Oct 29, 2026 \u2013 4.50am<\/p>\n
It\u2019s difficult to keep Freesia Gaul on topic. The 20-year-old robotics founder with bubblegum pink hair and set of heavily stickered headphones permanently around her neck speaks rapidly and frequently goes off on tangents. My first question \u2013 \u201cHow did you fall in with Blackbird?\u201d \u2013 leads to a story about a trade show in Canada where she\u2019d napped under the table. Later she stops our conversation, at a cafe in Surry Hills in Sydney, to point out a myna bird in an abutilon tree and casually notes her desire to make robotic bird wings.<\/p>\n
While the high-speed, zig-zagging conversation is disorienting, Gaul is clearly curious, ambitious and confident in her ability to figure things out. Perhaps this is what helped her raise $600,000 from Blackbird at age 19, the only person backed by the venture capital firm after she passed through its early-stage founder program, Protostars. From a small shoebox, she demonstrates the project she\u2019s working on \u2013 a black glove with white electronics designed to translate hand movements into digital commands for virtual reality and robotics.<\/p>\n
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