From VC to cultural cornerstones: building a brand around community.

Lindsay Rogers:
Hello and welcome to the Brand Hunch podcast, where we explore ideas and hunches around how marketers are growing great brands. It's a look under the hood at how much is marketing science and how much is built on a hunch. In today's episode, I'm joined by Joel Connolly, creative director and head of Blackbird Foundation at Blackbird Ventures.

Blackbird, the well-known investing business, was founded in 2012 and has grown from a team of three people to more than 60 today. And I read somewhere that with over 50% women, it provides equity capital for all stages of startup companies, including seed, the idea stage, Series A, early growth, all the way through to IPO.

I came across Joel after attending the Sunrise Festival in Sydney earlier this year and was astounded by the level of thoughtfulness in the curation and design of the festival, which was put on by Blackbird. I thought it was a full agency team that had pulled it all together. And no, it’s been single-handedly Joel and his team.

Welcome to the show, Joel.

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Joel Connolly:
Oh, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

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Lindsay Rogers:
So what fascinated me most about your story is where it all started for you. Quite unconventional, I guess, your journey. We’d love to hear it in your words.

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Joel Connolly:
Yeah, sure. It has been a winding path. So, I started off working in the arts for a lot of years. I did a degree called Theater Media, where you learn to produce different kinds of shows. You learn how to make something that’s got value and meaning, and you could choose radio, theater, events, or anything like that.

I started off doing that and then became an artist manager for a number of years in the music industry. I ran a business managing bands like The Rubens, Cloud Control, Earth Boy, and another band called Fishing. I also ran a craft beer festival. I got into homebrewing, and at the time, there wasn’t much good craft beer in Sydney. So, with a few friends, we started a little festival that grew into 150 events over a week in Sydney.

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Lindsay Rogers:
That’s your journey. So how did you land a role with Blackbird?

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Joel Connolly:
Well, it was one of those fortuitous things. I was pitching Blackbird that our company could do some work. I met Niki [Scevak] through a friend of mine, and Niki explained that they needed someone to help them run this event called Sunrise. My tradable skill—the thing I know how to do—is run events.

I started pitching that perhaps my company could run the event for Blackbird, but that wasn’t what they wanted. Niki said, “You could come in and have a crack at creating a role,” which at the time was Head of Community. I didn’t know what venture capital was or what startups were.

But I realised that community was something I’d been doing my whole life, preparing for it through all the different things I’d done. When I started, it wasn’t that scary. I found I had a real passion for it. Joining at that early stage, there was so much opportunity to do things that hadn’t yet been done at Blackbird—like defining the company vision, mission, and values.

That led to building the brand. At the time, Blackbird just had a logo that Niki and Rick made on 99designs. There wasn’t much beyond that. So, I had the chance to figure out what we wanted to do and create a bunch of things that hadn’t been done yet, which led me to my current role as Creative Director.

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Lindsay Rogers:
How incredible! What a journey and such an unconventional path to find yourself in venture capital—coming from managing artists and events. Tell me, what does a job description for someone leading and building a community look like?

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Joel Connolly:
Great question. When I started, the prevailing view in some parts of the VC industry was that the product you have as a VC is capital—money. I don’t believe that to be true. Money is undifferentiated. The money one fund raises is the same as what another fund raises.

To differentiate, you have to offer something else. For us, that was community. The job was to figure out how to bring together the most brilliant people we find—founders—and create a space where they’d want to help and support each other.

The core idea is that we don’t think we have all the answers. The best answers to founders’ questions often come from other founders. The job was to create a community among these amazing people and let them learn from each other.

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Lindsay Rogers:
And so, what did you do?

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Joel Connolly:
There were a few different pillars as part of the strategy. One was ecosystem development. At the time—and I think still to this day—you can't just drag a net through the ocean of startups in Australia and pick out what you want. You have a responsibility to grow and nurture the ecosystem because it’s small and nascent.

That meant trying to grow the startup community in Australia to make it rich, diverse, and full of interesting people. Sunrise was a big part of that—a startup festival to celebrate founders, bring energy to the community, and show what’s possible in Australia.

Another pillar was the founder community—bringing together the founders we’ve invested in and their teams. Beyond Sunrise, we ran meetups and gatherings for heads of engineering or other specific roles across our portfolio companies. The idea was to build relationships and trust so founders and their teams could openly share challenges and support each other.

A third pillar was education. We realized that young people didn’t see working in startups as a prestigious option—it felt risky. So, I’d go to universities and run sausage sizzles outside engineering departments to get people interested. At one point, I even hired a bus, packed it with engineering students, and took them around to companies like Canva, SafetyCulture, and Propeller to show them what startups are really like.

Finally, there was the investor community. Blackbird has a unique investor community—100 to 150 individuals at the time, many of whom are former founders or business leaders who didn’t just want a financial return; they wanted to contribute to startups in Australia.

We built community among them, running events that brought investors and founders together. We’d also host things like investor days, but we’d add fun and color—once, we even had a mariachi band. That was the strategy back then. Now we have an incredible team that runs these initiatives, but that’s how it started.

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Lindsay Rogers:

What is it about the power of community that intrigues you?

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Joel Connolly:
Communities are where people find meaning. There’s a great joke I heard from a comedian: “If I sent you into the bush with nothing but an axe, how long would it take you to come back with an iPhone?” The answer is never. Human progress is built on cooperation and community.

To me, that’s what makes things meaningful and worth pursuing. If you have a community around you—whether it’s people who work for you, peers in your industry, or others sharing similar challenges—it makes the journey a little easier and more rewarding.

In Australia, especially, the startup community was so new at the time, but everyone was driven by the shared goal of building something special for the country.

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Lindsay Rogers:
You mentioned earlier that your career up until Blackbird had prepared you for this role. What did you learn from your days in music and events that have served you well now?

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Joel Connolly:
I think it’s learning how to make things that are meaningful and have weight. Working in the arts, you see how much artists pour into creating something they truly believe in. Watching that process had a big impact on me.

It also helped me refine my taste—being around art and culture sharpens your ability to discern what’s good and what resonates. That’s been invaluable in my work at Blackbird.

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Lindsay Rogers:
Going back to Sunrise, where was it when you started, and how has it evolved?

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Joel Connolly:
When I joined, the spirit of Sunrise was the same as it is now—to celebrate and honor founders, bring people together, and inspire more people to join the startup community.

But back then, it was more about convincing startup-adjacent people to take the leap into startups. Now, it’s about connecting the work of Blackbird and startups more tangibly to culture. We want Sunrise to feel like a mashup of an arts festival, TEDx, and a startup day. By connecting to culture, we hope to attract people who might not see themselves in tech or startups but can find a place in the community through shared values or interests.

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Lindsay Rogers:
How do you make the case for investing in something as big as Sunrise when you could run a smaller, more affordable version?

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Joel Connolly:
We pitch Sunrise as a gift to the ecosystem—from us, our partners, and everyone who contributes. The idea is that Australia needs innovation to be a key pillar of the economy, and events like Sunrise help grow the ecosystem.

We try hard to keep ticket prices low so it’s accessible. We offer student tickets for $50 and founder tickets for a couple hundred dollars. It’s a lot of work every year to make it happen, but the impact it has on the community makes it worth it.

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Lindsay Rogers:
You also look after the Blackbird Foundation. Tell me about that.

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Joel Connolly:
The Blackbird Foundation’s mission is to unleash creativity in young people. It evolved from the education pillar I worked on when I ran community.

We noticed that many young people weren’t considering startups as a career option—it wasn’t seen as prestigious, and it felt risky. So, we funded programs like STEM and robotics initiatives to spark interest and show what’s possible.

The Foundation continues that mission but focuses broadly on creativity. We believe everyone is inherently creative, but it’s not always nurtured, especially through traditional systems like schooling. If more young people embrace creativity, they’ll be better equipped to shape the world.

One of our main initiatives is Proto Stars, a micro-grant program for young people with passion projects. We fund all kinds of ideas—from fine artists to a medical doctor writing a poetry book for kids about the human body.

We’ve supported an algo rave DJ who codes live music during events, a robotics educator who travels to remote schools in the Outback, and many others. It’s about empowering young people to explore their creativity and contribute to the world in unique ways.

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Lindsay Rogers:
When you think about Sunrise, the Foundation, and your broader work, how does it all fit into Blackbird’s brand strategy?

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Joel Connolly:
The thread tying it all together is creativity. Creativity is central to Blackbird’s success and identity.

If we’re successful, Blackbird will look more like a cultural institution than a traditional VC firm. Instead of a collection of artists, we have a collection of founders. Our role is to show Australia what’s possible by showcasing these founders and their achievements, much like a museum curates an exhibition.

Creativity drives everything we do—whether it’s Sunrise, the Foundation, or our brand storytelling. We want to inspire more people to be creative and show that building things—whether businesses, products, or ideas—is not just for a select few.

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Lindsay Rogers:
What role do you think brand plays in the commercial success of the startups you work with?

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Joel Connolly:
It depends on the industry. For consumer businesses, brand is critical from day one. A great example is Eucalyptus, which operates several health brands. Brand has been a core part of their strategy and success.

For other industries, like aerospace, it might matter less in the early stages. Take Gilmore Space in Queensland—they’re building rockets. Their logo and branding are quirky, but they’ve invested more in their mission and storytelling than in a polished visual identity.

Ultimately, brand becomes more important as companies grow. It helps differentiate, build trust, and foster loyalty.

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Lindsay Rogers:
For founders without the resources to invest in brand early on, what should they focus on?

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Joel Connolly:
Start with the building blocks. Brand is an expression of who you are as a group of people—your values, mission, and what you stand for.

You might not need a polished visual identity right away, but you can define your principles and look to brands you admire for inspiration. That groundwork will make it easier to build a strong brand later.

At Blackbird, we spent years developing our personality and identity before we were ready to create the brand we have today. It’s okay to grow into it.

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Lindsay Rogers:
How much of your work has been driven by data and planning versus intuition and creativity?

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Joel Connolly:
Almost none of it has been data-driven. I’m not a numbers person—that’s not how I think.

My approach has always been to follow what I care about, stay curious, and not be afraid to jump into the unknown. That’s how I ended up at Blackbird, despite not knowing what venture capital was.

Being part of Blackbird early on also helped me shape its mission and values. That made building the brand much more intuitive later.

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Lindsay Rogers:
How do you stay creative and sharp?

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Joel Connolly:
I don’t try to be too strategic about what I consume or learn. I follow my curiosity and let it lead me.

I’m especially interested in film and television, particularly the creative process behind them. A director has to bring together a team of experts to execute their vision—it’s similar to what founders do when building a startup.

I also rely on platforms like Substack to curate thoughtful and inspiring content. It’s about staying open and letting yourself explore.

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Lindsay Rogers:
What’s ahead for brands more generally?

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Joel Connolly:
I think brands will need to focus more on cultural relevance. People are becoming less receptive to being “sold to,” so brands need to connect with their audience on a deeper, more meaningful level.

This means using storytelling, design, and artifacts to create a sense of belonging and purpose. Brands that do this well will stand out in the future.

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Lindsay Rogers:
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this conversation. Thank you so much for your time.

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Joel Connolly:
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

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Lindsay Rogers:
I’m so inspired by Joel’s perspective on building a cultural institution within Blackbird. Whether it’s through Sunrise, the Foundation, or their brand work, he’s showing how creativity and community can transform a business and make it truly meaningful.