From $10k in debt to a $50BILLION empire: University mates' business storms into Australia's top ten richest companies and could soon be wealthier than major BANKS - and it all started with free beer
- Tech firm Atlassian ranked as Australia's seventh-biggest listed company
- Started on a $10,000 credit card debt in 2002, company now worth $50 billion
- Co-founders gatecrashed events and used free beer to spread word 10 years ago
- Today, uni mates Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes are billionaires
- Were fourth and fifth respectively on The List of Australia's Richest 250 in March
A tech firm started by two university mates from Sydney with a $10,000 credit card debt and free beer has soared into the top ten of Australia's richest companies.
Atlassian is now a $50 billion business empire ranked as the nation's seventh-biggest listed company, surging ahead of some of Australia's biggest companies such as Macquarie Group ($44bn), Woolworths ($43bn) and mining giant Rio Tinto ($38bn).
The software designer surged past telco giant Telstra in terms of valuation in April and is closing on National Australia Bank, which is worth $77bn, The Australian reported.
The company founded in 2002 now has more than 3,000 staff at 10 offices worldwide and has been named as one of Australia's best places to work for several years running.
Atlassian co-founders Scott Farquhar (left) and Mike Cannon-Brookes (right) are billionaires who could become the richest people in Australia in the next 12 months
Atlassian has more than doubled its valuation on New York’s Nasdaq exchange in the last 12 months as its shares climbed to $US138.80 ($200.15) on Tuesday.
Still aged in their late 30s, Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar were fourth and fifth respectively on The List of Australia's Richest 250 published earlier this year.
Their wealth has since surged past Sydney apartments magnate Harry Triguboff, who was third on the list.
Mr Cannon-Brookes and Mr Farquhar may soon be Australian's richest people by surpassing Anthony Pratt and Gina Rinehart if Atlassian's share prices climb to $US143, which analysts tip to occur in the next year.
Atlassian has been named as one of Australia's best places to work for several years running
'Growing up in Australia, obviously Telecom Australia was an industrial giant,' Mr Cannon-Brookes recently told The Australian.
'It's an interesting point on the journey and it's mind-blowing that we're joining these great Australian perspectives.'
Just ten years ago, he and Mr Farquhar used free beer to spread the word about their then little known software company.
Established in 2002, Atlassian still only consisted of several employees seven years later when the co-founders gatecrashed a podcast recording at a tech conference in Belgium with the aim of making an impact.
A marketing gamble that involved handing out free beer at a tech conference in Belgium paid off for Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes (left) and Scott Farquhar (right)
They bought $2000 worth of beer and put Atlassian stickers on them, which were handed to all of the 1,000 attendees as they walked in.
The marketing gamble paid off and the pair haven't looked back since.
'We got tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free advertising … the naivety of youth sometimes has its benefits,' Mr Farquhar told The Australian in April.
'If your market is the world, tackling it one customer at a time isn't scalable.'
Other guerrilla marketing tactics such as plastering university walls with Atlassian posters and attending community events were deployed by the company in its early days to get the name out.
More than 3,000 Atlassian staff work at 10 offices worldwide, including Sydney, San Francisco, Austin, Amsterdam and Manila
Billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes' wealth continues to grow after Atlassian's shares climbed to $US138.80 on New York’s Nasdaq exchange on Tuesday
The company has more than 3,0000 staff at 10 offices worldwide, including Sydney, San Francisco, Austin, Amsterdam and Manila.
Company software tools include Jira, Jira Service Desk, Jira Ops, Confluence, Bitbucket, Trello, and many other products.
Mr Cannon-Brookes made headlines last September when he bought Point Piper mansion 'Fairwater' in Sydney's eastern suburbs.
Atlassian Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar (pictured in 2006) gatecrashed a tech conference and gave out free beer to spread the word about their start-up tech company
The home is the most expensive property ever sold in Australia and had previously been in the hands of the media-mogul Fairfax family for more than a century.
Atlassian also recently vowed to use 100 per cent clean energy by 2025 to lead the fight against climate change.
It will become one of the first Australian companies to exclusively use renewable energy if the ambitious aim can be achieved within six years.
'Being a large and known tech company, we want to make sure we're driving the Australian angle of (renewables) forward, and we're trying to do it relatively fast,' Mr Cannon-Brookes recently told the Sydney Morning Herald.
'We're trying to set an example and showing what's possible in our challenging environment.'
Scott Farquhar (left) and Mike Cannon-Brookes (right) were classmates at University of NSW
- www.theaustralia...https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/how-free-beer-powered-atlassian/news-story/4d4204ed63172fc92b309753f060419c
- Atlassian plans 'ambitious' shift to 100pc renewable energy by 2025
- www.theaustralia...https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/leadership/from-a-10000-credit-card-debt-to-50bn-market-giant/news-story/c2580bf38a818a57171473707960a7bd
- www.theaustralia...https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/australias-richest-250
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