Starter day presentation art of the bootstrap
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Atlassian grew from a startup founded by two people in a garage to a $60 million company within 8 years by following a bootstrap business model. Key aspects of their model included making their enterprise software affordable, self-selling, globally accessible, and open so that customers would buy it without a sales team. They also used their own products and measured everything to improve their model as it evolved.
Starter day presentation art of the bootstrap
- 1. Art of the Bootstrap From garage to $60 million in 8 years Mike Cannon-Brookes Scott Farquhar mike@atlassian.com scott@atlassian.com
- 2. Atlassian
- 3. 1 Start with two
- 4. Share the low points
- 5. Share the high points
- 6. Share the high points
- 7. Half each
- 8. biz 2 Need a ^ model Not all models work for bootstapping
- 9. Enterprise Software Atlassian Model
- 10. Model Evolution •No $ for sales team? Must sell itself •Sell itself? Must be low price •Low $? Must sell 000s of copies •000s of copies? Must sell globally •Customer must buy, we can’t sell sell itself
- 11. Model Evolution •No $ for sales team? Must sell itself •Sell itself? Must be low price •Low $? Must sell 000s of copies •000s of copies? Must sell globally •Customer must buy, we can’t sell sell itself affordable
- 12. Model Evolution •No $ for sales team? Must sell itself •Sell itself? Must be low price •Low $? Must sell 000s of copies •000s of copies? Must sell globally •Customer must buy, we can’t sell sell itself affordable global
- 13. Model Evolution •No $ for sales team? Must sell itself •Sell itself? Must be low price •Low $? Must sell 000s of copies •000s of copies? Must sell globally •Customer must buy, we can’t sell sell itself affordable global open
- 14. 3 Use your own product
- 15. You are your own best customer
- 16. 4 Measure everything
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- 18. Make decisions
- 19. Test everything ... and fail fast!
- 20. Trial and error
- 21. 5 Always be closing mark eting
- 22. Be loud & unique Buy the beer at the conference
- 25. Make everything a campaign
- 26. Market to your employees
- 27. “One of my housemates just had his first day at Atlassian today, and he came home talking about how when he arrived his workstation and user accounts were already ready to go, and he had a desk with a welcome card and some chocolates. He was really buzzed about working there. I'm sure there are a lot of people directly and indirectly responsible for that experience, but I know how this kind of culture tends to start at the top. I just wanted to say congratulations, because it sounds like you've created the kind of environment where your staff feel valued from the second they walk in the door, and want to brag to their friends when they get home.” Market to your employees
- 28. You can be too clever
- 29. 6 Your first idea will fail
- 30. Ours did
- 31. Ours did
- 32. 7 Long-term thinking
- 33. The Mission “To be the best in the world... sir!” - Maverick, Top Gun
- 34. The Mission “Our mission is to build a different kind of software company. A company that listens to client needs, values innovation in development and solves customer problems with brilliant simplicity. Our commitment to legendary service provides consistent, high quality support for all our customers.”
- 35. The Mission “Create useful products people lust after”
- 36. 50,000 customers Have lofty goals
- 37. 8 Know when to switch gears
- 39. Learn to let people go
- 40. 9 Build somewhere you want to work
- 41. “It is promising that Atlassian received such high calibre applications for mine to be discontinued”
- 43. Open company, no bullshit. Build with heart and balance. Don’t fuck the customer. Play, as a team. Be the change you seek.
- 47. Events
- 49. 1 Start with two 6 Your first idea will fail 2 Needs a business model 7 Long-term thinking 3 Use your own product 8 Know when to switch gears 4 Test everything 9 Build somewhere you want to work 5 Always be marketing 10 Give experiences
- 50. Thank You Mike Cannon-Brookes Scott Farquhar mike@atlassian.com scott@atlassian.com
Editor's Notes
- #2: I gave this speech over 2 hours to a group of MBA students. I’m hoping you’re faster than they are :)
- #3: Talk about customers, staff, growth.
- #4: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jinterwas/3867619406/sizes/l/in/pool-44307958@N00/
- #10: High price, high touch sale Aggressive discounting High cost / lead Expensive sales people ~40% prof services revenue ‘Self service’ enterprise software Straight line business! Reasonable price, no discount $1-5k / server No professional services Legendary service Extreme openness “Cheapware”
- #17: Story about being shit scared opening a bank account
- #19: We use Confluence, make it available to everyone.
- #20: We use Confluence, make it available to everyone.
- #21: We use Confluence, make it available to everyone.
- #22: We use Confluence, make it available to everyone.
- #23: We use Confluence, make it available to everyone.
- #24: We use Confluence, make it available to everyone.
- #25: We use Confluence, make it available to everyone.
- #26: Imperfect information. Not 100% certain
- #27: Analysis Paralysis - always incomplete information Dropped Google Ads
- #28: Specific hypothesis: - needed to be in America. Support, legendary service - close to customers: Investment banks, once face to face.
- #32: Make joke how we’re buying beer today. Bought beer at the biz of s/w conference. Zendesk have done all their marketing in the flesh. Blogging is still huge, but needs to be authentic JavaPossie.
- #48: Hiring 32 people. Starter campaign. Others?
- #51: Evan Williams - Pyra Labs (project management s/w) -> Blogger. Odeo (video syndication) -> Twitter Discuss how we did OrionSupport, and ended up at Oracle. Crappy business, people calling you in the middle of the night. Our side project: JIRA. Help support customers. Oracle bought the company, we got shut out. And remember - your first idea will fail. Ours did.
- #58: Profits first Don't build to flip.
- #59: http://www.teamspeed.com/forums/aviation/17910-most-memorable-f-14-pictures.html
- #62: German & Italian car example
- #63: Be cheap for long enough. Then don't be. Two people in a hotel room. Shared bathrooms $48 / night. Borrow office space. Got too big. $100 / month. Time to have our own space for culture. Major transport hubs
- #64: Shift to SaaS. Big bet for us. CFO asking why spending money on business that is not making money. Changing our pricing models
- #65: Hiring people - at the start, everyone needs to be all-round. Marketing, conferences, write code. Specialists who are great at functions. They cost more. Tough to bring in management. The good old days. Some people like being generalists. Tough transitions. Had all engineers doing support, as we grew - they sucked. Formation of support team
- #66: We have let over 30 people. Hard & constructive. Hardest thing you have to do, one of the most important. Trust your gut. Most of them are doing better than ever. 80% hiring success rate - if you don’t let them go - you end up with a big company. Biz outgrows. 0-50, 200-2000. Let a senior person go, everyone shakes their head - why? But then 2 months later, you start finding out - why not earlier?
- #68: It all starts with hiring. First interview - Owen in pub. Slept on floor. Behavioural interview. 3 hour. Discuss Ted vs Kevin Become known for our high standards 100 applicants for every job.
- #71: Everything on the wiki. Sales numbers, quarterly goals.
- #72: 1% model - 1% revenue, 1% equity, 1% employee time Train students, bat habitat, habitat for humanity
- #73: 5 year bonus is to give people a trip rather than money Can't afford the black-tie dinner. Anton a weekend away. First time he worked a weekend. End of financial year party - slightly off the wall crazy company events. Archery is simple, but make it a robin hood day - very different.
- #74: All the rooms were locked off with tape - projector set up. Everyone told to sit down & wait. Movie started playing
- #75: Split the teams up - team building
- #76: Talk about Campaign Monitor’s party. Talk about taking photos of people in cabs