About
Will Richardson is Partner at Giant Leap Fund. Based in Australia, they focus on impact investments.
Reviews (5)
Will and I go back a long way, so I want to be clear: this review is based on direct experience, not old friendship.
I reached out to Will as we were preparing Sleeptite for its first capital raise. I wasn't pitching Giant Leap — Sleeptite sits outside their core impact thesis — but Will gave me his time anyway, and that says a lot about the kind of investor he is.
The meeting was direct, practical and genuinely useful. Will helped me see where our positioning and raise strategy needed sharpening, and pointed us in a much stronger direction than we'd been heading. He asked the right questions, shared his perspective plainly, and didn't dress things up. That kind of candour from someone at his level, with no deal on the table, is rare.
Giant Leap's reputation in the Australian impact VC space is well-earned. Will has built something with a clear point of view and real conviction — not just about financial returns, but about the kind of founders and businesses worth backing. That consistency shows up in how he engages, even with companies that aren't in his pipeline.
If you're a founder looking for an investor who will be straight with you and bring genuine expertise, Will and the Giant Leap team are worth your time.
Connecting with Will and the team at Giant Leap has been absolutely beneficial to building my business from 0 to 1. Will came into the picture when Opficient was still finding its feet. At that point, I didn't need a big network. I needed the right one.
What Will brought wasn't volume. It was precision.
He made a handful of introductions, with every single one landing because he'd done the thinking first. The kind of intro where you walk in already trusted, which makes a huge difference. One of those introductions led to the most inspiring project I've worked on in my career, and something we're exceptionally proud of. Absolutely, one of those moments where you think, this is exactly why I do this!
Without Will's support it would have never happened.
Beyond the connections, he just asked good questions. The kind that don't feel like pressure, but leave you thinking harder about something you probably should have been across. He got what we're building, and he backed it without needing it to be more polished than it was. That kind of support is rare, and I'm incredibly grateful for it.
If you get the chance to work with Will and the team at Giant Leap, jump on it!
The review explicitly states that an introduction led to the 'most inspiring project I've worked on in my career' and that 'Without Will's support it would have never happened,' indicating a career-defining and foundational impact.
I've sought Will's advice on many occasions and have always come away grateful for both his generosity and wisdom - especially given his depth of insight across so many domains spaning fundraising, co-founder dynamics, sales, the operational realities of building a business etc etc. He listens carefully, asks the right questions, and offers perspective that is both candid and constructive — the kind of counsel that genuinely shifts how you think. In addition, he is an exceptional connector. The introductions he has made both for my startup but also personally have been thoughtful and incredibly invaluable.
The review states Will offers "counsel that genuinely shifts how you think" and provides "incredibly invaluable" introductions both for the startup and personally, indicating a profound and transformative impact on the founder's perspective and network.
Fortunate enough to have Wills directsupport during my Startmate 2020 Cohort as a mentor/advisor and now working with Giant Leaps portfolio directly. During Startmate the founder support was second to none from sales role plays, customer discovery unlocks and being challenged on growth strategies and product thesis. Will opened doors I did not have the keys to with health tech specific investors and lead to warm conversations. Now on the other side 6 years later working directly with Giant Leap portfolio on GTM it has been amazing to see that support has not changed from the checkins, to the coaching and introductions. Giant Leaps reputation is well earned but more importantly well deserved.
The review highlights 'opened doors I did not have the keys to with health tech specific investors and lead to warm conversations,' indicating a critical, career-defining impact on fundraising and networking essential for a startup's survival and growth, sustained over six years.
Giant Leap backed modo when wewere still working out what we were actually building. What we got wasn't just a cheque and some check-ins. They offered genuine thought partnership every step of the way. Will was the first person I'd want to call when we needed help to clarify things, fill in blindspots, and get unstuck. They also opened a bunch of doors for us, and through that I learned the difference between a warm intro and a meaningful endorsement. VCs, angels, and grant-making bodies told me they took our calls because Will told them they should. The team also understood the impact we were trying to have. Plenty of investors find that uncomfortable, but Giant Leap's tools helped us turn handwavy motivations into structures and processes that connected the dots between impact and commercial returns without slowing things down. But perhaps the realest test of any investor relationship is what happens when things go wrong. Investors have less reason to show up once there's nothing left to gain, but as we approached the end of the road, Will and the team showed up even harder. They mentored me through a pragmatic wind down that protected every stakeholder, including me. I came out feeling clearer and stronger than I went in, as a founder and as a human. That's not what failure usually looks like, and much of the credit goes to them.
The founder described coming out of a company wind-down 'clearer and stronger than I went in, as a founder and as a human,' indicating a transformative, deeply personal, and potentially career-defining impact even in the face of failure.