Dan Lombard

Originally from South Africa, my journey to Australia was not straightforward. I touched down with a degree, a temporary visa, and about 30 coffee catch ups with startup Founders, CTOs, CPOs, and anyone else who would give me 2 minutes to convince them hiring a grad with zero experience was a good idea. 

My first exposure to work life was getting down and dirty in a fast-growing startup – Open. It was here where the bug of building something exciting bit me and conditioned me to want to be a part of all things innovative, challenging, riddled with risk, but ultimately worth it, no matter the outcome. 

So with the bug running through my veins, I made the objectively terrible decision of leaving Open to start a YouTube channel talking about investing and personal finance. The decision was purely to help positively impact people's lives whilst also taking a contrarian step not found in your "traditional career trajectory" handbook. That said, ambiguity is a strong force in where my compass takes me. I can with 100% confidence say that without my "objectively terrible decision", I wouldn't be living out what is effectively my dream job at AirTree, where I leverage data and processes to streamline the venture business.‍

Outside of AirTree, you'll probably find me either;

• Obsessing over learning a new John Mayer guitar riff
• Increasing my tally of half-read books
• Creating an excel model trying to figure out why it makes sense to get the latest iPhone 
• Or, believe it or not, taking a long walk on the beach