Atlassian co-founder shares rare insight into his VERY humble beginnings and reveals he 'cried himself to sleep' as a child because his dad couldn't afford a computer - before he built a $50BILLION tech empire
- Scott Farquhar is one half of partnership that spawned tech company Atlassian
- He returned to his family home in west Sydney to reflect on how far he has come
- He once cried himself to sleep because his family could not afford a computer
- Now, he is worth an estimated AUD$16billion and does philanthropic work
A tech boss with a personal wealth of $16billion used to cry himself to sleep because his parents couldn't afford to buy a computer and thought his greatest achievement would be finally moving out of the bedroom he shared with his brother.
Scott Farquhar is one half of a partnership that spawned $50billion software company Atlassian, one of the most successful business exports from Australia.
But 40-year-old Farquhar and his Atlassian co-founder, Mike Cannon-Brookes, couldn't have come from more different beginnings.
While Cannon-Brookes' father was the head of a law firm and spent thousands of dollars sending him to an elite boarding school, Farquhar grew up in a working class family from Castle Hill, in Sydney's north-west.
His parents worked multiple jobs to make ends meat, from fast food restaurants to waste disposal centres and night shifts at petrol stations.
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
Pictured: The room where Farquhar set up his first computer and tried to play games on it as a child
Farquhar told ABC's Julia Zemiro he was still troubled by memories of begging his parents to buy him a computer when they clearly couldn't afford it.
'I remember... crying myself to sleep, asking for a computer from my dad,' he said. 'My friend had one... [I thought] why can't we have one?,' he said.
'Not realising that there was probably a huge burden on my father to be able to afford something like that. I feel horrible now, but I cried myself to sleep.'
Farquhar said he would visit his friend's house to play on the computer, until one day about three months later he came home to find one waiting for him.
'My dad found a second hand computer at work that he could buy cheaply... It didn't play games but I probably spent a year trying to get it to,' he revealed.
'Maybe that's where my interaction with computers comes from. I was, vainly, for ages trying to read all the manuals and learn the books to get this game to play.'
Atlassian co-founders Scott Farquhar (left) and Mike Cannon-Brookes (right) pictured with their partners
The duo started the Atlassian Foundation, which is the philanthropic arm of their company, in an attempt to give back to the community
Farquhar said he would visit his friend's house to play on the computer, until one day about three months later he came home to find one waiting for him
Farquhar returned to his childhood home in Castle Hill for Wednesday night's episode of Home Delivery, and fondly recalled his time growing up there.
'Going from sharing a bedroom with my brother to having my own bedroom was an amazing accomplishment,' he laughed.
'The concept of having lots of money to spend is something that I'm probably still grappling with.'
Farquhar, who is now worth about AUD$16billion but still drives a $40,000 Subaru Outback, said he is constantly trying to work out the best way to spend his fortune to help the community.
'How to spend it correctly to make the biggest impact in the world,' he said.
The duo started the Atlassian Foundation, which is the philanthropic arm of their company, in an attempt to give back to the community.
Scott Farquhar (left) and Mike Cannon-Brookes (right) were classmates at University of New South Wales
The pair met at school and decided to start a business together so they didn't have to get 'real jobs'
'We've got money to give away,' he said. 'We do girls' education in developing countries... we're trying to get every company on the planet to give one per cent of their profit... we want it changed so that every company gives back as part of being.'
Farquhar's friendship and partnership with Cannon-Brookes is as solid as ever, despite the somewhat rocky start to their friendsihp.
'I thought the people who'd came from private schools were a little bit arrogant in the first day of university,' he explained after revealing Cannon-Brookes' upbringing.
'They kind of looked down, I think, on us public school people.'
But the pair became fast friends regardless of their backgrounds, and soon Farquhar was invited into an email from Cannon-Brookes along with a handful of other students asking if they'd be interested in starting a business together.
'The email said: ''Let's not get a real job... let's not have to wear a suit to work. If we can earn the same amount that our colleagues are earning we'll have won'',' Farquhar explained.
More than 3,000 Atlassian staff work at 10 offices worldwide, including Sydney, San Francisco, Austin, Amsterdam and Manila
'There were a few people who were interested originally, but they dropped out one by one, risk-averse, or they wanted a real job, so it ended up just being the two of us starting this company.
'It wasn't originally started because we wanted to change the world. That came later. It was started because we didn't want to get a real job and thought we could do something interesting.'
The pair were 'winging it' for the first few years. They sought advice from a venture capitalist who begged them to change their tactics because they'd never make money on the trajectory they were on.
But they stuck to their guns and eventually dropped the venture capitalist all together when they realised they were succeeding on their own.
Now, 18 years on, the company is worth an estimated AUD$50billion - a far cry from the $10,000 credit card debt they started the business with.
