Greg Mand

@wabi build me an app that tracks my workouts.

@rafat Laughing because a few days ago I told a friend that I have disliked sparkling water ever since my first sip of Perrier in Rome nearly 40 years ago!

Every time I travel to Europe, I question my relationship with water and come back with the right answer: yep, sparkling water sucks.

@jspujji Cap table….Doug Burgum…North Dakota governor and R prez candidate!

These two mediocre students did everything wrong while taking on $10k in credit card debt and turning it into a $67 BILLION company. The crazy part? They were profitable from day 1. This is a wild story 👇👇👇 1. Mike Cannon-Brookes met Scott Farquhar on their first day at the University of New South Wales in Sydney Neither was a great student. Scott was average, while Mike barely graduated. But they’re lives changed with one email in 2001… 2. Mike really didn’t want to “get a real job” and have to wear a suit everyday. So he emailed a few classmates that had been handling outsourced IT work with an idea: let’s start a company! Scott was the only one to respond. They became co-CEOs of “Atlassian” with the idea to launch a bootstrapped software company so they could earn as much as their friends with normal jobs. But timing wasn’t great… 3. The dotcom bubble had just burst. So, Scott took a temporary gig to pay the bills while Mike did support services/fixed bugs for overseas clients. They used email to track and manage the bugs and fixes they had. But it didn’t work well at all! 4. Plus, they hated it. So, they came up with a better idea… JIRA - a bug and issue logging/tracking tool. They named it after “Gojira” which means Godzilla in Japanese. By the end of 2002, the company was doing over $1M in sales. They started developing their own model for how software businesses should look. Needless to say, it wasn’t conventional, but it did start working… 5. Within 5 years, they were doing over $15M in ARR. Then, they expanded to the US. They even hired their first employee who was not their friend. 6. With all their growth, they started to look for “adult supervision”… but Atlassian style. They found Jeff Walker who was an experienced software executive but also a jazz musician who they described as “the least responsible 50 year old” they’d ever met. He helped lead the business to over $50MM in ARR. Then tragedy struck… 7. Walker passed away in 2009 from Cancer. Mike and Scott were heartbroken and their company was leaderless. Right around that time, they received a $500M+ offer. Both were just married, they were tempted to sell and ride off into the sunset. But, they took another path instead… They doubled down on Atlassian. 8. In April 2010, they took $60M from Accel (none of which they needed) to increase their legitimacy and raise the profile of the biz. By 2012, they committed to going Public and put together a 10 year plan. They would build and acquire software that serves developers and fit their criteria (cheap, bought not sold, etc) They acquired tools like hipchat, cenqua, opsgenie, status page and Trello (and very recently Loom). They would win and win BIG… 9. In Dec 2015, they went public with a $5.8BN market cap. Mike and Scott were Billionaires, owning the majority of the company! But they weren’t done… 10. They committed to continuing to scale Atlassian with their original core values… • Open company, no bullshit • Build with heart and balance • Don’t #@!% the customer • Play, as a team • Be the change you seek 11. They’ve also maintained their unconventional strategic principals: • Multiple products • The "twin rocket engines" of Jira and Confluence (that deliver $1.2B in revenue) • Low priced enterprise software • No massive sales team • HQ thousands of miles from Silicon Valley 12. In a tech backwater, these 2 nerdy misfits inspired a generation and launched a $67B bootstrapped Giant 7,419 miles from San Francisco The true impact of Atlassian is in the wave of $1B+ Aussie tech giants like BigCommerce, Canva, and Xero that have come since. That's amazing. Why I love this story, it’s a reminder that: • Focus on what you do best • ABG | Always be growing • Build what you know, buy the rest • Great products beat great sales • Culture builds teams, teams build companies • And that anyone can do it… If you enjoyed this story, follow me! I tweet Bootstrapped Giant stories like this every week RT to share this amazing story!!

@sm Smiling because 6 years ago last week was the viral video of the BBC interview with the S.Korea expert when his kids came into the room! :)

Live from my kids' playroom this AM: #sp=show-clips" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">video.foxbusiness.com/v/632255961111…

@BonaFideMasks Love their Powecom masks and fantastic customer service as well! Quick reply and resolved the issue immediately. Thanks!

@alexisohanian Govt Center Boston. ps. Wahoowa!

How many of you can tell where I am just based on this section of the photo?

@dlitwak @tknewyork is an AMAZING event producer!!

We're doing an event planners only mixer Maxwell Social on Feb 21st. What NYC events people should we invite? Tag them.

@jspujji Fantastic news friend!! Still recall meeting you guys in the super duper early days. Happy for you!!

Here is the press. AMPUSH WAS ACQUIRED!!!! adexchanger.com/agencies/tinui…

I just sold my company for life changing $$$. 13 years later, I'm an overnight success. Here are 13 lessons from the journey, by year:

@sm LOL'ing! Is that a thing? :) Wearing mine today as well. Too lazy to take a pic. Go Birds!

IYKYK #FlyEaglesFly

@jspujji It never hurts to ask.

What's the best advice you've ever been given?

@VessiFootwear @harleyf Everyday Classic Marine Blue. Testing waterproof ability running errands tomorrow. 🤣

@gmand @harleyf This is AMAZING! What style did you go for?

Doing some early holiday shopping, and I want to buy from entrepreneurs and fun independent brands who are the best at what they do. Send me your suggestions! I’m looking for ideas 💚🙂

@sm Was an unreal night at the Bank!

So so proud of these guys ❤️

Nice work @NBCSports to drop in @thehooters music on the outro! Keeping things local!! @EricBazilian #gobirds

@sm Hope things go smoothly and I'll keep up the Phightins and Iggles love while you're recovering.

Getting all-day surgery tomorrow so going to be off this app for a bit. If I don’t make it, please tell the @Phillies & @Eagles that I love them! And enjoy the final picture of my boobs in their massive form 🤣

@jspujji Mark Twain once said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” 🤓 Great analogy for tackling hardest tasks first!

Here's an effective productivity strategy for a lot of people: Do the most important thing first each day.

@markv747 Thx for your article! I recently moved back to my hometown into a different house than the one in which I grew up but I'm thinking about visiting my childhood home...my young daughter wants to see where I kicked a hole in the wall! :)

@sm Come visit me in Delaware! Still another 10 days to go!

I’m a self proclaimed “childcare expert” yet somehow I have managed to have the only 3 children left in the United States who haven’t gone back to school yet #FML

@hunterwalk Looooong wait here in Delaware until Sept 6th! :)

@wes_kao Love this….my short version is in all types of these situations….how does what I’m asking for solve a problem/remove a pain for the other person?

Most people suck at asking for things. Here’s an easy framework for how to ask (and get a yes):