Michael Tolo: Rich italian heritage, transtition from law to finance & VC, Investing in deep tech founders and creating net new categories of entrepreneurship!
Michael is Principal at Blackbird VC and helps uncover & invest in founders and innovation in Synthetic biology, Embedded commerce, Compute, Healthcare and Robotics.
In this episode #99, learn about:
- Sunrise in Melbourne having rich Italian heritage and influences, with his dad being a chemical engineer and mum starting out as a high school teacher and then becoming a financial planner and always being there for Michael and his younger brother.
- How speaking different languages is he perfect way to see through a clear window into a culture
- How he started his career in law and then utilised an inspiring learning path to move to finance and then into Venture Capital with Playground VC in the USA (which also has a story behind it)
- Specific learnings of these 3 transitions and now being back in Australia with Blackbird
- Why Deep Tech investing fascinates him
- Distilling misconceptions about founders in Deep Tech
- 3 key traits to be a successful VC
- How he spends his perfect day off work
- Michael's one strength and one weakness
It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!
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