In a private meeting at Canva’s Sydney headquarters this year, some of the nation’s wealthiest families gathered behind closed doors to debate a simple but confronting question: is Australia no longer the lucky country? The invitation-only all-day summit, hosted by start-up accelerator Startmate, was the first time many of these dynasties had met each other. Collectively, they control billions of dollars in wealth – much of it mined from iron ore, built in property or minted from tech unicorns. The Startmate-run summit heard from Australia’s wealthiest families, including Tesla chair Robyn Denholm (left) and her daughter Victoria (right, with microphone). Startmate investment manager Ben Simai, who convened the event, said the underlying theme of the discussions was steering Australia’s economic future towards innovation amid fears the nation was “living off yesterday’s luck”.