Atlassian announced as GQ Entrepreneur Of The Year

Atlassian founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar have been announced As GQ Entrepreneurs Of The Year at the Australian award ceremony in Sydney.

It was in 2002 that university mates Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar founded Atlassian. That they did so with a $10,000 credit card is now tech folklore.

Today, those same two guys are worth a billion-plus each; Atlassian is valued at more than $7bn and the company’s suite of software products is used by more than 50,000 global customers, from companies including Facebook, NASA – yes, that NASA – Twitter, Tesla, eBay, Amazon, Cochlear, Virgin Media, Audi, CISCO, LinkedIn, Skyscanner... seriously, we could be here a while.

They're our Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg equivalents, and we're proud to crown them as GQ Entrepreneurs Of The Year. 

Accepting their award, Farquhar said: 

"I want to thank GQ for having an entrepreneurial category. And thank you for choosing Atlassian. Historically, in Australia we've celebrated mining success, digging stuff out of the ground. 

As a country we need to decide are we going to be a technology consumer, buying stuff from everyone else? Or do we want to maintain our way of life, and be technology producers? So thank you GQ for shining a light on the importance of technology."

Source: GQ Australia

Photo: David Cohen De Lara