{"id":44947,"date":"2023-10-20T15:39:56","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/atlassian-founder-mike-cannon-brookes-on-growing-the-8-billion-tech-giant-without-any-funding-and-why-startups-shouldnt-get-venture-capital-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:39:56","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:39:56","slug":"atlassian-founder-mike-cannon-brookes-on-growing-the-8-billion-tech-giant-without-any-funding-and-why-startups-shouldnt-get-venture-capital-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/atlassian-founder-mike-cannon-brookes-on-growing-the-8-billion-tech-giant-without-any-funding-and-why-startups-shouldnt-get-venture-capital-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes on growing the $8 billion tech giant without any funding and why startups shouldn\u2019t get venture capital – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

When two suburban Australians set out to create a new tech company<\/a>, they didn\u2019t even bother trying to get any outside funding.<\/p>\n

As Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes told Kara Swisher on the Recode Decode podcast, it was 2002 and the idea of secure funding for a startup in Australia was virtually unheard of.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2002 it was nuclear winter for tech, we were two knuckleheads with no experience and we were in Australia,\u201d Cannon-Brookes says on the podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t even bother trying to get funding in the early days.\u201d<\/p>\n

And this proved to be a strategic advantage for Atlassian, with the founders forced to focus on generating revenue from day one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where our disruptive model came from \u2013 we had to be profitable. We didn\u2019t really have a choice,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was become profitable and grow or die. If you made it through that gauntlet then you become really successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says that three years into building the workplace collaboration software company investors started to become interested, but with the startup proving sustainable already, there wasn\u2019t any reason for the pair to take outside funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always asked them, \u2018why would we take money? We\u2019re growing and we\u2019re profitable\u2019,\u201d Cannon-Brookes says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would have a whole bunch of reasons and we wouldn\u2019t believe them so we\u2019d move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cannon-Brookes says that the typical Silicon Valley mentality of seeking huge funding rounds from the get-go is flawed, and founders should be more careful when toying with venture capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a mistake to have it as the default choice,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a mistake to not think about why you\u2019re doing it and what changes it\u2019ll make to your business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, with an IPO on the horizon, Atlassian closed a $60 million funding round from Accel in 2010.<\/p>\n

But Cannon-Brookes says this was all about a strategic partner and not the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was seven years in and we had our heads down for all that time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we looked up we had built something really special, we had a lot of runway ahead of us and we needed some help.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey originally wanted to put in more and we wanted them to put in less. We would\u2019ve taken $5 million. It was like a negotiation in reverse \u2013 the whole process was quite unusual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atlassian has now grown into a figurehead of the Australian tech sector, and recently completed a public listing in the US that valued the company at more than $8 billion.<\/a><\/p>\n

But the core values of the company remain the same, the founder says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur DNA as a company has always been to be profitable, to make money by selling things,\u201d Cannon-Brookes says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had gotten away from some of the bad habits you develop if you can always just go and get money.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DNA of the company has always been about driving customer value, selling software with a disruptive model and being quite lean about the way we do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter, LinkedIn and SoundCloud.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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