AirLabOne founder Dr. Mariam Martin on 5 years bootstrapping deep tech without co-founders, winning a global patent across 3 jurisdictions, and technology built for microgravity and space.
Crystal McGregor shares how Tech Ready Women Academy helps female founders go from idea to investment readiness, why VC data says invest in women but the market still does not, and the worst advice founders get.
James Sneddon, founder of Hyphen Health, reveals that 84% of Australians aged 16 to 49 have never been tested for STIs and explains how his digital health platform is removing stigma from sexual healthcare.
Yash Varma, VC and high-performance coach, unpacks the three pillars of performance, his hospitalisation wake-up call, Blue Zones research, and why health is the ultimate founder asset.
Albert Patajo, VP Strategy at Nexl, breaks down how he raised a Series B in a tight market, won the US Northeast with focus, and built the founder-operator trust that made it work.
Arjun, founder of inaam, turned a family tragedy into a fintech mission. He breaks down impact investing, Australia’s VC risk problem, and gamifying financial literacy for young Australians.
Tiana Manticos, founder of TX Method, unpacks her four-pillar scaling framework, the perception economy, why founders should build personal brand before they need it, and how to stop chasing trends.
Paz Pisarski grew Community Collective from 17 people in Melbourne to 18 countries and 320 companies. She breaks down the flywheel, Niche Cubed framework, and how Nigeria became an unexpected hub.
About the guest
Christie Jenkins
Venture Capital Investor at Blackbird Ventures and Co-Lead at Athletic Ventures
Christie Jenkins is a former elite athlete who competed for Australia in three separate sports: trampolining (12 national titles, top 10 in the world), beach volleyball (12-year career on the world tour), and CrossFit (Asia Pacific Champions, 11th at the CrossFit Games). After retiring, Christie transitioned into venture capital, working at Blackbird Ventures and co-leading Athletic Ventures, a syndicate of 150 professional Australian athletes investing in startups.
Steve sits down with Christie Jenkins for a wide-ranging conversation that spans three elite sporting careers, the identity crisis that follows retirement, the leap into venture capital, and why the best founders think almost exactly like the best athletes.
For 30 years I said I am an athlete. That is shorthand for discipline, ambition, goals, competitiveness. And suddenly you are like: well, I do not know who I am anymore.
Christie Jenkins
Christie Jenkins is a former elite Australian athlete who competed at national and international level in trampolining (12 national titles, world top 10), beach volleyball (12-year career), and CrossFit (Asia Pacific Champions). After retiring she transitioned into venture capital at Blackbird Ventures and co-leads Athletic Ventures.
Athletic Ventures is a syndicate of around 150 professional Australian athletes who invest in startups on a deal-by-deal basis. Founded by Matt, a former Greater Western Sydney AFL player, it brings elite athletes onto startup cap tables and helps portfolio companies with team culture, leadership, and sports mindset.
The Startmate Athlete Fellowship is a programme Christie helped launch that takes around 50 elite athletes and helps them break into the startup ecosystem as founders, operators, or investors. It gives athletes structured access and mentorship into the startup world.
The very best founders have an almost identical mindset to the very best athletes. Both chase extremely improbable goals over decades and build resilience from repeated failure. Christie uses this pattern recognition to assess founders and helps them develop that mindset deliberately rather than assuming it is innate.
Christie cites three surprises: the loss of mastery and feeling professionally behind; the identity loss of no longer being an athlete; and the difficulty of maintaining friendships with former training partners once the shared structure disappears. She also found it easier to test the retirement idea with people three degrees removed than with close family.
Christie focuses on consumer, human performance, health, sport, and AI. She is one of few investors willing to consider hardware investments. She does not focus on deep tech, web3, or enterprise software, and prefers earlier-stage companies.
Welcome to Give It A Nudge. Today we have Christie Jenkins. I have played three different sports for Australia. I started in trampolining, hold 12 national titles, top 10 in the world. My parents actually met on a trampoline. They put me in lessons as a little kid. I went to my first Nationals at eight, won at nine.
When I was finishing uni I still wanted to be an athlete. I made a list at 23: what sports can you still play at a pro level in your 30s? Beach volleyball was on the list. The last Olympians that won the women’s gold medal were 40. I gave myself six months, started training eight to ten times a week, within a couple of months a really good player asked me to be her partner and that was it. I only just retired six months ago. I played for Australia on the world tour and won national title events across Australia.
I wanted to stay fit for volleyball and going to a regular gym was too boring. A friend dragged me to CrossFit. I ended up joining CrossFit Athletic in Sydney. They said you are pretty strong, do you want to be on the team? I did not realise: 11 training sessions a week, two to three hours each. We won the Asia Pacific region and placed 11th at the CrossFit Games. After that I had to choose between two sports at a pro level.
Retiring from full-time elite sport is a massive change. In mastery, you have always been good at something and suddenly you are not good at anything. For 30 years I said I am an athlete. That is shorthand for discipline, ambition, goals, competitiveness. Suddenly you are like I do not know who I am anymore. And you miss the emotional highs. Standing on the baseline on the final point of a championship match with the whole stadium cheering you on. Where will you get that elsewhere?
Founders have a very similar mentality to athletes. You are chasing an extremely improbable goal with very low odds and committing decades of your life to it. The very best founders have an almost identical mindset to the very best athletes. That has been my strength in assessing founders and in helping them develop that mindset. I bring a growth mindset to it. Of course you can learn the mindset of being a founder. You see athletes develop resilience over time. A founder can do the same.
Athletic Ventures was founded by Matt from Greater Western Sydney in AFL. I saw an article in the AFR about sport plus venture capital, my dream meeting of ideas. I got an intro to Matt and said I just want to help. That was two and a half years ago. Athletic Ventures has grown to a syndicate of 150 professional Australian athletes investing deal by deal. Beyond profiles, we have helped portfolio companies with team culture, leadership, and sports mindset.
I work at Blackbird as well. Blackbird is a generalist fund so I got to do everything. The best thing to come out of that is I now know what I like: consumer, human performance, health, sport, and AI. I know that deep tech, web3, and enterprise software are not my jam. I prefer earlier stage.
I helped launch the Athlete Fellowship that Startmate runs. We have taken 50 athletes and are helping them break into startups as founders, operators, or investors. I have been campaigning for that for a long time.
Sport is such a central part of American commercial culture. College sport is a massive machine. You are seeing funds investing in women’s sports teams. Serena Williams started her own fund. VR I am bullish on as a training tool. Computer vision is going to be game-changing for sport.
What surprised me was: am I still friends with the people I used to train with? Suddenly you do not have the structure that brings you together and you have to outbound reach out. You find you have nothing in common except history. I also found it hard to talk to my family about retiring first. Because beach volleyball was so tied to family I felt they could not give me an unbiased perspective. So I tested the idea with people three degrees removed first.
About the host
Steve Grace is the CEO of The Nudge Group, one of Australia’s leading specialist recruitment agencies for startups and scaleups. He is a serial entrepreneur with nearly two decades of experience building businesses and communities across Australia. On Give It A Nudge he interviews the founders, operators, and investors building the next generation of Australian companies.
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