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GOING PLACES
Not many twenty-something businessmen have 100 staff, offices in Sydney and San Francisco and revenues of an estimated $20 million a year.
Atlassian Software co-CEOs Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar can also boast customers such as GE, Lockheed Martin, McDonald’s and Harvard University and deliver software to about 90 countries.
Since its launch in 2002, Atlassian has filled a niche with its enterprise software solutions, including JIRA, a bug-tracking and project management application that is being used by more than 5000 organisations around
the world.
Cannon-Brookes says while the company’s rise has been rapid
“we’ve always moved in a commonsense manner – it’s fast but not reckless”. He had confidence from day one in Atlassian’s ability to solve customers’ needs.
“In a classic sort of case, (we) sold a couple of copies and then a couple more copies and kept investing in it over a period of years.”
For all the product development that is required to stay competitive, Cannon-Brookes says managing people growth has been the hardest task. The aim has been to maintain a desirable working culture inside the company – “and that doesn’t just mean free softdrinks and comfortable chairs.”
Hiring staff with the right personalities and skill-sets has been critical to business success.
Cannon-Brookes explains: “Just because people have the technical skills to do the job doesn’t necessarily mean by a long shot that they’ll get a job here. It’s about building a team of people who you want to work with.”
Other challenges have arisen. First, scaling and upgrading systems to handle growing volumes of traffic is tough in such a rapidly growing company (“You’re changing the engine in the car as it’s moving”). Second, product development has had to continue even as Atlassian is meeting present demands (“It doesn’t matter how good your scalability is – if you don’t have a product that anyone wants there’s not a lot of point”). And third, market timing around when to forge a new international presence or when to hold back is often a conundrum (“That can be a very difficult balance to strike”).
So far, Atlassian seems to be making good decisions and it has been able to fund expansion through organic growth. The company is developing new products and has recently acquired Cenqua, which adds three new products to its portfolio.
At the same time, Cannon-Brookes says the management team will not make the mistake of chasing growth for growth’s sake.
“There’s a huge drive in businesses to get to the proverbial next level,” he says. “We didn’t get into this to build a big company. We got into it to have some fun and to do something fulfilling.”
SALES PLEASE...
AND MAKE IT QUICK
In determining fast-growth companies, professional
services firm Deloitte – the creator of the Technology Fast 50 list – has a simple rule: check out revenue growth.
Deloitte Growth Solutions national leader David Murray says entrepreneurs know that to grow quickly they need to make sales.
“It’s the thrill of the chase and winning new revenue is a great boost,” he says. “So it’s the logical measure to use in looking at fast-growing companies.”
Murray summarises some of the common traits of businesses or entrepreneurs on the rise.
- Passion is a prerequisite for success (“They have a clear vision in mind.”)
- Mentors help speed up their expansion (“Getting advisors involved at an early stage and using the appropriate advice is a major platform for growth”)
- External funding from banks, government or private equity investors is often crucial (“Using external capital at the appropriate time, in the appropriate amounts, is critical to growing your business.”)
- Robust internal structures and processes underpin the business (“This is one area that entrepreneurs hate getting involved with …
(but) you’ve got to have a business that is scalable for growth.”) - Culture is king (“You develop a culture over time and it starts with the individual and builds as people come on board.”).
