Tom Norwood is the co-founder and CEO of Loop Fans and co-author of the forthcoming book The Participation Economy. He writes and builds around a single idea: businesses grow fastest when they turn the people who already show up — customers, visitors, guests, fans — into active participants and advocates, rather than paying platforms to rent the attention of strangers.
Based in Melbourne, Australia, Tom has spent his career across hospitality, live music, blockchain and technology — the through-line being direct relationships between businesses and the communities that support them.
What he's building
At Loop Fans, Tom is building the infrastructure for the participation economy: a platform that turns your existing customers, visitors and guests into loyal fans and helps you grow through a coalition loyalty network — with referrals, rewards and user-generated content (UGC). Loop rewards the behaviours that actually grow a business — repeat visits, referrals, reviews and content — and connects independent businesses, hospitality groups, precincts, BIDs and tourism regions into one "earn here, spend there" network, while capturing first-party data the business owns.
The mission he describes for his own work is simple: build products that turn followers into true fans and advocates.
The Participation Economy
Tom is co-authoring The Participation Economy — From Followers to Co-Creators and Co-Owners with Marcela Rodriguez, COO of Loop Fans. The book examines the failure of the attention economy and how modern businesses build deeper relationships with their audiences by rewarding participation — and explores how technology can change the way businesses and their customers engage and share value. Many of the ideas appear across the Loop concepts glossary, including the participation economy, coalition loyalty, and the end of the rent economy.
Background
Tom's path to Loop runs through several worlds that all revolve around community and direct relationships:
- Loop Fans (2022–present) — co-founder and CEO, building the participation platform and coalition loyalty network now running across tourism regions, hospitality groups and precincts.
- Loop Ventures & Loop Protocol (2020–2023) — co-founder and CEO; built a decentralised exchange on the Terra blockchain that reached roughly US$150M in total value locked and over US$1B in transaction volume.
- Trybe One (2017–2020) — founder and CEO of a blockchain development studio working across DeFi, exchanges and NFT marketplaces.
- Vamos Melbourne (2014–2023) — co-owner of a Latin American live-music bar and restaurant in Melbourne, where the value of knowing your regulars and building a community first became concrete.
He studied at RMIT University and describes his approach as high-clarity, fast-moving, and focused on building things that work in the real world.
Writing & speaking
Tom writes regularly about coalition loyalty, place-based marketing, audience ownership, and turning audiences into measurable, owned networks. His work argues that loyalty is not a points programme but a relationship state built through participation — and that the same logic applies whether you're a café, a winery, a tourism region, a festival, a brand or a musician.
Connect
You can find Tom on LinkedIn, or learn more about what he's building at Loop Fans. To talk about bringing participation-based loyalty to your business, district or region, get in touch.