Last time I thought VP Marketing @ Atlassian was the Dream Job, but this one is better. Your job will be to compare beer quality in Amsterdam vs. what they sell at Atlassian’s (almost) in-house pub in Sydney. According to a commenter you may do some additional market research, too. 
Oh, well, here’s what they really want (cool company anyway).
Tags: atlassian, Beer, confluence, hiring, Humor, jira, wiki
Atlassian, a fast-growing, successful enterprise software company is looking for a VP of Marketing. I don’t normally broadcast job searches here, but am breaking that rule now for I believe this is a truly exceptional opportunity with a truly exceptional company. (Disclaimer: I have no business affiliation with Atlassian, but admit to being positively biased, as the company exemplifies a lot that I stand for.)
They are best known for two products: Jira, the issue tracking & software project management application was their first hit, putting the company on the fast growth track and establishing a loyal fan-base in the IT community. Their existing reputation in the IT community certainly helped the second product, Confluence, the enterprise wiki gain traction: it is now equally popular in the IT and business community. Wikis in general have become more commonly known in the past two years; once a tiny market niche, today a growing field where new entrants pop up left and right, claiming to be best in this and that…. But numbers talk, and the verdict is clear: Confluence is the undisputed enterprise wiki market leader.
Atlassian is not sitting on their laurels: in the past year they diversified, acquiring several companies and launching new products on their own. Frankly, I lost track, but I believe their portfolio currently includes 8 products, all part of an “IT toolkit”, with the exception of Confluence, which is seeing fast adoption amongst business users, too.
The customer list is impressive: IBM, HP, SAP, Citigroup, Boeing, BMW, Shell, McDonalds, Pfizer … just about all the Fortune 1000, as well as non-profits, Universities, Government Agencies, totaling over 9000 customers worldwide. (The chart is a bit misleading: Atlassian’s fiscal year starts in June, and the FY08 bar shows the current figure only, excluding projections.)
How did they achieve this? They must have an excellent sales force. Wrong! Atlassian has no sales force at all. They don’t sell: customers simply buy their products on their own. I often talk about the pull-model that’s replacing the traditional, expensive enterprise sales process (6-9 months, high touch, flights, meetings, wine-and-dining, entertaining, in the end often nuked by politics
) - but that’s typically in the context of Software as a Service, and in the SMB (small business) market. Atlassian’s products are mostly on-premise (although they now have a hosted version of Confluence) and their primary market is the large Enterprise. Yet they pulled off what amounts to a small miracle: essentially took the download.com, tucows style model we all know as consumers, and ported it to the enterprise space.
Of course having customers try-and-buy through the Internet is not as simple as firing your Sales team ( or not hiring one). It’s not a matter of a decision: it’ s a consistently applied philosophy, that you have to implement in every aspect of your business. The key components are:
features (what you’re getting, no surprises)
The “pull-model” means customers will need to find you- which is why Marketing is a critical function. With Sales gone, Marketing becomes sales (actually, Atlassian’s CEO proudly says everyone is in Sales, especially Support). So if you are a marketing superstar, or know one, want to be part of a successful team, work for celebrities , you owe it to yourself to apply.
Atlassian is not only about business - it’s about people. I know, old cliche.. but here it works. The unique culture this team maintained throughout their super-growth even now that they have 130 people is a large part of their success.
So what is this culture like? Tough. When he doesn’t make his numbers, Atlassian President Jeffrey Walker is forced to make up for it as ticket-scalper on the street. 
OK, joke apart, this photo was shot last August, when the entire San Francisco office went to see a Giants game together. (Incidentally, just a day before Jeffrey became cancer dude). This wasn’t a rare occasion, either: both the San Francisco and the Sydney teams have a lot of fun together: Cutlassian, Mission: Atlassian, theme-filled staff events, abound throughout the year. Their new office building in Sydney is right next to a pub (hint: when will you guys realize you’d be better off buying the entire pub?
) I wonder when the San Francisco office will move into a winery… Perhaps 
you get the picture by now: Working for Atlassian isn’t just a job - it’s a lifestyle. But don’t for a minute think it’s a bunch of rowdy kids having fun only: they bring in $30 million a year. And if you don’t perform, this is what awaits you.
So that’s the magic formula: combine business success with a fun, team-focused culture and you’ve got the makings of the ultimate job. (Are you still reading, or have you alerted your Marketing superstar friend yet?)
Now, if this is the ultimate job, there’s one question unanswered: How come it hasn’t been filled yet? I wanted to hear the answer straight from the horse’s mouse so to speak, so I asked Atlassian President Jeffrey Walker, who responded below:
We were inundated with resumes, and found a few excellent capable candidates. Unfortunately, one of the growing pains of companies like ours is we were not quite ready for the right candidate. Incorporating someone of the caliber we need takes preparation. Our search began prematurely. Lesson learned. After the founders and I took another few ‘long walks’, we came out aligned and ready. This time I fully expect to complete the search. Just need the right remarkable individual.
Well, I did not walk with Jeffrey and the Founders, but I certainly hope they will not change a lot:
. I have a lot to say on the subject of hiring, but it’s not specific to Atlassian, so I’ll break it out to a separate post. In the meantime, if you are that “remarkable individual”, what are you waiting for?
Tags: atlassian, confluence, enterprise sales, entrepreneurship, jira, lightweight software, marketing, pull-model, startup hiring, Startups
I don’t typically broadcast job searches, but I’m breaking that tradition now for a few reasons.
1: Cool cartoon
2: Atlassian is a great company, that I wrote about quite a few times. Being “great” means not only $ucce$$ful, fast-growing, but also a good team to be part of.
3: Transparency. I just wrote about this recently, and Atlassian President Jeffrey Walker proves it again, by sharing his thoughts on the hiring process. I agree with almost all his points, except #8, the backup plan: Executive Recruiters. I think Atlassian is still at a size where they are better off finding the right candidate through their personal network - or they may face situations like this.
So while it looks like they are well on their way finding the right person, if you, or somebody you know are the candidate they’ve been waiting for, contact Jeffrey NOW. Somehow I think the beer-test might be relaxed this time.
But be warned: great company as it is, it’s also a dangerous bunch! 
“Odd thing for an office ’style’ company to go into - cartoons”
“Brilliant strategic move or jumping the shark? I can’t decide.”
“At least all their eggs arent in online software; office”
“I understand doing these things because you get people creating content that you can then monetize…”
The reactions to TechCrunch announcing ToonDoo, a comic strip creator were rather mixed - just as I expected. Not so much because of tool itself, but because of it’s relationship to Zoho, the Granddaddy of the Office 2.0 market. Here’s the CEO’s explanation:
Joke apart, ToonDoo certainly isn’t part of the Zoho Suite, and to dispel some of the myth, it’s not about keeping eggs in different baskets, and there are no evil monetization plans either.
I’ve always been fascinated with what really drives entrepreneurs. As Advisor to Zoho I got to know some of the team, and have been planning to share some of my thoughts for a while. Zoho is just one, albeit the most fashionable brand of a larger company, Adventnet. Adventnet is not a “hot name” like Zoho - even their website looks boring. But their product list is over a hundred items long. “Boring”, reliable, solid cash-cows.
They are not a startup by any means: they have been in business for ten years, organically growing to 600+ employees and millions of dollars in revenue (without outside investment). Yet working with them feels like working with a startup: in the US they have a team of about 20, the key feature in the office is a pool table, although they are hardly ever in, often working remotely.
The solid position, and being self-funded allows them to do a few things that don’t directly fit business their strategy - they just like “doing good”.
One of these non-business projects funded entirely by Adventnet is Jambav, a site offering games and educational tools for children, ranging from toddlers to preschoolers, as well as resources for kids with special needs, (Update: read Scoble for some background) and community, forum, blogs for parents. Everything at Jambav is free, and so is their latest creation, ToonDoo. The Jambav team realized that us, “grown-up kids” can also use it, so they ended up releasing it under a separate brand.
Education is another subject CEO Sridhar Vembu frequently thinks and writes about:
He has a personal interest in the subject, having “wasted” 4 years getting his PhD in Princeton: “I actually had to unlearn a lot, to be in business. And I didn’t particularly enjoy the PhD experience either. If I were to go through life again, I wouldn’t repeat that PhD, that’s for sure.”
He puts his money where his mouth is: he launched “Adventnet University” in India, bringing in disadvantaged teenage kids and putting them through 2 years of education, with a strong engineering / software focus. Is this all altruism? Probably not. Adventnet is hiring a lot of engineers and some will likely come from their own training program. One does not have to be entirely altruistic to do philanthropy. For these kids, who otherwise would have no hope of ever going to college, “Adventnet University” is a life-changing event. See fellow Enterprise Irregular Vinnie Mirchandani’s thoughts here.
But I am trying to make a bigger point here, so let me move on to another company now - one that I have absolutely no business relationship with.
A good year or so ago Atlassian was not a widely talked-about name, although they were already the market leader in the Enterprise Wiki space, and prior to that had achieved phenomenal success with their first product, Jira. Without the luxury of spending VC money, they had their priorities straight: first get the products right, let them sell on their own strengths, then start spending on marketing and PR. After financial success came recognition: they keep on winning awards, the Founders became Entrepreneur of the Year and are now featured on the cover of Business Week.
Mike Cannon-Brookes, Co-Founder and CEO is an avid blogger who openly talks about “life at Atlassian”. It’s through his blog that I found out about their commitment to philanthropy. Every employee can spend 6 workdays a year on their favorite non-profit or charity. Is that a big deal? Well, considering an average of 220 workdays a year, it translates to 2.75% of their productivity. Salesforce.com is known to devote 1% of revenues to charity. I am not underestimating that 1%, but it’s spent with a stroke of a pen… whereas in Atlassian every employee is personally involved. (Compare that to my experience in a very Big, very Blue company, where management kept on publishing reports on employee contribution to United Way (the only choice) until the desired quotas were achieved… ) Update: I stand corrected, Salesforce.com employees can also donate 1% of their work-time.
On a personal side Mike issued a Kiva Challenge. Technically speaking, Kiva is not charity, handing out micro-loans to small businesses - but these are interest-free, high-risk (?) loans. One could say it’s a very “inefficient” process: the loan amounts can be as little as $25, and typically not more than a few hundred dollars. Managing it, and - like Mike does - soliciting other lenders, matching their contributions is time-consuming, but I’m sure as a true Entrepreneur, Mike actually enjoys it. Now, the money could just be given to a large charity, and disappear in the labyrinth of bureaucracy, but helping small businesses take off does more good in the long run. “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.”
I could cite more examples, but this story has to conclude at some point.
I admit I am biased, I do like these companies, and probably write about them more often than others.
There are business reasons: they both are leaders in their market, not only have best-in-class products but also provide excellent, personal support and are very transparent about business, strengths, weaknesses, even bug reports. But other than the business criteria, they are also just a bunch of “likeable” people, and I think their non-business, charitable activities play an important role in that. I’d venture to say that everything else being equal, as a small business I’d probably prefer buying from such a “likeable” vs. one with a great product, but with aggressive sales, arrogant support, and generally “unpleasant” people.
What do you think? Is “doing good” a luxury, does it just serve personal satisfaction, or does it have a place in business, especially in startups / emerging businesses? On the other hand, if there is indirect business “payoff”, is it just an investment, or still a philanthropic act?
Update (4/8): Talk about the importance of buying from a “likeable” company, check out: I Canceled My Basecamp Account Today.
Tags: adventnet, altruism, atlassian, busines, charity, confluence, do-gooders, doing good, entrepreneurship, jambav, jira, kiva, non-profit, philanthropy, Startups, toondoo, zoho
That’s a line stolen from Atlassian’s CEO:
“When you’re selling virtual goods, having something concrete to tie it to is a good idea. That’s why we ship t-shirts all around the planet on a monthly basis. If you buy any top-tier Atlassian product, we ship a t-shirt to your desk.
…
If you’re going to make a corporate t-shirt, make it fun like Tangosol’s “Coherence - Don’t get fluster clucked”, our “JIRA - Because You’ve Got Issues” etc. If it’s boring, people are that much less likely to wear it.”
Atlassian just issued T-shirt 2.0, and indeed, they are fun
(see all of them here.)
P.S. They won yet another award - but hey, that’s not even news anymore
Tags: atlassian, Bamboo, confluence, Crowd, Humor, jira, Jolt award, swag, t-shirts
Zoli Erdos
