Forbes_USA_June_13_2017

GLOBAL GAME CHANGERS
The Wizards
From Oz
Enterprise software giants use
armies of salespeople to hawk
imperfect products and endless
updates. The two Australian
billionaires behind Atlassian
have built smarter tools that sell
themselves. Just ask Tesla, Snapchat,
NASA and the entire Ivy League.
BY NOAH KIRSCH
Mike Cannon-Brookes (left) and
Scott Farquhar started Atlassian
to avoid getting “real jobs” after
college. Half of Australia’s comp
sci grads apply to their company.
Fresh off the red-eye from San Francisco,
Mike Cannon-Brookes enters a rented office
space in Midtown Manhattan to seal
the biggest deal in his company’s history.
Dressed in a Detroit Tigers T-shirt and blue baseball
cap, he greets the room in an undulating Australian
twang. Seated around a conference table are
executives from his collaboration-software firm, Atlassian,
which is in the final push to acquire Trello,
a smaller competitor whose founder, Michael Pryor,
is also present. For four hours, Cannon-Brookes relentlessly
sells the importance of achieving scale
and the benefits of uniting their rival firms.
Pryor is convinced. One month later, in January
2017, Atlassian will officially acquire Trello in
a $425 million deal that will help send company
shares up 47% in four months and add $820 million
to the fortunes of Cannon-Brookes and his cofounder,
Scott Farquhar. The 37-year-old Aussies,
who dress more like off-duty surfers than top-flight
executives, are worth $2.6 billion each.
That ascent has vastly outstripped the pair’s
humble objective when starting Atlassian in 2002:
dodging a lifetime of corporate IT drudgery. “Our
aspirations were literally just to not get a real job,”
Farquhar admits, “and to not have to wear a suit.”
Those aims thoroughly satisfied, they have managed
to reach a few extra milestones as well: a
blockbuster IPO in 2015, annual revenues approaching
$600 million and status as one of the
JAMES HORAN FOR FORBES
JUNE 13, 2017 FORBES | 37