Latest / The Curve / Introducing… The Curve Investments.

Transcript

Introducing… The Curve Investments. · The Curve

• 0:00
  Okay, so this is huge. This is, yeah, wow. And it's so funny because we've sort of been saying, oh, we've got a big announcement. We've got a big announcement. We're so... And then we did the brand relaunch. I know, and everyone was like, hold on a second. I mean, it looks good, but like that good? We've had so many things going on behind the scenes of the curve, to be honest. Yeah.
• 0:16
  There's been lots of, yeah, like from our new website, our new branding. We've got some really exciting partnerships that we've been working on. We're now doing two curve weeklies a week. Like there's just been so many things. But this is the crown jewel, isn't it? Yes. We are launching a fund. I mean, I almost feel like we need 100 million people in this room to clap at that. I'm kind of gutted we don't know. It's like such anti-climates.
• 0:40
  But it is like, you know, this has been a very long time coming. I didn't think it would take this long, but, you know, good things take time. What's another metaphor? You know, it's aging like a fine line. But we wanted to do everything right. We wanted to do it well. We wanted this to be around forever. So, yeah, we wanted to take our time and give you all an incredible, incredible fund that you can invest in. When we first started, I remember...
• 1:09
  not understanding what a fund was or what a fund manager is. And this is actually what you did for a job. You were a professional investor. Yes. Yep. What is that job? What did you do? And what will you be stepping into for the curve now? Let's just rewind. Let's rewind the clock back to young little Wookiee Harris when she first left uni. And she thought, off I go, trotting into the big bad world of finance. Little spring chicken. She was cute. Little finance chicken. Didn't know what was going on.
• 1:36
  I left uni. I studied finance at uni. Then I went to work at Milford Asset Management, which is one of the best funds management companies in New Zealand and they're in Australia as well. And I started out as an analyst. So what that is, is you're looking at companies to invest in, what's good, what's not. And I was an analyst on a fund, which is essentially just pulling together things.
• 2:01
  a whole lot of money from lots of different people and investing like en masse for them. So it's like pulling your $10,000, your $20,000, your $30,000, pulling that $60,000 together as lots and lots of other people and investing that money on your behalf.
• 2:18
  There is, there's lots of different funds that invest in different things as well. Like you can have a fund that invests in the US. So that's just in US companies. You can have a fund that invests in just climate companies. And that's, you know, investing in companies that are having a positive impact on the environment. You can have funds that invest in only big companies or small companies. There's so many different funds. That is what I'm stepping back into doing with this Curve Fund. We're going to pull together everyone's investments that invest in the fund and invest on their behalf to essentially grow their money over the long term.
• 2:47
  So you worked as an analyst, as a fund manager. You worked for investment companies where you were almost given a section or an area to focus on. Can you maybe explain for anyone that doesn't understand those different funds that you worked in or different areas? Because what you just said about there's like funds for everything. Yeah. There is, and also maybe before we continue, your pension, your super, your KiwiSaver is technically a fund as well. Yes. Yeah. But it's...
• 3:16
  It's not what we're talking about here. So you can have your sort of 20-year holiday fund, the money that's going towards retirement. You might have money that's going to short-term goals. You've got your spending money. If you want to be investing above that, there's so many different ways you can invest. There's ETFs that you can stock pick. Yeah. One of those ways is funds. And it's essentially perfect for people who –
• 3:38
  feel overwhelmed by options, want a professional to manage their money, want someone to be constantly looking at the market and to be able to invest with someone that they trust, that they believe is going to do a better job than just putting the money in the market and following what's going on. Yes. And the funds that I've previously worked on. So, yes, when I first started as an analyst, I remember I was given retail. Just put this in perspective. Retail, stocks in New Zealand, there's about four. Sorry.
• 4:08
  But it was a really good starting point because I was like, well, I shop. I understand retail. It was like the Briscoes, the Warehouse, the Hellenstein Classes of the world. For people not in New Zealand, they're quite quintessential New Zealand companies. They've been around for a long time. And I loved it. I learned so much. And it kind of started my thinking of, okay, as a young analyst looking at this, how am I going to –
• 4:35
  know if these companies are doing well or not okay the most obvious thing are the shops full so I would literally be out in my lunch break going to these shops in town and looking at them like seeing what was on sale seeing if they were discounting seeing if their stores were empty seeing you know and I would see new shops pop up on new new parts of the city and I'd be like oh my gosh they're growing like it was kind of it started in the corner of this glass I'm like licking her notepad yeah there's only three people in here
• 5:00
  They were shops I knew. They were brands I knew. So I very much started by thinking of invest in what you know, invest in what you understand, all of that. Thank goodness I wasn't given biotech or something. I would have probably been like, oh, finance is not for me. See you later. Bye, I'm off. So that was your first area of expertise. What were some of the other key areas that you over your sort of 10-year career had invested in?
• 5:22
  And then as you kind of get more experience and more confidence and then your boss or your team gives you kind of more areas to cover. And so then I think it was media was my next one. So like TV, radio, out of home billboards, that was my next space.
• 5:39
  In Australia and New Zealand, the markets are quite small. So you kind of do become a bit of a generalist, which was actually quite good. Whereas when you're covering global markets, you kind of get a bit more pigeonholed. But as you move up, you get more skills. You start to know what moves certain industries and certain companies. And then I got to the point where I was managing an entire fund. And that's when you're called a portfolio manager. So that is when you are looking – you have to have oversight over not only analysts below you –
• 6:05
  looking at different areas, but you have to kind of know what's going on across everything as well. You kind of have to understand lots of different industries, more economics as well. So like interest rates, inflation, how that impacts. So yeah, you kind of, but you've built that up over the years. So you kind of know what. So is it kind of if you were to think of someone in a law firm or something and they start as a little associate and they work their way up,
• 6:28
  Yeah. Basically, you're sort of the manager that people report into. They give you the findings, and you make the final decision on what's going on, but you've got all these people doing research and stuff for you. So rather than just focusing on media, you're doing a whole portfolio, which is probably investing in a whole lot of different industries. And the whole preface of that,
• 6:48
  fund or that being a portfolio manager is to do better than the market. So you are trying to find investing ideas that are going to outperform and you're trying to not invest in the ones that are going to underperform so that you can continually grow money for your clients.
• 7:04
  it's a case of, yeah, you're dissecting everything that's going on in the world and kind of bringing it back into like, you know, how can I make money for my clients and make the fund bigger and better and continue to grow and continue to grow. So when the market is down or when, you know, when COVID hits, you're trying to protect your money. So you're trying to be like, okay, what should I sell that is going to go down and that I'm trying to, you know, to protect your money? And then when, when market's doing well, how can I,
• 7:29
  do even better and you're looking at big overarching trends you're looking at things no wonder you're so good at the podcast and researching headlines i just love looking at what what figuring out what i think's gonna happen in the future and then if you're wrong you kind of i'm trying to understand what went wrong and if you're right you're like okay how do i lean into this more like it's quite cool
• 7:49
  It's also a lot of psychology. You know, it's psychology. There's so much critical thinking involved. Before we move on from this, because I think that there's a lot of people that have never worked in the finance industry, don't really know what's going on behind the scenes in terms of who works in those companies, but also how the funds are structured and how they run.
• 8:08
  What would you say was the main overarching driver for creating something different as a business and then also as the fund? Because I think that they're two really separate questions, but it's context people might not have. And I think it's really, really important to share that. Well, I think on the first point of setting up the curve was when I was in these roles, I...
• 8:33
  was either the only woman or the first woman in all of my teams. Interestingly, it wasn't something I picked up on straight away, but over time I was like, hang on, there's no one that looks like me, or I was identifying these investing trends that everyone else was missing. So that was kind of one thing I noticed, as well as...
• 8:50
  The funds didn't speak to a non-financial audience. So they were very much, they were jargon heavy. They were very closed off in terms of what they disclosed. Like they were structured in a way that was confusing. It was all these things that, because I was in the finance industry, I understood. But I could see how my friends were coming to me asking these questions about these funds because they didn't understand.
• 9:13
  I mean, this is, remember when we sat down and I had savings that I hadn't put in funds and we'd been doing the curve for quite a long time at this point. And we had to sit down and look at a fund manager and you had to explain what each of the funds meant and how I should split my money. Because I was looking at them and it would say aggressive this, this, this, and I didn't know what it meant. I didn't know what I invested in. And I wasn't making a decision on where my money should go.
• 9:38
  Because I was just overwhelmed and didn't get it. I sort of actually knew that I knew the business and the sort of overarching brand that I wanted to invest in because I knew that they were the best. But I didn't know how to split my money or where to put it or anything like that. And I think that. Even the word fund, right? It's like, okay, well, what does that mean? And then you talk about, oh, it's.
• 9:59
  The fees, the holdings. Even the fact that it says holdings. Can you not? And the fact they only disclose the top 10 because they don't want you to see the full picture. But that's your money. So there was all these things that I just took as gospel because that was how things were done. And I was like, but there's also a huge audience over here. Me, five. There's a huge audience that didn't understand it, that was missing out on...
• 10:27
  creating incredible wealth and investing in these funds. So it was like, how do we bridge that gap? And the first step was creating the curve and breaking down that jargon and that confusion and being like, you know, it's not that hard. The next step was creating a financial product that actually spoke to...
• 10:46
  all the people that have been left out of the conversation or the thought that funds were too confusing or weren't for them. And so that is why this is such an important step for the curve for our audience because it is the missing piece. And we spoke about this, God, maybe –
• 11:03
  five, even perhaps six years ago when you were still in funds management, a.k.a. what Vic's now going to be doing again for the curve. And we were trying to find a way to create what we're talking about, but with another brand, you know, almost like a curve fund, but attached to an existing investment business. And it's so hard because it's kind of like –
• 11:28
  creating a wrapper that could have been a solution, but it was sort of only solving a tiny part of the problem. Yeah. You're still giving your money to mainly men, definitely men, to make those decisions on your behalf and you're investing in a product that's not, that doesn't speak to you. And it's not just, you know, we basically, I guess the point is we could have created a fund a long time ago and wrapped the curve branding on it. And we could have funneled people's money into that fund. Yeah.
• 11:56
  And it would have been helpful. It definitely would have been a step in the right direction. But the fact that we're able to actually do it within the curve means everything from the communication, the branding, the way that we invest, like what are the companies we're looking at, the way- The decision making, the everything. And yeah, so I think it's so hard to explain the magnitude of what
• 12:18
  this is and why we've gone down this route because I didn't even understand the full picture of how much regulation, how much legality. There's a real reason why a lot of people don't do this because it's just so hard to do. I guess that's why it's also taken a while. We wanted to do it and do it well and do it properly. We could have done a shortcut.
• 12:40
  And be authentic, right? And now I'm so incredibly proud to say that when this launches, we will have majority women investing in this fund. We will have the money being managed by women. And the exciting part, which we haven't even spoken about yet, is that it will be investing in female-led businesses.
• 13:04
  And that whole ecosystem to create that, women literally investing in women, is so incredibly unique and powerful. And that's what excites me. I think before we get too far into this episode, we should just try and remember – I love that you're shutting your eyes too – like Zoom back six years –
• 13:23
  when we went into that dingy little podcast studio that had no windows and was very dusty, we were recording podcasts with no idea where this was going. To think that we're now in a position where there's so many people that listen to this podcast are actively investing and now we can all invest together. I mean, I just like, it kind of blows my mind and I thought it could be kind of fun. You're going to absolutely die at this. But we've pulled one of the first ever clips from the podcast.
• 13:52
  I reckon we just play it and give ourselves a little moment to be like, your face is like, can we not?
• 14:01
  Hi, everybody. This is Victoria. And my name's Sophie. So this is a podcast to help teach me, but also whoever's listening, about investing. So Vic and I have been working on The Curve, which is an investing platform for women, which is basically to try and help teach people like me who know nothing about investing how to kind of get a bit more confident when it comes to learning how to grow wealth and the money that you do have to sort of learn from the ground up.
• 14:26
  And for some reason, investing is so scary and intimidating. And we just really wanted to break down those barriers and provide a place where collectively we can all come and learn and kind of create a community to do with all things investing. And that's kind of why we started The Curve.
• 14:42
  I think what Vic and I, we both really want to create as a community for women in any kind of socio-economic background, age, any demographic, where they can come and learn at whatever stage they're at. And I guess that's going to be a constant communication with you listening and interacting with some of the stuff that we're putting up online with things you want to know more about and kind of just like it being a two-way conversation rather than us just talking at you.
• 15:09
  I will say we've kind of, we have done this. We hit the nail on the head. I was saying, I was about to say, even the idea that it was like a two-way conversation and that's exactly what we're doing now and that's the whole point of the fund. Should we manifest it? I'm quite proud of that. Should we manifest we're going to have one of the biggest funds in the world? Yes. And it's going to really, really move the needle.
• 15:30
  I want a billion dollars in this fund. A billion. Yeah. Yes. We're going from educating to influence and we need everyone to invest so that we can help create a world that we want to see. Yes, exactly. For anyone that has jumped into the curve, I don't know, I guess in the last couple of years, they may have missed a few chapters. Yeah. Which I think is quite – it's quite cool to know where we've been and what we did and how we even got here. The curve's been going for about six years. So the podcast was –
• 15:57
  We were probably two, three years in and we knew we wanted to start an investing club. We wanted everyone to be able to invest together and we wanted to do it, but we didn't have the money. And Vic, obviously, as an investor, her sort of obvious, well, we could raise investment –
• 16:16
  For me, it took ages to wrap my head around the idea of that because it felt so weird to have other people involved in the business we'd spent three years creating. It was quite a foreign concept for me. But it also allows you to get places quicker, right? When you have capital and you have money, you can invest in growth and you can –
• 16:35
  You hire the right people. You can invest in marketing, all of that. And it gets you somewhere a lot quicker. It gets you able to grow quicker. And for us, that meant reach more women. And that was kind of – that was the frustration, I think –
• 16:52
  with raising money and not raising money it was like well we'll give away a little bit of our business but it means we can kind of change sounds cliche change change the world a lot quicker and so you know and we constantly had messages from women listening to the curve the first time and like i wish i'd i wish i'd heard of this earlier and so yeah it was like how do we reach more women quickly and it was taking on external investment and launching the investing club
• 17:18
  Which we shouldn't gloss over because that period in our life, I don't know about you, but I would say it's up there with one of the hardest things. It was pretty difficult because we'd never done it before. We didn't know how to speak to investors. We didn't know how to find investors. We didn't know how to put a pitch together to show investors. It was a very steep learning curve. It was the steepest of curves, wasn't it?
• 17:40
  I think what makes it so stressful is we were just diving into an unknown. Like, where do you even start? There was no guidebook. It's like there's no roadmap. You kind of just fumble your way through. Whereas now, if we had to do it again. I mean, I think I'd still have a bit of PTSD, obviously. But...
• 17:59
  Yes. Once you've done – I mean, it's even just like I was thinking back when we were listening to that first clip from our very first podcast. It's like when we were in lockdown and I'd gone full time and you were still working as an investor. And we were living together. We were stuck at home. And I would just be doing laps around the block because I did not know how the hell to bring any money into the business. I didn't know how to sell a sponsorship. I didn't know how –
• 18:22
  to grow our audience to the size that people would give us money to market their brands. You know, it was like so overwhelming. And I think the first time you do anything, it feels like that. The first time you invest, it feels like that. But once you've done it, it's so much easier. And so I think when it came to raising investment, I,
• 18:37
  I didn't know the first thing about how you would even value a business to figure out how much money you could get for a percentage of equity you're giving away. And that whole process for me was so helpful in understanding investing for my own personal purpose.
• 18:52
  Like the way that I now think about businesses when I'm investing in the stock market, just what you said before, where you, you know, you look at the curve and you think, okay, well, we could grow at this rate if we didn't have any money, if we didn't take on external capital and investors, or we could take money in, we could give away some of our business and grow much faster. That's exactly what businesses are doing when they IPO. They, they, they need and want more money in their business. So they take investment from shares, from shareholders to grow.
• 19:19
  Because they see a lot of opportunity to grow and they're like, wow, there's so much opportunity, but we need capital, we need money. So yeah, we IPO or we go to private investors, which is what we did, and we get money and then we can accelerate that growth and achieve much, much bigger and better things.
• 19:36
  Which we have. I think we should play. So at this time in the business, we kind of had to pause everything. So it was just Vic and I. We had contractors who were amazing. And honestly, like, they really beared with us through that time. But, yeah, really, it was just Vic and I. And we actually sort of had to say to the people that we were working with, like the contractors, we actually can't afford to pay you right now because we need to pause everything and focus on trying to get investment.
• 20:02
  I think that the only thing we did do was the podcast. So we were still recording once a week. I was editing it and uploading it. But at this time, it was like, oh, my God, it was a full-time job. And we were just like fumbling around trying to figure it out. So we were talking about it. We're saying, gosh, I mean, it'd be kind of amazing if people from the community or people that knew about the business wanted to invest.
• 20:23
  So why don't we just put out an episode saying that that's what we're doing and so we're not going to put an episode out for the next couple of weeks just to give ourselves some breathing space so we didn't have to like podcast at the same time. So let's just play like a little clip. I feel like maybe it was even just me explaining it. I think so. Is it just me? Yeah. We've had a massive, massive week. We've actually decided we want to start raising capital.
• 20:45
  or get investors for the curve. We've got some really big plans for the curve. We want to launch a investing club. I don't know if you saw that on social media. We need to get investors. We need more resource. It's just Vic and I full time at the moment to be able to grow the curve to what we want it to be. And this week has just been so busy for us both personally and professionally. If you happen to have, you know, a hundred grand that you want to invest in the curve, please let us know. Or if you know anyone that you think
• 21:12
  cares a lot about the space or has seen our brand and might be interested, please let us know. We've been speaking to a lot of incredible businessmen and businesswomen about our plans for the curve. And yeah, it's been a really huge process for both of us.
• 21:28
  Do you know at that time when I was – that clip that we just played, I had a full-blown panic attack at that time. Like, it was the first and only panic attack I'd ever had. And I woke up in the middle of the night and just couldn't breathe. It was like my heart was like – it was the scariest thing that's ever happened. And we've never really spoken about, like, how intense that time was. And I think that's why when anyone ever –
• 21:53
  you know, asks like, how do you raise capital or can you help? Or do you have any tips? We're always both like, sure, like, you know, we'll jump on a call or we'll give you help. Because for us, we were figuring it out as we went along. We were so determined to make it happen, but it was so intense. But raising that money, like, it gave us the freedom to, like, think about, like, I guess it was the stepping stone, right, to launching the Investing Club and then figuring out from that that,
• 22:18
  I mean, the business would have probably had to shut down around that time or like we would never have been able to grow like we have if we didn't take capital. So it was definitely a necessary step to be able to get us to where we are now. When we first raised capital, we wanted to create the Investing Club. And the Investing Club was to have a place for our community, for anyone listening to this podcast to come and to share ideas on what they want to invest in and have you research them and come back with sort of the professional analysis.
• 22:45
  And vice versa, for you to be able to have ideas and say, hey, this is this thing I found, like, let's talk about it. But it was, why are you laughing? No, because I think I know where you're going with this. What? That, like, most people just wanted to know. I know. And what I was investing in. And this is a problem. So we basically, we created this community. And it was amazing. There was, you know, hundreds of women in it. And we were having meetups and sharing information. And Vic was doing all this research. But what we just kept hearing throughout the whole thing was,
• 23:14
  was really people just wanted to invest together and alongside you. But this is obviously the best way to do that because what you'll get is hearing the decisions, hearing the research, being able to speak to Vic and give your ideas in the same way you could in the club.
• 23:30
  But you can actually have your money in there. So ultimately the decision's being made by her, which I think, you know, it was a lot for the regulatory, legal expense reasons. It was like, well, this is kind of the best thing that we could do that's close to that. But it still just wasn't quite doing it. And I think with the Investing Club, we felt a bit of a handbrake because –
• 23:49
  we couldn't kind of finish the missing piece of the puzzle of, cool, now we can invest. And so it was a step from educating on the podcast to educating in a more specific, detailed way. But then to not actually finish that journey and actually get women investing –
• 24:11
  And, yeah, I think that was kind of what we found from the investing club as well. It was like, oh, just every time I talk about a stock, I'm like, oh, I wish we could invest in it together, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, yeah, also a lot of people would be coming to us and learning and then going back out to choose a fund and hit with this wall of confusingness again and then not actually investing. And that, to us, is the worst possible outcome. We want everyone to be investing together.
• 24:39
  and investing consistently and regularly. So how do we remove that barrier? And so, yeah, that's why we launched a curve fund. But we do really want this to be a fund that you do invest in consistently and regularly because that is what's going to move the needle for your wealth creation is that, it is about investing $20 a week, $100 a month, whatever, but doing that and setting that up from the get-go, that's another incredible thing that you can do with this fund is set it up with that consistent...
• 25:07
  investing amount each month, each week, whatever suits you. I think there's so much more significance to what we're doing on a personal level, particularly for you, Vic, as someone who has worked and lived and breathed the investing world your entire career. So it's probably different in terms of what it means to you, and also stepping back into a role that you actually actively left.
• 25:27
  to start the curve. It's kind of a bit odd. Someone asked me that actually. They were like, when we're going through this process of setting the fund up, they're like, are you ready? You're going to be stepping back into a world that you left to create the curve. And I was like, yes, don't get me wrong. I loved my job when I worked in finance and I had so many incredible opportunities and worked with incredible people. But there was this thing that was missing of...
• 25:50
  Why am I doing this? Who am I doing this for? Who am I making more wealthy? And so now to have stepped away, have built an incredible community at the curve and now creating, going back into that funds management world, but with a bigger purpose to actually provide a product for people who have been left out for so many years in terms of having a product that speaks to them is like, yeah.
• 26:15
  But also you loved investing. I loved it, yeah. You were so good at it and you loved it. And I think that's why it probably, it's not as though you left that job because you didn't like it or you weren't good at it. No. It was just this problem that I had to solve of half the population not being spoken to. That was a much bigger driver than staying in my cushy job. Cushy girl? Cushy.
• 26:39
  Okay, let's talk about the actual practicalities of what this means. So for women, and obviously guys, I mean, anyone can invest in this. The whole idea is that we want it to reflect our values and the way we teach at the curve while not sacrificing performance because I think a lot of people ultimately, yeah, we all want to know what's going on, but we also want to make money. So let's maybe talk about,
• 27:04
  who it's for, why the transparency exists, but also what your plan is in terms of how you want the fund to perform. Yeah. So this fund is for –
• 27:14
  pretty much anyone. Yes, it's going to naturally target a female audience, but anyone can invest in this. And it is for anyone who has been looking for a fund that actually they can understand that is transparent, it's accessible without sacrifice and performance, like you said. And when we talk about transparency, we are going to disclose every single position that is in this fund, every single investment decision that we make.
• 27:39
  you will be privy to, you will have access to, you will be able to question anything. We're going to give kind of video updates. We want to make it different. We want to continue the essence of the curve into funds management. And so it is your money. It's your money. You shouldn't just know what the top 10 positions are. You should know what –
• 28:02
  you know, eaten down to the 0.0001% position. And this is something that we spoke about at length because the idea of disclosing everything actually opens us up to a lot of scrutiny. Totally. Because there is a reason why...
• 28:17
  People only talk about their top 10 listings because if someone goes through anything with a fine-tooth comb, let's just say you're in a very, very, very happy relationship. If you look through their phone, I guarantee there's something you're going to find you don't like. And it's not even bad. It's just like, what's going to happen? If you're looking for something, you're going to find it. It's like health and wellness influencers and you see them having a cigarette or something. You're like, ah!
• 28:39
  And everyone loves to dig at the 1%, right? So to be exposing 100% of what is being invested and where everyone's money is, is probably opening a can of worms. But for us, it was really important that you feel like you have the entire way through the curve has existed with the podcast, with social media, with the club where there is as much transparency as possible, because that's really what's the difference between the curve and other funds.
• 29:03
  And if you don't like some of those decisions or positions, then at least you've got all the information to make that decision. I'd way rather that than you not have that full visibility. So that's definitely one of the biggest things with this fund. The other is the accessibility. So we're going to be one of the lowest minimum investment amounts in the industry. So you will be able to put – if you've got $500, you can invest in this fund. Quite incredible that we have the ability to do that. And we wanted to do that because, unfortunately, women –
• 29:33
  do get paid less than men overall. We need to create a fund that allows people with less income, less disposable income, younger people, all of that to start investing. But I also think if I reflect back to when I first started investing and what felt exciting to me and what kept me going.
• 29:52
  it is having money invested. And so when we were thinking about like, who do we want to be able to invest in this fund? It's actually everyone, it's everyone. And so if you put 500 in and that's all you've got because you're a bit scared and you don't really understand investing, but you really want to get involved, you're not going to get involved.
• 30:08
  that's not that much money, you know. I mean, gosh, I'm not saying it's nothing, but if you're apprehensive to investing but you want to start learning and you just put a bid in, that's perfect. You know, start there and see how you feel. Yeah, and we wanted it to cater to people that, you know, have $50,000 or $500. You know, like we wanted to cater to everyone and the way to do that is to lower their minimum investment amount, you know, particularly for people that are starting their investing journey and don't have that much money to start with. And, yeah, we...
• 30:37
  you can invest in the fund, which is great. But I actually think what's worth saying as well is in the same way that the minimum or maximum, it can be, you know, right down to $500 or up to whatever you want to invest. If you're a new investor and you're scared and you're nervous or, you know, you've not done it before, you're getting the exact same service and the exact same access to VIX investing as someone that's put 50,000 in there. And I think that that's a really amazing thing to be aware of. So for example, you know,
• 31:04
  Vic will be every day reading the news, making decisions, figuring out the best place to grow her money, my money, and all of your money. She's making decisions for all the people that she cares about most. And I think to know that you're getting access to that, whether you have a tiny, tiny piece of it or a lot of your wealth is in it, is great.
• 31:25
  pretty amazing. Yeah. And on that, I have actually put my entire life savings into this fund. Can you hurry up and let me do it? I'm like, well, the whole team here have been trying to like go online and register and put their money in and none of us are able to yet and we're all bloody waiting. You're going to wait for the big launch. No, but...
• 31:41
  That to me, me putting all my savings and investments into this fund shows that I'm in there with you. You know, when the fund does well, we all do well. When it doesn't do well, like I feel that too, you know. So it's kind of, I think that's really important. And we talk about that, you know, when we talk about investing in companies where it's founder-led or there is, you know, a CEO who has a large stake in the business. So like your interests are aligned. And I think it's really, really important that.
• 32:11
  that, you know, we feel the good times and the bad times together. But that's the whole point of an investing club as well. Totally. Is to be investing with your friends, with your family, to have money growing at the same time, but also to be able to, yeah, like talk about it when it's not going well or if a decision, you know, wasn't the best one or the market is tanking and everyone's feeling stressed. It's like you can talk about it. And I think having community around money and investing for me has been the most fun and the best part of the curve. So to be able to bring that into the fund and into the way that it operates is just like –
• 32:40
  kind of amazing. A few other things with the fund is that we do say a minimum five-year investment time frame. So we are investing in growth companies. We are investing in companies that their share prices will go up and down. And so we need anyone to invest in this fund to have that minimum five-year time horizon.
• 33:00
  Can we explain that a bit more? So someone is able to pull their money out if they want to. But what we're saying is in the same way that a five-year – we've actually spoken about this since the dawn of time or the dawn of the curve – is that if you're investing money in the stock market, you do want a minimum of five years. It needs to be for a long period of time. Yeah.
• 33:19
  Actually, if you haven't listened to the episode that we put out, why now is always going to feel like the wrong time to invest, we'll link that in the podcast show notes. Because if you invest in the stock market, it could go up and up and up, but there could be times that it goes down. If you need that money within a five-year period, you do not want to have to pull it out if and when, which it's always going to. It's down at some times.
• 33:40
  So the investment decisions that Vic's going to be making is, do I see this as a long-term investment, something that over the long term I think is going to go up and up and up? Yeah. And we speak about all those ideas we have in the club, we do on the podcast, and those are the decisions we're making. They're not quick wins. So the idea of a growth fund is it will be quite volatile and it will go up and down and you want to make sure the money you put in, you can leave.
• 34:04
  And my aim is that, yes, but you're right, but over a five-year period, the fund grows and grows and grows. So this is kind of the, when I'm thinking about the investing, where to put the money and what companies to invest in, I'm thinking, will those companies be bigger and better in the next five years? So even though you're investing in a fund, that money is going into companies and into the stock market. So just something to be aware of is that, yeah, if you need the money in less than five years, perhaps this isn't the right investment.
• 34:34
  Also, but the other thing is, if you have had money sitting in the bank and you're like, I know I need to start investing. I know I should be putting it away. I know I don't need this money for the next five years. Then this could be the fun for you. And I think there is so many people in our community that we hear that from saying, oh, I know. I've been meaning to get around to it. Like, we want to make this as easy as possible for you. Like, you can apply online. Everything's super easy, super straightforward.
• 35:04
  Please, please, please look at this curve fund. Okay, I think, importantly, given that the audience is now global and there's people all over the world who are listening to this, and I imagine there's a lot of people thinking, yes, finally, yes, finally, we are starting with New Zealand-based investors. So let's just explain what that means. Yes. So this fund is...
• 35:24
  The fund is based in New Zealand. It's going to invest in companies all around the world, though. The thing is that it is regulated in New Zealand. So this fund initially is only available to New Zealanders. In order to invest in this fund, you need an IRD number and a proof of a New Zealand address.
• 35:42
  You can be overseas in a New Zealander and invest. I'm obviously based in the UK, earning pounds, but I can invest. Yes. So I think just check your situation. A lot of people who aren't currently in New Zealand will still be able to access this, will still be able to invest. And our plan is definitely to create an Australian-UK version. So we're just starting at New Zealand. And yeah, check out the website as well. There's a lot more details on what kind of classifies. It's also a really chic website, so it's regardless.
• 36:11
  Now, I think the next most important thing for us to discuss is what will the fund be investing in? What kind of companies? And how has that been inspired by the way that we educated the curve, the way that the investing club ran, the stuff that we've learned about our audience, and also the way that we want to see money being funneled into particular investments globally?
• 36:33
  Yes. So there is going to be three pillars when it comes to this fund. So the first one, like I briefly mentioned, is that it's going to invest in female-led businesses. So there is a ton of evidence that shows over the long term, female-led businesses, so women in CEO roles or in a founder role, tend to outperform over the long term.
• 36:55
  That is one pillar. However, there is only a few companies that are led by women. So we kind of had to have to broaden it a bit beyond that. Otherwise, the fund would be very small. Investing in one company. So the other pillar is founder-led businesses. Now, we have spoken at length about this. And I, since Daily Dot, have...
• 37:17
  invested in companies or preferred to invest in companies that are founder-led because there is so much research that shows that founder-led businesses also outperform over the long term. And that is because...
• 37:28
  They're thinking long-term. They want to invest in things that will grow over the long-term. They're creating a legacy. They're being a business owner. They're not like a CEO that comes in for four years, six years, makes some small short-term changes and then leaves. They're thinking about their business in the way that we are investing in their business. And so that's really, really important. And then the last pillar is future-focused. I think this excites me the most. I think the reason this excites me is because every time we say something like this at an event or in a podcast, you can see...
• 37:58
  on people's faces, the penny drop moment of I get it. You know, like investing is a form of activism. Investing is a way to change what you see in the world, who you see in power. It's kind of like the equivalent of buy from companies that you really want to see more of, whether it's,
• 38:19
  ones that are kind to the planet or people or animals. And you can do the exact same thing when it comes to investing. And the way that a lot of women think about money and wealth in the world is with a really human heart-led approach. And so it's not just saying, you know, it's not a fluffy thing by saying we're just investing in women leading the world because we're feminist. It's like the idea that if you want to see a particular world that is more equal,
• 38:46
  we can choose businesses that are trying to. We're trying to pick businesses that are creating a world we want to see. And that will grow and be bigger and better in the future. So future focus means investing in things like AI. AI is going to be around for many, many years. It's healthcare. That's going to become increasingly important. It's investing in companies that are having positive impact on the planet. It's investing in companies that are thinking about the next generation, thinking about the world we want to see in the next 10, 20, 30 years.
• 39:15
  I just want to quickly clarify, for anyone that is currently using a DIY platform and picking stocks or investing in funds, there is so many different ways that you can invest and grow your wealth. This is just one of them. So, you know, in the same way that we give the analogy for total beginners saying if you're going to the…
• 39:33
  farmer's market, you can pick an ETF, which is just a big bundle of everything at the market, or you can stock pick and you can choose an apple and think that like, this is the best thing at the market. That's the equivalent of stock picking. If you had a person that knew the farmer's market, like the back of their hand, and they were like, I've got the best cheese, I know the best bread, I know everything that you should purchase here to have the most delicious lunch ever. And they took a basket and picked all the best things. It's kind of like Vic being the
• 40:02
  the person that knows what to do. And so there's many ways you can invest, and it's totally what is the best way for you. I guess it's worth just saying that this fund is a way to take that mental load of not having to make a decision. And especially I would say, well, everyone's having this massive stress about, oh, we're going to have a market crash, what's going to happen. Yeah.
• 40:27
  A lot of people are sitting there feeling quite scared about how to invest. And at that time, rather than potentially just following the market, like being in an ETF that follows just what's happening, this is a way where you could be a little bit more proactive about investing with someone that's actively making decisions with all of the knowledge that they have. You're getting my 15 years of funds management experience. You're getting a diversified portfolio. You're...
• 40:51
  getting that active oversight of what should we or shouldn't we invest in without having to do any of that yourself. And I would like to ask you how you feel about doing this because it's so huge. And, like, I mean, there has been behind the scenes many tears in all honesty because this is a f***ing enormous thing for you to be doing as a portfolio manager. You know, like, you were doing this with other –
• 41:20
  Fund managers, it was a part of big businesses, right? This is now doing it for the curve and also very much as Victoria Harris. So what does it feel for you doing that for the community? Because it's, I mean, it's what we've kind of all been begging for for years. She's finally caved in doing it. Yeah, like how does it feel? Scary, to be honest. No, it feels complete. I don't know. It feels fulfilling. It feels like...
• 41:50
  Finally, this is what has meant to be available to women for so long. And it feels incredible to be able to do it under the curve umbrella. But there is a lot of imposter syndrome. There is a lot of fear. There is a lot of my friends coming up to me being like, oh my God, I want to give you my money. That in itself, I'm like, oh gosh, oh gosh. But I think with everything that we've done at the curve, like fear, fear, fear,
• 42:17
  is what has driven us. And that's what brings about change personally, brings about change for our community. It brings about change for our business. And I think that's sometimes you just have to jump in and go, yeah, cool, let's do it. And we'll do our best. And I mean, thank you everyone for the support so far to date. And I'm just really excited for the...
• 42:40
  hopefully the support going forward for this next part of the curve because it is and it can be so incredibly game-changing and I'm so excited I feel like it's a full circle moment for me I feel like like I said I was kind of missing that purpose in my previous life in funds management now we have this
• 43:00
  incredible community and the passion and the purpose that all of those women bring to turning up to work each day to combine those two and create something amazing yeah and also having firstly i think having the imposter syndrome is totally normal like it makes so much sense i've had it since day one but i was about to say we we were on queen street which is like the main street and sort of the center of where we grew up in auckland and new zealand but i was like quickly like that we really need to have a meeting we've got to have a meeting and
• 43:29
  And she was busy, busy, busy. And she like came down from her big finance office and met me in this terrible sushi place. And I remember being like, because I'd sort of been saying to her like, please be full time. I really, we really need you on the curve. And I was really confused with the resistance. I sort of thought that you didn't want to be full time in the curve.
• 43:48
  And Vic just started crying and was like, I actually just, I'm so worried. Like, what if I'm not good enough? What if I, the way that I teach isn't helpful? What if this doesn't work? What if people don't like it? And I, for quite a long time, it'd probably been six, nine months of us talking about you being full time. And I remember being so confused. And then that was, it was such a moment for me of, I'm like, I'm not going to be
• 44:10
  oh my God, someone who has so much experience and is so qualified. And if anyone was looking in at you and your role would just know that you're the best person to do that. But you were in this position of feeling so self-doubt, so much self-doubt. And I think that, um, it's kind of like what we've spoken about so many times, like we're never going to feel ready for something like this. It's just, it needs to be a decision that's made. And I think that,
• 44:34
  there'll be probably investing decisions that you make or that people want to talk about and don't like or, you know, see something that is... But the point is that you're being brave enough to do it publicly and to talk openly about every single investment that you're making. Why? To have people, like, a two-way conversation with everyone about their money. And I think if, like, you have been with everything else we've done with The Curve, you're open to discussing and talking and sharing, then...
• 45:02
  No one can ever say you didn't do your absolute best, you know. That's kind of all it comes down to is that everyone knows you're going to do that. And so for us to be able to have our money as a part of your investing decisions is like insane, like so incredibly exciting. But I just think it's like at any moment where you're doubting a decision or you're worried about like how you invest, it's like –
• 45:25
  we all kind of know that we're in it together. And also everyone listening knows they could never have made a better decision anyway. So it's kind of like... Yeah. And it's like just being honest. Honesty creates trust, right? And I think that's what we've also leaned on at The Curve, is we've been very honest with everyone here in terms of...
• 45:45
  Sometimes like what we spend our money on, what we shouldn't, what like all of that just creates, hopefully, hopefully has created a lot of trust. So yeah, I'm excited, nervous, but excited. There'll be probably some new faces and voices that you see on the podcast because of Vicks having a total meltdown and, you know, there's an enormous something happening in the market. The podcast must go on. So there's a bunch of really amazing. Or if things are going really well. Sorry, that was so negative. Yeah. You're right. God.
• 46:12
  But like there's big decisions and you're going to be managing a lot of money. So it's important for us to have different. Yeah. It's also like it's prioritizing my time on both the podcast and managing the fund. And so, yeah, you're going to see some hopefully better voices than mine.
• 46:29
  I don't think that's possible. However, it's just also worth saying, if anyone's listened to this podcast for a while or you know anyone brilliant who would be such a great fit and could help out every now and again for a podcast, the whole point of the curve is for it to be a collective of voices and investors. So, yeah, our DMs are always open.
• 46:46
  And this Curve Fund is the first of many. Yes, we hope. God. We hope. Well. Yeah. No, it will be. Yeah, you're right. God. It will be the first fund of many. Yes. So watch this space. So we're going to be doing...
• 47:01
  podcast specifically to talk about the investment decisions that Vic's making, how the fund is going. We're also going to do deep dives into what sort of founders we think are interesting and do case studies on why we think they're incredible and the businesses they've built are interesting. So you'll be seeing lots of new content that is focusing on, yeah, more specifically, the curve investing philosophy and why and what we're investing in.
• 47:26
  And it's so cool now to be able to be like, we talk about Netflix, oh, that's in the fund, or we talk about Uber and that's in the fund, you know, being able to actually talk about that because, like we said, this has been a long time coming and there's been so many moments where we've talked about things on the Curve Weekly that we just wish we'd...
• 47:42
  could have said, but yeah, there's going to be a lot of, a lot of fun content on the podcast in terms of, yeah, the investing strategy and stuff. So, but I think also the most exciting thing is that now that Vic's back in funds management and actually actively looking at the markets,
• 47:57
  Also the research and what you're seeing and the trends and the insight, you know, you were kind of doing that as your part-time job while running a business. Now it's your full-time job to be looking at markets. I think that the insight you'll be getting and being able to bring to the podcast is even richer. So that's also really exciting. But yeah, any feedback, thoughts? You know, we obviously would love to hear, hopefully, excitement from you.
• 48:23
  Share this episode with anyone you know. And to keep up to date with everything happening with the Curve Investments, we will put all of the links in terms of how to invest, where to find socials, how to make sure that you're staying up to date with what's going on in the podcast show notes. You can find all those details there. God, it feels good that the cat's out of the bag, doesn't it? Oh, gosh. Like the biggest secret I've had forever. The cat's been getting very fat in the bag. The cat is out of the bag. It's been too big for the bag.
• 48:48
  Yeah. So yes, it feels very good to be able to talk about it publicly. And for everyone that's been in the investing club and been like, what is going on? Why is it going quiet? Obviously, we've been working on some very big fish in the background. We've been frying the fish. So thank you for your patience. Yes, yes. We appreciate it. And we can't wait to have you all in the fund.
• 49:07
  Thank you so much for listening to Raising the Curve. These conversations are designed to teach you everything you need to know to be better with your money, from saving to investing to talking with your friends about your salaries, all of that stuff. And if you like what you heard, we would love if you could please hit subscribe wherever you're listening and leave a comment. Let us know what you thought about the episode. And it only takes one second and it would really make our week, our month, our year. Yeah. Yeah. So please do it. Okay. Love you. Bye.
• 49:34
  Okay, quickly, the Curve was created to empower and educate you about investing, but we are not financial advisors. Our platform exists for educational purposes only, and it doesn't provide personalized investing advice for your individual needs and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. And always remember to do your own research before making any investment or financial decision. We're here for any knowledge and support you need, but the final call is always yours. And thanks for being here. You got this. Yeah, we know you got this.