Latest / The Front / How Atlassian’s tech bromance died

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How Atlassian’s tech bromance died · The Front

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, August eleven, twenty twenty six. The Japanese government
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: formally raised with Australia a tacki joke made by Anthony
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Albinizi about a gift of melons from the Japanese Prime
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Minister Snai Takaichi, but said it wouldn't make an official complaint.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: That diplomatic drama is going off right now at the
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot a U. Something dodgy's going on
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: with defense. The government is claiming it's getting up to
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: four hundred and fifty advanced tactical air to air missiles
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: for seven hundred and thirty six million dollars, but The
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Australian's revealing today it will be more like one hundred
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: missiles and they won't be here until twenty thirty three.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Warring Wives, Competing Values and a Broken Culture Tech, a
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: new book by the Australians John Stenzolt and Perry Williams
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: reveals the inside story of how Scott Farquhar and Mike
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: cannon Brooks built Australia's most successful tech business and lost
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: their friendship. John and Perry are brilliant journals and favorites
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: on the front and they're here.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: In just a moment, a Lassian grew to become the
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: most valuable Australian technology company ever and then it lost
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: the most amount from the value of it shares in
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Australian history.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: That's John Stenzel reading an extract from Tech Bros. The
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: book he's written with Perry Williams, both senior journalists at
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: the Australian Congratulations guys on this wonderful book about Mike
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: cannon Brooks and Scott Farquhar, the business they built together,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: their friendship and how it unraveled in certain ways. Scott
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Farquhar and Mike cannon Brooks were supposed to be living
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: next to each other in mansions they bought at around
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: the same time. Hasn't come true. Tell me about those mansions, Perry,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: maybe start by telling me what it's got. Farquhir and
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: his wife Kim Jackson.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: By Yeah, it's a pretty amazing story. So they paid
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: at the time record some of seventy one million dollars
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: twenty nineteen for this slightly dilapidated mansion in Point Piper
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: known as Elaine.
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: The property is known as Elaine, which was the longtime
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: home of the Fairfax Media family. The Australian newspaper reports
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: that the homes readled with his bestos and has been
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: partially demolished and at.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: The time smashed all the records. It was really held
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: up as this big moment for Sydney as well. All
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: of a sudden, the tech guys, the tech billionaires were
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: taking over and they were buying the big properties. Little
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: did they know that Mike Kenan Brooks and Annie his
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: wife would move in next door co founders, co CEOs
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: and neighbors. Mike had actually trumped Farkua. He paid one
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: hundred million for Fairwater, one of Sydney's most historic properties.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: All seemed to be going well until that classic bossie
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: over the fence argument happened over a renovation and things
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: started to splinter quite quickly.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: John, I think everyone can identify with this. Somebody moves
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: in next door and suddenly there's a dispute about who
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: wants to do what with their houses. What was the
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: essence of the dispute, Well.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Look, Scott had this huge plans to revamp his house
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: and quite frankly, Anye Canon Brooks and Mike weren't too impressed,
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: and he actually got scaffolding erected in her side of
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: the fence to show what huge shadow or what would
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: do to the look from her side of the fence
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: for what was going to happen next door.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Then Scott and Kim's grandiose forty million dollar renovation blueprints
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: made their way into the media, then disappeared mysteriously a
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: few weeks later.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: What's clearly happened in the background is that there's been
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: a lot of tension, probably in the workplace as well
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: as home.
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: Scott Parquha, one of the founders of the Australian software
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: giant Atlasian, has stepped down as co CEO. He isn't
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: stepping away and though he'll remain on the company's board
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: as a special advisor.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: You guys are covering these business leaders like you cover
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: so many people in Australian business at the time. Did
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: you know that there was any trouble in Paradise.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: It didn't come out for years. In fact, it really
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: took until Scott left at lass In in twenty twenty four. Okay,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: and so he steps down as co CEO. They're still
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: in their mid mid forties, right, all of a sudden,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: the tech dream is over, and everyone writes it off as, oh, look,
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Scott's just looking to do other things. It's one of
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: those classics partings of the way. But you know he's
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: going to be happy. But Perry and I were thinking
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: about what stories to cover, what to do, and this
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: sort of nagging thought, what did these two billionaires walk
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: away from age? W what did one walk away from
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: the other? What's going on here? So it was about
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: a year after Scott had left that we started asking
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: some questions, investigating, and it really turned out that nothing
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: was as it seemed. There was so much tension behind
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: the scenes. There were so many issues and dramas that
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: we just wrote an investigative series about it. And here
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: we are with his book.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: How did the investigative series go down with these two subjects?
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: Oh? They hated it, So you know, it was absolute
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: panic stations at a Lassian and you know, essentially they
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: put on the charade that does still best mates. There
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: was no fallout, but we had dozens of sources and
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: even privately, Scott Farquare told me that we were pretty
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: much on the mark with our reporting.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: At Lassian's origin story is legendary in Australian business. Two
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: bright young geeks made at UNI. Mike's a rich kid
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: from the Eastern suburbs, Scott's a westy. As graduation nears,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Mike cannon Brooks sends an email to the whole class,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: anyone want to start our own company? He gets just
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: one response from Scott Farquha Perry. Even in those very
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: early years they were hanging out a lot at a
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: sort of grungy share house in Sydney's in a West.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: They were drinking a lot of boo cheap booze, but
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: the dynamic was kind of set from the beginning. Mike
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: cannon Brooks seemed to be the kind of dynamic visionary,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: urging people on getting things started. Scott Farquhar is the
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: guy down at the bottle shop, buying the booze and
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: getting things organized right.
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  Speaker 3: Mike was actually the real sort of hardcore coding guy
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: and like really quite highly regarded for what he could
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: bring to that side of it. Scott was equally a
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: real scholar and very driven, but also made sure there
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: was a party to go along with it. You know,
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: all of a sudden they're running this company, but they
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: want to have a lot of fun along the way.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Here's what I'm much younger. Mike cannon Brooks said about
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: that after winning an Entrepreneur of the Year award back
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: in two thousand and six.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: I don't think anything's been particularly mind blowingly tough. But
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: we've tried our best and we've done that all right
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: so far.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: They married brilliant, dynamic women, each of them. Scott farquh
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: married Kim Jackson, and Mike cannon Brooks married Annie Todd,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: an American woman, and the relationships became an important part
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: of the story, didn't they John.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they certainly did. Look, I mean, I think we've
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: said with that they were best men at each other's weddings.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: It's part of that narrative as well, right how close
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: they were meant to be. It's becomes a very important
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: part of who they are and what they do. So
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: fast forward to now and Scott and Kim are now
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: investing their money together. Look, Mike and Annie have split up,
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: but you know, for a long time there Mike was
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: and his biggest fan when she was making her full
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: rays into the fashion industry. So it was a really
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: important part of who they were who they became. And
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: then also an interesting part of how the relationships started.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Crack started the show, right, the two wives just did
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: not get on in the end, and that's sort of
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: probably part of the problem, not saying it's definitely not
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: the main part of the problem, but it is an
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  Speaker 2: issue when you respect the spouses don't get on with
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: each other.
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  Speaker 1: Perry, even as they were moving into these glamorous houses
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: kind of next door to each other, or at least
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: glamorous locations, I think the interiors might have been a
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: bit shabby. There was what you guys have referred to
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: as the Year of Silence. What was happening.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that was really interesting. Actually, this was actually in
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: twenty nineteen that had a falling out. In the billionaire world,
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: often there's counselors, there's advisors which work with these people,
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: and there was an intervention of sorts for the two
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: of them to go to California and spend some time
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: with this counselor, Finkelstein. And what came out of that
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: is that Mike actually said that he was being bullied
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: by Scott, which was again perhaps a little bit unexpected.
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: You know, obviously this was never documented. We're not even
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: sure if Atlasian's board of directors were aware of this,
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: But what it does sort of underline is that there
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: was some quite deep rooted issues between the two of.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Them coming up the staff who wanted to make Mike's
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: wife jealous. All along the way, at Lassian had developed
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: this culture of openness within that on their own internal
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: messaging platforms that people were encouraged to kind of rip
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: each other a little bit or to have very frank views.
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  Speaker 1: It's an unusual culture, especially as the company grew, isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: John, Absolutely it was part of this story that they
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: had this open culture. They had this set of values
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: that they talked about all the time. And we've spoken
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: to a lot of ex employees there and people that
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: were there right at the start and through there for
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: a long time, and they say they live those values.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: One of the values about not messing with the customer
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: if the customer I was going to say it was
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: probably a bit more risk language than that, And there
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: were people that say that's what we talk about. We
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: would say, oh, we think this is effing the customer,
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: so let's not do it. They did, I think, for
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: quite a long time, live those values very closely, and
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: then as time goes on they have a big stock
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: market float and the money starts coming in. They obviously
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: get bigger, and they have so many more employees around
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: the world. I think an important part of that story
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: is how do you keep that culture up when you
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: become so big and so different. You know, it's very,
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: very hard, and they haven't been as successful as that,
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  Speaker 2: And perhaps it's not a surprise.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed as though the screw started to tighten on
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: that internal culture and suddenly people would find themselves in
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: trouble for saying things that they previously might have been
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: able to articulate. There was a chilling moment you guys,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: right about where a source told you that at one
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: point the IT Department was asked to unmask an anonymous
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: employee survey. I think if we've all filled in those surveys,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: we really wonder are they really anonymous? Where did that
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: fit into the disintegration of the relationship between Scott and Mike.
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, I think that they really struggled to keep
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: that culture alive. They've reflected that in the early days,
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: they took stuff out for lunch, they had a beer,
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: They got to know them quite quickly. Once it started
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: getting in the hundreds and obviously in the thousands of staff,
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: they realized that that actually employed some people that weren't
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: really the right fit, or they promoted people very quickly
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: who perhaps went up to the job. I think we'd
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: all have a bit of sympathy. I mean, two guys
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: in their twenties starting this incredible company. But are those
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: two guys in their twenties able to manage a team
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: of thousands of people effectively across, you know, countries around
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: the world. It's quite a big challenge.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: When they were still both within the company, two courts
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: seemed to form around the court of Mike and the
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: court of Scott. And in the court of Mike was
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: some very powerful personalities. You've referred to some of them
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: as the velvet assassins.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: Who were they John, Yeah, in particular, the assassins of
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: worlded a lot of power, right and in Mike's office,
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: so we're talking about his EA face Sterling, talking about
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: his chief of staff Amy Glancy, communications director Louis Haller,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: and so there's several others around them as well. They're
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: certainly the key ones who are still in there today.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: When you dealt with them. Looking back several years they
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: were involved in not just that last and things, but
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: it was always Mike things. So when there was when
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Mike buys the mansion for one hundred million dollars, it's
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: information I remember that's in his personal life, information from
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: them that gets disseminated to the media. So there's that
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: sort of blurring of the lines from at Lassian full
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: stop into Mike's private business, his private investments, his family
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: stuff as well. It didn't seem to happen as much
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: with the Scott side of things. So over time it
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: becomes a group around Mike that really promoted what he
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: was doing, not necessarily what they were doing.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: You've obtained those internal messages involving some of these people,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: and there's a quite stunning exchange where some of the
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: women in this group are talking about making Annie canon
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Brooks jealous and dressing in a way so as to
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: make Mike think that they were effable. What was really
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: going on there?
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Look, I think people that saw an opportunity to impress Mike,
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: to really go that extra mile to really be impressive
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: to the boss. It's not just impressing them from a
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: work point of view. From all sorts of point of views.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: So look, there is that blurring of the lines. I
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: write about millionaires all the time, clear they have their
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: consickly airs and someone that really deal with all sort
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: of facets of their life. But I think the difference
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: with this one is that there was two leaders here
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: in this company, right, and people over time really question
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: all sorts of companies do they need two CEOs? And
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: maybe it's just a case where it was always going
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: to be too difficult, you know, not necessarily from the start,
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: but as you get to a certain time to have
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: more than one leader, because you end up having competition,
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: and this is the effect of that competition. That's how
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: it plays out. People really really want to impress the
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: person they think has more power than the other.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: As Scott Farquhar seemed to withdraw into himself, withdraw into
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: the family, he spent a long time driving around the
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: country with his family in a camper van. Mike cannon
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Brooks was kind of spinning ever higher revolutions. Wasn't he
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: investing in green energy projects and sort of flirting with
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Elon mask on what was then Twitter? What do you
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: understand about why Scott farquha walked away?
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: Our understanding is that Mike was actually going to step down.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: It'd been a discussion about that, whether they saw the
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: cob CEO model as unwieldy, or whether it had reached
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: its end of life and that didn't happen. We're not
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: sure if the board made a call or if he
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: were negged on that, but I think Scott had got
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: to a point where enough was enough, feel he'd done
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: his time. I think certainly Mike's two or three other
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: jobs that he had, from some cable through to AGL
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: energy and others, it certainly distracted him. Look, take my
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: hat off to Mike. I turned up a few years
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: ago and saw him talk for an hour on climate change.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: And he's a scholar. I mean, he knew what he
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: was talking about. But all the time he was reading
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: those books and becoming a climate change master, Well, hang on,
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: who's running a lassion. So I think that did begin
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: to weigh on Farquhar and and look, he's sort of
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: probably not the type that's going to be too scurrilous
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: or gossip or anything, but certainly that put him offside.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: Perry. You end the book with what I think is
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: quite a touching scene. I'll get you to read it
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: for us.
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: Now, the house that was once Sydney's most expensive sits empty.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: It's fate undecided. Mike and Annie are separated, both spending
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: most of their time in the Southern Highlands, where they
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: live at different addresses. Next Door is a lane the
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: mention Scott park Choir and Kim Jackson famously bought for
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: seventy one million dollars the year before the Cannon Brooks
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: is purchased. Next Door, the two families were meant to
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: grow all together, their children playing with each other every day.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: A lane in Fairwater symbols of dreams that didn't quite
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: come true, in relationships that didn't quite last despite the
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: success once shared.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: Perry and John, thank you very much.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: John Stenzel and Perry Williams are the authors of tech Brows.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: For all their scoops and the best of business, visit
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: the Australian dot Com dot Au