CMACK Ventures

I've been in the tech startup space for 10+ years, founded StartCon & Pitch for $1M, and helped 1000s of startups raise capital. Angel investing for nearly 4 years with 20 portfolio companies & counting. I co-run 361 Angel Club. Investor & top 5 mentor at Startmate. Co-Director at Founder Institute ANZ. Feel free to check out my LinkedIn.

MY APPROACH

I've built a pretty strong deal flow pipeline, I see 500+ deals a year, and I track them pretty diligently so I can analyse my decisions and make adjustments. Most of my investments come from referrals within my personal network.

My investment thesis is pretty simple: Can I help this company?

Top 3 ways in which I can be helpful to a startup:

1. Marketing, GTM, branding, content, storytelling, B2B sales funnels - my background and expertise is in this area and I'm happy to jump in a get my hands dirty if needed
2. Target audience is other tech startups/companies - this customer group is my bread & butter, and I can open doors
3. Planning on going the VC-backed route - I have great relationships with many VCs so I can help open doors

I'm often called one of the most helpful people a founder can have on their cap table, and I work hard to ensure it stays that way. I always tell founders:

I won't be your biggest cheque, but I will be your biggest champion.

Things you probably won't see from me: Enterprise (anything with long sales cycles), bio/medtech, hardware-only, crypto, B2C, DTC, mobile apps, or games.

There are of course some exceptions, like when I really love the founder.

Some of my portcos:

• Cake Equity (recently raised US round led by Jason Calacanis)
• Upflowy (recently #1 of the week on Product Hunt)
• Tiliter (live in Woolies stores across Australia)
• Bridge (other investors include the founders of Github, Teachable, and Pipedrive, along with Hustle Fund and Lofty Ventures)