Episode 47: The Atlassian IPO

Nov 7, 2017 70m

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Episode Description

Ben & David venture to the land down under (and reunite in-person!) to tell the story of the granddaddy of all bootstrapped tech success stories, collaboration software company Atlassian. How did two plucky college grads from Sydney, Australia go from just trying to escape working for the man to becoming two of the top 10 wealthiest people in the entire country, all without raising a dollar of venture capital? We dive in.

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Topics Covered Include:

How Atlassian founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar met in college at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and their decision to bootstrap a startup as an alternative to finding a “real job” after graduation
Atlassian’s “no sales” model, and the resultant efficiency of their sales & marketing spend relative to other SAAS companies
Organic product growth and acquisitions over the years, starting with Jira and later adding Confluence, BitBucket, HipChat / Stride, Jira Service Desk and Trello
Rapid revenue growth and the decision to continue as a bootstrapped company, only raising secondary capital prior to going public
The IPO in November 2015 and subsequent stock performance (spoiler: it’s been good)

The Carve Out:

Ben: Phil Knight’s memoir, Shoe Dog
David: Bruce Springsteen memoir, Born to Run

AI-Generated Summary

The Roots of Atlassian

The episode dives into the origin story of Atlassian, founded in 2002 by university classmates Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar in Sydney, Australia. The two aimed to bootstrap a startup as an alternative to traditional corporate jobs. Despite the challenging landscape of the tech industry post-dot-com bubble, they launched their first product, Jira, leveraging a self-service model that empowered users to adopt their software without needing a traditional sales force. This innovation laid the groundwork for Atlassian’s future success.

Innovative Sales Strategy and Growth Model

Atlassian's approach is highlighted as an anomaly in the tech world, flourishing without a conventional sales team. By focusing on creating a seamless user experience and letting the product sell itself, they maintained a low sales and marketing spend, unlike many competitors. The discussion elaborates on how this strategy allowed Atlassian to achieve robust organic growth, with their software being widely adopted among teams in various organizations.

The Impact of the IPO

The episode discusses Atlassian’s IPO in November 2015, which was significant given that they avoided venture capital and raised only secondary capital prior to going public. The IPO served as a milestone that confirmed their business model and success, attracting attention from the investment community. The hosts note the subsequent solid stock performance and how they capitalized on the IPO to further solidify their credibility in the enterprise space.

Key Acquisitions and Future Direction

Following their IPO, Atlassian continued expanding its family of products through strategic acquisitions, including Trello, and adapted its offerings to remain competitive. The discussion touches on concerns regarding product saturation in their core engineering tools and the essential challenge of reaching a broader audience beyond software developers. The vision to create tools for all team members is reinforced as they aim to diversify their user base while maintaining their innovative edge.