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Sam Wong: General Partner, Blackbird
Episode description
Published 15th October, 2025.
Welcome to this classic episode. Classics are our favourite episodes from the past 5 years, published every month or two. These are N of 1 conversations with N of 1 people. This is a replay of episode 129 that originally released in May 2023 — one of our most loved classics.
Episode #228 features Sam Wong, General Partner at Blackbird Ventures, one of Australasia’s leading VC firms and the first investor in Canva. Born in Perth to Malaysian-Chinese and British-Indian parents, Sam went from packing Sound Blaster boxes to building Blackbird’s New Zealand fund while five months pregnant. A former lawyer turned founder turned investor, she’s known for her humility, conviction, and sharp judgment backing bold founders across the region.
In this conversation, Sam reflects on her multicultural upbringing, the influence of her entrepreneurial family, and how feeling like an outsider shaped her worldview. She shares lessons from law, startups, and venture, including the “2 out of 10” feedback from Blackbird co-founder Niki Scevak that transformed her approach. We explore building a fund while pregnant, the challenges of starting from scratch in a new country, and her philosophies on courage, success, identity, and leadership — from her annual “fire yourself and reapply” ritual to Barack Obama’s reminder to “keep it about the work.”
It’s time to explore your curiosity — please enjoy.
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Hosted by Vidit Agarwal, Founder of Curiosity Center and The High Flyers Podcast.
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About us
The High Flyers Podcast is a "meticulously researched biography" that uncovers the untold stories of remarkable people and companies—redefining what it means to be a high flyer. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past two years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200 episodes released. A flagship product of the Curiosity Center, it has been featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW, offering raw, relatable insights from childhood to career, helping listeners become 1% better every day.
Some of the notable guests on the show include: Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Anil Sabharwal (VP, Product for Google Chrome, Photos and Drive), Andy Penn (CEO, Telstra), Stevie Case (Chief Revenue Officer, Vanta), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Jean-Michel Lemieux (CTO, Shopify + Atlassian), Jillian Broadbent (Board Member, Macquarie Capital), Sweta Mehra (EGM, NAB; ex CMO, ANZ), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Sam Sicilia (Chief Investment Officer, Hostplus), Craig Tiley (CEO, Tennis Australia), Niki Scevak (Co-Founder, Blackbird Ventures), Mike Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Trent Cotchin (3x Premiership Winning Captain, Richmond FC), Jason Collins (Head of Australasia, BlackRock), Peter Varghese (Chief, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Matteo Franceschetti (CEO, Eight Sleep), Andrey Kushid (CEO, Miro) and more.
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