01
Curated, not crowded
More people is not always better. The Club prioritises fit, trust, and contribution over scale for its own sake.
Built by founders, for founders.
Our story
The Founders Club exists because building a company can be isolating. The right community does not remove the hard parts, but it changes how founders move through them.
Better companies are built through better conversations.
The belief
Advice matters. Introductions matter. So does the rare feeling of being in a room where people understand the pressure without needing the performance.
The Founders Club is built around trust, contribution, and curation. It is not a mass networking organisation. It is not a content machine. It is a place for people who are serious about building, learning, and helping others do the same.
What makes the room work.
Principles
The community is only as valuable as the behaviour it protects. These principles shape who joins, what we run, and how the Club should feel.
02
Honest over polished
Founders do not need another room full of perfect stories. They need useful truth from people who understand the work.
03
New Zealand first
The community is grounded in New Zealand while staying connected to the broader world founders operate in.
Ambition is welcome. Ego is not.
Who belongs here
- 01Aspiring entrepreneurs
People preparing to build and looking for proximity to experience. - 02Active founders
People in the work now: testing, hiring, raising, growing, recovering, or reinventing. - 03Experienced operators
People close to the founder journey who can contribute practical insight. - 04Builders who give back
People who understand that the best communities work through generosity, not extraction.
Built by people who have built.
The people behind it
The Founders Club is shaped by entrepreneurs, operators, advisors, and company builders with direct experience across technology, finance, health, investment, brand, and growth.
Ian Pollard
Founder / Secretariat
Ian is an investor, advisor, family office principal, and non-executive director based in Auckland, focused on technology, finance, AI, and export businesses. He is co-founding a New Zealand angel fund, sits on the board of Freed Capital in Hong Kong, and actively advises and mentors founders across insurance and technology. His own founder story includes Delta International, which he built from the ground up in 2013 into a specialty underwriting agency writing around NZD150 million in gross written premium across New Zealand, Singapore, and Australia. Before founding Delta, Ian spent 15 years at AIG in senior global roles, including Head of International Professional Liability and Cyber in New York, running a portfolio approaching $1 billion in premium.
LinkedIn ↗
Kate Rhind
Founder / Secretariat
Kate is the Founder and CEO of Healthpoint, a leading health technology platform operating across New Zealand and Australia since 2004. A Founding Fellow of Health Informatics NZ, chair of Women in HealthTech Aotearoa, and elected board member of NZHIT, Kate is passionate about using technology and AI to empower people to take an active role in their own health.
LinkedIn ↗
Michael Walker
Founder / Secretariat
Michael is the co-founder and CEO of BlackBull Markets, one of New Zealand's leading fintech trading platforms, which he built from the ground up after turning down a role at JP Morgan. An EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, Michael self-funded the company to preserve its values and has grown it into a global operation with clients across more than 180 countries.
LinkedIn ↗
Vincent Barker
Founder / Secretariat
Vince is the founder and Managing Director of Partridge Advisory, a fee-for-service insurance brokerage specialising in New Zealand's high-innovation sector. With 20 years in insurance — including senior global roles at AIG, Zurich, and Berkshire Hathaway — he has advised clients from early-stage startups to large multinationals across more than 50 countries.
LinkedIn ↗
Dean Anderson
Founder / Secretariat
Dean is the Founder and CEO of Kernel Wealth, a fintech investment platform on a mission to make transparent, cost-effective investing accessible to all New Zealanders. Before founding Kernel, he spent nearly seven years at the NZX, where he helped launch several ETFs. He built Kernel to be the investment platform he wished had existed when he started investing.
LinkedIn ↗
Gavin Greaves
Secretariat
Gavin is the founder of Apex Advice Group, a New Zealand financial advisory firm he has led since 2007. With over 25 years of experience providing investment, insurance, and debt management advice across Australia and New Zealand, he holds postgraduate qualifications in financial planning and brings a deeply considered, client-first approach to everything he does.
LinkedIn ↗
Vivian Bryant-Taukiri
Secretariat
Vivian is the founder of Brand Spanking, one of New Zealand's leading experiential marketing agencies, which she built and scaled over 23 years before executing a clean exit. A seasoned company director with deep expertise across brand experience, creative strategy, and business growth, Vivian brings a rare combination of entrepreneurial grit and commercial acumen — and a proven track record of building something from nothing into something that lasts.
LinkedIn ↗
Pete Weaver
Founder / Secretariat
Pete brings over 35 years experience as a Director, Founding Employee and Execution Executive in technology businesses. Pete was a key operator in the sale of Sonar6 to Nasdaq listed Cornerstone in 2012, early stage investor and Director of kiwi high flyer Fuel50, and more recently drove the reshaping of Supa Energy. Pete is known for his ability to sort out challenging situations, and understands the pathways to success for early stage and growth businesses.
This is your community if you are ready to contribute to it.
Next step
If that sounds like the kind of room you want to be in, start with an application or send a question.