Investible Co-Founder to join UNSW Founders as Entrepreneur in Residence

Trevor Folsom, successful entrepreneur and one of Australia’s most active angel investors, is joining UNSW to support their high potential early stage startups. Having grown and exited a 1,000-person sales tech company over $100 million, Trevor’s experience scaling, supporting and investing in high growth businesses will prove invaluable during this time of economic uncertainty.

As an Entrepreneur in Residence, UNSW founders will have access to Trevor’s expertise, global network of investors, founders and ecosystem partners. He will provide strategic advice to founders on idea validation, product-market fit, rapid scaling, capital raising and more.

“I’m passionate about helping entrepreneurs tackle the unique challenges that come with building the next generation of market-defining businesses,” says Folsom. “I’m thrilled to be working with UNSW, which has made a clear and consistent commitment to supporting entrepreneurship.”

Folsom co-founded leading early stage investment group Investible as well as Club Investible – its global network of active early stage investors and has made more than 80 direct investments across diverse industries and geographies.

He was an early investor in Canva – one of Australia’s newest unicorns – as well as up-and-coming unicorn, Ipsy, a US-based cosmetic subscription service.

Folsom also serves as on the board of Car Next Door and Kip McGrath Education Centres, where he has supported its transition from a legacy corporate into digital innovator that is now conducting over 200,000 online tutoring session per month.

UNSW is Australia’s most entrepreneurial university, where innovations and discoveries are translated into positive economic, social and environmental impact. This is achieved by offering entrepreneurial support programs so that UNSW students, staff and alumni can build the capability, mindset and networks they need.

“During COVID-19, UNSW has more than doubled the volume of support available to our startups”, says David Burt, Director of Entrepreneurship, UNSW.

“Trevor has a genuine understanding of the challenges entrepreneurs face when building a global company, and what it takes for them to be successful. We are incredibly fortunate that Trevor shares our commitment to helping early-stage entrepreneurs during this time and has agreed to join us as Entrepreneur in Residence.”

“Australia’s economic recovery from COVID-19 requires the creation of more than one million new jobs. We know from research conducted in both Australia and overseas that the overwhelming majority of new jobs are created by companies that are less than five years old. If we want rapid job creation in Australia, we need to support the people who are stepping up to start and lead new companies.”