Sharesies

Founded by Brooke Anderson ( l eft), Leighton Roberts and Sonya Williams, Sharesies i s an online platform that aims to break down the barriers to i nvestment, giving users access to i nvestment opportunities – regardless of how much they’ve got to invest. Think of i t as a portfolio i n your pocket.

Idealog: So just what is Sharesies?

Brooke Anderson, co-founder & CEO: The idea behind Sharesies is to democratise investing. With Sharesies, someone with $50 can have access to the same investment opportunities as someone with $50,000.

What kind of customer research have you done?

Before this accelerator course, we did about two months of ethnographic research, which was us getting out there and speaking to as many Kiwis as possible, trying to understand what they think about investment and how accessible it is to them. Have they ever talked to an advisor? Do they have any investments? That sort of thing.

What we found was the majority of New Zealanders don't believe they have investments and, if they do, they generally think ‘investing equals homeownership’. We also did an independent survey of 4,000 Kiwis and asked if something like Sharesies was available would they be interested and 99.5 percent said ‘yes’. New Zealanders want to be investing. They’re just priced out, jargoned out and left out, so we need to create alternative ways that are accessible. That’s why Sharesies was formed.

So what’s it like going out there asking investors for capital? Is it case of being convinced of your value and just communicating that opportunity, or is there a cap-in-hand feeling around the whole thing?

We are so confident about Sharesies – and we've got great data to back us up – so I've found the whole experience really positive. There's this huge ecosystem of investors who are so passionate about helping early, early stage startups get off the ground and bring innovation to New Zealand. We've found it to be a really enriching process.

Being a woman I was quite nervous about it because I’d done a bit of research and read that if a man pitches and a woman pitches the man is 40 percent more likely to get the money, even if it's the same pitch. I was wondering if that was going to be an issue, but it wasn’t the case at all. If it’s a great idea and people believe in it then they're really willing to explore investing.

What is the regulation like for FinTech in this country? Was that a headache to negotiate?

The regulations are there to protect customers and that’s 100 percent in line with what we want to do. I think because the Financial Markets Authority have their doors open to us and we have great lawyers who love helping startups, we've got that support we need to get things done quickly, solve problems and make sure we can make this work.

New Zealanders want to be investing. They’re just priced out, jargoned out and left out, so we need to create alternative ways that are accessible. That’s why Sharesies was formed.formed Brooke Anderson / Sharesies