Steve Smith shows he's captain start-up

By Andrew Wu
Updated December 15 2017 - 5:28pm, first published 5:25pm

Steve Smith has been criticised in the past for being too conservative in his captaincy but when it comes to business he's prepared to play a few more shots. The Test captain, you see, is a keen investor in start-up companies and is building a handy little portfolio. Smith gets his tips from a friend and then passes them on to his manager Warren Craig, who is a chartered accountant to perform due diligence. Five of Smith's brands were deemed worthy enough to receive funding from a seed accelerator company called Y Combinator, which selects two batches of companies each year to fund in return for a small stake. His portfolio is diverse, ranging from a daily milk delivery service, to hardware, data operation, mattresses and photography. The mattress start-up, Koala, which has a sticker on the back of Smith's bat, is holding a "koala-for-runs" program where they will adopt a koala for every run he scores. Smith's efforts in the field and with the ball will also be rewarded with 20 per catch, 30 for each run out and 100 for a wicket. So it won't just be Australian cricket fans who will be happy if he has a blinder in Perth.

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