Mike Cannon-Brookes & Scott Farquhar
University of New South Wales, Australia · Atlassian
Two Australian Students Who Built a $40 Billion Software Empire With No VC
21 March 2026
Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar met studying IT at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. In 2002, fresh out of university, they started Atlassian with $10,000 charged to a credit card. Neither had any business experience.
No VC, No Problem
Remarkably, Atlassian never raised venture capital during its growth phase. The company was profitable from early on, selling Jira (project tracking) and Confluence (team collaboration) to software development teams through a self-service model with no sales team.
Enterprise Adoption
Atlassian's products became the standard toolset for software engineering teams worldwide. By keeping prices low and the product excellent, they built intense loyalty among developers.
$40 Billion IPO
Atlassian went public on the NASDAQ in 2015 at a $4.4 billion valuation and has since grown to over $40 billion. Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar became two of Australia's wealthiest people. Their story proves that bootstrapping without VC can produce companies just as large — and often more sustainably — than venture-backed ones.
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