Brooke Roberts – Co-Founder and 3EO at Sharesies
In this episode host Paul Spain is joined by Brooke Roberts, co-founder and co-CEO of Sharesies. Brooke shares her inspiring journey from selling lollies out of her school locker to co-founding one of New Zealand’s most innovative investment platforms. She discusses the pivotal role of mentorship, the power of partnerships, and the challenges building a business from the ground up. Brooke also reflects on the collaborative 3EO leadership style that has helped shape Sharesies’ success. Whether you’re passionate about startups, leadership, or the future of finance, this episode offers valuable insights and inspiration for entrepreneurs at every stage.
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Episode Transcript (computer-generated)
Paul Spain:
Greetings and welcome to the show. I’m your host Paul Spain, futurist and chief Executive at Guerrilla Technology. I love to see individuals and their organizations thrive. The New Zealand Business Podcast is all about this through sharing the business leadership and innovation learnings of others to educate and inspire all of us so we can do better both in New Zealand and on the global stage. In this episode I’m talking with Brooke Roberts, co founder and three year old of Shares Ease, an investment platform that is reshaping how people in both New Zealand and Australia think about and build wealth and financial empowerment. Brooke’s journey into business began while she was growing up in the Hawke’s Bay. Her passion for learning, entrepreneurship and social impact led her to the Wellington region and into marketing and finance. Brooke and her co founders saw a glaring gap.
Paul Spain:
Investing was largely inaccessible to so many people. That insight sparked the creation of Sharesies, a platform designed to democratise investing even with small amounts of money. Since launching in 2017, Shares Ease has grown fast, now closing in on helping a million people to take control of their financial futures. They’re continuously evolving with products such as Sharesies Spend, which gives customers 1% of debit card purchases back for immediate investment, and a new in app capability for acquiring Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The New Zealand Business Podcast is proudly brought to you by Gorilla Technology, the technology services firm supporting astute mid size and smaller New Zealand organisations who wish to get the very best out of technology, doing this whilst minimising cyber risks. Get in touch to find out about tech and cyber audits along with software selection and implementation services. All right, let’s jump in.
Paul Spain:
Well, greetings and welcome along to the show Brooke Roberts. A real privilege to have you on the New Zealand Business podcast today. How are you?
Brooke Roberts:
I’m really good. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Paul Spain:
Yeah, look, it’s great to be able to catch up and to be able to get a little bit of a delve into some of your story and the Sharesies story and as always, always like to kind of go back to the beginning a little bit. So tell us a little bit about where you grew up and what that looked like.
Brooke Roberts:
I was in the car the other day with my family, actually, and I was counting how many schools I went to. So I went to at least nine different schools. So I don’t know if that gives you a bit of a flavour that I didn’t grow up in one place. So from, you know, Manurewa area and then moved to Tauranga. Grew up a bit in America also, and then came back for high school years. So, yeah, been around a few different places, but, yeah, now predominantly based in T. Whanganua, Tara, with Sharesies in my family. Yeah.
Paul Spain:
Yeah. So, you know, when you look at. Look at that period and, you know, those of us that have moved a little bit, and I’ve probably moved less than you, but, yeah, a bunch of schools, there can be sort of different things that you pick up through that compared to just sort of of, you know, staying in one place and everything’s the same, you know. Are there any things that sort of stand out for you in terms of, you know, learnings during your childhood from that time of, you know, change and what you learned in terms of, you know, your parents, work and so on?
Brooke Roberts:
Well, I had to learn how to make friends faster and adapt to different kind of cultures and, you know, ways of thinking, I think, and how to make new friends. And then also I did in particular when I moved to America, you know, I was 10 years old and at a kind of a rural school, you know, outside of Tauranga, and we were learning sort of times tables then, you know, at 10. And then I go to America and I’m like, there’s letters in math. They don’t call it maths, you know, math. And I was just like, you know, and I just saw the jump. And when you walked into school, the A and the A B honor roll was right there. So are you an A student or an A and B student? And unlike what I felt here, which if you did that, like, ooh, you know, like, being good at sports is cool, but there like being on that really mattered and if you weren’t on it, you were kind of like an outcast. It was really different.
Brooke Roberts:
And it was a big public school, but I just saw that dynamics of what success looked like. Just felt different when I moved there at that young age. So I think I had to adapt to that. And I think that was part of the adaption I think was really helpful for me. I needed to kind of hone that energy into something that ultimately would serve me well.
Paul Spain:
Yeah. That’s really interesting, isn’t it? Because, yeah, in New Zealand you’re doing well at something sort of school wise, you know, you’re probably gonna get called names rather than. Rather than get celebrated.
Brooke Roberts:
It was just cool to be a fool. And I just remember I just wanted to be outside climbing trees and running around the paddock, you know, like. But which I think is beautiful too. I think that’s a beautiful part of a childhood here, that is. I’m so felt really privileged to have had that. But just academic focus was just quite different. I noticed at 10 anyway.
Paul Spain:
Yeah. And where were you in the U.S.
Brooke Roberts:
I moved to Birmingham, Alabama and then Richmond, Virginia. So. Yeah, the Deep south to start.
Paul Spain:
Yep. And was the scale of the school different?
Brooke Roberts:
Oh, yeah. So moving from, you know, the school outside of Tauranga Mokuroa, where there were 70 of us, up to, what is it, year eight, so form two, to then going to the States where there’s like thousands. Like I think one of the schools, you know, 2000 or something, you know, and I, I know there’s scales like that here in New Zealand, but I just didn’t. I’d never seen that before. And that was only for elementary and the middle school was the same. Yeah.
Paul Spain:
Yeah. Okay. Now during, during those, those, those school years, what came through in terms of, you know, initial interest in business and entrepreneurship? Tell us about that.
Brooke Roberts:
I think where it became more obvious was actually at high school, a friend of mine who. It was awesome. We started a. We didn’t have a tuck shop at our school, so we started running one from my locker and then that got shut down. But the teacher dealt with it really well. She’s like, look, really applaud the entrepreneurial spirit. This is against the school rules. So I do have to take you to the principal’s office and I like that.
Brooke Roberts:
But we’d run it secretly for a while. Well, not that secretly, to be honest. It was pretty, pretty bustling. Like kind of this locker was in this hallway that started to create traffic jams. Cause we were Lined up to get whatever were selling lollies and stuff.
Paul Spain:
Wow.
Brooke Roberts:
But then I was able to do Young Enterprise. I talked to my teacher. I was like, hey, I’ve noticed that. That I think there’s this opportunity here. And she was like, cool. Well, there’s this thing called Young Enterprise that I hadn’t heard of. And, like, a few that have come on this show have done Young Enterprise. And I really think that’s an incredible gift to have been able to have a program like that at high school to run a business and learn within safety nets in terms of how it all works.
Paul Spain:
And tell us about that experience.
Brooke Roberts:
Oh, I. Yeah, I learned a lot around hiring, motivation, working with friends, how to corral, you know, people around an idea and make it happen, and deal with different, like political or different community groups and how you help them come together. So I. Yeah, I learned a lot. And one of the key things I learned was this word mentor. Like, I hadn’t heard that before if you had to get a mentor. And so was fortunate enough to be connected with this mentor who was part of the community. And, you know, now she’s like a family member to me.
Brooke Roberts:
You know, it’s pretty incredible. And I think that served me well when I went to university and didn’t come from, you know, family with big business connections or anything like that. So I needed to find mentors that would help me navigate how to. How to have a career or how to, you know, be part of starting cheesies, too.
Paul Spain:
Yeah, we all need that. Right? And so what was the enterprise that you.
Brooke Roberts:
Oh, yeah, okay. So I was in. I got a scholarship to go to this school in Hawke’s Bay, and I noticed that there’s all of these really expensive clothing shops there, and people had money to pay for it. And, like, a lot of women in particular focus a lot on fashion. And I was like, oh, there’s no events. There’s nothing that pulls this kind of fashion vibe together. And at the time, I thought I might end up down a path of fashion design or fashion business. So it was kind of this.
Brooke Roberts:
Combined a few interests, I guess, at that time. And so I started running these fashion events with two other friends, and they just did really well. Yeah. So well, we got, you know, profit that we bought flip phones with. So how cool are we? I wish I had Sharesies and invested in it back then.
Paul Spain:
How old were you at that stage?
Brooke Roberts:
I was year 11. Yeah. Or year 12. Yeah. Yeah.
Paul Spain:
Wow. Oh, that’s. That’s really neat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think there’s there’s something to be said for those opportunities that come, that come, you know, during our schooling years. What, you know, what. Whatever they, whatever they look like. And yeah, look back on one or two, you know, things that, that I had and yeah, it was just experience that you.
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah.
Paul Spain:
You know, that feeds in and helps you for what comes next.
Brooke Roberts:
It’s so good to learn by doing and it’s a great way of doing that and a really good way of learning about money too. You know, how you need to sell these tickets for more than what it’s gonna cost to run the place. You know, I think it was, yeah, pretty good learning.
Paul Spain:
That’s brilliant. And it sounds like the people side of it was super valuable.
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah, I learned a lot.
Paul Spain:
Yeah, that’s great. And so, yeah. Where did you go, you know, from there, from high school in terms of study? What did that look like?
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah, well, I was offered to become an accountant straight out of school and that accounting firm would pay for me to do my accounting studies locally in Hawke’s Bay. And I was actually kind of tempted because I was like, well, you know, and my family, you know, it kind of looked like it made sense. You get paid to then study and, you know, you actually have a hard skill at the end of the day. But very last minute I actually decided, no, I do want to go to university. And so did end up going to Victoria University. And I also thought that if I could continue running businesses at that time, but decided to move down to Whanganua Tara. There weren’t many from my year going down there, but there was a few which was cool to start to, you know, have the university experience. And I needed to work in order to make, you know, the hostel payments and everything.
Brooke Roberts:
So the first job I had was find a job. And then I, yeah, really enjoyed my time at uni. I studied marketing and international business. But I felt like it was like just missing something for me. And it wasn’t until a 300 level marketing class that I realized it was missing like the analytical numerical kind of side I really wanted to dig into. And I noticed like in the marketing classes, I was way more interested in the scientific side rather than the art or like, you know, I just seemed to get. That was where I was most intrigued. And so I.
Brooke Roberts:
We had this guest lecturer and he’s like, out of 300 of us in the class, he’s like, put your hand up if you like numbers. And only three of us put our hand up. And I was like, well, I gotta do something with this. And I saw marketing as quite a data driven, very important part of growing a company and connecting people with what you’re selling at the end of the day that ultimately drives that impact. So I could, yeah, behavioural finance and behavioural economics was really interesting to me. Just picked up finance and there we are. Yeah, yeah.
Paul Spain:
And what were the ways that you funded your study at that point? What did you do alongside your study to make that work financially?
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah, well, when I was at high school, I was the first one to get that. I understand the principal told me at the time. So it took a bit of work to actually work while I was at school. And so I worked in the. I was a dishwasher and then I worked in a retail store and when I went to Wellington, I worked at an Indian restaurant for quite a while and then cafe and then ended up in retail and just, you know, any jobs that could kind of work around my studies and. And then ultimately because of that whole mentoring thing, I ended up at this company called GS1, which run the barcode numbering system worldwide. Because the CEO of GS1, who’s still the CEO there today, was on the board of the business school. So that was really helpful that, you know, he was looking for somebody with the kind of.
Brooke Roberts:
And you know, that was a student at the time. So that started the kind of professional career.
Paul Spain:
Yep. And when you look at those jobs that, you know, you wouldn’t necessarily say were aligned with your marketing and so on, how important do you think those doing those sorts of things are? Would you encourage others that are, you know, whether it’s those listening in who are sort of thinking a little bit about their future and thinking, well, we should just focus entirely on our study and we can, you know, sort it all out with loans or maybe parents that are listening in that are, you know, trying to nudge youngsters along, you know, was there good that came out of that for you?
Brooke Roberts:
I think I didn’t realise that a skill I have, I didn’t realize was that rare. And I think it comes from studying and working really early on. I can, and hopefully I don’t trip up on this word, but compartmentalize really well, it’s one that always gets me and I think, you know, I can go, okay, well I’m focused on this thing now. And even when I started working full time, I was studying full time pretty much at the same time. So I think I didn’t realise like how rare that is. I think some people find it quite hard to kind of clock into something Else or clock off. And I can do that. So I do attribute that to studying and working together at a young age and also just managing money, I think, you know, to make ends meet every week, and then needed to start supporting my family at times, too.
Brooke Roberts:
So I was doing that while also trying to learn and grow my brain in future opportunities, too. So I think it really depends on the person and what type of studies they’re doing and how onerous it is, but I do think it was beneficial for the way that I work.
Paul Spain:
Yeah. Yep. And you did some tutoring as well, when you tutoring.
Brooke Roberts:
Look at you. Yep, did that. Yeah, I really enjoyed that. And I wouldn’t say I honestly, I look at everything that has really helped to be part of, like creating Sharesies and what we do today, like that. When you’re in retail, when you’re in a cafe, when you’re, you know, dishwashing, you’re learning a lot about the, you know, especially in dishwashing, the operational flow of a. Of a business. I think, you know, you’re in the kitchen, you’re seeing it work fast. Like, you know, you need to.
Brooke Roberts:
There’s this pace to it, which I think, you know, is a really good home skill to have. And then in retail and hospitality, it is like serving people and connecting with them and dealing with different personalities and seeing how you can support them. And ultimately, actually, I found in retail, there was a lot to do with, like, actually helping people build confidence or just see themselves in a different way when they came in. I tried something on or something. The way that people talk to themselves was horrific sometimes. And I was like, wait, I don’t see what you see, you know, So I think there’s, like, a lot that has filtered up, and I think I’ve learned from, you know, those past experiences.
Paul Spain:
Yeah, it sounds as though your sort of extracurricular, you know, outside of your study work, you know, probably contributed as much or more as your study in many ways, just from the variety of things that you were involved in. And I guess, you know, tutoring as well teaches you something that’s really helpful as an entrepreneur and a leader in terms of, you know, thinking about how you can help people build up their skills and confidence and progress.
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah.
Paul Spain:
Yeah, that’s great. And so, yeah, walk us through these sort of, I guess, initial roles that you did in marketing gs1aj park. Tell us a little bit about what that actually looked like for you and what were the things that you were learning.
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah. So that opportunity came up to work at GS1 while I was studying towards my honours in marketing. And then I started to do my Masters in Finance. And at the time I was, I was told I knew I’d always want to create a company, but at the time the opportunities were like marketing or finance. So, you know, my finance lecturers at university would be like, why are you studying to learn marketing? What are you going to do is be able to stock, learn how to stock shelves. Ho, ho, ho, you know, to have no, like living in theoretical world and no idea of actually the economic side of marketing or the impact that it has on people. And then I’d also hear, well, if you want to be a CEO one day, typically that’s the CFO path that gets there. And so I was trying to figure out, well, but I want this to come together somehow.
Brooke Roberts:
And it wasn’t until I was, when I was working at AJ park, doing my Masters in Finance, I went to this event where the CEO of Kiwibank spoke and he was telling, talking about his background and I was like, oh, he’s the CEO of a bank and he’s got a marketing background. Like that’s, you know, that’s something I told, like, doesn’t really happen. So I went up to him afterwards, I was like, will you be my mentor or something with this business card? And he’s like, no, but I’ll meet you for a coffee.
Paul Spain:
And then met me.
Brooke Roberts:
And it was the first time I felt like I was always trying to build connections or figure out, you know, like, learn from as many people as I could. And I, you know, I’d go to these meetings with like so many questions written down to ask and I just, like, I was just, I don’t even know if I was actively listening, but I was like writing notes the whole time. But he completely flipped it on me and started to want to learn about, you know, what my ambitions were or what my skills were. And then ultimately handed over my CV to Kiwibank and ended up getting into the. As an analyst, a SQL analyst, and then into kind of hybrid marketing, finance roles that essentially was product management. And I was like, this is my jam. Cause I love like, you know, we were hedging, we were pricing, you know, transactional accounts, term deposits, savings, like really gritty stuff, looking at the data, seeing how we could impact people and help them save more. I absolutely love that.
Brooke Roberts:
And then just like finding ways of creating innovative products and innovative ways of connecting with people to help them, you know, help Kiwib, help Kiwi be better off, which was the Purpose so. And I learned a lot about the banking system and what I liked and what I didn’t. And yeah, it was a really cool experience. And then I was looking after bank feeds as one of my products at the time and then started to get to know what was happening at Xero a bit more. And I really liked the idea of Xero where it was growing globally from Aotearoa and from Wellington. And then yeah, got the opportunity to go over to Xero and I was a little bit nervous because it was a bit more on paper as a marketing role, global marketing role and I really loved finance and so I was like, oh, I don’t know. But what captured me about that opportunity was it was around this ecosystem of all these companies that integrate to Xero and looking at, well, how do we monetize that, where’s the value exchange and how can it be valuable for those companies but also valuable for Xero? And so there was this kind of commercial and kind of finance element to it that was really intriguing to me too. And global.
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah.
Paul Spain:
And how did you find the difference between environment in a Kiwi bank, which is a very different type of entity to say Zero, particularly at that stage probably in their growth journey but there would have been other areas that were probably quite similar.
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah, the similarities were they’re both born and bred in T Whanganui Etau Wellington, really purpose driven there to really create an impact and growth mode. They were both in growth mode when on there. Qbank was early and Zero, it was earlier too, so that was awesome. I think the technology enablement of Xero was amazing. We went from desktop, so funny to talk about it, but laptops with all Google integrations at Xero and the global aspect was really interesting to me. Obviously Kiwibank’s solely focused on Aotearoa. We’re there, learned about how does our culture scale globally and how do we work with Americans and people in the UK and how to. How do you get that kind of alignment to strategy globally? I just found it really interesting.
Brooke Roberts:
So yeah, those are like two of the very key differences I think. But yeah, very Kiwi in the way they both approach business and love growth mode.
Paul Spain:
What would you say were the things that maybe grated you say the most in say banking to start with? What were the things that, that didn’t excite you about that type of environment?
Brooke Roberts:
I wouldn’t say it’s the environment, but I started to learn how opportunities are behind closed doors and I was intrigued on that. So I don’t think anyone in my family at that time knew you could negotiate mortgage rates or term deposits and that stuff can happen. And that’s not. I think they thought, oh, what the bank gives you is what you get, you know, And I don’t think that is something that was well known across Aotearoa. So that was something that was intriguing to me. I was like, well, how can you unlock those opportunities? I think there really wasn’t obviously many investing options outside of home ownership for a lot of people. And, you know, Sonia had the initial idea behind Sharesies and I know there was a big catalyst for her too. And I think unfortunately, sometimes people in banking, it’s actually not even banking, it’s just probably the nature of how people operate is you can start, you know, you’re dealing with people who have sometimes heaps of money and sometimes who are really struggling week to week.
Paul Spain:
Yes.
Brooke Roberts:
And sometimes the rhetoric around those people that are struggling can get actually, I think, quite nasty. And I think it’s because that, you know, it’s putting pressure on the banking system at a certain time because everyone’s trying to go to an atm. It’s like, but why? And how can we solve that problem rather than look at people as problems? Like, actually there’s a real need here and it’s up to us to solve it. So there were just like moments like that that I thought, oh, there could, you know, like. And that’s across the whole banking system. I think Kiwibank in particular puts so much care into people here in new. You know, and I think, you know, super. I had so much opportunity there too and I think they really, really deeply care.
Brooke Roberts:
But those things are just so interesting in terms of, you know, with technology things can be. Experiences can be better for everyone.
Paul Spain:
Yes.
Brooke Roberts:
Is probably.
Paul Spain:
Yeah, yeah.
Brooke Roberts:
And Kiwibank was running on legacy credit union technology already then, you know, so.
Paul Spain:
Yeah, I always found that a little bit strange in some early interactions with them thinking, oh, brand new bank, it’s going to be brand new cutting edge technology.
Brooke Roberts:
They had to work with the budget they had and what they had at the time.
Paul Spain:
It wasn’t that easy. Right.
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah, I mean, cloud was. They still started before a lot of that technology was readily used.
Paul Spain:
And what about Xero? Because they’re really on a real tear, growing really, really quickly. I guess at that stage you were there, what, 2015 through to 2017. So that was probably a period before the US growth really took off. Or was that sort of, was that.
Brooke Roberts:
Oh, that was definitely part of the year.
Paul Spain:
Quite a Key part of what you were involved in and working on.
Brooke Roberts:
Oh, I think zero were involved in. I think I. Yeah, and we were having a growing ecosystem there and I did get to head over to San Fran where they had. At San Francisco where they had a zircon and worked predominantly with some of the American team too. But yeah, they were growing. They’re going everywhere, you know, and it was just, yeah, it was a really fun time, you know, and challenging times for sure. And. But yeah, had a, it was a really cool opportunity to see and you know, kudos to all the team that have created that company.
Paul Spain:
Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, yeah, so, so, so, so many Kiwis involved. And you know, of course we’ve got a podcast or two or three. I don’t know how many. I’ve lost count with Rod over the years across the New Zealand tech podcast and New Zealand business podcast. So there’s lots there for those that are interested in hearing a little bit from that side. I guess when I think about it, there must be so many stories from inside Xero, the different learnings and the amazing work that there. What are the things that, you know, really, you know, stand out for you looking, looking back, the lessons that you walked away with that have, you know, contributed to, to your future.
Brooke Roberts:
I think I, looking back and something have, you know, respect for is, you know, I, I see Rod now as like the found, you know, like he obviously was the founder then, but now, you know, having found a company, I just like could imagine some of the things he was dealing with or why certain things were a priority and yeah, so just like that respect there to go. I could see, you know, now I have a different lens, you know, it’s really interesting. And you’ve got good on you.
Paul Spain:
Different sides, right? Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah. So that, yeah, that’s kind of cool. And then the other great thing about company like Xero is the ecosystem that sprung out of it so from capital. Because people, you know, Xero is where I got my first shares too, is through their staff share scheme. So being able to get access to that and then how many people were able to get access to that as employees and then being able to. Then they go and invest in companies like us or other startups and that. So they invest their, you know, their money that they might have earned through their time at 0 and their shares at 0, but also their time so early on. One of the early finance people at Xero has supported us, Paul Williams, and continues to.
Brooke Roberts:
He would help test our business model. He would meet with us every week to make Leyden, Sonja and I’s views a bit more realistic, I guess. But also I think we learned a lot from him and continue to in terms of just managing a real sustainable business for the long term. And then the connections that they bring to globally too, I think it really helps. There’s this whole big ripple effect when a company like that starts. Same with Kiwibank, same with Trade. Me and Xero’s had really good global success there too. Also in Australia too.
Paul Spain:
Yeah. And so, yeah, how do you find being part of this ecosystem in New Zealand of startups and bigger, more established businesses and you know, I guess, you know, we’ve got varying, you know, sources of venture capital and so on. Like, how does all of that work together for you?
Brooke Roberts:
I don’t know how to answer that question. Yeah, how do you mean for me? Sorry, I’m just wondering.
Paul Spain:
So, yeah, I guess. Or maybe we’ll come back to that when we’re a little bit further, further through the story. So now had a note here that you were a mentor. Indigo and Iris.
Brooke Roberts:
Oh my gosh, I need it. Yes, I was. So that was a social enterprise and Bonnie is just phenomenal, who’s the initial founder of that. And then also Hannah who took over the reigns and like the. The whole point was to, you know, you create mascara and you sell it and then restore eyesight in the Pacific through the Fred Hollows Foundation. So it was a really cool. And I really care about businesses being a force for good socially or environmentally. And so, yeah, she was looking for support.
Brooke Roberts:
Then the thing that I realized for me and, you know, I didn’t kick on with it and you know, Hannah took, you know, and the team were fantastic. But I just like, beauty wasn’t an industry I was that interested in. So you gotta kinda have that, I think too. So. Yeah. But Bonnie is incredibly talented artistically and also as a businesswoman. Yeah.
Paul Spain:
Doing something like that, mentoring someone else in an era that, yeah, maybe you’re not actually that passionate about. Do you think you came away getting something out of that too?
Brooke Roberts:
Oh, definitely. And when I say that there was an option of actually going in on it, it was around the same time as Sharesies and that sparked a bit more of me. But yeah, I would mentor young enterprise teams too. And you get a lot out of it. It’s incredibly rewarding and just really energising and I love. I think there’s so much bravery and naivety and I think we need to keep that more, you know, I think we get kind of hardened or we think these doors are shut. But when people just start with that, what if. I think it’s.
Brooke Roberts:
I love that because that’s how innovation does happen. So, yeah, I. Yeah, it was a really cool time in my life.
Paul Spain:
So definitely something you’d encourage others to.
Brooke Roberts:
If they’ve got the time and the commitment, you know, like. Yeah, I think you’re not there to be a mentor if you’re willing to ask really good questions and not try and come in with all the answers. Cause that kind of gives people whiplash. And it’s really just like, how can you be the wind beneath someone’s wings and help them understand what the unconsciously incompetent at and help them be more. If that’s what needed. Or be their cheerleader? It’s like, yeah, I think. I think you gotta go in with the right mentality and. Yeah, it’s a giving role.
Paul Spain:
Good. Now we come to Sharesies.
Brooke Roberts:
Yes.
Paul Spain:
So how did it all come about? Walk us through that, you know, founding story, those that were involved and how it sort of took shape to actually get off the ground.
Brooke Roberts:
So, yeah, six of us that founded Sharesies and, like, respect to each of us having our own different backstories and stories that kind of lead us into this room. So I’ll talk from my perspective and what I saw, but, yeah, so Leighton and I were really keen on starting a business. And we had had a few ideas, and we’re looking at a few. This is my husband, then, you know, part a fiance, maybe. And we, you know, had a few ideas, and one of them we were looking at doing with our two technical co founders, Richard and Martin. And then we had heard, you know, and we’d heard about this FinTech accelerator, which was quite a good kind of deadline time to try and chuck something into to get us started, essentially.
Paul Spain:
Yeah. So how many ideas did you have on the go?
Brooke Roberts:
I think. I think there were like two at that time, by the time we got to this point. And then Sonia and Ben. Sonia had this idea of, like, I wish $50 could mean something, you know, with the house prices becoming more unaffordable, like, how could we help people grow it? And she and Ben encouraged her to connect. Go talk to somebody about it, you know, and let’s. That’s a good idea on something. So she talked with Leiden and Layden because they worked together. Leyden started an investment club when he was 17 years old, putting 50 bucks away a week with some friends, and they just put it away.
Brooke Roberts:
And they thought they were investors. And the first things they were putting it into was a bank account. Then they bought a cow and then ended up being a herd of cows and our commercial property and all these things. And they still do it to this day from starting with 50 bucks each week. Yeah. I was like, well, how can we make that happen at scale? So we all got a room about this time eight or nine years ago. And nine years ago it would have been. We got into a room and we were like.
Brooke Roberts:
We just kind of talked about these kind of different ideas we had. And it was just very clear, oh, we’ve got to do. There’s something in this investing space or there’s something in financial empowerment that we could focus on. So we filled out the paperwork to get into this accelerator.
Paul Spain:
Yep.
Brooke Roberts:
Had to come up with the name, which Sonja did on the back of a scooter drive on the way home. She’s like, Sharesies works on so many levels. And then someone was like, can only see two. I was like, I love. It was just great. It’s a beautiful name. And she’s. Yeah.
Brooke Roberts:
Incredibly talented. And then we got to it, and what got to it, it meant was actually interviewing a bunch of people. Like so many people. We’re lucky that somebody provided us access to do a quantitative survey, like, answer add some questions to a survey they were doing so it could back up some of the qualitative insights we were getting at scale that then helped with the pitch pack that showed the proof point, you know, and it was just. Yeah. But through those conversations that we had with people where people were telling us about, you know, how whakam they are and embarrassed around how this. Well, they don’t know what they’re doing with their money and didn’t feel like an investor. But they had kiwisaver and all of this.
Brooke Roberts:
We. We knew there was a lot to do, but we knew that investing was a great place to start because that’s where people have felt left out and didn’t feel like it was for them. It’s like a hopeful place with money where future grows. And it, you know, it’s kind of an upward spiral, rather than downward spiral approach of like, say, if we started with budgeting or something. So. Which just doesn’t captivate people as well. Yeah. And so that’s been.
Brooke Roberts:
That’s. Yeah. The genesis of Sharesies and the team come together and.
Paul Spain:
Can you share with us the ideas you threw out? Other things that you.
Brooke Roberts:
Honestly, I can’t even. I can’t actually recall very well. Cause it was kind of a quick one. The finance. There’s some sort of gaming education element to it.
Paul Spain:
Yeah.
Brooke Roberts:
But one was, we were thinking like, Airbnb was starting to take off and we’re like air manager, which is like, you know, managing Airbnbs. But, like, Leyden and I both suck at cleaning. And, you know, you gotta be able to do the core job too, you know, as you’re starting and scaling it. And like, that’s not our. You know, we don’t. That’s not our. You know, it’s not something we’re passionate about in the details. And.
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah. So glad that one didn’t happen for us. But I do see other businesses out there, which is awesome.
Paul Spain:
In that space that’s on the list to have.
Brooke Roberts:
I think it’s a bad idea. I think it was a great idea. But you gotta care about the craft, you know? Yeah, yeah.
Paul Spain:
And when you looked around, how quickly before you saw other things that were happening sort of internationally that you might be able to learn from. Because it’s always fascinating to me when, you know, you see this trend of related or somewhat similar entities sort of springing up in different parts of the world, sometimes without having any knowledge of what others are doing, sometimes with a little bit of a kind of view. So what did that look like?
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah, we had no idea. We had no idea about Robin Hood or how simple were their time. It wasn’t until we entered the accelerator and started, you know, like, doing some research. It wasn’t. I don’t even know if it was those ones we heard about, but started to see, oh, there is. Because you started to look at the global opportunity of it outside of Aotearoa and what’s happening in Australia. So. Yeah.
Brooke Roberts:
And then. But from those insights and the research that we’d done, it was just very clear what we needed to do. And then just find the right technology, which turns out building our own was what we needed to do.
Paul Spain:
Yeah. Yeah. And so that initial sort of period to start, you know, building your own technology and putting it all together, you know, what did that look like? And how did you. How did you fund it and make that work during those early stages?
Brooke Roberts:
So we. So Leighton, Sonia and I went full time into. To start with, and the other three were part time, but we’d given each other collectively, like, three months to get a product off the ground and live in the regulated world that we operated in. So that was compliant and have a path forward in terms of investment or capital raised. So that we could continue on. So we gave ourselves three months to do that. Kicked off in February and in May we launched our beta. And yeah, a lot of that was.
Paul Spain:
What was this? 2016?
Brooke Roberts:
17, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 2017. And yeah, we just got cracking into it.
Paul Spain:
Wow. Yeah, that’s quite a short timeline to get things rolling.
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah, well, we needed to know. What was really amazing is, you know, we went to our employees say, hey, we want to do this. And they were like, awesome. And they gave Land Sonnet and I extended leave three months too. So which was really kind. So we could kind of give it a crack. And they’re like, look, if it doesn’t work out, you’ll learn some things. And if it does, great alumni story, you know, and it wasn’t competing with anything they were doing at that time either, which is cool.
Brooke Roberts:
But yeah, they think we learned. So we wanted to. We didn’t want. We weren’t there to waste our time. We weren’t there to follow a program. We were there to create a business and see if it was, you know, we could create something that was valuable enough for people that it could have a business model that would be sustainable.
Paul Spain:
And so how did your skills kind of complement each other and you know, where did you find you crossed over? How did that actually play out?
Brooke Roberts:
So for like our chief designer and you know, co founder and our technical co founders, it’s pretty clear. And the technical co founders had worked together at Richard and Martin for, for a number of years to get or they knew how to work together really well. So that was quite helpful and laden. Sonia and I is this kind of new dynamic. But it just, you know, I think there’s a lot of crossover in our skills, which is awesome. I mean we are three years, you kind of expect that like any one of us is, you know, full on CEO in our own right, I’d say, you know, but it’s. So there is a lot of crossover. But I think early on we kind of did have to divide and conquer in the day.
Brooke Roberts:
So it is quite different how we operate now. But you know, Sonia did quite a lot around. I think we all did a bit around product. But yeah, she would done more product marketing later in more the operations and product side and finance side and me more strategy people and the kind of capital raising side of things. So. But look, everyone was in some. So it’s a percentage rather than a full ownership. I’d say some of them might have been 33% split, but then some might have just had to Pick up some more one day.
Brooke Roberts:
So yeah, I think we have got a really good working rhythm in terms of knowing what needs to get done and cracking on with it and leveraging each other’s unique skills when needed.
Paul Spain:
Yeah, yeah, that’s really good because you’ve landed on this three EO leadership model as kind of co CEOs and I think that’s something that’s pretty unusual out there. Sometimes you get a co CEO and there’s two, but I think people will probably be curious, as am I, of what are the edges, what are the things that are a challenge or has it just all happened pretty naturally in terms of how you draw the lines between each other and you know, made it work.
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah. So there were a lot of things in the startup world that we just rebelled against. Like we were told I wasn’t founder. You got too many founders, you know, shouldn’t be two guys in a garage kind of thing. It’s like, well, we need all of our skills in order to make this come to life. Like we, you know, to the point now people are like, who’s your co founder? You know, like it has changed the dynamics, which is cool. Yeah, yeah, but, but another one, one that we did, a trap I guess we did fall into was we needed to pick a CEO. We were told it a bit and so we’re like, fine.
Brooke Roberts:
So we sat down and decided I’d be the CEO. Cause I was doing quite a lot of the raising capital, shareholder side and often they wanna be talking to the CEO. So just seemed efficient. And so I went on maternity leave the first time and leyden Sonny co CEO’d. Then I came back and I was CEO then went on maternity leave again and they co CEOed. And so coming back after my second child kind of sat down, I was like, what about, you know, why don’t we try a Coco model? And I think later came up with the term three and we thought, oh, maybe our board wouldn’t be that keen on it. But we wanted to pitch it anyway. So we pitched it as a trial, like for three months.
Brooke Roberts:
Could we, sorry, six months. Could we trial this? And these are the pitfalls we anticipate. Here’s how we would work with them. You know, we, and then we did a survey with our team and board and you know, others to determine if it worked or not. And yeah, I think it’s nearly five years later. We’ve been running this three year model, at least four. And it’s phenomenal way. It’s, you know, often I’d be asked, like even coming here today, you could have had any of us, you know.
Brooke Roberts:
So when I’m asked at places I used to, you know, they’d only want CEO. And I was like, well, you probably actually want Leighton or Sonya, you know. And so that’s changed that dynamic. It’s like we can be at three places at once. And that’s also internally too. Like we can move at speed. And we’ve got this natural intuition, I think, with each other now, where I’ll know I have to look Leighton or I need to loop Sonia into this. Cause I know she’ll care a lot or have some good ideas to add or contribute.
Brooke Roberts:
Or I’ll just be like, I know I’ve got this and I’ll let them know, like the decision or whatever. So we, we’re really good at knowing that with each other. And, you know, maybe we could have got it wrong a few times, but we’re always really. There’s nothing that’s like a scar in that way, you know. So, no, it has worked really well for us.
Paul Spain:
How much would you say it has contributed to the pace at which you’ve.
Brooke Roberts:
Had to do it? Hugely, because we get to a diff. Cause, you know, it’s like three, three for one. And then we’ve got a distributed, you know, got a bigger exec team because of it, executive team. Which also means our company’s a lot flatter. Which also means people are way closer to the context. And I think that’s the best way in order to deliver at speed. When people are close to the customer, they’re close to the team that can make it happen. They’re part of that.
Brooke Roberts:
And it just enables a lot more, you know, execution and productivity, I think. Yeah.
Paul Spain:
And, you know, I guess you kind of look at all of the CEO type functions and things that you need to look after. How much more has it maybe, you know, improved your ability because you’re working as a group to maybe have more depth in some of these areas compared to what it might be if it was just one of you?
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah, I mean, I’m trying to determine if I can answer that because it’s all I’ve known now for the last five years. And so I’m trying to go back to. Or was it different? But it’s, you know, she was different context then we were deep in everything, you know, you know, as the business scales, it does change, but I think there’s just something about being a founder anyway. And founder mode is like, you just. You’ve Seen it all from, you know, a seed to where it is now. And so you do have quite a lot of context of where things could be going. Or when something seems a little bit off, you can dive in and have, like, enough knowledge to know where your knowledge gaps might be to kind of ask the right questions. And I think so.
Brooke Roberts:
I really like that kind of founder mode way of thinking, which was, you know, often, sometimes they try and make founders be managers or like leaders. So, you know, you gotta empower the team and things like that, which I agree with. But also, as founders, you can go very deep and add quite a lot of value through doing that. So it’s just. I like the freedom of going, that’s okay. If there’s something that I’m really curious about, we’ll go right into it. And it might be even me changing copy or really trying to figure out something to then go. Yep, sweet.
Brooke Roberts:
And I think that’s because of the deep care and the direction we’re trying to take this company in. And I think that’s for all of the founders at Sharesies.
Paul Spain:
Yeah, there’s something unique about a founder compared to sort of hired in CEO and leadership. Have you ever considered what would happen if someone sort of knocked on the door and said, look, we’ll give you X times your valuation and you’re able to walk away in a period of time? Is that something that’s on your radar, you know, at all? If that, if that were to happen, would there be a price in which you would walk away? Or are you too passionate about the business? Because you seem so, you know, so passionate around, you know, what you do and you’re so deeply involved in it. Yeah. Can you imagine that sort of a world?
Brooke Roberts:
I think, like, we, you know, every year the founders get together and we. We set up this weird practice early on, which I think is really. Is really smart, actually, which was. We talked to each other like, you know, a rolling two years. Like you’re here for the next two years. Yep, yep, yep, yep. You know, and it feels like even more so in a lot of ways. Only one founder is not in the business as much anymore, which is Sony’s partner, who’s, you know, and he’s still around, you know, like.
Brooke Roberts:
And it was a right call for them and their family, you know, but. But we’re all really in it. And I think that there’s just. We honestly think we’re not even at the start, you know, there’s just so much more to do and I just. Yeah, very driven it feels like in a lot of ways our life work, we, you know, we are. We do have shareholders too, so if something like that happened, we would have to talk with our board and shareholders and stuff. But ultimately, like, we see this as this, you know, Sharesies is a vehicle we can make the most impact. And so speaking for myself, you know, it’s just like there’s so much to do.
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah, yeah.
Paul Spain:
We haven’t delved too much into the sort of the, you know, the journey, I guess, over this period. What would be the points that sort of stood out in those earlier years that really stick in your mind as either being, you know, super challenging, which is. There’s always lessons from those points or just high points where something really key has happened.
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah. I mean, running and creating a company and running one even being, you know, even being in companies, you know, it can be like a roller coaster, especially when they’re growth companies. And the whole roller coaster could happen in one day or it could be all on the high, you know, you just. So I think I’ve learned to kind of navigate that and not, you know, try ride it too much. But I have gone off your question a little bit. Sorry, what was the. Oh, the highs and lows. Yeah.
Brooke Roberts:
So one story, that. One story that’s very anchored in my mind is when we first launched Sharesies, like within the first week of launching our beta. Maybe it wasn’t in the first week, but it was very early on in Sharesies, we were interviewed for one news and we’re gonna be on the news at like, you know, you know, it’s gonna be after the main news, so probably about 6, 10 onwards, and we’re all at our homes and we, you know, this was mostly just the founding team at this stage. We had one other contractor working with us and we all had our laptops out on intercom, ready to kind of like help any customer queries. Cause this is about to be launched and, you know, people are gonna sign up and just to kind of see what’s happening, watch the web traffic, all of that sort of jazz. So we had that all ready to go and it comes on the TV and it’s all exciting and you can see people starting to go to our website and starting to sign up. And then we’re like, something’s not working here. And thankfully, the first page was getting their name and the email address.
Brooke Roberts:
The second was verifying their identity. And unfortunately, the partner we had partnered with to verify the ID was having a blackout period at 6 o’. Clock. That night for 45 minutes or something like a while. So then we’ve had thousands, like it was thousands signing up and they couldn’t get through. And the part that I reminisce and love about the story is we were just dealing with it. We were laughing, we were going back to customers. There’s nothing we could do that could control it.
Brooke Roberts:
We made sure we just got into action mode in terms of, well, how can we help these people know what’s happening? And it just showed me how. I had so much confidence in our founding team then. It was no blame game like you should have not. What about, you know, there’s none of that. It’s like, cool, we’re in. Muck in, let’s figure it out. Cause who wouldn’t? It was just something unfortunate that happened. But it was really cool to see the people and how they responded to that too.
Brooke Roberts:
The potential customers and then customers who were like, aha, Murphy’s Law. That’s all, you know, like, let us know when it’s fixed. And everyone was really kind about it. And so there’s something beautiful about those people that are keen to early adopt and give something a crack. And I think at that time too, we charged $30 on sign up also. So it was, yeah, that was a very good test of, I think, the character of the team and a testament to, I think, how our culture has scaled since then too.
Paul Spain:
Now most businesses tend to go through varying pivots and changes. What are those points along the way where you’ve maybe had to adjust in a small or a big way? I mean, from the outside, I can’t, I can’t remember anything, but you were right there. Having to make these decisions and calls. What did that look like?
Brooke Roberts:
Adjustments, kind of. They do. They sometimes happen on the daily. But the thing is, our purpose is to create financial empowerment for everyone and that drives us. But the timing and priorities can change based on new information. Where technology is. At a certain time, the customer need the macro environment. So being really open to the path to get there.
Brooke Roberts:
And I think that is something that we, we practice a lot at Sharesies. It’s like, oh, actually because of these things, you know, savings is actually really important to add into the mix. So we did that when, you know, interest rates were a bit higher too. We added that in cryptocurrency. We’re seeing it more as mainstream. Was something, you know, we’re getting a lot of requests at in 2021 and heaps more recently. And it finally felt like, oh yeah, things have come into place from regulator outlook to the. The more mainstream uptake of crypto and also the wide customer queries we’re getting about it and how some people, you know, it’s quite a weird experience to buy crypto and have to hold keys and like, have separate wallets, like, that’s not normal behaviour for when people interact with money.
Brooke Roberts:
So we knew that there was a way that we could create a better experience. So adding that in felt right now that we launched that. Actually, I don’t know when this goes live, but today, you shouldn’t even say today on a podcast day, but that’s live now. And yeah, so I think it’s more like the strategy is clear. We’re really flexible in the approach and timing in order to ultimately help us create more financial empowerment for everyone.
Paul Spain:
And you’re obviously, you know, as any sort of, you know, technology businesses, you’re in some ways beholden or relying on, you know, on a lot of other parties and say, for any business, right. So whether it’s, you know, someone that, that’s checking, you know, people’s ID or whatever that process was in your sign up, whether it’s who’s the sort of the custodian of the shares and so on, and you’ll know all of these things a lot better than I do. But what sort of challenges have you had to navigate in those sorts of things and found where you’ve maybe picked a particular channel and then as you’ve gone along, realised, oh, we might have made a better choice or the options now available to us are different. How’s it been navigating those sorts of things?
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah, there are a lot of partners. I think there’s over 150 companies that we partner with directly outside of our B2B part of our business, where we partner with 600 companies to provide their staff share schemes and share shareholder management. But more like the integrate with Sharesies or that we need to integrate with in order to provide our services. There’s quite a number there. And one of our core parts of how we talk about how we bring our strategy to life is lovable partnerships. Like, we want these, you know, we want our customers to win, we want our partners to win, we want to have this really lovable experience and, you know, put deep care into these partnerships that we do have to have to make sure these opportunities can come to life in the way that we design them. But also often the things outside of your control are your biggest risks. So sometimes, you know, these, you know, the partners can be risky if they, you know, like I had one example there, or if something changed, tax.
Brooke Roberts:
So again, that’s an important part of lovable partnerships too, is like having good relationships in these businesses, making sure we’re supporting each other and keeping up to date with changes or whatever it might be. So, yeah, I think that it’s a key part of how we operate Sharesies. I’m trying to think of examples of. But we would change partners too, when it’s needed, if it’s going to create a better experience for our customers, or it can create a bit of cost or whatever it might be. But ultimately, a lot of the partners are on the journey in scaling with us, and we set up kind of contracts in place that enable that scale to be beneficial on both sides.
Paul Spain:
Yeah, yeah. And there must be a real element there where your reputation is also tied to theirs and sometimes maybe vice versa to a degree as well. How hard does that make it for you to decide on? I’m thinking of, say, your crypto investing option. And I went through recently, I guess it might have been sort of beta or early access. And it was very evident to me that there were highlights around the risks associated with crypto, associated with, I guess, any firm you’re partnering with, because there have been obviously cases in the past where firms have lost funds and so on. And so I thought that was really clear in terms of, okay, if I want to go through and buy crypto. There’s no confusion if you read what’s put in front of you, that there is a risk. But of course, if something were to happen with whichever provider that you’d chosen, of course that would naturally have quite a big blowback as well.
Paul Spain:
So that must be quite hard to work through and decide how you’re gonna tackle it.
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah, cool part. And I think it’s really great that you read through those, the education we put in before crypto. Cause I think it’s really important people see how different it is to investing on exchange or a managed fund and really aware of it. So I’m glad that you, you know, clock that experience and it made you think about that. And then, yeah, when we pick a partner, there’s, you know, only a handful of players that can deal with a kind of scale and have deal with regulators. And, you know, we pick Kraken for a number of reasons, but other governments do use them too. They seem to have as good security protocols that we could envision it from what we’d seen with others. And they have been tried and tested now for a while.
Brooke Roberts:
So, yeah, but like anything, you gotta make sure you’re investing in staying vigilant on in this technological world.
Paul Spain:
Yeah. And how have you navigated the option between. You’ve built your own platform, but of course, for crypto or for anything else, you can go out and find a partner firm or you could decide, hey, we’re gonna build all the technology for these pieces ourselves. And there are obviously some quite big differences when you use a partner who’s well established and they can do a lot of lifting. You can move a lot, maybe a lot quicker, but then there might be differences in terms of fee structures or all sorts of aspects. So how have you navigated that or have you had a particular approach that you’ve just consistently followed across the journey, or has that evolved over the period of the business?
Brooke Roberts:
We have developed a lot of our own technology. We are a wealth technology platform and others around the globe have asked to start to connect into us, to leverage out the way that we’ve operationalised a lot of financial information and money flows. So there’s heaps within our own technology, but then also there are easy to use.
Paul Spain:
Right. I think that’s one of the things that sort of stands out for me is just how easy it is to use. You know, the app is. Yeah, it’s just simple and, you know, it just feels like a nice platform to interact with. Right. And sometimes you go to, I don’t know, I’ll pick a bank, but could be anything technology wise. And it sort of feels clunky and not so nice and it does seem as though that’s an area you’ve really owned.
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah, we care a lot about. I mentioned loveable punches, but creating lovable experience and that, it just is intuitive, it feels right, it’s clear. And yeah, we put a lot of emphasis into that. So thank you for noticing and sharing that. Yeah. But we do again, have to partner with a bunch of people and so when we determine if we’re going to partner or build or, you know, it depends on what it is, the time frame, the experience we can provide, and if it’s not going to be a good enough experience, then we’re going to figure it out, you know. So, yeah, there’s. There’s a few things that kind of go into account before determining who to partner with or to build ourselves, I.
Paul Spain:
Imagine, I imagine that few is actually quite a lot in the background. And what sort of pace does it take you, let’s say crypto, for instance. I imagine this is an area you’ve been looking at not just for the last 12 months. This is something over quite a period of time. I think I saw a note that a number of the team, you’re all involved in the investing world, have had some interest in investing in crypto previously, until you’ve got to this point of making it part of the app. So what sort of length of time is the journey from having an idea to going live? And I know that would probably vary from product to product, like what you’ve done in terms of kids being able to use the platform and invest and then what you’re doing with debit cards that sort of earn back into investments and so on. So how do those things tend to look and evolve?
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah, I mean they are like you mentioned, they are so unique depending on the amount that we need to partner with others or build ourselves or the complexity or the risk associated. So yeah, there isn’t a one formula. But what we do do is we always launch with the minimum lovable product. So we’re not like this has to have all the bells and whistles like we’ve launched crypto and auto invest will come and transfer, transferring in will come, but we won’t be like, well, it’s not that we’re not going to launch until then, you know, because we want to learn, iterate and see, well, do people really want this? And we have heaps of people saying, can I just transfer in all mine now or can I just auto, you know, crypto? So that also fuels the team to go, cool. We need a, that we need to prioritize that too. So I think that minimum lovable. What’s the minimum lovable we can do here that meets the regulatory framework, meets our security protocols, meets like the need and vision we have for Sharesies, it meets customer needs essentially, or ways that we could create the new need. So it does really vary.
Brooke Roberts:
There’s things that can happen within a day to a couple of weeks to take actually multiple years to get to the right partnership or the right point where we feel like we can innovate and add something that’s actually going to be different in a way that helps people develop wealth in the way that we see the future.
Paul Spain:
And how does that look for you internally? Because, I mean, usually different people are gonna have different opinions right around, let’s say crypto. Did you have folks within your founders group who were like, hey, we should do this X number of years ago. And then others that are like, well, we need to wait for these, you know, these things. How do you, how do you Work through those sorts of things especially. Yeah. Where you do land on different sort of pages.
Brooke Roberts:
I think crypto’s a really good example, actually. So it must have been around 2021 where it was really interesting. Like, half the team were like, do it. We need to get up here asap. You know, this is like the future of finance, you know, like. And the other half, like, absolutely not. The environment, you know, like, it’s speculation, blah, blah, blah. And at the time, you know, both are right, you know, in a way to that degree, you know.
Brooke Roberts:
And so as founders, we sat down and we wrote our thoughts down in terms of, well, where do we think it is at now? And what would we thought at that time? We’re not gonna add it to the platform yet, but these are the things we would. And once we see these changes, that would likely change this view. And we’re at that point now. We see crypto exchange traded funds. We’ve had access to them through us and asx. We’re seeing so many people go into cryptocurrency. And even in the financial fund manager world, it has sustained that test of time in a lot of ways so far. And in particular, there was a lot of risks that people were taking on, like I said, in terms of them managing their own wallets but losing their keys and the amount of people that just lost it, you know, and you’re like.
Paul Spain:
Or the firm that was holding it, losing it or whatever.
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah. And it just. Yeah, and there was just like a lot of. And then you talked about how when you went through the flow, it made you aware of the risk and the associated diversification and things, and it’s part of a portfolio unless you, you know. And so I think that is something that we feel we can do in a way that supports people to understand the currency more, the currency opportunities.
Paul Spain:
So you’ve said it sort of feels like you’re just getting started, but looking back on where you’ve come so far, what do you sort of see as the. The biggest lessons you’ve learned along the way and the. And the things that, you know, you’ll often maybe, you know, talk. Talk to others about when you’re, you know, talking to other. Other founders and other leaders.
Brooke Roberts:
I think if any other founders kind of relate to this. But, you know, I heard, you know, founders are, you know, we’re living in the past because, like, what we’ve. What you see on she’s now is kind of like what we’ve been dreaming up for a while or whatever. And so we’re like over here. So that’s why it always feels like we’re, we’re just getting started too, I think, because there’s just the next parts that we’re, you know, like that you’re where our minds are to help them, you know, so it’s pretty cool. But that’s an interesting challenge in itself, I think, because I don’t. There’s just so much more to do. And every time I have a conversation with someone and you know, I was even talking to somebody today and they’re like, hey, I really think you need to support more people.
Brooke Roberts:
We need to help people who have just retired because they’re not getting these conversations or they, you know, there’s more kids and family. There’s so much more to do. Honestly there is. And so the shared money architecture we’re building at the moment is going to be a massive part of what’s to come for us in the next year. But I think maybe it’s that it’s like that relentless, kind of this relentless urgency to really support people in developing. Having access to developed wealth drives us daily.
Paul Spain:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pretty big, whether it be through pretty big challenge. And how far ahead do you tend to look? Are you looking at things that are.
Brooke Roberts:
Well, that’s the other annoying thing about a founder. As soon as you see the way forward, you want it now. So I can’t even give you a timeframe because I’m not like, well, in our five year plan it says. Because actually like I told you, we changed the strategy on how we can create financial partners. So that might be next month, you know, like, I mean, yesterday I had these businesses call me and some of them, I thought, oh, I didn’t think we’d be doing that for, you know, partnering with a company like that for a while and then, oh, that’s interesting now that’s, you know, you just. So, yeah, I don’t know how to put a timeframe to what we’re thinking about because ultimately we’re always trying to find a way of how can we do that as quickly in the most compliant and lovable way we could.
Paul Spain:
Yeah. So you’ll prioritise based on range of features. Now before we wrap up, I think that some would be quite interested in the sort of staff share purchasing and that side of the, of what you do. Maybe you can, you know, you walk us through, you know, the journey of how that sort of come about. And you mentioned 600 companies now are managing their sort of, you know, staff shares through Sharesiess.
Brooke Roberts:
So the journey of how we started partnering with companies, we started to notice two things, especially when we started with investing and providing access to the New Zealand Stock exchange. We noticed some companies like contacting us, like, hey, we are so excited that you’re helping more people get access to shares. How can we help? What information do they need? You know, do you want to provide them like, you know, really keen. And then also we had retail investors noticing. Oh actually some companies, you know, they get the big institutional investors, they get to go into the boardroom or go to meet with the CEO of these companies to help them determine if they want to invest or not. So how can we unlock that for more people? So we started with a podcast, shared lunch, which was like interviewing listed CEOs and people, economists and trying to get that information out to more people. That might be what the conversations are in boardrooms in particular or management teams. And then through that started to go.
Brooke Roberts:
Or actually we could be doing more to bridge this communication gap. So we created this tool called Sharesies Open where companies can communicate directly with their Sharesies shareholders or those that have their shares on their wait list and then also be able to get some insights in terms of how these shareholders are behaving. So for instance, we’ve got well over 100,000 shareholders on Sharesies that own Air New Zealand. So they can communicate directly to these people, but also see what the buy and sell ratio is, where are they based around New Zealand and provide this kind of insight so that they can feel more connected to what ends up is nearly 5 to 10% of their shareholder base now. So that was where the journey started. And then we started providing share schemes as soon as we started to our team and we used orchestra and we wanted to figure out how, you know, we could see what we could do to scale in the listed space and across Australia and building out more registry services. But also how do we do that in the public space? Sorry, the private space, like partnering with private companies to help them provide staff share schemes or help them manage their shareholders and shareholder communication. And, and we’d been being fans of Orchestra, we’d been using it for a number of years and so we acquired that.
Brooke Roberts:
Now it’s called Shezzy’s Private and that has been going with us for nearly around a year and a half now. And that’s a really important part of helping more and more people get access to the shares of the companies they work in and also feel connected to the companies that they have shares in. And also supporting these companies have a really Good experience and providing good experiences around that ownership. Like when you’re giving shares in your company, you want the person to really see the value in it and feel like it’s real. And often previously it’s like a bunch of paperwork, but now we’re working on where you can see it. In the Sharesies app you can see any private companies alongside your listed ones and see that that’s part of your wealth. And also for those that work in those companies, they can see when their shares are vesting or how much and it feels a bit more tangible and it’s theirs and they are an owner and that’s important. That’s a really important part of financial empowerment is getting access to shares in the companies you work in.
Paul Spain:
Yeah, yeah, that’s great. And are you seeing a growing interest startups and so on in terms of being able to expose their shares that way?
Brooke Roberts:
Yeah. I was reading the Nvidia Way the other day and I think it’s in chapter two or three really early on it talks about how this one company couldn’t attract the top talent because they weren’t doing share schemes which was expected. And I think that’s gonna change here. I spoke at event just before this and say there’s 100 in the room. I asked who here get shares in the company they work for and about three put their hand up and that was the same ratio five, seven years ago when asked about investing. So. So I do believe this is going to be a big change. That’ll be part of people’s remuneration package more and more and an expectation in terms of being able to attract top talent too.
Brooke Roberts:
And so very passionate about. Yeah. And there’s heaps of people here who are so passionate about it like Becker, they do it for their team. It’s just there’s so many in New Zealand and Australia and around the world that are starting to do that more and more.
Paul Spain:
That’s good. Yeah. I’m really curious about that particular aspect because we don’t see a lot of it in New Zealand outside of probably our startups. Right. Where that’s become reasonably normal. Any closing advice that you would share with listeners.
Brooke Roberts:
Thanks for listening to the story. I really appreciate it. I think that curiosity is always interesting and is a really important part of developing as a human and see what we can learn and go, hey, we don’t wanna learn that from you either. Like that’s cool. So yeah, appreciate you listening. And I think that curiosity is like. And being able to follow this to the end too, I think. I don’t know what the stats are like, but I think that’s really important part of helping find the better questions to ask yourself or those around you or just taking one little thing to go.
Brooke Roberts:
Oh, actually I don’t agree with this and this is why. And I love that. I think that curiosity and that spark of critical thinking is incredibly important skills that we need to hone and harness and so keep doing that. Is that okay?
Paul Spain:
Yeah, that’s good.
Brooke Roberts:
That’s good.
Paul Spain:
Anything else that you wanted to add?
Brooke Roberts:
Sharesies. It’s pretty cool. No, just a massive thanks to the Sharesies team and the other, you know, the other co founders too. Like, you know, I am only one person amongst 220 of us and this is one view of the Sharesies journey that we’ve been on and just incredibly tough to be able to work alongside the people I get to day to day.
Paul Spain:
Yeah. Thank you so much for taking the time out to join us on the show.
Brooke Roberts:
Appreciate it. Thank you. Cheers.
Paul Spain:
I trust you’ve enjoyed hearing from Brooke Roberts about her story and the Sharesies stories and as she says, there’s a lot more to come so we’ll look forward to following the that journey.
Paul Spain:
The New Zealand Business Podcast has been brought to you by Gorilla Technology, the information technology firm supporting astute mid size and smaller organizations to get the very best out of technology whilst minimising cyber risks. Get in touch to find out about technology cybersecurity audits along with help in selecting new software and having that implemented within your company. Be sure to listen in to our other episodes of the New Zealand Business Podcast. Across the episodes we very much feature a who’s who of New Zealand’s most successful and innovative leaders. Look forward to catching you again on the next episode. This is Paul Spain signing out. Thank you.
