Traditionally, the sales cycle for business software has been long.
And it often requires the support of a salesforce, which can certainly be expensive (such as with commissions and travel/entertainment).
But there is a company that has found a way to scale its software business without any salespeople: Atlassian. Founded in 2002, it now has more than 24,000 customers across 138 countries. Some of the brands include American Express (NYSE:AXP), eBay (Nasdaq:EBAY) and IKEA.
In fact, Atlassian was profitable from the start. Then again, it had no choice. The company had to rely on a $10,000 credit card loan.
“Our goal was to build a great product,” said Scott Farquhar, who is the co-founder and CEO. The first offering was JIRA, which helped with tracking software bugs. “We wanted to make it extremely easy to install and use. It was about applying the consumer model to business software. From there, we benefited from word-of-mouth marketing.”
Scott realized that to get adoption, the software had to also be inexpensive. This meant there was often no need to get approval from the C-suite.
Another key was the simplicity of the sales process. “We have a standard contract and there are no discounts,” said Scott. “We do not want to waste time and money on legal.”
Over the years, Atlassian has leveraged its growing footprint. The result has been more products, such as Confluence, Bamboo and Crowd.
Interestingly enough, about a year ago Atlassian received a $60 million investment from Accel Partners, which is a tier-1 venture capitalist. It was actually the firm’s largest investment in a software company.
“We want to have a company that’s built to last,” said Scott.
Atlassian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Atlassian
Type Private
Industry Software
Founded 2002
Headquarters Sydney, Australia
Key people Mike Cannon-Brookes
Scott Farquhar
Products JIRA
Confluence
Stash
Bitbucket
HipChat
Crowd
Bamboo
GreenHopper (now JIRA Agile)
SourceTree
FishEye
Clover
Crucible
Bonfire (now JIRA Capture)
Confluence Team Calendars
Revenue $102 million (2011)
Employees 600+[1]
Website Atlassian
Atlassian /ˈætlæsiʌn/ is an Australian enterprise software company that develops products geared towards software developers and project managers.[2][3][4] It is best known for its issue tracking application, JIRA, and its team collaboration product, Confluence.[3][5]Atlassian serves over 25,000 customers globally, and its clients include Audi, NASA, Twitter, Infor, and Cisco.[2][3][6][7][1]
Atlassian is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.[2] It also has offices in Amsterdam andSan Francisco. As of May 2013, the company has over 600 employees.[1]On Valentines Day of 2014, Atlassian president Jay Simons announced the opening of an Austin office that will eventually employ 600.
Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Revenue Model
3 Products and Services
4 Motivation
5 Awards and Recognition
6 External links
7 References
History[edit]
Atlassian was founded in 2002 by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar.[2][1] The pair met while studying at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.[8] They bootstrappedthe company for several years, financing the startup with a $10,000 credit card debt.[5] In July 2010, Atlassian raised $60 million in venture capital from Accel Partners.[6]
In 2006, Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar were named Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneurs of the Year.[9] The two also maintain a 100% GlassDoor rating.[10]
In March 2011, the company raised $1 million for the charity Room to Read from sales of its $10 “Starter” licenses.[11]
Revenue Model[edit]
Atlassian does not have a traditional sales team. Instead, it lists all prices, information about products, documentation, support requests, and training materials on its website.[12] The company does not offer discounts, with the exception of academic and charity organizations.[13] All products are available as hosted or installed versions, starting at $10 for 10 licenses, but pricing does not scale up linearly. In 2011, Atlassian announced bookings of $102 million, up 35% from the year before.[14]
Products and Services[edit]
Atlassian provides developers and project managers with hosted or installed software falling into six categories: Project and Issue Tracking Software, Collaboration and Content Sharing, DVCS Solutions, Code Quality, AddOns, and Training Products.
Atlassian’s flagship product is JIRA, a project and issue tracker, which was released in 2002. The following year it released Confluence, a team collaboration platform that lets users work together on projects, co-create content, and share documents and other media assets.[15]
In 2010, Atlassian acquired Bitbucket, a hosted service for code collaboration.[16] In May 2012, the company launched a Marketplace website where customers can download plug-ins for various Atlassian products.[17][18] That year, Atlassian also released Stash, a Git repository for enterprises.
Additional products include Crucible, FishEye, Bamboo, and Clover, which are targeted at programmers working with a code base. FishEye, Crucible and Clover were added to Atlassian's portfolio through the acquisition of another Australian software company, Cenqua in 2007.[19] In 2012, Atlassian acquired HipChat, an instant messenger for workplace environments. In 2013 they announced the launch of JIRA Service Desk, a service desk product with full SLA support.
Motivation[edit]
Atlassian also began a now-popular tradition at software companies where software developers can spend 24 hours tackling any problem they like. Atlassian calls these ShipIt Days, though for years they were known as FedEx Days until FedEx asked for its name to be disassociated with the process.[20]
Author Daniel Pink devoted a chapter to Atlassian's FedEx Days in his bestselling business motivation book, Drive, and the concept has been adopted elsewhere, Pink noted.[21]
Awards and Recognition[edit]
Company Awards[22]
Annual Computerworld Honors Program Names 2012 Laureates[23]
Best Places to Work finalists revealed[24]
Atlassian Wins Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Award[25]
Technology Pioneers[26]
External links[edit]
Official Website
References[edit]
^ Jump up to:
a b c d "We Love Software". Atlassian. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
^ Jump up to:
a b c d Moses, Asher (15 July 2010). "From Uni dropouts to software magnates". The Sydney Morning Herald.
^ Jump up to:
a b c "Why Atlassian is to Software as Apple is to Design". Forbes. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Finley, Klint. "Atlassian Challenges GitHub to a Fork Fight". Wired. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
^ Jump up to:
a b Mckenzie, Hamish. "Hard yakka: Why Atlassian’s founders are the pride of Australia’s startup world". PandoDaily. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
^ Jump up to:
a b Tam, Pui-Wing. "Accel Invests $60 Million in Atlassian". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Williams, Alex. "Atlassian Extends Confluence Collaboration Platform, Now Competing More With Jive Software And Other Social Providers". TechCrunch. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Asher, Moses. "From Uni dropouts to software magnates". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ "Ali Moore speaks with Michael Cannon-Brookes (video)". YouTube.com. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ "The 25 Highest Rated CEOs that are Hiring Now (CHART)". Forbes. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Cannon-Brookes, Mike. "You did it! Atlassian raises $1 million for Room to Read". Atlassian Blogs. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Fidelman, Mark. "Why Atlassian is to Software as Apple is to Design". Forbes. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ "Licensing & Purchasing FAQ". Atlassian. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Schonfeld, Erick. "Atlassian’s 2011 Revenues Were $102 Million With No Sales People". TechCrunch. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ "Products". Atlassian. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Rao, Leena. "Atlassian Buys Mercurial Project Hosting Site BitBucket". TechCrunch. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Miller, Kyle. "Browse, Try, Buy, on Atlassian Marketplace". Atlassian Blogs. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ "Atlassian announces app store for app developers". SD Times. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Burnette, Ed. "Atlassian acquires Cenqua, drops .NET". ZDNet. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Smith, Fiona. "Is Atlassian the coolest company in Australia?". BRW. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Pink, Daniel H. "How to deliver innovation overnight". Daniel H. Pink website. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ "Company Awards". Atlassian. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ "Annual Computerworld Honors Program Names 2012 Laureates". Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ "Best Places to Work finalists revealed". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Khalil, Laura. "Atlassian Wins Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Award". Atlassian Blogs. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ "Technology Pioneers". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Influencers in the Startup Space Australia 2013
And it often requires the support of a salesforce, which can certainly be expensive (such as with commissions and travel/entertainment).
But there is a company that has found a way to scale its software business without any salespeople: Atlassian. Founded in 2002, it now has more than 24,000 customers across 138 countries. Some of the brands include American Express (NYSE:AXP), eBay (Nasdaq:EBAY) and IKEA.
In fact, Atlassian was profitable from the start. Then again, it had no choice. The company had to rely on a $10,000 credit card loan.
“Our goal was to build a great product,” said Scott Farquhar, who is the co-founder and CEO. The first offering was JIRA, which helped with tracking software bugs. “We wanted to make it extremely easy to install and use. It was about applying the consumer model to business software. From there, we benefited from word-of-mouth marketing.”
Scott realized that to get adoption, the software had to also be inexpensive. This meant there was often no need to get approval from the C-suite.
Another key was the simplicity of the sales process. “We have a standard contract and there are no discounts,” said Scott. “We do not want to waste time and money on legal.”
Over the years, Atlassian has leveraged its growing footprint. The result has been more products, such as Confluence, Bamboo and Crowd.
Interestingly enough, about a year ago Atlassian received a $60 million investment from Accel Partners, which is a tier-1 venture capitalist. It was actually the firm’s largest investment in a software company.
“We want to have a company that’s built to last,” said Scott.
Atlassian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Atlassian
Type Private
Industry Software
Founded 2002
Headquarters Sydney, Australia
Key people Mike Cannon-Brookes
Scott Farquhar
Products JIRA
Confluence
Stash
Bitbucket
HipChat
Crowd
Bamboo
GreenHopper (now JIRA Agile)
SourceTree
FishEye
Clover
Crucible
Bonfire (now JIRA Capture)
Confluence Team Calendars
Revenue $102 million (2011)
Employees 600+[1]
Website Atlassian
Atlassian /ˈætlæsiʌn/ is an Australian enterprise software company that develops products geared towards software developers and project managers.[2][3][4] It is best known for its issue tracking application, JIRA, and its team collaboration product, Confluence.[3][5]Atlassian serves over 25,000 customers globally, and its clients include Audi, NASA, Twitter, Infor, and Cisco.[2][3][6][7][1]
Atlassian is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.[2] It also has offices in Amsterdam andSan Francisco. As of May 2013, the company has over 600 employees.[1]On Valentines Day of 2014, Atlassian president Jay Simons announced the opening of an Austin office that will eventually employ 600.
Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Revenue Model
3 Products and Services
4 Motivation
5 Awards and Recognition
6 External links
7 References
History[edit]
Atlassian was founded in 2002 by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar.[2][1] The pair met while studying at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.[8] They bootstrappedthe company for several years, financing the startup with a $10,000 credit card debt.[5] In July 2010, Atlassian raised $60 million in venture capital from Accel Partners.[6]
In 2006, Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar were named Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneurs of the Year.[9] The two also maintain a 100% GlassDoor rating.[10]
In March 2011, the company raised $1 million for the charity Room to Read from sales of its $10 “Starter” licenses.[11]
Revenue Model[edit]
Atlassian does not have a traditional sales team. Instead, it lists all prices, information about products, documentation, support requests, and training materials on its website.[12] The company does not offer discounts, with the exception of academic and charity organizations.[13] All products are available as hosted or installed versions, starting at $10 for 10 licenses, but pricing does not scale up linearly. In 2011, Atlassian announced bookings of $102 million, up 35% from the year before.[14]
Products and Services[edit]
Atlassian provides developers and project managers with hosted or installed software falling into six categories: Project and Issue Tracking Software, Collaboration and Content Sharing, DVCS Solutions, Code Quality, AddOns, and Training Products.
Atlassian’s flagship product is JIRA, a project and issue tracker, which was released in 2002. The following year it released Confluence, a team collaboration platform that lets users work together on projects, co-create content, and share documents and other media assets.[15]
In 2010, Atlassian acquired Bitbucket, a hosted service for code collaboration.[16] In May 2012, the company launched a Marketplace website where customers can download plug-ins for various Atlassian products.[17][18] That year, Atlassian also released Stash, a Git repository for enterprises.
Additional products include Crucible, FishEye, Bamboo, and Clover, which are targeted at programmers working with a code base. FishEye, Crucible and Clover were added to Atlassian's portfolio through the acquisition of another Australian software company, Cenqua in 2007.[19] In 2012, Atlassian acquired HipChat, an instant messenger for workplace environments. In 2013 they announced the launch of JIRA Service Desk, a service desk product with full SLA support.
Motivation[edit]
Atlassian also began a now-popular tradition at software companies where software developers can spend 24 hours tackling any problem they like. Atlassian calls these ShipIt Days, though for years they were known as FedEx Days until FedEx asked for its name to be disassociated with the process.[20]
Author Daniel Pink devoted a chapter to Atlassian's FedEx Days in his bestselling business motivation book, Drive, and the concept has been adopted elsewhere, Pink noted.[21]
Awards and Recognition[edit]
Company Awards[22]
Annual Computerworld Honors Program Names 2012 Laureates[23]
Best Places to Work finalists revealed[24]
Atlassian Wins Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Award[25]
Technology Pioneers[26]
External links[edit]
Official Website
References[edit]
^ Jump up to:
a b c d "We Love Software". Atlassian. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
^ Jump up to:
a b c d Moses, Asher (15 July 2010). "From Uni dropouts to software magnates". The Sydney Morning Herald.
^ Jump up to:
a b c "Why Atlassian is to Software as Apple is to Design". Forbes. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Finley, Klint. "Atlassian Challenges GitHub to a Fork Fight". Wired. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
^ Jump up to:
a b Mckenzie, Hamish. "Hard yakka: Why Atlassian’s founders are the pride of Australia’s startup world". PandoDaily. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
^ Jump up to:
a b Tam, Pui-Wing. "Accel Invests $60 Million in Atlassian". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Williams, Alex. "Atlassian Extends Confluence Collaboration Platform, Now Competing More With Jive Software And Other Social Providers". TechCrunch. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Asher, Moses. "From Uni dropouts to software magnates". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ "Ali Moore speaks with Michael Cannon-Brookes (video)". YouTube.com. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ "The 25 Highest Rated CEOs that are Hiring Now (CHART)". Forbes. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Cannon-Brookes, Mike. "You did it! Atlassian raises $1 million for Room to Read". Atlassian Blogs. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Fidelman, Mark. "Why Atlassian is to Software as Apple is to Design". Forbes. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ "Licensing & Purchasing FAQ". Atlassian. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Schonfeld, Erick. "Atlassian’s 2011 Revenues Were $102 Million With No Sales People". TechCrunch. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ "Products". Atlassian. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Rao, Leena. "Atlassian Buys Mercurial Project Hosting Site BitBucket". TechCrunch. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Miller, Kyle. "Browse, Try, Buy, on Atlassian Marketplace". Atlassian Blogs. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ "Atlassian announces app store for app developers". SD Times. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Burnette, Ed. "Atlassian acquires Cenqua, drops .NET". ZDNet. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Smith, Fiona. "Is Atlassian the coolest company in Australia?". BRW. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Pink, Daniel H. "How to deliver innovation overnight". Daniel H. Pink website. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ "Company Awards". Atlassian. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ "Annual Computerworld Honors Program Names 2012 Laureates". Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ "Best Places to Work finalists revealed". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ Khalil, Laura. "Atlassian Wins Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Award". Atlassian Blogs. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Jump up
^ "Technology Pioneers". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
Influencers in the Startup Space Australia 2013
