Sam Morgan has largely kept his head down over the past year.
While his father, Gareth, contested the September 2017 general election as leader of The Opportunities Party (deregistered in July this year), the Trade Me founder wished his father well but otherwise stuck strictly to the political sidelines.
In June, the Rich Lister got caught in the Bowen Triangle regardless as he noted on Twitter that he was down to following just 10 people – only to have Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter reply, “You appear to only be following men. Any comment on why?”
NBR columnist Rodney Hide labelled Ms Genter’s criticism a case of “the diversity bandwagon veering out of control.”
Mr Morgan reacted by reducing the number of people he followed on Twitter to zero.
“And hence no bias,” he added, pithily.
On the investment front, Mr Morgan saw his 3.1% stake in Xero nearly double in value as the online accounting software company’s stock went on a bull run in the New Year after moving to an ASX-only listing, delivering a strong (if still not profitable) result and was added to the ASX-100 index.
The Rich Lister also took a punt on a start-up, participating in a $1.2m angel round for Auckland-based HR software startup Joyous as outside investors took a 13% stake.
Joyous is co-founded by Mike Carden, with whom Mr Morgan co-invested in another HR software startup – Sonar6, which was sold to American company Cornerstone for $US14m in 2012.
It adds to the Rich Lister’s growing stable of investments in startups, which includes a stake in fast-growing online checkout software company Vend and workflow and route optimisation outfit vWork.
Through Jasmine Social Investments, Mr Morgan continues to be active in philanthropy.
His venture focuses on backing “social entrepreneurs” or small projects aimed at alleviating poverty in the developing world.
A typical project, the One Acre Fund, helps subsistence farmers in Africa develop their land and manage crops so they can sell them at a profit. It aims to help one million small farmers by 2020.