50 Essential Thought Leaders in Entrepreneurship and Startups in Australia and New Zealand

Introduction

Australia has returned to the world's top 10 startup ecosystems for the first time in three years. According to the 2026 StartupBlink Startup Ecosystem Report, which analyses data from more than 270,000 startups globally, the country grew its ecosystem by 22.9 percent over 2025, more than double the global average of 10.3 percent. That is not a coincidence. It is the result of a generation of founders, investors, and ecosystem builders who have spent the better part of two decades insisting that the Asia-Pacific region can produce world-class technology companies from day one.

The numbers reflect something real. Australian startups raised $5.48 billion across 390 deals in 2025, a 31 percent increase on 2024 and the third-largest funding year on record, according to the State of Australian Startup Funding 2025 report produced by Cut Through Venture and Folklore Ventures. New Zealand, often overlooked in the broader narrative, saw startup investment reach NZ$361.7 million in the first half of 2025 alone, a 186 percent year-on-year increase. Kiwi tech exporters hit NZ$20 billion in revenue in FY2025, up 9.9 percent, according to the 2025 TIN Report. These are not peripheral markets. They are producing genuinely global companies, and the people shaping that story are worth knowing.

This list brings together 50 thought leaders from Australia and New Zealand who are actively shaping how entrepreneurs in this region think, build, fund, and scale their companies in 2026. It spans founders who built billion-dollar companies and came back to support the next wave, venture capitalists who write the first cheques and stay for the long haul, ecosystem builders who run the programs and communities that turn aspiring founders into fundable ones, and emerging voices who are changing the conversation about what it means to build a company from this part of the world. Some of these names will be familiar to anyone who follows the Australian and New Zealand startup scene. Many are mid-tier practitioners and community builders whose daily work shapes the ecosystem more than their public profiles suggest.

The list deliberately moves past the loudest household names to surface voices across disciplines and geographies: Sydney and Melbourne, yes, but also Wellington, Auckland, Brisbane, Adelaide, and regional centres where the next generation of entrepreneurs is being built. It includes women founders and investors, ecosystem leaders working on inclusion, and Indigenous business advocates, because the shape of the ecosystem in 2026 reflects who gets to build in it.

If your team is navigating the leadership and people challenges that come with rapid startup growth, this directory is the starting point. Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator and bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out, helps leadership teams in fast-growth organisations manage the human dynamics of scaling. To discuss how Jonno might support your team, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Why Entrepreneurship and Startups in Australia and New Zealand Matter

Building a company from Australia or New Zealand is a fundamentally different exercise from building one from Silicon Valley or London. The domestic market is small, the distance to major capital markets is significant, and the cultural pressure to think globally from day one is both a structural necessity and, increasingly, a competitive advantage. The people on this list have spent careers figuring out what it actually takes to build from the edge of the world.

According to the State of Australian Startup Funding 2025 report, 61 percent of every dollar invested in Australian startups in 2025 went to companies using artificial intelligence somewhere in their technology stack. That concentration is reshaping who the next generation of thought leaders are. The new voices are not just founders and investors. They are researchers, community builders, policy advocates, and operators who understand that the infrastructure around entrepreneurship matters as much as the ideas inside it.

The failure rate for startups globally remains stubbornly high. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2025/2026 report identified a widening Survival Gap, where startup launch rates are at record levels in many economies but too few companies transition into established firms. Australia's position at 9th globally on the StartupBlink rankings, and 5th globally for return on investment per dollar invested, tells a story of an ecosystem that has learned how to do more with less. The people on this list are the ones who have built that knowledge and continue to share it.

The most consequential challenge for founders in the ANZ ecosystem is not access to capital, despite the real constraints that remain. It is the human and leadership challenge inside organisations that are growing faster than their culture can keep up with. Alignment, communication, difficult conversations, and team dynamics are the problems that derail fast-growth companies more reliably than technical debt or market headwinds.

Organisations that want to harness the entrepreneurial energy in their own teams and leadership cultures can benefit from working with Jonno White, an experienced facilitator who runs Working Genius and DISC workshops for executive teams navigating growth, change, and high-stakes decision-making. Email jonno@consultclarity.org. International travel is often far more affordable than clients expect.

How This List Was Compiled

Every person on this list was selected on three criteria. First, demonstrated contribution to the AU/NZ entrepreneurship and startup conversation through founding, investing, building, writing, or facilitating work that others in the ecosystem visibly reference and build on. Second, active engagement with the entrepreneurship conversation in 2025 and 2026 through LinkedIn posts, speaking, writing, or program delivery. Third, deliberate representation of voices the reader may not yet have encountered, alongside those the ecosystem already knows well.

The list spans Australia and New Zealand, with no single city or country accounting for more than 35 percent of entries. It deliberately moved past the household names that appear on every similar list to surface practitioners whose daily work is shaping the next generation of founders.

Category 1: The Founding Giants

This first category includes people who built companies that became the reference points for what AU/NZ entrepreneurship can achieve. Their companies are now case studies in business schools, pitch decks, and founder conversations around the world. What distinguishes them as thought leaders is not just the size of their exits but their ongoing investment of time, capital, and voice into the next generation of founders.

1. Melanie Perkins

Few founder journeys in the history of the region have done more to redefine what is possible for Australian entrepreneurs than Melanie Perkins'. As CEO and Co-Founder of Canva, the Sydney-based visual communication platform she co-founded in 2013, Perkins built what is now one of the world's most widely used design tools, with over 200 million active users and an annualised recurring revenue exceeding $2.5 billion as of late 2024.

Perkins' thought leadership operates through her public advocacy for mission-driven building, her approach to product-led growth in a market defined by large incumbents, and her willingness to speak honestly about the years of rejection she faced before securing early investment. Her story, from a yearbook design side project at a school in Perth to one of the most valuable private technology companies in the world, is the clearest evidence the AU/NZ ecosystem has produced that global ambition from day one is not naive but necessary.

2. Mike Cannon-Brookes

Mike Cannon-Brookes is Co-CEO of Atlassian, the enterprise software company he co-founded in 2002 with Scott Farquhar. Atlassian's IPO on the NASDAQ in 2015 made Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar Australia's first tech startup billionaires, and the company's growth into a global collaboration platform with over 10,000 employees across 200,000 customers fundamentally changed how the world thought about what Australian software companies could achieve.

Beyond Atlassian, Cannon-Brookes has become one of the most active voices on climate technology, clean energy investment, and the intersection of business purpose and environmental responsibility. His AirTree-backed Grok Ventures continues to back ambitious founders across energy, software, and deep tech, and his public writing on the obligations of successful founders to invest in the next generation of Australian innovation has shaped the culture of the ecosystem as much as any product.

3. Niki Scevak

Niki Scevak is a Partner at Blackbird Ventures and the founder of Startmate, Australia's leading startup accelerator and community. Scevak co-founded Blackbird with Rick Baker in 2012, raising the firm's first $30 million fund from 97 investors across 22 months at a time when professional venture capital barely existed as an asset class in Australia. Blackbird now manages $2.4 billion in committed capital across multiple funds.

Scevak's contribution to the AU/NZ startup ecosystem extends well beyond capital. His decision to found Startmate as a feeder program for ambitious early-stage founders established a model for community-based acceleration that has been replicated across the region, and his ongoing investment of mentorship and public voice into the ecosystem represents one of the most consequential acts of ecosystem building in Australian startup history.

4. Rick Baker

Rick Baker is a Partner and Co-Founder of Blackbird Ventures, the investment firm he launched with Niki Scevak in 2012 that has backed Canva, SafetyCulture, Culture Amp, and dozens of other companies that now define what is possible from the AU/NZ ecosystem. Baker led early investments in Canva, SafetyCulture, Baraja, Gilmour Space, and Ovira, and his conviction that Australian startups could compete globally when backed correctly was tested and proved across the decade that followed.

Baker's public writing on the Blackbird blog and his participation in Sunrise, the annual conference Blackbird hosts to celebrate and inspire founders, make him one of the most accessible and honest voices on what it takes to invest in great founders at the earliest stages. His framing of the investor's role as belief before evidence, referring to the period before the AU/NZ ecosystem had proved its thesis, has become foundational to how the region thinks about venture conviction.

5. Naomi Simson OAM

Naomi Simson OAM is Co-Founder of Big Red Group and the founder of RedBalloon, the experience-gifting platform she launched from her living room in 2001 with $25,000. Big Red Group is now the largest marketplace of experiences in Australia and New Zealand, home to brands including Adrenaline, Experience Oz, and RedBalloon. In 2026, Simson was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for her services to business, entrepreneurship, and leadership.

Simson's thought leadership is distinctive because it operates at the intersection of founder experience and public advocacy. Her four seasons on Shark Tank Australia gave her one of the widest platforms of any entrepreneur in the region, and her ongoing podcast Handpicked with Naomi Simson, combined with her prolific LinkedIn presence, makes her one of the most accessible voices on what it means to build and scale a business from Australia.

6. Jack Zhang

Jack Zhang is CEO and Co-Founder of Airwallex, the Melbourne-founded global payments and financial infrastructure company he co-founded in 2015. Airwallex has grown into one of Australia's most valuable private technology companies, reaching a valuation of $6.2 billion in a 2025 funding round, and now moves billions of dollars monthly in transaction volume for over 100,000 clients globally including Brex, Rippling, and SHEIN.

Zhang's public voice on building a global fintech from Australia, the challenges of cross-border payments infrastructure, and the realities of scaling a team from Melbourne to Singapore, San Francisco, and beyond, makes him one of the clearest articulations of what it means to think globally from day one. His 2025 public critique of stablecoin hype, arguing that they do not reduce cross-border payment costs, generated significant ecosystem discussion and illustrated his willingness to challenge prevailing narratives in tech.

7. Leigh Jasper

Leigh Jasper is Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Firmable, the Australian business intelligence and data platform, and the serial founder behind Aconex, the global cloud collaboration platform for construction project management that Oracle acquired in 2017 for $1.6 billion. Jasper co-founded Aconex with Rob Phillpot during the 2000 dot-com crash, building it into a company with $200 million in revenue and 850 staff in 50 cities globally.

Jasper now chairs venture funds SecondQuarter Ventures and Glitch Capital, as well as LaunchVic, Victoria's startup agency. His keynote address at the Growth Summit Melbourne in February 2026 positioned him as one of the ecosystem's most sought-after voices on building durable technology businesses through multiple market cycles, including his four rules for surviving the AI disruption facing traditional SaaS models.

8. Rod Drury KNZM

Rod Drury KNZM is the founder of Xero, the cloud accounting platform he founded in Wellington in 2006 that transformed how small businesses around the world manage their finances. Drury stepped down as CEO in 2018, and in the 2026 New Zealand New Year Honours was appointed a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business, the technology industry, and philanthropy. In 2025 he was inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame.

Drury's ongoing contribution to the NZ startup ecosystem extends well beyond Xero. He has been an active voice for founder advocacy, New Zealand's technology policy, and the importance of exporting software rather than relying on domestic markets, advocating throughout his career that New Zealand's small population is an accelerant toward global thinking rather than a constraint.

Category 2: The Ecosystem Builders

These eight thought leaders do not primarily build companies for themselves. They build the conditions in which other founders can build. Their contributions to accelerators, funds, communities, and programs represent some of the most consequential infrastructure in the AU/NZ startup ecosystem.

9. Michael Batko

Michael Batko is a serial founder, investor, and the former CEO of Startmate, Australia's leading startup accelerator, where he served from 2018 to 2025. During his tenure, Startmate raised over $50 million, backed 228 companies with first cheques, and grew the combined portfolio valuation to $4.5 billion across more than 300 companies. Batko is an LP in the 2022 and 2025 Startmate Core funds and continues to invest in and advise early-stage Australian founders.

His public commentary on LinkedIn, covering AI tools for founders, sales tactics, and the realities of building and selling a startup, reflects a practitioner's voice that translates high-level startup advice into specific, actionable guidance. His 2024 decision to build and then publicly sell his side project Puddle Pod via a LinkedIn post became one of the most discussed founder moves of the year in Australian startup circles.

10. Robbie Paul

Robbie Paul is CEO of Icehouse Ventures, New Zealand's most active venture capital firm, which he has helped grow into a firm managing NZ$400 million-plus across multiple funds backing brave Kiwi founders. Under Paul's leadership, Icehouse raised NZ$122 million for its second growth fund in early 2025 and later moved toward a NZ$30 million Seed Fund IV, whose first investment was Harth, an AI-powered platform for collaborative building design.

Paul's public commentary on the New Zealand startup ecosystem, including his widely shared LinkedIn post tracking the growth of NZ venture funds under management, makes him one of the most transparent and data-driven voices in the NZ startup conversation. His consistent tracking of company exits, jobs created, and revenue generated from the portfolio gives the NZ ecosystem concrete evidence of its own progress.

11. Lauren Capelin

Lauren Capelin is Business Development Manager for APJ at Amazon Web Services and a VC Catalyst Facilitator at the Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship, where she works at the intersection of startup ecosystem development and investor education. She is the producer of a documentary series titled The History of the Aussie Startup Ecosystem, and is developing a follow-up series called They're Like Me, spotlighting 100 underrepresented founders across Australia.

Capelin's contribution to the ecosystem is as a chronicler and connector. Her February 2026 essay in the Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship publication, reflecting on a decade of belief in Australian venture and what the muscle the ecosystem has built, was widely shared across the founder and investor community. Her work surfacing the structural conditions that enabled Australia's startup success story makes her a distinctive voice for founders who want context beyond individual success narratives.

12. Colette Grgic

Colette Grgic is Head of Startup Ecosystem at Amazon Web Services Australia, a role that positions her at the intersection of cloud infrastructure, early-stage funding, and founder education across the region. Grgic contributed the foreword to the Dealroom Australia Venture and Startup Report 2025, describing Australia as a country that was long underestimated by global venture capital but is now emerging as one of the strongest and most capital-efficient startup ecosystems in the world.

Her work at AWS connecting early-stage founders to cloud credits, mentorship networks, and investor introductions makes her one of the most practically useful voices in the startup support ecosystem, operating at a scale that reaches hundreds of Australian and New Zealand startups each year through programs, events, and direct engagement.

13. Kirstin Hunter

Kirstin Hunter is CEO of Birchal, Australia's leading equity crowdfunding platform, which she has built into a significant channel for early-stage Australian startups to raise capital from community investors rather than relying solely on institutional or angel investors. Hunter was a speaker at the 2026 Growth Summit Melbourne, appearing in a panel session on how Victoria's startup support systems are evolving.

Her advocacy for broadening who gets to invest in Australian startups, not just accredited investors or venture funds but the community of people who care about seeing particular companies succeed, positions her as one of the most important voices in the capital access conversation. Birchal has facilitated hundreds of millions of dollars in community investment for Australian startups since its launch.

14. Lauren Morrey

Lauren Morrey is Chief Operating Officer of Breakthrough Victoria, the independent state-owned fund focused on translating Victoria's research, intellectual property, and entrepreneurial talent into commercialised businesses and startups. She was a keynote speaker at the Growth Summit Melbourne in February 2026, addressing the evolving landscape of startup support in Victoria and the structural role government-backed funds play in de-risking early-stage innovation.

Morrey's work building Breakthrough Victoria's investment and support programs makes her one of the most influential voices on the relationship between government, university, and private sector in the AU startup ecosystem. Her visibility in public forums and willingness to speak candidly about what works in publicly funded startup support gives founders in Victoria a more nuanced picture of the infrastructure available to them.

15. Paz Pisarski

Paz Pisarski is Co-Founder of The Community Collective, a Melbourne-based organisation building infrastructure and systems for founder communities, startup community leaders, and professional networks. Pisarski was a panellist at the Growth Summit Melbourne in February 2026, speaking on how the community layer of the startup ecosystem is being professionalised and what that means for founders who rely on these networks for connections, support, and early customers.

Her work building tools and systems for community organisations, including her involvement in building the community infrastructure for Startup Striders after its transition from Startmate's portfolio, positions her at the intersection of community building and startup support. The Community Collective's growing role as the operational backbone for several of Australia's founder communities makes her perspective on how community scales one of the more practically useful in the ecosystem.

16. Dickie Currer

Dickie Currer is founder of Hype Man Media, a Melbourne-based content and media business focused on founder storytelling, and a prominent event host and facilitator in the Australian startup ecosystem. Currer hosts events for the Growth Summit series and has served as a connector and amplifier for the startup community across multiple platforms, making him one of the most visible facilitators of founder conversations in Australia.

His focus on the narrative layer of entrepreneurship, specifically how founders tell their stories in ways that attract talent, capital, and customers, gives him a distinctive and practical contribution to the ecosystem. His LinkedIn presence is characterised by genuine engagement with founders at early stages, and his event facilitation across major startup conferences makes him a recognisable voice in the community.

Category 3: The Investors and Capital Allocators

These eight people control, deploy, or influence the capital that funds the next generation of Australian and New Zealand startups. Their public voices on what they look for, how they evaluate founders, and what the ecosystem needs to develop are essential reading for anyone building or thinking about building a startup in the region.

17. Elicia McDonald

Elicia McDonald is a Partner at AirTree Ventures, one of Australia's most active and influential early-stage venture capital firms, whose portfolio includes Canva, Linktree, and Go1. McDonald joined AirTree five years before being promoted to partner, leading investments in Regrow, Abyss, Different, and Process Street, among others, and serving on the boards of HotDoc, Abyss, and Different. She describes herself as an operator at heart, drawing on her operational background to support portfolio founders on team structure, growth, and international expansion.

McDonald's promotion to Partner at AirTree, alongside Jax Vullinghs, was reported in 2024 as part of a broader trend of homegrown venture talent rising in the Australian ecosystem. Her focus on backing companies solving meaningful problems in healthcare, agriculture, and productivity, combined with her operational support model, makes her one of the more practically engaged investors in the ecosystem.

18. Jax Vullinghs

Jax Vullinghs is a Partner at AirTree Ventures, promoted to partnership alongside Elicia McDonald in 2024. Vullinghs led AirTree's investments in Grow, Zoomo, Eucalyptus, and Arli, and is known in the ecosystem for her genuine enthusiasm for early-stage founders and her ability to navigate the fine line between supporting founders and maintaining portfolio discipline. She serves on the boards of Grow and multiple other portfolio companies.

Her public comment at the time of her promotion described the period as one of exponential growth for the AU/NZ ecosystem, with AirTree alone holding four billion-dollar companies in its portfolio at the time. Vullinghs' panel appearance at the Growth Summit Melbourne 2026, discussing what investors want to see from founders seeking capital this year, makes her one of the most relevant investor voices for founders currently in the market.

19. Craig Blair

Craig Blair is Co-Founder and Partner at AirTree Ventures and one of the most consistent public voices on the capital efficiency argument for the AU/NZ startup ecosystem. His public argument that Aussie and Kiwi entrepreneurs are among the most capital-efficient producers of unicorns in the world, and that the ecosystem is bucking the growth-stage pullback trend affecting other markets, has influenced how global limited partners and co-investors think about the region.

Blair's long tenure at AirTree and his involvement in some of the firm's highest-profile investments give him deep pattern recognition about what separates the companies in the region that scale from those that plateau. His public advocacy for the thesis that the constraints of building from Australia are a structural advantage rather than a disadvantage has been one of the ecosystem's most important intellectual contributions.

20. Benjamin Chong

Benjamin Chong is a Partner at Right Click Capital, one of Australia's most active seed-stage investment firms, and a leading figure in the Founder Institute's Australia and New Zealand programs. Chong has been named a leading figure in bringing the Founder Institute to Australia, has participated as a mentor and evaluator in dozens of cohorts, and regularly publishes on the practical realities of pre-seed funding and what makes a fundable early-stage business in the AU market.

His accessibility and his willingness to engage directly with founders via LinkedIn and at events like the Founder Institute's monthly sessions make him one of the most useful investor voices for founders still at the idea or pre-seed stage who are trying to understand what early investors actually want to see before they write a first cheque.

21. Kylie Frazer

Kylie Frazer is Co-Founder of Flying Ventures, the early-stage investment fund she launched in late 2023 alongside Rachael Neumann, which quickly attracted attention as part of a wave of women-led investment vehicles reshaping the face of venture capital in Australia. Frazer brings a background as a startup operator and advisor to her investing thesis, and Flying Ventures focuses on backing Australian and New Zealand startups at the pre-seed and seed stages.

Her launch of Flying Ventures was covered as part of a broader trend identified in the Startmate ecosystem of women rising into general partner roles and founding their own funds, a shift that multiple ecosystem participants have noted is accelerating the availability of capital for underrepresented founders across the region.

22. Ben Grabiner

Ben Grabiner is Co-Founder and General Partner at Side Stage Ventures, an Australian early-stage venture fund. His 2025 foreword in the Dealroom Australia Venture and Startup Report articulated one of the clearest framings of the current state of the Australian ecosystem, describing a moment where the question is no longer whether Australia can build great companies but how many and how fast.

Grabiner's contribution to the ecosystem is partly through capital and partly through intellectual clarity about what the ecosystem's next phase requires. His participation in the Unicorn Day 2025 events connecting Australian founders with AWS and global investor networks positions him as one of the more thoughtful voices on the maturation of the AU startup ecosystem and what durable, globally relevant company building looks like from this region.

23. Piruze Sabuncu

Piruze Sabuncu is a Partner at Square Peg Capital, one of Australia's most established growth-stage venture capital firms with investments across Australia, Israel, and Southeast Asia. Sabuncu was named in the Startmate ecosystem as one of the rising women general partners transforming the face of Australian venture capital, alongside colleagues at Folklore and AirTree Ventures who are reaching partnership roles at an accelerating pace.

Her work at Square Peg backing growth-stage Australian companies in their expansion phases, combined with her visibility as a woman general partner in a sector still dominated by men, makes her both an active capital allocator and a visible signal to the next generation of diverse founders about who is making investment decisions in the region.

24. Derek Handley

Derek Handley is a New Zealand serial entrepreneur, speaker, and founder of Aera VC, a purpose-driven venture capital firm. He co-founded The Hyperfactory, a global mobile marketing company that he sold to NYSE-listed media giant Meredith Corporation in 2010, and was named EY Young Entrepreneur of the Year for New Zealand in 2009. Handley has received the Sir Peter Blake Trust Leader designation and has been listed on the Silicon Alley 100 of most influential technology figures in New York.

His public voice on the intersection of technology, purpose, and long-term value creation, including his work with The B Team, the not-for-profit initiative co-founded with Sir Richard Branson to redefine the purpose of business, makes him one of the most philosophical and globally connected voices in the NZ startup ecosystem. His book Heart to Start explores the mindset required to found and sustain entrepreneurial ventures over the long term.

Category 4: The Founders Changing Industries

These nine people are founder-practitioners who have built significant companies in their sectors and whose public voice and ongoing engagement with the entrepreneurship conversation make them important references for founders thinking about what building from AU/NZ actually looks like across different verticals.

25. Luke Anear

Luke Anear is Founder and CEO of SafetyCulture, the Australian workplace operations platform he founded from his garage in Townsville in 2004 and built into a company valued at $2.5 billion, one of the most significant unicorns to emerge from outside the Sydney-Melbourne corridor. SafetyCulture's iAuditor platform is used across thousands of sites worldwide for safety checklists, audits, and operational quality management.

Anear is a documentary subject in Founder, a four-part series profiling SafetyCulture, Canva, Finder, and Brighte. He is a regular speaker at university startup programs, including his October 2025 address to the UQ Ventures Startup Showcase, and in 2026 he committed a further $15,000 in personal funding to the Validate program at the University of Queensland, focused on building founder confidence in execution.

26. Jeanette Cheah

Jeanette Cheah is Co-Founder and CEO of HEX Education, an education technology and gender equity program based in Australia that runs the Generation Next initiative connecting women founders with opportunities across Australia and the ASEAN region. Cheah was a keynote speaker at the Growth Summit Melbourne in February 2026, speaking on building organisational culture in startup and scaleup environments.

Her first-hand experience navigating the unique challenges of raising capital as a woman founder, leading international teams, and building confidence to be seen as a leader, informs her work running programs for the next generation of female entrepreneurs. Her advocacy for gender equity in entrepreneurship, combined with her operational role building a technology company, makes her a distinctive voice at the intersection of founder experience and ecosystem building.

27. Doug English

Doug English is Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Culture Amp, the Melbourne-based employee experience and engagement platform that has become one of Australia's most recognised HR technology companies, valued at $1.5 billion. English co-founded Culture Amp with Didier Elzinga, Jon Williams, and Rod Hamilton, building a product used by thousands of companies globally to measure, understand, and improve employee engagement and culture.

As CTO of a company whose product is explicitly about organisational culture, English occupies a distinctive position in the AU startup ecosystem, operating at the intersection of technology, people, and organisational design. His participation in the Growth Summit Melbourne in February 2026, speaking on building team culture in startup and scaleup environments, reflects an ongoing public commitment to sharing practical lessons from building a billion-dollar business from Melbourne.

28. James Hurman

James Hurman is a multifaceted entrepreneur, brand strategist, and founder from Auckland, New Zealand. He is the founder of Previously Unavailable, an innovation studio, and Co-Founder of Tracksuit, a SaaS platform for brand tracking that has attracted international investment and customers since its launch. He also leads the Master of Advertising Effectiveness program, teaching marketing professionals about evidence-based advertising principles.

Hurman's contribution to the NZ startup ecosystem spans practical tools for measuring brand performance, his public writing and speaking on what distinguishes genuine product innovation from incremental product extension, and his work connecting New Zealand's startup community with global best practice in brand building. His presence on Favikon's list of top LinkedIn influencers in New Zealand in 2025 reflects consistent, substantive engagement with the startup and business conversation.

29. Simran Kaur

Simran Kaur is the Founder of Girls That Invest, the financial education platform and community she co-founded to empower women in investing. Originally from New Zealand, Kaur has built a global community of over 300,000 members, a podcast, a book, and a media presence that has been featured in Forbes and Vogue. She was a speaker at SXSW Sydney 2025 and at Auckland Startup Week 2025 on entrepreneurship and financial empowerment.

Kaur's contribution to the entrepreneurship conversation is through the lens of financial access and literacy for founders and investors who have historically been excluded from the conversation. Her focus on making investing and financial independence accessible to women globally, starting from New Zealand, makes her one of the most relevant voices for a generation of Kiwi and Australian founders building in sectors adjacent to financial services and consumer empowerment.

30. Kayla Itsines

Kayla Itsines is the Adelaide-based founder who built the Sweat fitness empire, growing it from personal training sessions and PDF workout guides shared on social media into a platform with over 30 million users within four years of launch. Sweat was sold for a reported $400 million in 2021, and Itsines subsequently bought it back in 2023, demonstrating an unusual founder conviction about the long-term value of what she had built.

Her story is one of the clearest examples of digital-native, social-first entrepreneurship emerging from outside the Sydney-Melbourne corridor, and her ongoing public voice on building a business connected to personal purpose, navigating acquisition and re-acquisition, and balancing personal brand with company brand makes her a relevant reference point for a new generation of founders building consumer products from Australia.

31. Kate Morris

Kate Morris is the Founder of Adore Beauty, the Australian online beauty retailer she founded from her garage in Melbourne in 2000, growing it into one of Australia's most successful e-commerce businesses, which she listed on the ASX in 2020. Morris subsequently became an angel investor and startup advocate, bringing practical operational experience from over two decades of e-commerce building to her investing and advisory work.

Her participation in the startup community through investing, mentoring, and speaking, as well as her public commentary on what it means to build a bootstrapped direct-to-consumer business in Australia before the current era of venture capital, makes her a distinctive voice in the ecosystem. She was highlighted in the Startmate ecosystem as one of the women adding credibility and investment experience to the Australian startup investing community.

32. Scott Farquhar

Scott Farquhar is Co-CEO of Atlassian, the company he co-founded with Mike Cannon-Brookes in 2002. While Farquhar and Cannon-Brookes are household names in the ecosystem, Farquhar's contribution to the thought leadership conversation is distinctive because of his public work on distributed work models, the TEAM Anywhere philosophy Atlassian adopted and defended publicly during the post-pandemic return-to-office debate, and his willingness to take positions on workforce policy that diverge from those of many large employer CEOs.

His ongoing public commentary on what makes great software teams, how to scale culture across distributed organisations, and the principles that have kept Atlassian founder-led through its growth from two people to over 10,000, gives him a thought leadership contribution that extends well beyond the founding narrative that most people associate with his name.

33. Ruby Wang

Ruby Wang is Founder of Nudie Glow, the Sydney-based K-beauty and skincare e-commerce platform she built into one of Australia's most recognised independent beauty retailers, and was a finalist in the Technology category of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2026 awards. Wang's public voice on building a niche e-commerce business as a first-generation immigrant founder in Australia, navigating supply chains, brand building, and community across cultural contexts, makes her a distinctive voice in the ecosystem.

Her EY Entrepreneur of the Year recognition in 2026 and her ongoing engagement with the founder community through events and social media reflect a commitment to sharing the practical experience of building from Australia that goes beyond the exit narrative.

Category 5: The Educators and Researchers

These seven people shape how entrepreneurship is understood, taught, and practised in academic, policy, and public intellectual contexts. Their work translates research and theory into tools founders can use, and their public engagement with the entrepreneurship conversation makes them important voices beyond the conference circuit.

34. Frances Valintine CNZM

Frances Valintine CNZM is an education futurist from New Zealand, known as the founder and Chair of The Mind Lab and Tech Futures Lab, the two institutions she built to address the gap between traditional education and the technology skills required in the modern economy. Valintine was awarded a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit and has received numerous awards for her educational programs.

Her contribution to the entrepreneurship ecosystem is through education infrastructure rather than direct company building or investment. By building The Mind Lab into a postgraduate educator for working professionals seeking technology skills and entrepreneurial capability, Valintine addressed a structural gap in the New Zealand ecosystem between the aspiration to build technology companies and the practical skills required to do so.

35. Dom Price

Dom Price is a Work Futurist, formerly of Atlassian and now an independent keynote speaker and facilitator, where he spent twelve years as the in-house Team Doctor helping Atlassian scale from a mid-size company to a global technology giant. Price is an accomplished TED speaker who studied team dynamics, collaboration, and the future of work across Atlassian's five global R&D centres, and he continues to speak and write extensively on what it takes to build high-performing teams inside fast-growing organisations.

His TEDx Talk in 2020 on the nature of work and the identity challenges that come with professional ambition catapulted him into a new dimension of public influence, and his subsequent career as an independent speaker and facilitator reflects the ecosystem's hunger for voices who have built inside billion-dollar companies and can translate that experience into practical guidance.

36. Kate Russell

Kate Russell is CEO of Supply Nation, Australia's national register of Indigenous-owned businesses, and one of the most important voices on Indigenous entrepreneurship, procurement equity, and the structural barriers facing First Nations business owners. Russell delivered a keynote at the 2024 NSW Entrepreneurship Industry-Educator Forum reflecting on challenges faced by Indigenous entrepreneurs and what needs to change to better support them.

Her contribution to the entrepreneurship ecosystem is through advocacy, policy influence, and the direct work of Supply Nation in connecting Indigenous businesses with procurement opportunities in corporate and government buyers. Her public voice on what genuine inclusion in the startup and small business ecosystem requires, beyond tokenism and toward structural change, makes her an essential reference point for any discussion of the AU/NZ entrepreneurship ecosystem that takes its own diversity claims seriously.

37. Graham Christie

Graham Christie is a founder, investor, and author whose work spans the Australia, New Zealand, Asia, UK, and European startup ecosystems. He is the author of a Wiley-published book on venture growth and ecosystem impact and has been named a mentor and evaluator in the Founder Institute's Australia and New Zealand programs. Christie has served as a non-executive director, investor, and advisor to startups across multiple countries and sectors.

His willingness to engage with founders at the earliest stages, combined with his breadth of experience across multiple geographies and sectors, makes him a distinctive resource for founders in the AU/NZ ecosystem who are thinking about international expansion from the very beginning. His public writing on what it takes to build a startup community from the ground up is among the more analytically rigorous contributions in this space.

38. Leila Nazari

Leila Nazari is Investment Manager at Antler Australia, the global early-stage venture fund with a strong presence in the Australian startup ecosystem, and a LinkedIn Top Voice in the startup and venture space. Nazari brings over seven years of startup experience across Brazil and Australia, a deep understanding of founder-market fit, and a passion for building inclusive, high-performing ecosystems. She is the creator of a newsletter that demystifies capital raising and startup life for early-stage founders.

Her voice on what makes a fundable founder at the earliest stages, delivered through her newsletter, LinkedIn content, and her role at Antler evaluating thousands of founder applications each year, makes her one of the more accessible and practically useful voices for founders who are trying to understand how pre-seed investors think about them and their ideas before a first conversation.

39. James McClure

James McClure is General Partner at Antler Australia, where he leads the firm's Australian residency programs that identify and support exceptional founders at the pre-company stage. In 2025, Antler's fourteenth Australian residency selected 70 exceptional founders from over 2,000 applicants, backing builders across healthcare, space, finance, education, and research using AI as a practical tool rather than a trend.

McClure has published widely on the AI startup opportunity, including a detailed analysis of 100 unique and complex AI startup ideas that he argues cannot be replicated through vibe-coding alone. His ongoing investment thesis that the founders most likely to build durable companies in 2026 are choosing substance over hype makes him one of the more nuanced voices on what the AI moment means for the next generation of Australian founders.

40. Richard Liew

Richard Liew is an Auckland-based entrepreneur, startup mentor, and the creator of workshops and programs specifically designed to help new entrepreneurs turn their ideas into successful businesses or social enterprises. Liew is a speaker at Auckland Startup Week, where he has run interactive sessions for new entrepreneurs on the key lessons for turning ideas into fundable businesses. His LinkedIn engagement and his ongoing work in the Auckland founder community make him one of the more accessible and practically useful voices in the NZ regional ecosystem.

His focus on the earliest stages of the entrepreneurship journey, before funding and before product, at the idea validation and first-customer stage, fills a gap in the ecosystem conversation that is often dominated by later-stage founders and investors who have moved past the hardest early challenges that most aspiring founders are actually living through.

Category 6: The Women Building the Future

These five people are among the most important women founders, investors, and ecosystem builders in the AU/NZ startup conversation. Their contributions span company building, capital allocation, community infrastructure, and advocacy for a more equitable startup ecosystem. Only 22 percent of Australian startups are founded by women, a figure that multiple voices on this list are actively working to change.

41. Andrea Gardiner

Andrea Gardiner is the founder of Jelix Ventures, the Australian early-stage investment fund she launched with a $15 million raise in 2024, positioning her as one of the wave of women founders moving into venture capital roles in Australia. Gardiner brings a background as a founder and operator to her investing thesis, and Jelix Ventures focuses on backing early-stage founders across Australia and New Zealand.

Her launch was highlighted in the Startmate ecosystem as part of a broader pattern of women starting their own funds in Australia, contributing to a structural shift in who controls early-stage capital in the region. Her public voice on what it means to be a woman investor in the Australian startup ecosystem, and what founders can do to maximise their chances of getting in front of the right early-stage investors, reflects both personal experience and professional practice.

42. Rachael Neumann

Rachael Neumann is Co-Founder of Flying Ventures alongside Kylie Frazer, bringing her background as a founder and operator to the early-stage investment fund they launched in 2023. Neumann's experience includes time as a startup operator and advisor across multiple Australian and international technology companies, and her public voice on what a fund launched by founders for founders should look like distinguishes Flying Ventures from more traditional venture capital structures.

Her ongoing engagement with the Australian startup community through events, LinkedIn, and direct interaction with founders makes her one of the more visible and accessible new investors in the ecosystem, particularly for founders who want capital from people who have been on their side of the table and who understand the practical realities of building from scratch.

43. Elli Hanson

Elli Hanson is a Partner at Side Stage Ventures and a speaker at the Female Founders Breakfast at Unicorn Day 2025, where she spoke on women leading in the age of AI. Her work as an investor focuses on early-stage startups in the Australian ecosystem, and her public voice on how women can navigate the startup funding landscape and what investors are looking for from diverse founding teams makes her one of the more visible women investors in the region.

Her participation in community events focused on gender equity in startup investing, combined with her ongoing investment activity at Side Stage Ventures, positions her as both a capital allocator and a visible advocate for structural change in how the ecosystem supports women founders who are often first-time builders navigating an unfamiliar capital-raising environment.

44. Jax Vullinghs

(See entry 18 above for full profile. Jax Vullinghs is a Partner at AirTree Ventures and one of the most visible women general partners in the Australian venture ecosystem, included here in recognition of the specific significance of her partnership role in the context of women's leadership in AU/NZ startup investing.)

45. Elicia McDonald

(See entry 17 above for full profile. Elicia McDonald is a Partner at AirTree Ventures and, alongside Jax Vullinghs, represents one of the clearest examples of homegrown women venture talent reaching senior investment roles in the Australian ecosystem through operational experience rather than solely finance backgrounds.)

Category 7: The Community Builders and Connectors

These five people shape the ecosystem through community, storytelling, advocacy, and the connective tissue that allows founders to find each other, investors to find founders, and ideas to spread across the region.

46. Stanley Henry

Stanley Henry is Founder and CEO of The Attention Seeker, an Auckland-based organic content marketing agency, and one of New Zealand's most active LinkedIn voices on entrepreneurship, personal growth, and building a business from a country at the edge of the world. Henry was listed among New Zealand's top LinkedIn influencers in 2025 on Favikon's platform, reflecting his consistent output of practical, engaging content on what it means to build a business and a personal brand simultaneously.

His public voice is distinctive because it operates at the intersection of marketing, entrepreneurship, and the psychology of building something from scratch, with a willingness to share failures and pivots alongside successes that distinguishes genuine thought leadership from polished personal branding.

47. Paul Bassat

Paul Bassat is Co-Founder of Square Peg Capital, one of Australia's leading growth-stage venture capital firms with investments across Australia, Israel, and Southeast Asia, and the co-founder of Seek, the employment marketplace he built into a global company before moving into venture. Square Peg's portfolio includes companies like Prospa, Deputy, and Athena.

Bassat's ongoing involvement in public discussions about the state of the Australian startup ecosystem, particularly on how late-stage capital constraints differ from the early-stage capital access improvements of recent years, gives him a perspective shared by few others in the region. His public writing on what Australian startups can become at scale makes him one of the most credible voices on growth-stage financing in the AU/NZ ecosystem.

48. Lauren Capelin

(See entry 11 above. Included here also in the community builders category given her specific work producing The History of the Aussie Startup Ecosystem documentary, which functions as a community-level contribution to shared identity and narrative within the AU startup ecosystem.)

49. Paz Pisarski

(See entry 15 above. Included here also given her specific role in the community infrastructure layer of the ecosystem.)

50. Lauren Morrey

(See entry 14 above. Included here also given her specific role bridging the public sector and the startup community through Breakthrough Victoria's programs.)

Notable Voices We Almost Included

Any list of this kind involves difficult choices. Several people who would appear on most similar lists were deliberately moved past to make room for fresher voices. Gary Vaynerchuk, Richard Branson, and others whose work has had global reach are sufficiently well known that readers are almost certainly already aware of them. They are excluded here by editorial choice rather than because their contributions are irrelevant. The list was designed to surface the specific voices shaping the AU/NZ conversation in 2026, which required prioritising regional practitioners over globally recognised names.

Closer to home, several Australian founders who made significant exits in the 2015-2022 period are now less publicly active in the entrepreneurship conversation than they once were. The list focuses on voices that are actively contributing today, in 2025 and 2026, rather than honouring past contributions only. There are dozens more ecosystem builders, angel investors, regional accelerator directors, and mid-tier founders whose work is shaping the next generation of AU/NZ startups, and this list is a starting point rather than a definitive ranking.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Entrepreneurship and Startups

The most common mistake founders in the AU/NZ ecosystem make is treating the domestic market as their target market. Australia has 26 million people and New Zealand has five million. Any business model that requires scale beyond what these markets can sustain must be built for global distribution from the very beginning, not retrofitted for global expansion after it has achieved domestic traction. The founders who have built from this region's most successful companies, from Canva to Atlassian to Airwallex to Xero, all understood this from day one.

A second common mistake is underestimating how long it takes to raise capital and overestimating how much capital is needed in the earliest stages. The AU/NZ ecosystem has produced a generation of founders who have been forced by the constraints of smaller markets to be more capital-efficient than their Silicon Valley counterparts. That constraint is increasingly recognised by global investors as a feature rather than a bug. Founders who build lean and demonstrate clear unit economics before seeking large rounds are significantly better positioned in the current market than those who try to raise large rounds at the idea stage.

A third mistake is building for a problem you have assumed rather than a problem you have validated. The emphasis on founder-market fit, the idea that the best founders have a deep personal understanding of the problem they are solving, is not just a venture capital cliche. The AU/NZ ecosystem has seen enough well-funded startups fail on problems that were insufficiently validated to know that product-market fit cannot be assumed, even by smart, experienced founders.

A fourth mistake is building alone. The ecosystem's most durable companies were built by co-founding teams whose skills were genuinely complementary. Solo founders face a harder fundraising environment, a harder hiring environment, and a harder decision-making environment than those with trusted co-founders. Finding the right co-founder takes time, but it is time well invested before the pressure of building under funding or customer deadlines makes good judgment harder.

A fifth mistake is neglecting culture until it becomes a crisis. The human and leadership challenge inside fast-growing organisations is consistently cited by AU/NZ founders as the hardest part of scaling. Alignment breaks down, communication deteriorates, and difficult conversations get avoided until the consequences of avoidance are worse than the discomfort of confrontation. Founders who invest in leadership capability, team dynamics, and communication frameworks early, before the organisation is under stress, build companies that are more resilient and more attractive to the talent and capital they need to grow.

If your leadership team needs support on the people and culture challenges that come with rapid growth, Jonno White is an experienced facilitator who runs Working Genius workshops, DISC assessments, and executive team offsites for companies navigating exactly these challenges. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Implementation Guide: Building Your AU/NZ Startup Thought Leadership Reading List

The most practical way to use this list is to start with the two or three people whose work is most directly relevant to the stage you are at as a founder. If you are at the idea stage, the voices of ecosystem builders like Lauren Capelin, ecosystem programs like those run by Antler through James McClure and Leila Nazari, and community connectors like Richard Liew and Stanley Henry will be the most immediately useful. They are thinking about the earliest stages of entrepreneurship and the practical barriers to getting started.

If you are at the seed stage and actively raising capital, the investor voices on this list are your priority. Follow Elicia McDonald, Jax Vullinghs, Craig Blair, Benjamin Chong, Kylie Frazer, and Ben Grabiner on LinkedIn. Read their public posts on what they are seeing in the market. Attend the events they speak at. The growth summit series, Auckland Startup Week, SXSW Sydney, and the Founder Institute's monthly events all provide direct access to investors who are actively writing first cheques in the region.

If you are at the growth stage and navigating the challenges of scaling a team and culture, the operator voices on this list are most relevant. Dom Price's work on team dynamics, Doug English's experience building culture at Culture Amp, and Michael Batko's public commentary on the practical realities of scaling a startup from the inside give you a peer group of voices who have navigated what you are navigating and are willing to share what they learned.

Across all stages, the NZ voices on this list, including Robbie Paul, Rod Drury, Frances Valintine, James Hurman, Simran Kaur, Derek Handley, Richard Liew, and Stanley Henry, are worth following even if you are based in Australia. The NZ ecosystem's emphasis on global-from-day-one thinking, on building from a small country with significant structural constraints, produces a mindset about capital efficiency and international expansion that is directly applicable to the challenges of building from any small market.

Finally, if you are a founder interested in the gender equity conversation in the AU/NZ ecosystem, the women investors on this list, including Andrea Gardiner, Rachael Neumann, Kylie Frazer, Elicia McDonald, Jax Vullinghs, and Elli Hanson, are building the infrastructure that will make the next generation of diverse founding teams more fundable. Following their work and supporting the programs they run is both practically useful and an investment in the broader ecosystem you are building inside.

For organisations that want to bring a leadership facilitator into their founding or executive team to work on communication, alignment, and team dynamics, Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator and bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out, works with leadership teams across Australia, New Zealand, and globally. Whether virtual or face to face, reach out to jonno@consultclarity.org to discuss how Jonno might support your organisation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are the most influential thought leaders in entrepreneurship and startups in Australia and New Zealand?

The most frequently cited names in the AU/NZ startup ecosystem include Melanie Perkins (Canva), Mike Cannon-Brookes (Atlassian), Jack Zhang (Airwallex), Niki Scevak and Rick Baker (Blackbird Ventures), Naomi Simson (Big Red Group), and Rod Drury (Xero). Beyond these founding giants, ecosystem builders like Michael Batko, Robbie Paul, and Lauren Capelin are shaping the next generation of founders through programs, capital, and community.

How was this list compiled?

The list was built by researching active contributors to the AU/NZ entrepreneurship and startup conversation in 2025 and 2026. Every person was selected on the basis of their demonstrated contribution to the ecosystem through founding, investing, building, writing, or program delivery; their active engagement in 2025 and 2026 through LinkedIn, speaking, or publishing; and the geographic and disciplinary diversity of the voices represented. The list deliberately moved past the most recognised household names to surface mid-tier and emerging voices whose daily work is shaping the next generation of founders.

What makes the Australian and New Zealand startup ecosystem unique?

The AU/NZ startup ecosystem is distinguished by its capital efficiency, with Australia ranking 5th globally for return on investment per dollar of venture capital invested according to StartupBlink's 2026 report. The structural constraint of a small domestic market has forced generations of founders to think globally from day one, producing a culture of ambition that is increasingly recognised by global investors as a competitive advantage rather than a limitation.

Who should founders follow on LinkedIn in Australia and New Zealand?

Founders at the idea and pre-seed stage should follow Leila Nazari and James McClure (Antler), Benjamin Chong (Right Click Capital), Kylie Frazer and Rachael Neumann (Flying Ventures), and Michael Batko (independent). At the seed and growth stages, following Craig Blair, Elicia McDonald, and Jax Vullinghs (AirTree Ventures), as well as Lauren Capelin, Colette Grgic, and Kirstin Hunter gives practical insight into how investors and ecosystem builders are thinking about the market in 2026.

How is the New Zealand startup ecosystem different from Australia's?

The New Zealand ecosystem is smaller, more concentrated in Auckland and Wellington, and has historically been constrained by limited access to growth-stage capital from domestic sources. However, NZ startup investment reached NZ$361.7 million in H1 2025, up 186 percent year-on-year, and the ecosystem has produced globally recognised companies including Xero, Rocket Lab, and Halter. The Kiwi emphasis on exporting early and building for global markets from day one is a mindset shared with the best AU founders and reflects the structural reality of building from a country of five million people.

Can I hire someone to facilitate leadership workshops or team sessions for my startup?

Yes. Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out, and host of The Leadership Conversations Podcast, works with startup and scaleup leadership teams on the people and culture challenges that come with rapid growth. Working Genius workshops, DISC assessments, and executive team offsites are available in Australia, New Zealand, and globally. Email jonno@consultclarity.org to discuss how Jonno might support your team.

Final Thoughts

Australia is in the world's top 10 startup ecosystems. New Zealand venture funding is growing at a pace that surprised even committed optimists. The 50 people on this list are a starting point for understanding who is shaping the ideas, capital, and community that are making that growth possible.

The most important thing to take away from a list like this is not the names themselves but the patterns they represent. The AU/NZ ecosystem's best thought leaders are distinguished not by their exits but by their generosity: their willingness to share what they have learned, to show up at community events, to mentor founders earlier in the journey, and to invest time and capital in the ecosystem rather than extracting from it. That culture of generosity, more than any structural advantage, is what makes the region's startup scene genuinely worth participating in.

If you are building something from Australia or New Zealand in 2026, you are building in one of the best environments in the world for what you are doing. The people on this list have helped create that environment. Follow them, engage with their ideas, and take your shot.

For leadership teams navigating the human challenges of rapid startup growth, Jonno White, bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out and Certified Working Genius Facilitator, is available for workshops, offsites, and keynote speaking globally. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

For more on leadership and team dynamics, check out my blog post 'Step Up or Step Out: How to Handle Difficult Conversations' at consultclarity.org.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author, and leadership consultant who has worked with schools, corporates, and nonprofits around the world. His book Step Up or Step Out has sold over 10,000 copies globally, and his podcast The Leadership Conversations has featured 230+ episodes reaching listeners in 150+ countries. Jonno founded The 7 Questions Movement with 6,000+ participating leaders and achieved a 93.75% satisfaction rating for his Working Genius masterclass at the ASBA 2025 National Conference. Based in Brisbane, Australia, Jonno works globally and regularly travels for speaking and facilitation engagements. Organisations consistently find that international travel is far more affordable than expected.

To book Jonno for your next keynote, workshop, or facilitation session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.