How 2 Australian Billionaires Built Smarter Tools That Sell Themselves

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

- Noah Kirsch

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 percent in four months and add $820 million to the fortunes of Cannon-Brookes and his co-founder, 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 most successful technology startups in Australian history.