As he saw the world move increasingly toward social media as a means for information and communication, Thomas Samuelson sought to bring that level of connection to the finance and investment spheres as well.
In 2022, Samuelson launched BRON Investor Network, an application to help companies connect directly with investors—disrupting traditional aspects of the investment banking business.
”The problem is that the investment banking industry is going through a big transition, and the traditional business model is broken,” Samuelson said.
Samuelson launched the startup in New York before moving to Durham last year, where BRON is now based.
BRON focuses their efforts on public companies, which Samuelson said investment banks have all but abandoned. Rather than relying on investment bankers as the middlemen between public companies and institutional investors, BRON is a technology solution to provide the industry with services they used to get from banks.
Samuelson spent most of his career in the finance industry in New York, working in private equity, investment banking, and hedge funds. Throughout his career, Samuelson had invested in over 500 companies in over 30 countries, and he noticed how dependent both companies and investors were on investment bankers. However he saw a shift away from investment banking accelerate during the pandemic and decided to capitalize on this opportunity.
“I was a person who wanted to meet with companies,” Samuelson said. “I didn’t care about the brokers, I was focused on the companies and tried to build tools to help the companies, and also help investors make direct connections.”
BRON’s revenue comes from both companies and investors who gain access to the app via a monthly subscription fee.
The platform aggregates investor relations content, which is data generated by the companies. This content includes press releases and financial statements, which BRON posts onto the platform. Samuelson compared BRON’s services to companies such as Expedia, which aggregates travel information, or Zillow, which aggregates real estate information.
BRON also provides compliant communication tools for public companies and investors. In order to stay on the right side of insider trading rules and other regulations, the parties are only legally allowed to communicate via regulated tools, primarily email, where copies of messages must be sent to an archive service. Samuelson said email has its own problems, where inboxes are flooded with spam and at risk to viruses. Other forms of communication, such as WhatsApp or SMS, are not compliant.
BRON’s communication network, on the other hand, is regulated and compliant with the legal requirements for communication between publicly traded companies and investors. This connective element is on reason that Samuelson chose the name “BRON,” which means “bridge” in Swedish.
From customers, Samuelson has heard that public companies—who may no longer have access to investment bankers—are “lost,” seeking interaction within the industry and engagement with investors. He has heard from investors that they need a better way to communicate directly with companies.
“We want this to be the must-have tool,” Samuelson said.
BRON is based in Durham but has team members on several continents: Argentina, Brazil, Vietnam and the United Kingdom.
Samuelson picked Durham last year when he was relocating from New York because he said it “checked all the boxes” in terms of quality of life and level of resources to help growing startups. For instance he’s tapping into the network of Triangle universities—having recently hired three students from Duke—and has met other entrepreneurs in the area.
“It’s an undervalued place to be in the startup community,” Samuelson said.
