Rudi Bublitz
Director and Co-Founder
Flying Kiwi Angels
I am passionate about building the most constructive angel group in New Zealand to help startups grow and to generate returns for angels who give their time and money. I'm all for gender, age and ethnic diversity as that makes groups perform better. As advisor or director, I bring unconventional thinking to corporate boards and often find myself in the role of devil's advocate. With my insights from the innovation and startup space, I help develop future risk scenarios but also opportunities to grow or re-direct the business. Most weeks I see 10 or more startup entrepreneurs with product ideas and new business models that have the potential to disrupt big companies, some even whole industries. As an angel investor, my best results come from linking the pace of innovation in startups with the might of distribution that corporates bring. Not all startups will be successful but most of the energetic founders have great careers ahead of them. I help them to self-assess their position and chances of success by asking sometimes the tough but always the important questions. My feedback is candid and constructive. In 2014, I was instrumental in setting up Flying Kiwi Angels. I am on the board and have a pivotal role in organising and driving the activities of the group, a constant challenge with angel investors who have been very successful in business and are financially independent. In 1990, I was the co-founder of a rapidly growing SAP implementation business in the UK, from 2 to over 400 consultants in just 9 years. After more than doubling our turnover in the last year to £36.2m the company was sold in 1999 to a FTSE 100 company.