💖 Investing

Expanding 👶💼 👬 👭

Along with my baby bumps rapid growth — Sharesies is rapidly growing. We have some exciting new additions to the board & team, have over 9,000 customers and are interviewing up a storm.

We are so excited and privileged to have Alison Gerry join our board as the Sharesies chair 🙌 . We’ve also brought on Renae as a Summer Associate to help with customer success.

We’re in the middle of interviews for three new roles. We are so humbled and overwhelmed by the incredible response we’ve had. We hope to have a new web developer and operations manager locked in, in the next month. We’re still actively hunting for a UX Designer to join the team.

Since our last Loop, our key metrics have gone ↑↑↑:

• 12,301 followers on Facebook (↑20%)
• 9,180 active Sharesies customers (↑35%) 🎉

Over the next few weeks we will be focussed on:

1. Hiring!
2. Launching some sweet new product features.
3. Scaling — events, marketing, PR

Hustling

Product progress

• Launched portfolio tracking
• Launched 3 more investment options adding some more global diversification.

Media

• Check out Sonya’s epic interview on the AM Show
• Investment platform startup Sharesies readies for growth
• Sharesies to look at robo-advice once regulator rules on exemptions — NBR
• There’s something fishy about the tech ecosystem- Stuff
• Oh and Leighton looking pretty cool and chatting his investment club in the recent Juno Magazine

Sharing the Sharesies stories at events. Thanks to:

• INFINZ
• CFA
• Startup Garage
• Wellington Product Tank Meetup
• Dutch Embassy
• Finnotec

Driving up content = driving up leads

• Why you need to know about dollar-cost averaging
• Investing with the XX factor
• What does the change in government mean for investments?
• What is investing in water? 💦
• How to start investing as a student
• #FUNdfact: Let me tell you ‘bout the bulls and the bears

Asks

Can we please get your help with:

1. If you know of any amazing UX designers in Wellington — send them our way :) https://www.sharesies.nz/jobs

Challenges / struggles

• We’re very fortunate that we have so many awesome applicants… it’s going to be bloody hard choosing just one for each role.
• Personally, being in the later stage of pregnancy now means having to really manage my energy….. so starting to have to be conscious about what I say ‘yes’ too.

Shout outs & thank you!

To all the investors in Sharesies who have given us the ability to really start scaling and growing 🙌

Please reach out to me if you have any questions or comments.

Cheers from the Sharesies team,

Brooke, Sonya, Leighton, Martyn, Richard, Renae, Nat & Ben

The Loop Issue # 14 was originally published in Sharesies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

But why are women less likely to invest even though they’re great at it? I’m sure everyone has their reasons, but the study points to three: confidence, willingness to engage, and time.

At Sharesies, we believe investing should be accessible to everyone and want to help more women feel empowered to make the most of their investing ‘XX’ factor.

Why is investing important for women?

Although we’re all striving for gender equality, there are significant things that have an impact on women’s finances:

• Women often live longer.
• Women are typically not paid as much.
• And are more likely to take a career break (which adds to the gender wage and the retirement savings gap).

All of these mean the money needs to stretch further. And part of doing this is making sure you’re getting yourself set up to make the most of the money you get.

Why do women make great investors (when we do decide to invest)?

Women are more likely to take a ‘buy and hold’ approach to investing. And because of this are less likely to try ‘time the market.’ This means being less likely to buy when prices are high or sell (in a panic) when things start to drop. This is a strategy that has proven to be very reliable over time — particularly for those who don’t want to spend all day worrying about the ups and downs of the market.

So, how do I start investing?

For most people, investing isn’t like the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’. You don’t need to be a stock picker, the most important thing is deciding to invest, and getting started.

• Find the investment type that suits you (sorted.org have created a great investor kick starter tool that asks you questions about how you’re planning to invest and gives you an investor type)
• Choose a platform that engages you and helps you invest the way you want. Investing is becoming more accessible than ever. You can grow your portfolio one payday at a time, investing amounts you can afford.
• And then start learning how to invest by giving it a crack — the earlier you start the better.

‘But my partner does this stuff’

This is something we get told far too often. Don’t outsource learning about money — get involved and take joint control of your money.

At Sharesies, we think it’s really important for women to be involved with their money. Although there are a bunch of reasons for this (that we don’t really want to think about). There are also a lot of positive reasons as well. If you’re in a relationship then 2 heads are better than 1, 2 people investing for their interests will be more diverse. And money can be such a household stress, being involved means you can both share the load.

Whether you’re in a relationship or rocking it solo, making sure you know ways to make your money work harder will only help you in the long run.

We’d love to hear any questions or stories you’re keen to share about investing.

Sharesies is making investing easy for everyone. To get started, sign up on our website. And to stay up to date with what we’re up to, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Ok, now for the legal bit.

Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. The info provided above isn’t a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial products available through the Sharesies platform. Before investing, consider your investment objectives and read the fund’s product disclosure statement carefully. It contains the fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges and other information which should be considered carefully before investing.

Investing with the XX factor was originally published in Sharesies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

💖 Investing

Our Vision: We want someone with $50 to have the same investment opportunities as someone with $50,000.

So responsible 🌏 💦

Today we launched socially responsible investment options on our platform — something we’ve been wanting to do since day one, and have had great demand for! This required us to build a tax engine, so we now can offer managed funds as well as ETFs.

We also made a few updates to make it even easier for people to pick what to invest in.

Since our last Loop, our key metrics have gone ↑↑↑:

• 10,228 followers on Facebook (↑19%)
• 6,770+ active Sharesies customers (↑33%) 🎉

Over the next few weeks we will be focussed on:

1. Getting around the country spreading the Sharesies word.
2. Adding even more updates to our app.
3. Finalising our investment round.

Hustling

Product progress

• Launched Social Responsible Investment options
• Added charts to the buy pages

Media

• New Fund Sets Benchmark for Responsible Investment in NZ
• Access, education and less jargon important to boost young …
• Dominion Post

Sharing the Sharesies stories at events. Thanks to:

• Payments NZ
• INFINZ/ CFA — Women in Finance Events
• ICE Angels
• New Zealand Shareholder Association NZSA
• New Zealand China Trade Association (NZCTA) — Young Associates
• Rototuna School

Driving up content = driving up leads

• Socially responsible investments now available on Sharesies
• #FUNdfacts: Keeping it diverse with eggs, hens and baskets
• Election time 2017: Does the NZ election have an impact on investments?
• #FUNdfact: Dividends, coupons and gains, oh my!

Asks

Can we please get your help with:

1. Talk Sharesies! Bring it up with family, friends or colleagues. Share the word, investing is now accessible. Oh and send them to www.sharesies.com to sign up ;)
2. If you’re connected with a company that employs people, can you put me in touch with the HR team? We’re keen to see how Sharesies can help support employee financial wellbeing. Here’s a bit of ammo.

Challenges / struggles

Sickness got a few of us down in the team — including myself 😷. All are fighting fit now though (touch wood).

Shout outs & thank you!

Goes out to the Sharesies team this time. So lucky to be able to build Sharesies with this smart and fun bunch 🙌

Please reach out to me if you have any questions or comments.

The Loop Issue # 13 was originally published in Sharesies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

💖 Investing

Our Vision: We want someone with $50 to have the same investment opportunities as someone with $50,000.

Blast off 🚀

Today we achieved another milestone — 5,000 active customers. In our original business model we thought it would take at least 6 months to reach this target, not just a couple.

We also now have around $1.5m in funds under management. That’s $1.5m invested that would mostly have been consumed.

Since our last Loop, our key metrics have gone ↑↑↑:

• 8,614 followers on Facebook (↑38.5%)
• 5,092 active Sharesies customers (↑88.5%) 🎉

Over the next few weeks we will be focussed on:

1. Marketing Sharesies.
2. Building our next feature release.
3. Our investment raise.

Hustling

Product progress

• Moved to open beta — meaning people can sign up to Sharesies from www.sharesies.com
• Released our performance tracking feature. It was amazing that around 10% of our customers wrote to us saying how much they love this feature when it was released. Was great recognition for the team 🙌

Media

• We were on One News — that was exciting…with one slight challenge (read on…).

• On the cover of NZ Herald after chatting with Frances Cook
• 5:25 am interview on Newstalk ZB
• Idealog featured us twice with an Q&A with Sonya & about our recent trip to Hong Kong.
• Also featured in the Dominion Post and on Stuff.

Sharing the Sharesies story at events. Thanks to:

• The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) for letting us share our startup journey with your staff.
• Women in Super
• Massey University Investment Club
• Victoria University Investment Club
• First Cut Ventures event
• NZSA (New Zealand Shareholders Association)

Driving up content = driving up leads

• Right, time to start investing
• #Fundfact: Economies of scale
• Product Update
• What’s an investment horizon?
• My first time investing — #9
• We moved out of private beta!

Asks

Can we please get your help with:

1. Talk Sharesies! Bring it up with family, friends & colleagues. Share the word, investing is now accessible. Oh and send them to www.sharesies.com to sign up ;)
2. If you know any people in media that we could speak to, to share the Sharesies word, or events coming up that we can speak at, please let me know.

Challenges / struggles

So within a few hours of being on One News we got hundreds of customers. Wasn’t completely smooth sailing though as the data feed we use to verify people’s drivers licenses conveniently went down just after we were featured on air and was down for a couple of hours. You can imagine….😱. However, we got messaging into our product asap and all the customers were awesome about it. Good old Murphy’s law!

Shout outs & thank you!

To NZ media who have profiled us 🙌. To those of you who haven’t just yet, give me a buzz 📞.

Please reach out if you have any questions or comments.

Cheers from the Sharesies team,

Brooke, Sonya, Leighton, Martyn, Richard, Nat & Ben

The Loop Issue # 12 was originally published in Sharesies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

💖 Investing

Our Vision: We want someone with $50 to have the same investment opportunities as someone with $50,000

Winning in Hong Kong

Last week, Sonya, Leighton and I were in Hong Kong to represent Sharesies at the RISE conference and understand more about the opportunity in Asia.

We met with the NZ consulate, Invest HK, a number of start-ups and had meetings with VCs following us winning the Pitch Like a Girl event.

Sharesies even got profiled by Forbes (insert Napoleon Dynamite yessss gif 😋). Along with getting to meet VCs we also won USD$25,000 in Stripe credit 🙆.

Since our last Loop, our key metrics have gone ↑↑↑:

• 6,217 followers on Facebook (↑11%)
• 2,700 active Sharesies customers (34%) 🎉

Over the next few weeks we will be focussed on:

1. Adding new features to our beta
2. Moving to open beta
3. Starting our seed capital raise

Hustling

Product progress

• Final stages of user testing our upcoming performance tracking feature
• Ready to go out of closed beta. So next week we should be in open beta — meaning people can sign up to our app straight from our website.
• 💖 the feedback we get from our customers. We even got an awesome message from someone who has given up smoking and decided to invest that money instead. Swapping ciggys for Sharesies 🙌.

Exhibiting at the RISE conference

Meeting at NZ’s Parliament

Chatting to Uni students

We also exhibited and were on a panel for an Auckland Young Accounting and Professionals event. So much engagement and great questions from the attendees.

Media

• Forbes At Asia’s Top Tech Event, Women Entrepreneurs Rise Into The Spotlight
• Great time chatting with Simon Pound from The Spinoff — Business is Boring Podcast
• In Investment News

Driving up content = driving up leads

• WTF is an ETF
• Highlights from the RISE conference
• Sharesies Beta update – one month in

Asks

Can we please get your help with:

1. Sign up to our beta www.sharesies.nz/signup. Tell everyone you know & let us know what you think.
2. Share these updates
3. If you are interested in hearing more about our seed investment round, please let me know.

Challenges / struggles

• Walking around Hong Kong with two big boxes of collateral… it was hot, it was heavy (aka 16kg & 23kg) and a tad comical.
• Reminding ourselves we are still not in scale mode — still refining our product-market fit. So resisting the natural impulses to shout Sharesies from every roof-top….that time will come 🕕 🕖 🕗 🕘.

Shout outs & thank you!

☀️☀️☀️☀️ To Hong Kong for not following the weather forecast and providing sunshine all day every day … a much welcomed escape from NZ winter ☀️☀️☀️☀️

Please reach out to me if you have any questions or comments.

Cheers from the Sharesies team,

Brooke, Sonya, Leighton, Martyn, Richard, Nat & Ben

The Loop Issue # 11 was originally published in Sharesies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

💖 Investing

We partied like it’s 1999

I’m not going to lie, when we had “1999” customers we chucked the Prince classic on.

Sharesies beta has been out for a month and we already have over 2 0 0 0 active customers — that 20% of our year one target achieved in one month! 🙆

Since our last Loop, our key metrics have gone ↑↑↑:

• 5,615 followers on Facebook (↑18%)
• 2,010 active Sharesies customers (↑83%) 🎉

Over the next few weeks we will be focussed on:

1. Rise Conference in Hong Kong
2. Adding new features to our beta
3. Moving to open beta

Hustling

We have a little office! If you’re ever near Wigan St in Wellington please do come say hi 👋.

We’ve been selected to be one of the 10 start-ups that get to pitch at the Pitch Like a Girl event in Hong Kong next week.

Product progress

• Interesting fact — 80% of our customers are under 40 years old.
• We’ve updated some features and have some more launching soon — including portfolio tracking.

Media

• A big thanks to Bill for naming Sharesies as one of the top NZ businesses in his NZ innovation report.
• Featured in NZ Herald and Stuff- New startup wants all Kiwis to start investing, even if it’s just $5.
• Interviewed on Radio Live by Vaughan Davis.
• Comparison of Sharesies by The Smart and Lazy.

Driving up content = driving up leads

• My first time investing — #7
• My first time investing — #8

Asks

Can we please get your help with:

1. Sign up to our beta www.sharesies.nz/signup. Tell everyone you know & let us know what you think.
2. Share these updates :)

Challenges / struggles

• No major struggles over last few weeks — been rather smooth ⛵️ (like Team NZ)

Shout outs & thank you!

🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌 To all of the 2000+ beta customers 🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌

Please reach out to me if you have any questions or comments.

Cheers from the Sharesies team,

Brooke, Sonya, Leighton, Martyn, Richard, Nat & Ben

The Loop Issue # 10 was originally published in Sharesies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

💖 Investing

1,000+ Thank You’s!

In less than 2 weeks from Sharesies Beta going live we gained 1,000 customers.

Since our last Loop, our key metrics have gone ↑↑↑:

• 4,773 followers on Facebook (↑19%)
• 1,096 active Sharesies customers (+6,347%) 🎉. These customers have invested and paid subscription.

Over the next few weeks we will be focussed on:

1. Adding new features to our Beta
2. Becoming a PIP (so we can offer a wider range of investments)
3. Ramping up our marketing

Hustling

We’ve cut down our meetings over the last week and focussed on product development, marketing and chatting to our customers.

Product progress

• 80% of people who have signed up have invested!
• We got a bit handraulic this week sending out address verification letters 💌 — a process we will automate soon but wouldn’t be a true beta without some behind the scenes hustle ;)

Media

• Wellington Women three page spread
• This Sunday keep an eye out for us in Sunday Star Times and catch me on Radio Live chatting Sharesies to Vaughan Davis.

Driving up content = driving up leads

• How human behaviour impacts our financial decisions
• My first time investing — #5

Asks

Can we please get your help with:

1. Sign up to our beta www.sharesies.nz/signup. Tell everyone you know & let us know what you think.
2. Share these updates.

Challenges / struggles

• Finding office space — but think we may have just locked something in.
• Being in beta is such a conflicting feeling — ½ super excited and can’t wait to see people using it and becoming investors….while other ½ feeling incredibly nervous as our beta doesn’t have all the bells and whistles we’ve got planned. Looking forward to adding some of these features very soon — such as tracking performance.

Shout outs & thank you!

🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌 To all of our founding customers 🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌

Please reach out to me if you have any questions or comments.

Cheers from the Sharesies team,

Brooke, Sonya, Leighton, Martyn, Richard, Nat & Ben

The Loop Issue # 9 was originally published in Sharesies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

💖 Investing

As of yesterday afternoon — we’ve launched! Our Sharesies beta is now in 17 customers hands and we will roll out over the coming days/week to over 2,700+ who are signed up and eagerly awaiting.

It was a beautiful moment making my first investment on the Sharesies platform — took less than 3 minutes from sign up to purchase 💖.

Since our last Loop, our key metrics have gone ↑↑↑:

• 11,141 visits to www.sharesies.nz (↑18%)
• 8,458 unique visitors to our site (↑16%)
• 4,000 followers on Facebook (↑13%)
• 2,763 beta signups (↑32%)
• 17 Sharesies customers 🎉
• $510 revenue

Over the next few weeks we will be focussed on:

1. Rolling out the Sharesies Beta
2. Continuously improving the Beta
3. Sorting a small office space

Hustling

The accelerator ended on a high with demo day on the 19th May where we pitched to a room of investors during the day and then to a 500+ crowd at night. If you want to see the night pitch, have a geeze 👇

Product progress

• We’ve launched!
• Lots of exciting features lined up to drop.

Media

• Sharesies was interviewed on same podcast as Thomas Friedman with Andrew Patterson from NBR
• Idealog — The future of finance
• NBR- Tech start-ups
• Interview with Juno Magazine

Driving up content = driving up leads

• My first time investing — #4
• Launching our Beta
• Sonya has been busy writing a lot of help centre content and event-based emails in prep for launch.

Asks

Can we please get your help with:

1. Try Sharesies! If you’re signed up for our beta — you’ll get an email in the coming days/weeks with info of how to get started. Would be great to have your support!
2. If you’re not signed up for our beta….then head over here www.sharesies.nz/signup
3. Share these updates :)

Challenges / struggles

• Getting all the ducks in a row to launch beta took longer than we expected but for good reason — insurance, Ts & Cs, trust accounts, customer journey content etc.
• Balancing getting the Beta out there, and all the tweaks and features we’ve got lined up.

Shout outs & thank you!

To our founding investors! You rock and we’re so stoked to have your support, even before we had a product in the market 🙌

And our founding customers — happy investing 🍍

Please reach out to me if you have any questions or comments.

Cheers from the Sharesies founders,

Brooke, Sonya, Leighton, Martyn, Richard & Ben

Our Vision: We want someone with $50 to have the same investment opportunities as someone with $50,000.

The Loop Issue # 8 was originally published in Sharesies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

💖 Investing

Our Vision: We want someone with $50 to have the same investment opportunities as someone with $50,000.

O N E W E E K until Demo Day the grand finale of the Fintech Accelerator where we pitch to both investors and the general public.

As you know we decided to do a convertible note raise which is now closed 🎉. Next, we’re gearing up for our equity raise that will kick off later this year.

Someone turns the big 3 O today!

Talking about big deals…we also got these bad boys this week which we wore proudly in Auckland.

Oh & since our last Loop, our key metrics have gone ↑↑↑:

• 9,467 visits to www.sharesies.nz (↑30%)
• 7,291 unique visitors to our site (↑30%)
• 3,535 followers on Facebook (↑32%)
• 2,090 beta signups (↑48%)

Over the next few weeks we will be focussed on:

1. Sharesies Alpha testing
2. Pitching up a storm
3. ……a little something special….

Hustling

We’ve had our head in the clouds this week….well at least for 2 hours as we went to Auckland to pitch and meet with an array of potential partners.

Product progress

• Just going through the final steps pre launch
• Awaiting some external dependencies which aren’t too far away now.

Driving up content = driving up leads

• Millennial view on the NZ economy
• My first time investing — 2
• My first time investing — 3

Met with investment groups who are now completing due diligence.

Had great conversations with potential partners such as banks, funds and insurance providers.

We’ve also been selected to be a part of the ALPHA programme at the RISE conference in Hong Kong in July ✈️

Asks

Can we please get your help with:

1. Office space. We are looking for a room that fits up to 10 that has external windows and based in Wellington — if something comes to mind let us know.
2. Send anyone you know who may be interested in our beta product launch to sign-up on www.sharesies.nz
3. Share these updates: We also post these updates here so please share to your networks and online

Challenges / struggles

This week has been a little emotional. First time playing with our beta brought a wee tear to our eyes. Also we had a tough meeting but ended up coming out of it with a great solution for all. Sometimes a bit of headspace to find a clear solution is all that’s needed 🙏🏻

Shout outs & thank you!

Massive shout out to the following people who have given us their valuable time over the last few weeks.

Kate, Jack, David, Alex, Hayden, Cecillia, Trevor, Brett, Kristen, Ian, Mandy, Asa, Jenny, Tom, Craig, Chris, Geoff, Rachel, Paul, Michael, Kirsty, Sam, Craig, Lewis, Will, Dean, Stuart, Nicky, Mike, Rick, Jacqueline, Robbie, Barnaby, Peter, Anna, David, Yogesh, Sian, Pallas, Michael, Mathew, Alex, Lee, Andrew, Richard, Doug, Owen & Paula.

Also to the Kiwibank Fintech Accelerator for putting on a sweet inter-accelerator competition.

Please reach out to me if you have any questions or comments.

Cheers from the Sharesies founders,

Brooke, Sonya, Leighton, Martyn, Richard & Ben

The Loop Issue # 7 was originally published in Sharesies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Keeping you in the loop with Sharesies.

Love Investing

Well — this is intensely fun! It’s heating up at Sharesies as we build our Alpha. We’ve been pitching, designing, developing and promoting. So much to do!

We’ve opened our convertible note raise and it’s filling up fast 😃.

Also, if you’re interested in coming along to Demo Day in Wellington on May 19th? Sign up here: kfademoday.splashthat.com

Show me the #’s

Since our last Loop, our key metrics have gone ↑↑↑:

• 7,255 visits to www.sharesies.nz (↑40%)
• 5,621 unique visitors to our site (↑39%)
• 2,678 followers on Facebook (↑59%)
• 1,504 beta signups (↑48%)

Over the next few weeks we will be focussed on:

1. Sharesies Alpha testing
2. Investor hustle
3. Building partnerships

Hustling

This week the champions at Springload let the Sharesies team take over their roof-top house so we could crank into our alpha build. Was great to see the team working together and the Sharesies culture really come to life! 👌 Springload!

Product progress

• Design & Dev built the Alpha — it’s all go!
• Compliance on track.

Driving up content = driving up leads

• “Buy, hold, whack it on an API….sorted!”
• My first time investing
• Earthful Investing
• Raising capital #likeagirl

We’ve been pitching up a storm! Meeting a lot of potential investors who are so excited about what we’re doing and got some committed $ this week too. This is really validating what we’re doing from a business perspective which we’re stoked about.

Also, we’ve been meeting awesome people truly driven to ensure Kiwi’s are protected and informed when it comes to their money 🙌.

Asks

Can we please get your help with:

1. Send anyone you know who may be interested in our beta product launch to sign-up on www.sharesies.nz
2. Interested in partnering with us? Reach out brooke@sharesies.nz
3. Share these updates 👍

Challenges / struggles

It’s crunch time as the whole team works hard building our Alpha and then Beta. We’re having heaps of fun building Sharesies but conscious we are human — so got to make sure we balance the load.

Shout outs & thank you!

Massive shout out to the following people who have given us their valuable time over the last few weeks.

John, Nicky, Dean, David, Liam, Dave, Jenny, Paul, Michael, Rob, Robert, George, Andrew, Zoe, Kate, Kurt, Shamubeel, Natalie, Ian, Liam, Mandy, Asa, Alex, Kelcey, Kristen, Ryan, David, Asa, Nick & Doug.

Please reach out to me if you have any questions or comments.

Cheers from the Sharesies founders,

Brooke, Sonya, Leighton, Martyn, Richard & Ben

The Loop Issue # 6 was originally published in Sharesies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.