The combination of an Australian headquarters, a Nasdaq listing, and customers around the world means that Mike Cannon-Brookes usually has his first coffee of the day before he opens his laptop at 5 am.
asserted
he → mean → am
But Atlassian’s co-founder and CEO sees his location as one of the reasons why his enterprise software company has grown to a $48 billion valuation, making him one of Australia’s wealthiest entrepreneurs.
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him → see → entrepreneurs
Straddling the Pacific Ocean can be both a source of frustration and differentiation, Cannon-Brookes says.
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Brookes → straddle → frustration
Sydney’s diversified economy makes it “a great microcosm,” where Atlassian can test whether ideas hatched in California’s Bay Area will work in less tech-forward cities around the world.
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ideas → make → world
Even far from the “froth and bubbles” of Silicon Valley, Atlassian has been caught up in US investors’ mood swings over whether AI will hurt or help software companies like his.
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AI → catch → his
Atlassian’s stock has leapt 230% from an April low, helped by stronger-than-expected earnings, but is still 60% below its late-2021 peak.
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stock → leap → peak
Cannon-Brookes says the evidence he’s seen so far suggests that customers will spend more with Atlassian as they use AI more heavily.
uncertain
they → say → AI
“The most AI-centric, the most AI-native, those are actually the customers that are expanding the fastest for us.”
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that → expand → us
Here’s how he explains what it’s offering them, and why he’s advising other CEOs to make big bets on AI, even if they won’t all pay out.
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they → ’ → AI
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
What’s your routine in Sydney?
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routine → edit → Sydney
I start most days at 5 am.
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I → start → am
I work 5 to 7, then kids 7 to 9, then work 9 to 3.
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I → work → 3
I’m not one of these early-risers that gets up, does some journaling, drinks some water, goes to the gym, that sort of thing.
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that → ’m → thing
It’s more like [I wake up at] 4:45 am, make an espresso, and get to the computer, which is less healthy than all the journaling and meditation kind of stuff.
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which → ’ → stuff
I’m interested in the challenge of building a company this big from Sydney.
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I → ’m → Sydney
You’ve straddled the US and Australia for a long time, but it sounds like you think the time zone is not a disadvantage.
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zone → straddle → time
I travel an awful lot.
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I → travel → ?
When you’ve got a global customer base, at some point it doesn’t matter where you are [based].
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you → get → point
But I think one of Atlassian’s biggest hidden advantages is having one foot in Silicon Valley and one foot squarely outside of Silicon Valley, in a large traditional corporate market.
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one → think → market
We’re fast adopters of technology, but we’re not super technology-driven.
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we → ’re → technology
I always say you get the froth and bubbles of Silicon Valley.
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you → say → Valley
This amazing “I’m going to change the world” attitude has produced some of the most incredible businesses ever.
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attitude → go → businesses
And at the same time, sometimes there’s a lot of technology that’s applicable between San Francisco and San Jose, and nowhere else in the world.
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that → ’ → world
We take the ideas from Silicon Valley, and we try to make sure those ideas apply in Sydney, which is a proxy for every other big city in the world.
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which → take → world
Atlassian is going to be 25 years old next year.
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Atlassian → go → ?
How do you describe the company’s place in the market now?
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you → describe → market
We help companies run business processes, and collaborate around those processes in a variety of different areas that are critical glue to how a company actually runs on a daily basis.
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company → help → basis
We don’t handle their accounting system, their email, or their calendar.
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We → handle → system
We handle all of the glue in between the systems for their business teams, their technology teams, their service teams, and their leadership teams, and try to bring that together into repeatable business processes.
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We → handle → processes
Which sounds naff, but a great company is just actually a collection of processes that [also allow people to] innovate and change and collaborate.
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people → sound → processes
The intelligence and creativity of the people is what makes it a beautiful mess.
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it → make → people
You’ve been talking about ‘context’ as the great AI bottleneck.
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You → talk → bottleneck
What exactly is the context problem that your customers are dealing with?
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customers → deal → that
AI models are intelligence, and you can rent intelligence from lots of different model providers.
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you → rent → providers
It’s a fantastic battle [between them] that we’re all benefiting from because the intelligence power that we’re being given is going up continually.
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we → ’ → that
But models lack wisdom and knowledge.
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models → lack → wisdom
They have a lot of generalized knowledge.
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They → have → knowledge
Ask any model in the world where Einstein was born, and they’ll give you the answer.
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they → ask → answer
If you ask, ‘When is this project due?’ they have no idea because it’s not in the model; it’s in your company.
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it → ask → company
So you have to bring that knowledge from the company with the intelligence of the model.
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you → have → model
…and 36 more, not listed.
The Aporia
