Atlassian
Unleash the potential in every team
TL;DR: Unleash the potential in every team.
Key Metrics
Milestones
Pricing
Sources
Timeline
2001
Mike Cannon-Brookes emails university classmates looking for co-founder. Scott Farquhar is the only respondent.
2002-01
Atlassian founded in Sydney, Australia. Bootstrapped with $10,000 in credit card debt.
2002-01
Started as two-man tech support service, managed from bedrooms at all hours.
2002-04
Jira released for download - built from own frustration with bug tracking tools.
2002-06
Begin using Google AdWords for distribution - one of first enterprise software companies to do so.
2002-12
Revenue reaches $1M in first year, distributed solely through the internet.
2003-01
300+ customers within first year of Jira launch.
2003-06
American Airlines places purchase order via fax after finding Jira on website - validates self-service model.
2003-12
Customer base grows to 1,000+.
2004-01
Confluence (wiki/knowledge base) launched as second product for same developer audience.
2004-12
2,000 paying customers. Multi-product strategy creates compounding growth.
2005-01
Atlassian becomes profitable - never unprofitable since. Just 3 years after founding with no VC.
2005-03
ShipIt (FedEx Days) quarterly hackathon program started.
2005-06
Revenue reaches $14.9M. Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar named EY Entrepreneurs of the Year.
2006-06
4,340 customers, 50 staff across Sydney and San Francisco.
2006-06
Atlassian Foundation launched - 1% of profits, products, equity, and employee hours pledged to nonprofits.
2007-01
Company values codified, reflecting organizational culture.
2007-06
Acquired Cenqua (Fisheye, Crucible, Clover developer tools). First acquisition.
2008-01
Jay Simons joins as president (~$20M ARR). Grows company to ~$2B during tenure.
2008-06
Community events grow to 24,000 annual users from grassroots origins.
2009-06
First Atlassian Summit in San Francisco with ~340 customers.
2010-07
Raised $60M from Accel Partners (secondary sale) - first VC after 8 years bootstrapped.
2010-09
Acquired Bitbucket (code hosting). Over 60,000 accounts.
2010-12
$50M+ ARR with 20,000+ customers including Facebook and Adobe. 43% 5-year CAGR.
2011-06
Reached $100M revenue without a sales team - major industry milestone.
2012-03
Acquired HipChat (group chat) with 1,200 customers.
2012-05
Atlassian Marketplace launched with 60 apps and integrations.
2015-12
IPO on NASDAQ (ticker: TEAM) at $21/share. Market cap $4.37B. Raised $462M. Stock up 30% on first day.
2017-01
Acquired Trello for $425M, expanding into broader project management.
2018-07
Sold HipChat/Stride IP to Slack. Strategic partnership instead of competing in team messaging.
2020-10
Announced server end of sale - forced cloud migration for all customers.
2021-06
$2.1B total revenue (29% YoY growth). 200,000+ customers. Cloud subscription up 50% YoY.
2023-12
Atlassian Intelligence (AI features) beta launched across Jira and Confluence.
2024-06
$4.4B ARR. 300,000+ customers. Market cap exceeds $50B.
Distribution
Growth Story
Two Australian uni graduates bootstrapped with $10K credit card debt, built Jira out of their own frustration with bug tracking tools, sold it online with no salespeople, and grew to $50M ARR with 20,000+ customers before taking first VC. Went public at $4.37B. The no-sales-team model became their defining competitive advantage.
Target Audience
Software development teams, project managers, and knowledge workers at companies of all sizes
Problem Solved
Teams lacked affordable, self-service tools for bug tracking, project management, and knowledge sharing. Existing enterprise tools were expensive, required sales negotiations, and were difficult to adopt bottom-up.