Atlassian went public in New York with almost no sales force. Two university friends in Sydney had built a company that sold Jira and Confluence on its website at low prices, and teams bought them with a credit card. The tools spread from one team to the next. When Atlassian filed in November 2015, it was a rare Australian tech company listing in the United States, and enterprise software usually came with a large sales team attached.

Two Friends and a Credit Card

Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar met at the University of New South Wales. They founded Atlassian in Sydney in 2002 and funded it with about A$10,000 on a credit card. Their first big product, Jira, tracked bugs and tasks for software teams. Confluence, a shared wiki, followed. The bet was that good, cheap tools sold online would find their own buyers. Atlassian spent its money on product instead of salespeople.

TEAM on the Nasdaq

Atlassian priced at $21 a share on December 9, 2015, above its range, and listed on the Nasdaq as TEAM. The stock closed its first day at $27.78, up 32 percent, and the company was worth about $5.8 billion. In 2022 Atlassian moved its legal home from the United Kingdom to the United States. Farquhar stepped down as co-CEO in 2024, and the company still trades on the Nasdaq as TEAM.

Cover: Atlas of the World, Meissen Porcelain Manufactory. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for Atlas holding up the world (the titan behind the name).