3-4 Major Parts Of Atlassian Now Run From India: Co-CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes

In the six years since Nasdaq-listed enterprise software company Atlassian began operating in India, it has grown its presence from zero to over 1,900 employees and claims the region is one of the fastest-growing globally, thanks to the rapid maturation of local businesses.

The company’s Co-CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes says that India today hosts large units of organisation. “We have three or four very large parts of the organisation that are now run out of India for the rest of the world,” Brookes tells BW Businessworld.

The Sydney-headquartered firm had announced in 2022 that it would increase its headcount to 3,000 by the end of FY24. “We’ve increased every single year we have been here. Obviously, you go through the general broad cycles of the world. But our footprint here has grown throughout that and continues to grow into the future. This year, we are again growing another, significant chunk in the region,” Brookes adds.

“The availability of quality talent is the number one factor for us to be India. We have talent in 17 states and what they have achieved over six years is why we continue to invest heavily in India” 

- Mike Cannon-Brookes, Co-CEO, Atlassian 

Atlassian’s biggest product launch in sometime, the AI-powered ROVO, has been largely built by its Indian team, especially its ‘search’ and generative AI parts. “Large parts of the AI feature set and data feature set, which are actually quite highly-linked, are built out of India. We have a lot of expertise here on both AI and data management.”

India As Market

About a year ago, the company’s other Co-CEO Scott Farquhar had told Businessworld that Atlassian operates in three markets in India including Agile and DevOps, Work Management and ITSM. 

The company, which boasts a market cap of USD 45 billion, feels India is a rapidly growing customer market due to its economic expansion and business maturity. Brookes notes that India’s scale, with a population exceeding a billion, presents a unique opportunity compared to other fast-growing markets like Vietnam. 

Atlassian’s customers in India include prominent companies such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HCLTech, Wipro, Bajaj, Adani, Royal Enfield, TVS Motor and PhonePe, among others.

“Beyond GDP growth, India is evolving from traditional manual labour and outsourcing to advanced knowledge work, driven by large conglomerates and innovative companies. This shift aligns with Atlassian’s focus on selling to businesses engaged in high-level knowledge work, both within India and globally, making the country a crucial market for the company’s future growth,” the Atlassian Co-CEO explains.

But the company very clearly remains focused on India primarily as a talent and R&D destination. During Brookes’ recent Bengaluru visit, BW Businessworld briefly chatted with him on regulations, immigration, brain drain, India-Australia technology dialogue, sovereign technologies and being a startup in 2024. Excerpts:

Atlassian has had to build up its data residency in India due to regulations. What other issues do you see in India’s business ecosystem?

Data residency was a big step for us. Obviously, there was a whole set of regulations and rules that unlocked in one go with a lot of work to get there. But beyond that, we don’t have a huge amount of things that we are looking at. The stability of regulation in the business environment is helpful. We have surmounted most of those problems ourselves, but that stability is crucial. Even in Australia, where I come from, for outside investment, you want stable laws and rules. The more variable they are, the more companies get worried.

Secondly, there are always talent gaps in any country. We are aggressively augmenting talent to ensure that we have fully fledged communities and teams. And things are changing fast. In fact, we’ve seen many these gaps close over the past six years. The drive to learn AI here is as strong, if not stronger than in any other country, which will fill future gaps. Because I think maturity and also the talent moving forward, if you look at AI, the drive in the broader technical community to learn AI is as strong, if not stronger here than in any other country. 

Since we’re talking about talent, let me ask about immigration policies. Western countries like the US have benefited greatly from immigration, especially in the tech sector, while Australia also focuses on immigration policies. In contrast, India has a strong in-house talent pool but faces severe brain drain. How can India retain talent and enable innovation that goes global? Companies like Zoho and Freshworks are successful, but we need more such companies.

From an Australian perspective, it’s surprising to see India worried about brain drain, especially when Atlassian is here for the talent. But look, every country is looking to preserve its talent. Best way to go about it is to have a broad talent base and a global diaspora. At Atlassian, we are increasingly moving talent back from America to India for leadership and experience. It’s important to have a two-way pathway for talent exchange, not just one-way.

Many senior leaders in Indian industry have Silicon Valley experience and have returned to India. I would argue that ensuring this cycle continues would benefit the country. Also, in today’s world, talent doesn’t need to move around as much. 

Companies need to think globally. We’re not just an Australian company; we have teams in 15-18 countries, all doing meaningful work. There’s no central headquarters. We do important work in America, Australia, India and Europe – across all geographies. Indian companies would benefit by adopting this global mindset. Start locally but build a global presence to succeed internationally.

Atlassian is a founding member of Australia’s Tech Council and you’ve headed dialogues between India and Australia. Where are these dialogues heading in 2024 and how is the relationship between the two countries developing in terms of technology collaboration?

Between the two countries, the relationship is very good. We try to join trade bodies like nasscom in India, which is similar to the Tech Council in Australia, to represent and voice changes. The two biggest issues, common to geographies such as America, Australia and India, are talent virtualisation and AI.

Talent virtualisation, or distributed work, raises questions about immigration, taxation and the geographic boundaries of talent. This can be both beneficial and challenging, depending on the region.

AI and data residency are also other concerns. There’s a need for informed thinking around where data is stored and its impact on national security and talent distribution. In Australia, there’s debate about building a national foundational model for AI, but we advocate for use cases that benefit the country rather than acting out of fear. We’re working to ensure informed choices in these areas by business leaders, community leaders and government officials.

Speaking of foundational models and sovereign technologies, many entrepreneurs are advocating for use cases. But does focusing solely on use cases instead of investing in the foundational models and technologies mean that a country like India might lose its edge in innovation?

I’m not sure it’s a logical conclusion that ‘therefore they’re losing out’. To be honest, location of talent is the best long-term indicator of success. Customers will make their own choices and India has no shortage of great tech companies that are growing and learning. Indian talent may work for American or Australian companies from India, move abroad and return, or work for Indian companies that expand globally. The talent quality and volume in India are strong. AI is a new area for everyone and as long as India continues learning at the right pace and has the fundamental talent, it’s a good sign.

Lot has changed in the startup world since Atlassian began its journey as a bootstrapped startup over 20 years ago. Most startups and ventures today cite a heavy dearth of capital. What is your perception? Should businesses look to bootstrap or try harder to raise? 

There’s a lot of capital around the world. I don’t think they should think about that. I think founders should start by thinking about the solving a problem. They must think if they care about solving a problem and they’re willing to stick at it for a long time. I think most get too obsessed by the act of starting a startup and not as much about where the startup is. 

If I look at the causation and correlation, most of the very successful entrepreneurs that I know, that I have as good friends, they started out to go solve a problem. They cared about the problem and end up spending a long time on it. If you care about a problem and you have a good solution - capital is very global. It’s not an issue and I tell this to Australian entrepreneurs as well. If you have a good business, American capital will turn up in even in Australia. It has been seen over the last 10 years. Just focus on building a good business and you will end up with a global company with talent all over the world.