Kelly Spoerk
Sydney
Australia

Kelly Spoerk

Startmate
Head of Projects & Community
Sydney
Australia

This Blackbird has flown the nest. You can get in touch with them below.

About Me

Born in the snowy Northwoods of the US, I came to Aus on exchange during my Kinesiology/Anatomy degree…and never really left. I abandoned my pursuit of becoming a doctor to work in startups and have never looked back. Working in startups has enabled me to make a positive impact on the world at a scale that medicine never could. On a personal level, I’ve been a competitive athlete my entire life, which has given me an unreasonable passion for and interest in athlete wellbeing and gender equality in sport.

“You can’t beat death but you can beat death in life, sometimes. and the more often you learn to do it, the more light there will be. your life is your life. know it while you have it.” -Charles Bukowski

What do you do at Blackbird?

I run the Startmate Women Fellowship, which means my job is to give ambitious and talented women the tools, connections and confidence they need to find their dream job in the startup ecosystem.

What did you do before Blackbird?

I spent the past 4 years in the People Ops space working for a pretty cool company called Elevate Education. During that time, I was able to help millions of students across Australia aim higher and get the most out of their education. Like I said, pretty cool.

What are you excited by right now?

I'm soooo excited by the (long overdue) momentum we're starting to see behind Women's Sport. There's greater participation, more media coverage, an increase in prize winnings and sponsorships for female athletes, and in some rare (but exciting) cases - even equal pay! Some Women's Football matches are selling out stadiums of 100,000 fans...something is changing and I am here for it.

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Kelly Spoerk

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