Welcome to Pledgeme!

Anna, our CEO and co-founder, sounds American but she's definitely a Kiwi. If pushed, she’ll say she’s technically from Dunedin, but will later admit she grew up in Boston. Having roamed around the world, she’s back to call Wellington home. And she completed her Masters with a focus on crowdfunding and has worked for everyone from NZTE to MIT (and all of the acronyms in between).

Janna holds the keys to the PledgeMe pocketbook. She keeps our accounts on an even keel and ensures we mind our Ps and Qs with various regulatory bodies. Clever and kind with a quick smile, we tell ourselves Janna *wants* to approve the funds for all our ideas, but she’s thankfully too pragmatic to indulge our shenanigans as often as she’d like.

Jess is our chief community wrangling, puppy-patting, cheese eating, all-round mercenary. She helps you get your project up and running, spreads the good news of crowdfunding, and reps PledgeMe at events and things around town. When she’s not at PledgeMe, she enjoys knitting, sewing, feminism, dinner parties, urban gardening, and plotting elaborate schemes.

Kelsey is our designer extraordinaire. She's in charge of creating stunning new designs, taking fabulous photos and pulling her hair out when she gets asked to make things “pop”.

Liz is a magical combination of spreadsheet master, your favourite aunty, and a super sleuth. She makes sure all the pledges are tracked down, processed, accounted for, and not the solicitation of a mysterious Nigerian prince. A lover of all things bright and colourful, Liz brings joy and mirth to the PledgeMe team. She also makes a mean flourless chocolate cake with margarita whip cream and berries.

Max is a certified practising accountant with a professional background in financial restructuring and business services at BDO. He supports our Chief Bubble Blower in Australia and makes sure operations fly smoothly with a keen focus on finding and supporting companies seeking funding to continue on their upward trajectory. When not working with PledgeMe Max likes to avoid watching the All Blacks play Australia in rugby union, keep fit, relax at the beach and explore the outdoors.

No stranger to the startup world, Paula brings considerable expertise and lessons learned to her role seeing companies through their equity offer. And with a background in producing advertising and marketing campaigns across the globe, she is an expert at devising a clear plan with well-defined actions. When not at PledgeMe, you can find her geeking out with books learning something new, mentoring, or attempting to do something creative. Although not for public consumption. Purely self-indulgent.

Sarah is a champion of clear communication, good data, and authenticity. She manages our marketing activities and helps with product management. A practitioner of what she calls “deep craft” she knows how to make a great many things from scratch without the use of modern tools. Sarah can be found in her workshop making elaborate costumes when she’s not managing the marketing for PledgeMe.

Tan brings home the bacon for amazing kiwi businesses (faking bacon for our vegan friends). His background is in tech, business development and raising capability. He has an MBA, however found out too late that it didn’t mean Master of Beer Appreciation. Tan loves travelling to far-flung parts of the world, bringing back a love of scotch whisky, craft beer and food. He is also Vietnam’s tallest man (a fact) and fluent in Vietnamese.

A global citizen and systems thinker through and through, Tania helps equity campaigners navigate crowdfunding. She has a background in strategy, business development, financial services, social innovation and impact measurement, and approaches her role in an empathetic and generous way that is uniquely her own. Outside of PledgeMe, you can find her dreaming of re-wilding land and concocting booze-free botanical aperitifs in the Wairarapa.

Breccan manages all things tech for us, with the help of the awesome Rabid team. He's also passionate about what the next level of crowdfunding could be, and has a beautifully analytical brain.

Melanie is an experienced senior commercial manager and leader, with a track record of leading the development and implementation of successful business strategies both locally and internationally.She has done everything from running and owning award winning restaurants, to building and launching online banks with RaboDirect.

Rachel has spent over 25 years in marketing, branding and customer experience, including working in both the Australian market and Māori / Pasifika engagement. From 1995-1999 Rachel started, grew, and sold a professional services business in Australia. Recently appointed as the Chief Executive of Diversity Works NZ, Rachel was part of the Senior Leadership Team of Competenz from early 2013. She has also held roles as Marketing Director for The Icehouse and Minter Ellison Rudd Watts and as Marketing Manager for The University of Auckland Business School. Rachel spent seven years as a director of Ocean (a branding agency) and, as part of the Future Directors programme, sat on the board of NZX-listed AWF Madison Group for 18 months. She currently sits on the Ministry for Youth Development’s Partnership Fund Board and on the Establishment Board of the Auckland Foundation’s Women’s Fund. She is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors and 2016, was named the Institute of Directors Emerging Director of the Year (Auckland Branch).