However,as he navigates working from home with his wife and teenage kids Baker sees some upside from the coronavirus pandemic,with a"really good deal flow"of new investments coming into Blackbird over the last few months.
"I also really believe that there's going to be some great innovation that comes out of this period I do think it could drive a boom of of innovation,"he says."Lots of people sitting in their jobs or even being made redundant really have a passion and sometimes this sort of shock gives them the impetus they need to go out and build something new."
Baker started his career founding two technology companies and then working in venture capital for MLC Private Equity,including a stint in Silicon Valley.
He describesthe decision to start Blackbird in 2012 with Niki Scevak,Bill Bartee and Larry Marshall as"quite contrarian",especially at a time when Australian technology companies like Atlassian and Aconex were make their mark globally but there was hardly a local venture capital scene to speak of.
"We saw this real paradox that there hadn't been a great venture capital brand built but there were all these great companies,"Baker says."We thought very similarly about this opportunity and then decided we were going to go out to try and conquer the world."
Blackbird co-founder Scevak says the passion he shared with Baker for Australian startups trying to be the best in the world was a rare investment philosophy at the time.
"When we first met nobody was interested in tech companies being built in Australia and venture capital was a dirty word with so many people failing before us,"he says.
Blackbird's first $29 million fund only got up after a"long hard fundraise"which took 22 months and involved meeting with 530 people to secure Blackbird's first 97 investors.
Since then Blackbird has raised six more funds and a total of $770 million with 105 active companies in its portfolio.
Loading
SafetyCulture founder Luke Annear says the importance of Blackbird and Baker to the Australian technology ecosystem cannot be understated.
"He has had a greater impact than just about any other investor,"Annear says."He started the fund at a time when Australians were not investing in technology and Rick pioneered that for a lot of us to come through and build these companies."
Venture capital invested in Australian startups hit a record $US1.23 billion ($1.89 billion) last year according to KPMG's venture capital trends report Venture Pulse.
Baker says the growth of venture capital in Australia means founders don't have to go to Silicon Valley or elsewhere to access capital and Australians'savings can trickle down into innovation getting capital into companies which are building businesses and jobs.
Last year Blackbird sold a 40 per cent slice of its first fund for $100 million in what Baker describes as a"huge coming of age moment".
"I guess it's a great indication that you can actually build companies that are valuable and then that you can actually realise some of the profits out of those investments,"he says.