We’ve just posted two new jobs for LWCM – one senior and one junior.
The Investment Manager role will be delegated significant responsibility, and the right person will eventually lead a team of people. We have a lot to do and this person will get it done. The person we hire could come from a wide variety of backgrounds – career switchers (e.g. from law, high growth companies, consulting) are welcome.
The Investment Analyst role is primarily about creating and curating powerful financial models, but also helping with everything else we do. Chris and I both have a solid history in creating big excel models, so the pressure is on.
In reality we are looking for great people – and will tailor the roles to suit.
These roles will be our first new hires, and will be significantly important to the future of Punakaiki Fund. Let us know (lance@lwcm.co.nz) if you know anyone who could be suitable, or apply yourself either via email or through the Seek links above.
About LWCM
LWCM is the manager of Punakaiki Fund Limited, an investor in privately-held, high-growth New Zealand companies, currently with $37m of assets, 20 investments and 676 shareholders. Punakaiki Fund is the only VC fund open to retail (as well as wholesale/institutional) investors, and has grown from $1.5 million to $37 million in assets in just 4 years. We continue to to raise funds each year and are targeting $100 million and an IPO late in 2019. Our current investments include Coherent Solutions, Conqa, Melon Health, Weirdly, Raygun, Populate, Mobi2Go, Vend, Timely, Onceit and Devoli. Three of the companies qualify as Maori in business, seven have women founders or co-founders and ten have (or have had) founders with married or otherwise committed partners in the business.
LWCM was founded by Lance Wiggs and Chris Humphreys.
Lance was the sole advisor on the sale of Trade Me to Fairfax for $750 million in 2006. He has founded or co-founded several companies, advised hundreds of NZ companies on funding, growth, turnaround and exit – including over a hundred formally through NZTE’s Better by Capital and Better by Design programs. Lance has an MBA (Strategy, Finance) from Yale and a B Tech (Product Development) from Massey, and work experience including McKinsey & Co., BHP Billiton and EBRD. Lance is a director of eleven portfolio companies.
Chris is a CFA Charterholder, has two finance degrees (Otago and Canterbury) and a BSc, and was into heavy analytical work in his time at PwC Corporate Finance and Pacific Fibre. He grew up in the South Island and currently lives in Te Anau. Chris is a director of two portfolio companies.
Chris, Lance and LWCM have made 66 investments, with 25 made in the last year. LWCM runs two to four fundraising exercises for Punakaiki Fund each year, and has successfully completed four regulated retail offers.
With significant recent growth of Punakaiki Fund and more growth ahead LWCM has created two new roles to assist with the increased workload across a wide range of functions.
Investment Manager Role
The Investment Manager will take responsibility and accountability for increasing amounts of LWCM’s work, including sourcing, assessing, closing and advising portfolio companies, raising funds, PR and promotions and governance, compliance and administration.
Initially we expect a significant amount of time wil be spend on taking over and improving existing processes within LWCM and Punakaiki Fund. Beyond that the work will be varied and range up to potentially highly complex advisory tasks, financial modelling, negotiation and contract forming. The role will continue to evolve as LWCM hires more staff and Punakaiki Fund expands, moving to and beyond an IPO.
We also expect the Investment Manager will take on responsibility (through an investment allocation) for an initially small, but growing part of the assets under management. You will get hands-on experience, responsibility and accountability.
Skills and experience
We are looking for great people who can bring some, but not necessarily all, of the following skills:
- Great comfort with excel and numerical analysis – preferably but not necessarily financial analysis (a CFA would be excellent).
- Strong writing and research skills, including comfort with legal documents.
- Smart, inquisitive wide ranging perspectives on the world, industries and business models asked by strong analytical and strategic thinking.
- Ability to take responsibility – to lead, manage, self-organise, make decisions and deliver results individually and as part of or leading a team.
- A degree or post-graduate degree in an analytical field of study, along with an excellent academic record. A CFA/CA/CAIA qualification and/or MBA (with finance concentration) from a top business school would be beneficial.
- Five or more years of demonstrated work experience in a related field.
You may have experience in law, corporate finance, consulting, be from the high growth start-up sector, enterprise or the VC/PE sector. We are willing to contemplate a wide range of backgrounds and are looking for evidence that you are able to learn quickly to be able to help assist LWCM, Punakaiki Fund and companies we have invested into.
Investment Analyst Role
The Investment Analyst will be actively involved with many areas of investing, portfolio management and Punakaiki Fund administration. The Investment Analyst is expected to add capacity to the existing LWCM team, and lead projects to deliver results across a wide range of areas.
The Investment Analysts work will be centred around developing and maintaining financial models for existing and potential portfolio companies. These will be underpinned with researched assumptions and data, supported by dashboards and will help drive decisions and valuation recommendations for LWCM. You will also help monitor and support Punakaiki Fund portfolio companies, perform due diligence for potential new investments and draft, maintain and track investment cases.
The Investment Analyst will also perform include high quality research, initiate and implement process improvements for the management of Punakaiki Fund and LWCM’s internal processes, and complete one-off task such as assisting with capital raising activities. You will also assist as Punakaiki Fund approaches its IPO in 2019.
We expect that the role will evolve over time as you gain experience and achieve results, with more time being spent assisting portfolio companies, financial reporting and investing with the prospect of responsibility (through an investment allocation) for an initially small, but growing part of the assets under management.
Skills and experience
We are looking for great people who can bring some, but not necessarily all, of the following skills:
- Great comfort with excel and financial analysis
- Strong writing and research skills, including comfort with legal documents.
- Smart, inquisitive wide ranging perspectives on the world, industries and business models asked by strong analytical and strategic thinking.
- Ability to self-organise, make decisions and deliver results.
- A degree or post-graduate degree in an analytical field of study, preferably finance along with an excellent academic record. You may have or be studying towards a CFA or similar.
- At least two years of demonstrated work experience in a related, financial, field.
You may have experience in corporate finance, consulting, accountancy or PE/VC, or have performed finance roles for the high growth start-up sector.
Lance Wiggs 