The Lineup

Matt de Boer

Managing Partner

Matt de Boer has been a student/athlete for 13+ years playing over 200 games in the AFL, completing the AICD course, Disruptive Strategy at Harvard and a Bachelor of Commerce with a HD average.

Matt is constantly invigorated by purposeful founders that possess traits of a professional athlete and looks to assist with capital, networks or feedback.

Christie Jenkins

Partner

Christie Jenkins has worn the green and gold and represented Australia in 3 different sports - Trampolining, CrossFit and Beach Volleyball. She has a decade of experience helping the leaders of ASX top 10 companies with their strategies, delivering over $100m in additional profits. She speaks and writes on the topic of high performance psychology and how leaders can bring the elite mindset from sport into business.

Justin Lipman

Advisor

Justin is a Partner at EVP and an advisor to a number of founding teams both within the EVP portfolio and in the broader startup community.

He is a director of Biteable, VendorPanel, Pendula, Foodbomb, Coassemble and Hnry and a Board Observer at Practifi, Shippit, Practice Ignition, EatClub and Snooper. Previously he worked at Credit Suisse, Investec and Ernst and Young.

Nick Crocker

Advisor

Nick Crocker is a General Partner at Blackbird Ventures and runs their Melbourne office. He sits on the boards of Culture Amp, nura, Dovetail, Applied, Eucalyptus and XY Sense.

Previously, Nick cofounded Sessions and We Are Hunted, both of which were acquired. He holds Political Science and Law degrees from The University of Queensland, and his writing has been published in Wired, Fast Company and HBR.

Ed Cowan

Advisor

Ed Cowan played 16 years of professional cricket around the world including Test cricket for Australia. He joined TDM Growth Partners, an investment firm with $1.5b under management that has delivered 25%+ returns for 16 years. Portfolio companies include Allbirds, ROKT, Culture Amp and Safety Culture.

Ed holds a Masters of Applied Finance, is a current board member of Cricket NSW, and is passionate about career transitions and financial literacy for athletes.

Meet Our Team

Matt de Boer

Co-Founder

Matt de Boer has been a student/athlete for 13+ years playing over 200 games in the AFL, completing the AICD course, Disruptive Strategy at Harvard and a Bachelor of Commerce with a HD average.

Matt is constantly invigorated by purposeful founders that possess traits of a professional athlete and looks to assist with capital, networks or feedback.

Cathleen Santoso

Growth and Operations

Cathleen represented Australia as an amateur golfer and played on the team at the University of Oregon. She’s worked within the advertising agency, consulting and startup landscape and co-founded Rare Yoga studio in Bondi Beach.

Cathleen is super passionate about championing athletes off the field - empowering and educating them on how to apply the same mindset towards all other aspects of life.

Ash McGettigan, CA

Finance and Operations

Aisling is a Chartered Accountant and member of the Institute of Company Directors with over 10 years experience in the financial and operations sector, including Venture Capital, Superannuation, banking and investments.

She has degrees in Law and French, and Masters in Business and Finance. Aisling's most recent role was at AirTree Ventures and prior to this she worked with KPMG and Commonwealth Bank. She has also served on Valuation and Compliance Committees.

Matthew Dellavedova

Partner

Matthew Dellavedova is an NBA Champion, Australian Boomer and represents Melbourne United in the NBL. Delly has been a perennial venture investor, and is passionate about helping founders grow their businesses and athletes grow on and off the court.

Luke Buccheri, CFA

Investments & Analysis

Outside of his role at AV, Luke is a Strategy Lead at Canva supporting Canva’s Founders and business leaders in shaping its strategy and identifying new growth opportunities.

Prior to joining Canva, Luke worked as an Investment Analyst for 5+ years at leading Australian fund managers focusing on software and technology. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne and is a CFA Charterholder.

Dixon Wight

Product & Strategy

Outside of AV, he is a Senior Product Manager at Boston Consulting Group X where he works with Australia’s leading financial services and consumer corporations to build and scale new ventures.

Dixon previously worked as a Product Manager at Liven, a hospitality technology startup.

Justin Lipman

Advisor

Justin is a Partner at EVP and an advisor to a number of founding teams both within the EVP portfolio and in the broader startup community.

He is a director of Biteable, VendorPanel, Pendula, Foodbomb, Coassemble and Hnry and a Board Observer at Practifi, Shippit, Practice Ignition, EatClub and Snooper. Previously he worked at Credit Suisse, Investec and Ernst and Young.

Nick Crocker

Advisor

Nick Crocker is a General Partner at Blackbird Ventures and runs their Melbourne office. He sits on the boards of Culture Amp, nura, Dovetail, Applied, Eucalyptus and XY Sense.

Previously, Nick cofounded Sessions and We Are Hunted, both of which were acquired. He holds Political Science and Law degrees from The University of Queensland, and his writing has been published in Wired, Fast Company and HBR.

Ed Cowan

Advisor

Ed Cowan played 16 years of professional cricket around the world including Test cricket for Australia. He joined TDM Growth Partners, an investment firm with $1.5b under management that has delivered 25%+ returns for 16 years. Portfolio companies include Allbirds, ROKT, Culture Amp and Safety Culture.

Ed holds a Masters of Applied Finance, is a current board member of Cricket NSW, and is passionate about career transitions and financial literacy for athletes.

Our investors are all current or former athletes representing the following sports and codes. There are over 100 athletes in the Athletic Ventures community.