Snowball Effect appoints public capital head

This is a supplied media release.

Snowball Effect has appointed former Russell McVeagh lawyer and technology marketer Peter Thomson as Head of Digital responsible for investor education and marketing of public offers.

Mr Thomson started his career working on the Vector IPO which he says gave him an early taste for the marketing impact of promoting a public offer to a wide audience. A stint at NZTE in the early days of the Better by Design program led to an interest in product design and digital marketing. Moving to the UK in 2011 connected Peter with the burgeoning tech startup scene in London and led to a marketing role with leading UK equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs. Peter helped grow Seedrs from 2,000 investors and £6 million pounds in investments to £22 million pounds invested by 7,000 investors. A key lesson from those early days was the importance of combining momentum and endorsement from large investors with the power of a wider online investor audience.

The emergence of equity crowdfunding in the USA took Mr Thomson to New York in 2014 where he was part of the team responsible for expansion of online venture capital firm SeedInvest into larger scale public offers. Mr Thomson led the marketing of virtual reality company Virtuix's offer which raised $7.7 million USD from 1,600 investors and clothing brand DSTLD denim which raised $1.6 million USD from 1,500 investors.

Using public offers to turn customers into investors is a global trend. Research by Bain & Company found that customers who are also shareholders spend 50% more and are twice as likely to recommend the company's products. Snowball Effect has already helped consumer products companies such as Invivo wines and Heyrex raise capital from the public. The next of this type looks to be local craft cider maker Zeffer coming soon on Snowball Effect with several companies also in talks to conduct public offers in 2017.

Alongside the increased services for public offerings, Snowball Effect is increasing its efforts in investor education with the creation of a content hub that will include expert articles and educational content about investing in growth companies. Snowball Effect CEO Simeon Burnett said that "Investing in growth companies is a high-risk endeavour and we are rolling out an increased focus on investor education this year."

Mr Thomson said: "In London and New York, the emergence of large scale public offers has totally transformed the equity crowdfunding landscape. I'm excited to be part of developing the market and creating a positive impact in New Zealand.”