INVESTMENT TEAM
TODD DEACON
General Partner
Todd is a General Partner at Wildcard Ventures and also a Managing Director of Techstars, leading SportsTech investments globally for their venture capital fund. Techstars is one of the most active venture capital investors globally, making approximately 500 new investments every year in predominately seed stage start-up companies across the world. Prior to Techstars, in 2013 Todd founded Unscriptd, a sports technology start-up that was acquired in 2018 by athlete media company The Player’s Tribune. Prior to founding Unscriptd, Todd had a long career in management consulting specialising in the sports and entertainment industry with clients such as Tennis Australia, Cricket Australia, National Rugby League, Australian Sports Commission, Adidas, Quiksilver and Nike. Todd is passionate about equality in sport and today sits on the Commission for the Suncorp Super Netball League, the world’s second highest paying female sports league.
MACHAR REID
General Partner
Machar is a General Partner at Wildcard Ventures and Head of Innovation for Tennis Australia where he oversees its venture activities, including the Accelerator partnership with Techstars and its existing investments across its international sports and entertainment event portfolio (the Australian Open, the Laver Cup and the ATP Cup), grassroots sport and the professional game. In his time in tennis, Machar has trained and advised top 10 professional players, held senior management posts and innovated in the media, all the while looking for transformative opportunities with technology. He holds a PhD (sports biomechanics – the human nexus between engineering and technology) and continues to be the tennis world’s most prominent voice in the science and technology of the sport.
LAUREN CORIDAS
Operations Manager
Lauren is the Operations Manager at Wildcard Ventures and also the Finance Business Partner – Communications, Marketing & Player Development for Tennis Australia. She is responsible for the day-to-day financial accounting, budgeting, forecasting & financial strategy for each of the areas she works with. Lauren holds Bachelor of Accounting and CPA qualifications, in addition to 20+ years of experience in various Finance roles spanning industries in Financial Services (including Equity Fund & Financial Planning accounting and associated AFSL compliance requirements), Professional Services, Telecommunications and Sport.
VC ADVISORY COMMITTEE
BRAD FELD
Co-Founder & Partner at Foundry Group
Based in the USA, Brad is one of the world’s most respected venture capitalists. Brad has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars. Brad is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He’s written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series and writes the blog Feld Thoughts. Brad holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed 25 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 states. Brad has led venture investments in a number of sportstech companies namely Fitbit, SeatGeek and WHOOP.
DANA SETTLE
Founding Partner at Greycroft Partners
Based in the USA, Dana Settle is the Founding Partner of Greycroft Partners, one of the most respected venture capital funds in the USA where she heads the firm’s west coast office out of Los Angeles. Prior to co-founding Greycroft, Dana spent several years as a venture capitalist and advisor to startup companies in the Bay Area, including six years at Mayfield, where she focused on early stage companies in the mobile communications and consumer Internet markets. Dana currently manages Greycroft’s investments in Anine Bing, AppAnnie, Bird, Clique, Comparably, Goop, Happiest Baby, Seed, Thrive Market, Versed and WideOrbit. She also managed the firm’s investments in Awesomeness TV (acquired by Dreamworks), Maker Studios (acquired by Disney), Pulse (acquired by LinkedIn), TheRealReal (IPO), Trunk Club (acquired by Nordstrom), Sometrics (acquired by American Express), Viddy (acquired by Fullscreen), and Voicea (acquired by Cisco). Dana also serves as a Board of Director to IMAX Corporation. Her additional experience includes business development at Truveo (AOL), investment banking at Lehman Brothers and international business development at McCaw Cellular Communications (AT&T). Dana holds a BA in Finance and International Studies from the University of Washington and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
DAVID COHEN
Co-Founder & Chairman at Techstars
Based in the USA, David Cohen is the Founder and Chairman of Techstars, the worlds most active investor in early stage startups. David has been an entrepreneur and investor for his entire life having founded several companies and has invested in hundreds of startups such as Uber, Twilio, SendGrid, Pillpack, and sportstech startup Classpass. In total, these investments have gone on to create more than $100B in value. Prior to Techstars, David was a co-founder of Pinpoint Technologies which was acquired by ZOLL Medical Corporation (NASDAQ: ZOLL) in 1999. David was the founder and CEO of earFeeder, a music service that was sold to SonicSwap. He also had what he likes to think of as a “graceful failure” in between. David is the co-author (with Brad Feld) of Do More Faster; Techstars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup. David also enjoys reading non-fiction books and playing tennis. He is married to the coolest girl he’s ever met and has three amazing kids who always seem to be teaching him something new.
HANNAH BROWN
Ex Head of Sports StartUp Investments at Sky (UK)
Hannah is currently the Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer at Formula E Holdings. Prior to Formula E, she spent 2.5 years in New York working for RSE Ventures and fuboTV. During her 10 years at Sky, Hannah worked across commercial finance and Sky Sports. Prior to moving to the US, she led the management of Sky’s investments and partnerships with start-up and emerging sports businesses. During this period Sky invested in fuboTV, Drone Racing League, Incrowd Sports and Diagonal View. Hannah has recently co-founded Atalanta Media, a women’s football company focused on growing the availability and engagement in the game.
NICK CROCKER
Partner at Blackbird Ventures
Nick Crocker is a General Partner at Blackbird Ventures, and runs the firm’s Melbourne office. Blackbird is a venture capital firm that exists to supercharge Australia and New Zealand's most ambitious founders. The company partners with founders at the very beginning and surrounds them with a community of founders who have built successful technology companies before. Nick sits on the boards of Culture Amp, nura, Dovetail, Applied, Eucalyptus, and XY Sense. Previously, Nick worked on Product Strategy & Operations at Under Armour Connected Fitness and was a Product Manager at MyFitnessPal, the world's most popular health and fitness application, acquired by Under Armour in 2015. Nick co-founded, and was CEO of, Sessions, using technology to help people live better, healthier lives. Sessions was founded at Rock Health in January, 2012 and acquired by MyFitnessPal in December, 2013. Sessions was funded by Blackbird Ventures, Collaborative Fund, SV Angel and Joshua Kushner. Nick also co-founded We Are Hunted which was acquired by Twitter. He was a Product Manager at Boxee, funded by USV and Spark, and acquired by Samsung, in New York from 2010-11. He holds Political Science and Law degrees from the University of Queensland. While at university, Nick worked as a journalist with News Ltd. His writing has been published in Wired, Fast Company and Harvard Business Review. His passion for health and fitness has translated into his venture career, where he is an advisor to Athletic Ventures, and Tennis Australia’s venture capital arm Wildcard Ventures.
ED COWAN
Investor - TDM Growth Partners
After playing 16 years of professional cricket around the world including for Australia, Ed joined TDM Growth Partners, a Sydney based, private investment company with $1.5b under management and an enviable track record of compounding money at 25% or more for 15 years. TDM invests globally in public and private businesses in a very concentrated manner, with specific expertise in technology and consumer businesses, with current portfolio companies including Allbirds, ROKT, Culture Amp and Safety Culture. Ed holds a Masters of Applied Finance, has a particular interest in sports technology and is a current board member of Cricket NSW.
PAUL NAPHTALI
Founding Partner at Rampersand
Paul is the cofounder of Rampersand VC, an early stage Australian tech VC fund focusing on data-centric b2b startups. He cofounded Rampersand after several years working in Silicon Valley and Europe in senior commercial roles with early and growth stage venture-backed companies, with a particular expertise in strategic communication and go to market. Like many Australians, sport has been a central part of Paul's life as both a participant and a spectator. Australian Rules Football (specifically Richmond) is his first love, closely followed by Cricket and Tennis, then pretty much anything with bat, ball or racket.
INVESTMENT COMMITTEE
CRAIG TILEY
Chief Executive Officer – Tennis Australia
Craig is recognized as one of Australia’s most innovative and forward thinking chief executives. His charismatic and passionate nature, together with his business acumen, has leveraged him to the forefront of sports administration and the leader behind Australia’s largest and most successful international sporting event. Craig’s incredible relationship with the players has long been a key to the success of the Australian Open right from when he was appointed Tournament Director for his first event in 2006. He was later appointed CEO of Tennis Australia in 2013. In that time the Australian Open has continually broken attendance records and attracted more than 814,000 people from around Melbourne, Victoria and across the globe in 2020 alone. The event delivers more than $377 million in economic benefit to Melbourne each year and reaches a global audience of more than one billion households. His relationship with the players and relentless focus on improvement has transformed the Australian Open into one of the players’ and Australia’s favourite sport and entertainment event. Craig has also led the introduction of successful initiatives to shift the historical decline in tennis participation including the rollout of digital platforms, which has increased access to courts by over 350%. He has led the diversification of Tennis Australia with the creation of a global production unit, development of music and food partnerships, the launch of a venture capital fund and a successful incubator partnership. He also serves as the Chair of the Coalition of Major Professional and Participation Sports (COMPPS) in Australia and is on the Board of Rising (Melbourne’s International Arts Festival). Prior to joining Tennis Australia, Craig was Director of Tennis at the University of Illinois, where he led the fastest tennis program turnaround in US collegiate history, breaking a 100 year-old record for most consecutive wins. He twice earned the US National Coach of the Year award, which was presented by the President of the US at the White House, coached several top ten professional players and captained the South African Davis Cup team. His achievements have further been recognized by being elected to the College Tennis Hall of Fame (2010) and Illinois Athletic Hall of Fame (2017).
KATRINA BLAIR
Chief Financial Officer - Tennis Australia
Katrina Blair began in the role of Chief Financial Officer at Tennis Australia on 1 June 2021. Katrina joins Tennis from mining services company Orica where she led the transformation of their financial team through the removal of duplication and introduction of a global shared services centre. Prior to Orica, she spent 18 years in various roles at BHP including Financial Controller for the Australia region which contributes $28 billion in revenue annually. Katrina has led many high-performing teams in the areas of governance, risk, procurement and technology as well as finance.
TIM JOLLEY
Chief Strategy & Performance Officer – Tennis Australia
Tim’s unique blend of experience, including top-tier strategy consulting along with corporate and entrepreneurial skills with leading global organisations such as Bain & Company, Orica, and multiple start-ups, gives him a rare depth of understanding and complex problem-solving abilities in a variety of fast-moving environments. Tim joined Tennis Australia in early 2020 and in his role, directly supports CEO Craig Tiley and the Executive team in developing, implementing and sustaining strategic initiatives for the sport, our athletes, major events and the entire company. His experience as a creative thinker, influential collaborator and results-focused leader, stands him in good stead in terms of developing and implementing strategies that create both immediate and longer-term value for our business especially through technology innovation. With this background, Tim brings unique insight to the investment committee of Wildcard Ventures.
JACQUIE MANGAN
General Counsel & Company Secretary - Tennis Australia
Joining Tennis Australia in 2011, Jacquie has a proven track record, leading the legal function of Australian tennis and the Australian Open through intense periods of innovation and change. Jacquie began her legal career in private practice and was promoted to a role a senior commercial lawyer specializing in mergers and acquisitions and corporate advisory, becoming a trusted advisor for high profile brands in the consumer goods and retail sector before making the move into Tennis. As a member of the Executive leadership team she now directly supports the Board and Chief Executive Officer. With close to two decades of legal expertise, Jacquie brings deep experience in both commercial negotiations and corporate governance to the Wildcard Ventures Investment Committee.
DARREN PEARCE
Chief Communications Officer – Tennis Australia
Darren joined Tennis Australia in 2007 as Media Manager and has since 2009 has been the Chief of Communications. Prior to Tennis Australia, Darren worked as a journalist at Channel Nine News Melbourne, ABC News and Current Affairs South Australia, ABC News Melbourne and Victoria WIN TV. As Chief Communications Officer at Tennis Australia, Darren overseas the entire media function for the Australian Open and has been integral in transforming the broadcast experience through technology innovation. He has a strong passion and knowledge of media technology and brings enormous industry experience and acumen to the Investment Committee of Wildcard Ventures.