Who would have thought that Silicon Valley and Sydney have something in common?
Apparently they do – technology.
That seems to be the lesson learned from the story of Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes, two dropouts from the University of New South Wales. The two got into the start up field while living in Australia. They worked out of a garage in Sydney and started the company on $10,000 of credit card debt. Now, a few years later, they have just raised $60 million after selling a minority stake to a larger US venture capital firm.
Their company, Atlassian, sells software that enhances product development and allows businesses to manage workflow seamlessly. It also developed a range of tools catering exclusively to software developers and is used by some of the top software companies in the world.
The amazing and encouraging thing for people living in Australia is the pride that the two thirty year old millionaires take in their homeland. “We built the first version of our product while working in the garage (in Sydney, Australia) before we even had our first office. We want to grow it to a billion dollar business and be the first Australian software company to do that.”
After starting out with the modest goal of just attempting “to earn as much money as our friends were earning working for soul destroying consulting companies like IBM or PriceWaterhouseCoopers” the young entrepreneurs have now set their sights much higher. Now they are also attempting to bring Australia’s reputation as a technology creator along for the ride. “Our goal is to be known as the Australian success story, as a company that everyone in Australia knows and can point to and say, wow, those guys have done a really good job and we’re really proud of them.”
This is truly a breakthrough moment for the two native Australians and for all of Australia. Beaches, night life and barbecues have often been the mantra when attempting to lure people into living in Australia. Farquhar and Cannon-Brookes have shown that there is more to the beautiful country than the great outdoors.