Rowan Simpson is an experienced software developer, business person and investor who is passionate about creating great products which people love to use.

In 1999 Rowan built and launched flathunt.co.nz. This business was later acquired by Trade Me and is now part of Trade Me Property.

Rowan worked at Trade Me from 2000, and saw the site grow from 10,000 members to over 100,000 members in just over 18 months.

At the time he was the only employee who didn’t share a surname with founder, and old school friend, Sam Morgan.

After spending time living in London and travelling in Europe, Rowan returned to Trade Me in 2004 to lead the growing software development team and, later, the product team.

In 2006 Trade Me was itself acquired for NZ$750 million, by Fairfax, a publicly listed Australian media company.

After leaving Trade Me, Rowan became an early investor in Xero, and was employed in a product strategy role from 2007 until 2008.  During this time the company was listed on the NZX.

In 2010 Rowan co-founded Southgate Labs, a software studio specialising in web and mobile applications, with Michael Koziarski and Amnon Ben-Or.

He continues to invest in and work with a number of early-stage ventures, including Vend, Fishpond, Sonar6 and SMX.

Prior to all of this, Rowan completed a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Victoria University of Wellington.

Rowan proudly lives in Wellington, New Zealand with his wife and two sons.

Contact details

Rowan Simpson
PO Box 3210
Wellington
New Zealand
rowan.simpson@gmail.com