Why investing with your mates is harder than it should be (and what we did about it)

We already do the big stuff with our friends and family. We plan trips, share flats, run fantasy leagues and celebrate milestones together. But when it comes to money and investing, most of us go solo.

It's not because people don't want to. When we surveyed over 100 Kiwis this year, more than half (53%) said they'd be likely to start or join an investing group if a platform made it simple. Among under-40s it was almost 60%. Yet 9 out of 10 people had never actually invested together before.

So what gets in the way? We've seen it up close:

The group that turned into a small company

A few years back, Grant, one of our co-founders, started an investing group with a bunch of friends. Great idea in theory, everyone puts in a bit, you pick some shares together, and it's social.

In practice it became a whole lot of admin. Spreadsheets, group chats and chasing people up. Who's paid this month? Who owns what? Did everyone see the message about selling those shares? Before long, one person was basically running a small company on the side, and the fun part got buried under all of this. Eventually it got too big to manage. They handed the running of it to the professionals, and lost the banter, the connection, the engagement and the fun.

The group that never happened

Not long after this, I had the same idea with my groomsmen. Everyone was keen but nobody stepped up to be the one to organise it. So it never even got off the ground.

Two versions of the same story, people wanting to invest together, but it's all just a bit hard. When we talked to other Kiwis, we heard both, over and over.

So we built tandym

tandym is the first platform built for groups investing together in New Zealand. It takes care of the stuff that challenged Grant's group and stopped my before it even got started. At tandym, we make it easy to start investing together, so you get to focus on the good bits, the ideas, the collaboration, the wins and the banter.

How does it work?

• Get your group together. This could be friends, family, workmates, teammates, old uni friends, the coffee group, or the mates from the pub. Sign up to tandym and get started.

• Set your playbook upfront. Your goal (say, a Japan trip in 2030), how much everyone puts in, and how you’ll invest. Everyone's on the same page from day one.

• Pitch it, vote on it. Anyone can pitch an investment idea, make their case and put it to a vote. No more chasing replies in the group chat.

• Your money and investments are yours, always. Each member's shares are bought in their own tandym account. No awkward conversations about who owns what.

• None of the admin. tandym handles deposits, trades, ownership records and reporting – all in one place. 

Who's it for?

Your mates, your siblings, your partner, the group chat that's been talking about ‘doing something with our money’  for years… You choose who is in your group. When our survey asked people to picture their investing group, 71% described friends, family or a partner.

Where we're at.

The platform is built. We’ve been testing it for the past few months with some amazing feedback – and we’re now ready to take on new groups that want to invest together.
If you've got a group in mind, or a group chat that needs a nudge, start investing together with tandym. And since you read all the way to the end of this article, skip the waitlist by emailing us on support@tandym.co and put ‘Golden Ticket’ in the subject line - we’ll get you onboarded early.

Investing is better together.