Sunrise is Blackbird’s love letter to founders and the beautiful things they create. It’s a celebration of ambition and creativity, where Australians and Kiwis dream up the future.

Australia 26

30 April

Carriageworks, Sydney

Featured Sessions

founder stories

Bob, Harry, Todd

Visions Stage

founder stories

Visions Stage
400ch. Startups love to talk about vision, but few truly understand the power of narrative — not just as marketing, but as a weapon of alignment. In this candid, behind-the-scenes conversation, Shannon Scott (SVP, Global Head of Product) and Taylor Fox-Smith (Head of Community) lift the hood on how Airwallex built its story from the inside out — and why getting it wrong early on nearly derailed them.

Thomas Kelly

Co-founder & CEO at Heidi

Dr Thomas Kelly is Co-founder & CEO of Heidi, an AI care partner helping clinicians cut admin and free up time for patients.

Angela Jiang

Head of Product, Platform at Anthropic

Angela leads product for the Claude Platform at Anthropic. She previously held product leadership roles at OpenAI and Stripe

Michael Kingsbury

Michael is cofounder of Uluu, turning seaweed into next-gen plastics. Former BHP exec, M&A lawyer now rebuilding materials for a fossil-free future

Aaron Blabey

Author at New York Times Bestseller

Aaron Blabey is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, creator of The Bad Guys, Pig the Pug and Thelma the Unicorn, with 60+ million books in print.

Sunrise is where the startup community comes to dream big.

Here, you will meet new people, be inspired, and learn new things. Join us.

Sponsors

Sunrise is made possible thanks to the support of our Sponsors and Community Partners.

Become a sponsor

FAQs

Can I sponsor Sunrise?

Each Sunrise, we work with a small group of partners who are as committed as we are in creating an extraordinary event. We're deliberately pretty picky about who we work with, but if you work with a company that wants to champion startups and the people building them, then flick us an email at sunrise@blackbird.vc and we can chat there.

When and where is Sunrise Australia 2026?

Sunrise Australia 2026 returns to Sydney on 30 April at Carriageworks - 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh, NSW, Australia.

When will the full program be announced?

We have a number of new speaker drops in the lead-up to Sunrise. The full program and schedule will be released in early April.