$300M SELLING FILMING TECH PRODUCTS

Nathan Chan steps inside Blackmagic Design’s Melbourne HQ and meets founder Grant Petty—the engineer-turned-industry-rebel who bootstrapped his way to a $300M powerhouse whose gear shoots everything from blockbuster films to prestige TV.

Grant’s origin story isn’t glossy. It’s gritty. He watched the TV and film world charge outrageous prices for clunky tech, and it felt like his creative friends were being robbed. So he decided to fix the whole system—not just build gadgets. His first weapon: a low-cost video capture card for Macs, designed for the creatives actually doing the work.

Make tools affordable, and creators can enter the industry on talent, not privilege.

Funding? There was none. Banks wouldn’t touch an “impossible” vision. Grant poured in every cent, lived on rice, and built only what sales could support. “If you spend $11 when you have $10, you die.” Profitability came from day one because survival demanded it.

He describes two hard milestones: first, paying yourself after years of nothing; second, earning industry trust after waves of hostility from entrenched competitors. That credibility, he says, takes 7–10 years—and relentless product steps forward.

Blackmagic’s culture is the secret sauce: flat structure, minimal meetings, people over spreadsheets, systems that support creativity instead of controlling it. Grant’s obsession isn’t “disruption.” It’s empowerment—and a future where creators win.

Watch the full video here from the Foundr Youtube Channel