Today it’s worth $53 Billion with a portfolio of products

In 2019, I had the pleasure of seeing Mike Cannon-Brookes, one of the co-founders of Atlassian, speak to a Sydney audience at Fishburners (an incubator here in Sydney).

It was an intimate fireside chat where he recounted his journey of how he built Atlassian as well as some funny stories along the way (like a rant on how they should have beaten out Slack in the collaboration space). Sitting on the chair with his Atlassian cap on, he was asked why he decided to start the company.

He laughed and then proceeded to tell a story of how he and Farquhar (the other co-founder of Atlassian) had met at university and how they both didn’t want to wear a suit to work or get a normal 9–5 job. They also wanted to make more than what Farquhar was offered for a graduate job at PWC at the time (which was $48 500 at the time). …

For reference, this means the startup will hit the ‘unicorn’ status

It’s often naive to look at a startup’s valuation as a measure of success. After all, there are many stories of startups creating unrealistic ‘fake’ value for their product (e.g., Theranos).

However, looking at all the unicorns in the market, most of them have reached their valuation from finding product-market-fit for their product. Each startup has had a unique way of growing from bootstrapping to VC funding and some even through crowdfunding.

Many of these entrepreneurs never focused on becoming a unicorn but rather solving an actual real-world problem. …

60% of the US workforce will be independent by 2027.

There is no doubt that Covid-19 has caused havoc on the global economy as well as many industries. Many companies have suffered from challenges presented, and for many employees, it meant they were either let go or received reduced hours of work.

However, for tech companies, many have found solace that much of their operations can be run remotely. Companies like Amazon and Zoom have seen their growth skyrocket in 2020, while others like Microsoft remained stable throughout the year.

With unemployment soaring, however, many have sought external work, especially within the gig economy.

Let’s quickly define what a gig is

Gig work defined today means any temporary job that could range from basic delivery to complicated application development. For those with more technical skills, you could call them a freelancer or even a consultant. …

All of these startups raised either little or no funding to be a unicorn

For decades, startups have raised money from investors in the hopes of scaling their business to a billion dollars (unicorn) and beyond.

Looking at the 2019 Forbes Cloud 100 list, we see that over 90% of this list have raised some kind of funding to kickstart their business. This leaves a smaller subsection of startups that have raised no money.

This concept is called bootstrapping, and many of these startups are sought after due to their ability to create revenue, cash flow, and product-market fit without needing investor cash.

Even if some of these have done smaller raises down the line, these startups have retained majority control of their own company and have since either been acquired, IPOed, or still going full steam ahead. This list will go through some of the startups that have managed to achieve this. …

If no one knows about your product, your startup will never take off.

Some of the world's leading software products have been built by some of the best engineers and developers. Even if you create the most sophisticated and slick application, however, if it doesn’t get noticed, it will often lead to nothing.

This is why marketing is essential for any entrepreneur looking to build their startup. For example, if you look at Slack, Butterfield used traditional strategies like PR and word of mouth to get his product into the hands of other tech companies within his network.

For other companies like Robinhood, it built hype over a waiting list with a product that seemed too good to be true at the time (no fees for trading stocks). …

Many startups launch with one to three co-founders so why did this one need seven?

I was sitting in a startup program that I had signed up for, surrounded by bright individuals in the class.

Our mentors were standing ahead of the cohort, asking if we had any questions in our very first lesson. A hand went up and asked a simple question about the optimal amount of co-founders a startup should have.

The mentors gave a small chuckle at the question, and eventually, one answered that he thought two or three would usually be the optimal amount for startups.

We often hear of entrepreneur ‘guidelines’ written by some of the most seasoned startup veterans from Reid Hoffman to Paul Graham. These are rules that, if startups follow, give them the highest chance of success, especially in such competitive markets today. …

Night owls are often misunderstood, so let’s take a look at the other side of the fence

You might have heard the statement “sleep earlier” a million times, especially if you’re a night owl like me. With COVID-19, I’ve found myself sleeping later due to the lack of need to commute to work but equally found more criticism from my friends and peers.

“You should wake up at 7 am — it’s good for your health,” my friend said to me

The reasons to sleep earlier have been cited from all across the board, from productivity to health and even losing weight. …

For decades, the tech giant fought against pirated copies of its software.

Microsoft is one of the few enterprise companies that began decades ago and still remains one of the largest tech giants to this very day. Even with its many tech wars, it has survived the test of time where many of its peers have faltered.

However, one of its earliest tech wars that it still faces to this very day is against pirates. These software pirates have sold counterfeit copies of Microsoft products in the millions or uploaded the product on torrent sites.

How much has piracy cost Microsoft?

There isn’t an official number of how much piracy has cost Microsoft, but it is very safe to say it’s in the billions of dollars. …