#51 Daniel Petre - Co-Founder of AirTree

In this episode, I interview Daniel Petre, Co-Founder of AirTree - one of the largest VC firms in Australia and New Zealand. Over it’s lifetime, AirTree has been an early investor in some of the country’s biggest startups, such as Canva, Mr Yum and LinkTree. Founded in 2014, Daniel has helped grow the business to now manage over $1.3 Billion with over 80 active investments.

Throughout the episode, Daniel talks about the key lessons he learnt from long time friend and mentor, Bill Gates. Interestingly, Daniel mentions that he goes against the traditional “move fast break things” approach that startups tend to follow in favour of more structured planning to not harm your end customer. Lastly, Daniel talks about the lack of philanthropy in Australia and how he’s made it his mission to make it the norm for successful Australians to give back.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Highlight Clip
• 1:04 Introduction
• 2:43 Daniel Petre Background and Introduction
• 5:15 How Daniel Petre Adjusted Going Up and Down the Corporate Ladder at a Young Age
• 7:43 Daniel Petre's Pre-VC Phase, Writing a Book and PHD
• 10:00 How Daniel Petre Wrote Father Time - A Best Seller on The Impact of Father's on Children
• 11:06 Daniel Petre's Biggest Motivation to Write Father Time and How It Impacts his Advice to Founders
• 12:03 How Family Trauma Affected Daniel's Path
• 14:09 Being A Good Father and The Importance of Raising Your Kids Well
• 17:42 How Daniel Petre Entered the VC Space
• 19:26 Daniel Petre's Biggest Strength That He Brings to the VC Space
• 22:34 Daniel Petre's Biggest Weakness and How He Overcomes It
• 31:03 Daniel Petre's Best Business Decision
• 32:36 Daniel Petre's Thoughts on AI
• 37:16 The Best Advice that Daniel Petre Gained from Bill Gates
• 39:49 Where Daniel Petre Disagrees on the Traditional Startup Philosophy
• 43:39 Daniel Petre's Biggest Inspirations in Business and Life
• 48:06 Daniel Petre's Favourite Books and How They Inspire Him to Succeed
• 49:19 How Daniel Petre Started in Philanthropy and Why He Does It
• 56:23 What's Next for Daniel Petre, AirTree and his Philanthropy
• 58:56 Outtro