8 tips on entrepreneurship from the founders of Atlassian

culled from:brw.com.au

1. The best time is when you’re young – or now

Farquhar: “There’s no downside risk to starting a business out of university. Worst-case scenario was that I had to go back and live with my parents for a couple of years and that’s not that bad.”
Cannon-Brookes: “I always say now. There’s advantages in each different point of life and you need to know what your strengths and weaknesses are and play to your strengths. Your strength when you’re young is naivety and the fact there is no risk because you don’t have wives or kids or mortgages. Your experience level is also low so you have to understand that blend.”

2. Choose something you love

Farquhar: “If I had any advice for young entrepreneurs it would be to do something you’re absolutely passionate about. One distinguisher of success is someone who wakes up every day and just loves going to work because they’re making a difference.”

3. It’s all about people

Cannon-Brookes: “When you’re young and you just want to write some code and build some staff, you think the people management side of things is going to be boring but it’s not. The products are still really exciting but putting together teams of people and watching them grow and learn and conquer things is far more exciting than I thought it would have been 10 years ago. Atlassian is like a ship with all these really awesome people on board and it would be really boring if there were two people on board. Even if it were just as successful, it would be really boring if there were no one to share the journey as the waves go up and down.”

4. Manage growth

Cannon-Brookes: “Growth companies are great but as they grow they create a lot of opportunity but also a lot of churn and change and it’s difficult for a lot of people. People’s jobs get a lot bigger very rapidly and you’ve got work out how to keep up with that. You have to have a really good HR department to really focus on training and development.
“You’ve got to give your staff skills and also mentors so if you have a fictitious group of five people managing 10 people, you can’t have all five going from managing zero to managing 10 because they don’t have anyone to look up to. You need to hire in a couple of people who are used to managing 10 and then you can promote a couple of people who are talented enough to manage 10 and then you can say ‘you talk to that person’. We do a lot of that sort of thing across the business, bringing in people from the US and Europe who come to do a job but also to transfer their skills to other people who are just as smart and talented but don’t have the experience.”

5. Technical and non-technical people all contribute

Cannon-Brookes: “For a non-technical person wanting to start a technology business, you’re going to find it hard – the first thing to do is to get a technical business partner. If you want to start a non-technology business that takes advantage of technology you’ve got more chance – if you use Shopify to sell clothes you’re not really a technology business, you’re a fashion retailer.
“For technical founders, the temptation is to assume that non-technical people are not useful – it’s like ‘we just need 10 awesome engineers and the business stuff takes care of itself’. I think that’s a big flaw in people’s thinking, either that they won’t enjoy or that they don’t need other aspects like marketing. Either look for a non-technical co-founder or if there are three technology guys and one has to become the business dude, know that it’s more enjoyable than you think it would be.”

6. Maintain your relationship with your co-founder

Cannon-Brookes: “Openness, trust, conversation and respect. It’s all the same thing as any relationship. We’re brutally honest with each other when we screw up but there’s a lot of deep trust and respect in the other’s ability to do things. I don’t check any of his work and he doesn’t check any of my work but we’ll come and ask for help or advice when it’s needed.”

7. Be generous with investors

Cannon-Brookes: “I always tell people two things. One is understand what the guy on the other side of the table wants, not even from an investment perspective but from a deal-making sense. You’ve got to understand really well how the other guy’s business work, what returns he’s looking at making, what period of time, how his model wants. If you understand what he wants and what you want, you can make a better decision on whether it will work for both sides.
“Secondly, I always tell people to leave a little bit on the table – you see too many entrepreneurs trying to screw every last term and dollar and negotiate and it turns into a big legal fight. You’re building a relationship with someone for a number of years and hopefully this investor is going to help you. If you both end up with lawyers and pens drawn around a table for weeks and weeks, it doesn’t breed a very positive relationship. It’s not like the day after you can just shake hands and say ‘now we’ve got all that shit out of the way, let’s go build something awesome’. It starts everything off on a bad note so you’ve got to be very clear on these are the things I will give in on and these are the things I won’t, and give away some stuff. If you fight every single point it’s going to be a really negative, poisonous relationship from the start.”

8. Have no regrets

Farquhar: “I would change nothing, I have no regrets. It’s the butterfly effect – if you changed the smallest of things years ago you’d be in a different spot and I’m pretty happy with the world at the moment.”