Hey I’m Oliver. Welcome :)
I’m on a mission to live well: intelligently and wholeheartedly with love, humour and courage.
This blog is my thoughts on investing, micromobility, art, climate change, loving well and the connections between them all.
I lived in New Zealand, Canada, USA and Qatar before joining Uber as an early employee in Australasia, where I helped lead strategic projects including Mobility-as-a-Service transit integrations. I left to start Micromobility Podcast and Conference with Horace Dediu, consult to governments about the future of lightweight EV’s and invest in startups through Uush Capital.
These days, I’m a Principal at Blackbird Ventures in Aotearoa, where I back some of the coolest startups in NZ including Foundry Lab, Openstar, Halter, and Partly. I’m also an Edmund Hillary Fellow and on the board of the holding company for Carbonscape.
In other realms, I facilitate men’s work, do spoken word and have a created my own kind of hyperbolic string art.
I can be found on Twitter at @oliverbruce and in the real world between Auckland and Wellington, NZ. I love meeting new people. Please reach out.
THINGS TO TALK TO ME ABOUT
MICROMOBILITY
Electric bikes and scooters will fundamentally reshape our transport systems. They’re cheap, quick, clean and perfectly matched to how we travel: predominantly short trips.
Micromobility vehicles will become the primary vehicle type around which our cities will be designed.
I consult to/give talks to governments and startups in the micromobility space on go-to-market, regulation and business models. My best work here is ‘Why You Should Pay Attention to Micromobility’.
INVESTING
I was lucky to make money that was superfluous to my living expenses early in my life. I try and deploy it intelligently to create the sort of world I want to see.
I focus on companies that make money disrupting the unsustainable status quo and creates change by compounding on itself.
Through Uush Capital, I backed companies building Mobility-as-a-Service offerings (Nimbus, Mevo, Weel), crypto platforms and climate mitigation/adaptation tech (Terminator Breakers, Carbonscape, Weavegrid, Seachange).
These days, I’m at Blackbird, backing the most ambitious founders in Australia and New Zealand.