. http://www.brw.com.au/p/entrepreneurs/surfstitch_buys_british_rival_surfdome_veE52uouVe8UmURImoGLkO http://www.powerretail.com.au/news/surfstitch-goes-french/

Lawyer
2004 - 2010
A corporate disputes specialist, I advised blue chip clients ranging from accounting firms, public companies and their directors in relation to their litigious and non-litigious commercial disputes. Sectors of particular focus were financial services, property and resources. During my time at Minter Ellison, I also worked in the Equity Capital Markets, Financial Services, Private Equity and Finance departments where I drafted, and advised in relation to, commercial contracts, loan/financing documents, real estate documents and company regulatory filings in a private and public company context. During this time I also sat on the Minter Ellison Young Lawyers Committee and participated extensively in pro bono initiatives.