My guest for Ep156 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Matt Browne, the Co-founder & Managing Partner of Black Nova Ventures.

Prior to becoming a VC, Matt was the Co-founder and CEO of DoneSafe, a cloud based safety platform that grew to over 1.5M paying users before being acquired by HSI in 2020.

He also Co-founded Whispli, a Y-Combinator alumni SaaS startup that provides a whistleblowing platform for clients such as Qantas, Westpac and Oxfam.

Now, alongside being one of the founding members of Upflowy, Matt is also the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Black Nova Ventures. A $20M early-stage VC fund built for B2B technology startups.

Despite only recently announcing the launch their fund, they have already made 23 investments to date.

In this interview we discussed a range of topics including:

• Matt’s journey in launching, scaling and eventually exiting DoneSafe
• Dealing with co-founder breakups
• How to build investor conviction for pre-revenue or pre-product startups
• The rise of the Founder VCs 
• & much more!

Timestamps

• 2.24 – Matts career journey from starting a business as a teenager to starting Black Nova Ventures 
• 5.22 – Matt’s early interest in business and how side hustles can fuel a future passion for startups 
• 7.59 – The decision to go full time at Donesafe 
• 10.27 – Matt’s Financial advice for businesses and the way raising has changed since he first started 
• 12.55 – What Black Nova looks for in founding teams and how they support founders to be more secure financially
• 14.58 – Finding the right co-founder and managing when a co-founder leaves the business
• 20.02 – Managing the process when a partner leaves and the importance of having empathy in the situation
• 22.42 – The process of getting acquired and how the first acquisition of Donesafe fell through in the final hour 
• 27.22 – How a company changes post-acquisition and how to decide whether you will stay or leave 
• 28.51 – Working with good people and Matt’s decision to work with his co-founder Darcy
• 32.05 – Black Nova’s structure and how they manage their funds
• 34.23 – Why Black Nova focuses on supporting founders and businesses they invest in rather than just funding them
• 36.57 – Why Matt likes to be hands-on when supporting the businesses they have invested in
• 39.20 – What Black Nova looks to invest in and why they like to be very early investors
• 40.57 – What Matt looks for in founders when making investment decisions
• 42.55 – The importance of focusing on what you’re good at and trusting others with what they’re good at 
• 45.38 – How starting your first business can be very humbling 
• 48.05 – Thriving in the US and global market compared to Australia 
• 50.01 – How to get in contact with Matt 

Links Mentioned 

Matt’s Links 

• Matt’s LinkedIn 
• Matt’s Twitter 
• Black Nova VC Website
• Black Nova LinkedIn
• Black Nova Twitter

Companies Mentioned 

• Donesafe 
• Whispli
• Leighton Contractors
• Waud Capital
• Y Combinator
• Commonwealth Bank
• Adventure Capital Venture Management
• Antler
• Founder Institute
• Upflowy
• HSI
• Tablo

People Mentioned 

• Darcy Naunton 
• Matt Allen
• Matt Knee
• Ash Davies

Past Episodes Mentioned 

• Episode 40 – Darcy Naunton 
• Episode 28 – Matt Allen
• Episode 137 – Matt Allen 
• Episode 155 – Ash Davies

Special Thanks:

Special thanks to Darcy Naunton and Matt Allen for their help with research for this interview! ?

Feedback/connect/say hello:

[email protected]
@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)
/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)
@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)
My Youtube Channel

Credits:

Music: Joakim Karud – Dreams

Other channels:

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