Peter Thomson

Chief Technology Officer. Responsible for new product design and development.

Recent Posts


We're hiring a product designer

June 2022 by Peter Thomson posted in Talent

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User Experience / User Interface Designer

Icehouse Ventures is looking for a talented designer to join our growing product team. We are using technology to disrupt the venture capital industry by opening up investment to a more diverse range of investors and streamlining capital raising for New Zealand technology startups.

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Building a Venture Capital Platform

February 2022 by Peter Thomson posted in Technology

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For an industry that invests in innovation and disruption for a living, the venture capital ecosystem has been pretty resistant to disruption itself. There have been attempts around the edges such as rolling funds, equity crowdfunding and better CRM systems, but the core process of raising capital from investors and deploying capital into companies has remained the same since the early days of VC. 

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We're Hiring Software Developers

October 2019 by Peter Thomson posted in Talent, Technology

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Icehouse Ventures is looking for awesome software developers to be part of building out our online investment services. Our ideal candidates are hands-on platform builders with experience in developing scalable data-driven platforms. 
 
We have several roles available:
  • Junior Software Developer - This is for recent graduates and non-technical people who want to learn to code. You may experience with coding but not in our core tech stack or you may be completely new (you'll have to demonstrate that you can learn fast). Key for this role is a fanatical passion about startups, finance and investing. 
  • Intermediate Software Developer - This role is for mid-career developers looking to step up and take responsibility for projects and deliverables. You will probably have some experience with Laravel or at least php and/or Vue.
  • Senior Software Developer - This role is for team leads from a startup or corporate who want to work with Icehouse Ventures to get a better overview of the tech scene in NZ, contribute to our core product vision of making startup investing accessible to the masses and making VC investment available to every startup that needs it. 

You will be working closely with the rest of the team throughout the software development life cycle. You’ll have a chance to be involved right from the conception of the product through to design, development and deployment. 

 

We’re looking for people who have an interest in finance and investing. We have an exciting technology roadmap in place that will see you working on a wide range of projects from an interactive investor portal, portfolio visualisation tools, interesting API integrations and complex CRM systems. 

Because we spend our time investing in the greatest startups in NZ we need to live our own message apply best-practises from lean startup, design thinking and agile. We are performance-focused and numbers-driven team so you’ll be working with a lot of financial data sets. 

This is a full-stack role so you’ll be working all the way from front-end design through to back-end server architecture. Your main focus will be on the core application, so a focus on logic, models, controllers and data manipulation will be an advantage. You’ll be a team player with a keen eye for detail and problem-solving skills. 

Who we are

We invest in the best startups in New Zealand and we’re determined to provide a world class experience for founders and investors. We provide a growing range of angel investing, venture capital and private equity products for founders and investors. We currently have over $150 million in assets under management.

Icehouse Ventures is the team behind Ice Angels, Flux, Tuhua Ventures, Arc Angels, First Cut Ventures and Eden Ventures. Our portfolio includes some of the best startups to come out of NZ in recent years including Face Me, Parrot Analytics, Ask Nicely, Dexibit and Sharesies. You’ll be working closely as part of our core team to build technology that delivers great experiences for investors and founders. We are part of the Icehouse community and you’ll be working with the wider community on projects to help integrate our services with other business platforms. 

Responsibilities 

We're a full-stack team so you'll have the chance to be involved in lots of areas of product development depending on what you are passionate about and where you feel you can add the most value:

  • Write clean, efficient code based on functional specifications
  • Designing and developing software systems using scientific analysis and mathematical models to predict and measure outcomes 
  • Analysing information to recommend and plan the installation of new systems or modifications of existing systems
  • Structure, manage and manipulate large data sets
  • Integrate software components and third-party programs
  • Test, verify and deploy programs and systems
  • Troubleshoot, debug and upgrade existing software
  • Gathering and evaluating user feedback
  • Create technical documentation for reference and reporting
  • Preparing reports on programming project specifications, activities, or status

Requirements

How much of these requirements you match will depend on where you are up to in your career, but this is a useful reference on what we're looking for:
  • Experience with software design and development in a user-centered environment
  • Studies in computer science, engineering or equivalent experience
  • Knowledge of coding languages and frameworks/systems
  • Knowledge of the software development life-cycle
  • Experience with data modeling and database management 
  • Ability to learn new languages and technologies
  • Familiarity with agile development methodologies
  • Excellent communication skills
  • Resourcefulness and troubleshooting aptitude
  • Attention to detail
  • Desire to work in fast-paced environment
  • Creativity is always a plus

Tools

You’ll be working hands-on with the latest versions of technologies like Laravel, php, MySQL, Vue JS, Tailwind and AWS. We’re a small enough team that you’ll also have the flexibility to decide your own IDE, text editor and to create a workflow that works best for you. We’re looking for someone with familiarity across the range of tools needed to build great software, including at least some of: 

  • Core programming languages like php, rails, python, etc. And/or an interest in learning php.
  • Front-end languages like Vue, React, Angular, etc.And/or an interest in learning Vue.
  • Frameworks such as Laravel, Symphony, Django, Rails, etc.
  • Database tools such as MySQL, Postgres etc.
  • Infrastructure technologies like Heroku, Docker, and Vagrant.
  • Building APIs and services using CURL, REST etc.
  • Interface design including CSS, SASS and HTML5. 
  • Server administration in Linux, Apache, NGINX and DNS.

Why join us

This role is a chance to be part of a fast-growing team and to make a name for yourself in the startup community in NZ. The tools you build will be used by some of the most influential investors in NZ and by the hottest startups.  

You’ll be surrounded by people who are the best at what they do and have the chance to do your best work. We’ll let you choose between a Mac and PC and set you up with all the tools you need (as many screens as you need). 

 

Icehouse Ventures is the leading investor in early-stage New Zealand companies and the team are all passionate about creating great businesses here in NZ. You’ll grow fast and benefit from mentoring, connections and resources from the whole Icehouse community. 

The vision is that this is a permanent role and you’ll be a key part of the long-term technology strategy for the Icehouse Ventures team. Depending on your circumstances we may look to structure your offer around a short-term project in the first instance and build towards a permanent role once we get to know each other.

If you are interested in applying for the role, join our talent network as a candidate: https://jobs.icehouseventures.co.nz/jobs

 

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