Australia’s first ever tech billionaires taking the world by storm | 60 Minutes Australia

in the tech business world learning that you're a unicorn is music to the ears and that's because it's a term used to describe a startup company that's gained a value of more than 1 billion dollars as you'll see unicorns aren't as rare as you might think neither a deca corns tech companies worth 10 billion there's even now a hectare corn a hundred billion dollar startup and right up their striving for tech greatness a plenty of Aussie entrepreneurs full of wonderful ideas and money-making skills they're so clever in fact our most important challenge is how to keep them in Australia and not lose them to the world in the bright light city of Las Vegas it's show time and as the crowd gathers out front backstage tonight's star performers are feeling a little apprehensive would make an appearance no no it was never in the earth it's the final night of a week-long loving with customers of Australia's most laid-back billionaires my canon Brooks and Scott Farquhar [Music] - seriously as you've seen with us dressed up in Elvis costume I was hitting there you spent 82 percent and as founders of tech company Atlassian Mike and Scott both 39 a part of a new breed of entrepreneurs and it seems fun is part of this secret to success I think you both said you you were aiming for a business where you didn't have to wear a suit yeah together they are Australia's first tech billionaires having created a company with an eye-watering 50 billion their software products are used by some of the world's biggest institutions and companies including the US Defense Department Facebook and Twitter and about 130 odd thousand others NASA can put stuff into space without going through our stuff Tesla doesn't put a car on the road you know you can't go watch a Disney movie like it it's amazing to think how many products we've played some small part in almost any industry that's that's pretty incredible right when you go to people and they say my business runs on your stuff don't f it up but literally every day we run on your software do you have to be able to predict the future a little in technology yeah I mean you have to be thinking about what does the world look like in five years and building for that today you know predicting it you're literally building if you're just trying to guess where it's going you're in trouble you know where we're going we know what we're trying to build to get us there for these Sydney LEDs it's been an extraordinary ride it's pretty it's pretty weak we have a very weird life like every month it seems like we're creating great things amazing things are happening meeting amazing people it all started 17 years ago at university when Mike sent Scott an email inviting him to co-found a startup tech business it is true that you lifted off credit cards for a while I've not lived off his credit ID for a while then we started on we were on nothing for the wall then three hundred bucks a week yep three hundred bucks a week we're very cheap taste I guess that's very grounding all of that when we were small what you know our office didn't have any heat and we would code through the middle of the night you taught me this actually he said it was get so cold and you can't type anymore go to the faucet you know the tap and turn on the hot water and you know warm your hands up in the hot water you can come back in code again which is which is great this is another advice not a healthy way to be for the most part the story of a Glaceon evolved behind closed doors at their sydney headquarters but that all changed in December 2015 a massive payday for the Sydney founders of software provider Atlassian when Atlassian was listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York the former classmates are now among Australia's richest men and their company has a market value of 8 billion dollars the growth of Atlassian has been phenomenal its officers can be found around the world providing jobs for three and a half thousand employees and the relationship Michael Scott formed back in uni has only strengthened they even live next door to each other in two of Australia's most expensive homes ready to have a hole in the fence so the kids can run back is there really a hole in the fence so yeah we cut it that takes four wires I could a dirt track goes back and forth but it's their astronomical wealth rather than their achievements that tends to attract the most attention I do find it funny in Australia that you know the number of zeros in a bank account gives you authority to you know to talk about something but the number of jobs you've created or the number of you know export dollars you brought to Australia none of those things you know get reported upon which is a little frustrating I guess it's because we still see money as success it's not a very good scorecard success it's a burden so it's it's a it's a burden it's a sense of responsibility that one should do something very impactful with that both have a sense of duty which has helped them find their political voice and their priority is to nudge our politicians into recognising the need for Australia to have its own thriving tech industry I think it's a huge challenge them to understand what's going on right so we it's interesting whenever we go down to Canberra we try to have learned to put our business into terms that they understand right I was having a long chat with a politician remain nameless that we are a manufacturing exporter and that just blew his mind like I'm a manufacturer I'm a I don't have a factory right but I'm a manufacturer I make goods and 95% of what I make I export to the rest of the world astray as good at exporting stuff from sheep to resources so I am natural DNA of this business is Australian oh you're not really an export I'm like why not I'm an exporter I export things so we're trying to put things in terms that they understand their goal is simple enough to make Australia stick friendly as the United States to create our own Silicon Valley it was still wrong way to go before we're you know kind of world class if you will get Silicon Valley kind of the epicenter of technology like there's no no one's going to supersede that really soon but I think it's tracing really good spot isn't that what we're aiming to do they don't chop our brain drain if you like going to Silicon Valley I think it's what we have to do it's not worry aiming to do right technology is the largest industry in the world and growing faster compared to the second interested in the largest industry almost ever has and so if Australia doesn't have a significant technology industry from a an economy-wide perspective we're gonna be in some trouble still to come at 32 melanie has four billion reasons to smile so we have over 15 million people you see at every month the young gurus with great ideas could you've done this in Australia I don't accept it but will Australia back them we're losing from your brain and your potential money maybe that's next on 60 minutes the world of technology has seen the creation of a new genre of entrepreneur and Melanie Perkins from Perth is one of them are just 32 she has already achieved what's called unicorn status did you know what a unicorn was before you got into this world I didn't know what a unicorn was or a venture capitalist or a startup or actually any of these things until we learnt about it the history and I guess this whole thing was just a little bit of a pipe dream to her delight Melanie has now discovered a unicorn is the tech description for a billion-dollar business her company canva is worth almost four billion a remarkable result from such humble beginnings today Melanie knew there had to be an easier way to create professional and quality graphic designs online no matter your level of experience so who uses so we have over 15 million people using it every month and that is 50,000 schools using it across the globe a BS and a fortune 500 companies hakusho just waiting for you to come up with something webpage I think it's a pretty big painful people even when she was a little girl Melanie had an entrepreneurial spirit at 22 she and her boyfriend cliff Oh Bret developed an online platform to design school yearbooks but as an Australian trying to make it in the tech world her big break only came when she got the nod of approval from Silicon Valley after a rather awkward meeting with American venture capitalists built I I studied some psychology at uni and had learned that if you mirror someone's body language they're more likely to like you but he had his arm behind his chair so I was sitting there trying to have my arm behind my chair flip through my pages in the future of publishing ate my lunch and kind of act normal how did that go well it didn't appear to be going that well but fortunately he introduced us to what made her a lot of his network which was really helpful which means he did believe you apparently so I found out after the meeting which was awesome California's Silicon Valley has long been the center of the universe for those seeking to make it in the tech world it's where many Australians with a dream and a desire flock young people with grand ideas mix with investors and it all happens in what appears to be a very cozy environment 26 year-old Zach Altman moved here to San Francisco from his home in Sydney six years ago this was the place he believed he could realize his dreams there's always been this the sentiment of you can come here from nothing and create something huge and so people come here with big ideas and come here with with kind of you know the sky's limit attitude sex big idea was lounge buddy an app and website for travelers to book access to airport lounges around the world it tells you all the lounges yeah and then we also have your flight details so you know how long you gonna have available on the lounge way to find exactly earlier this year the startup was snapped up by American Express in a deal that remains under wraps but clearly it was a good payday for Zach Tamiya the acquisition hasn't hit me properly yet it's still very new in my mind and did you have a little moment of blast that moment for me was was when I booked my vacation the day after after we closed I'm gonna Bali Zach believes his entrepreneurial ambitions were best served in the tech ecosystem that is Silicon Valley but in coming here Australia lost out could you have done this in Australia I don't think so for me it's like it's a crazy thing that you have Australians who have great ideas and you could build it in Australia but in order to be successful the advice is go to the US and see of Australians going to the us raising American building an American company and paying American taxes but could we've come up with a way of keeping you from leaving would that be and is that still possible I think that's still possible it will be Australia's version of Silicon Valley a dedicated tech park is now finally being planned for Sydney I think today we sent a really strong signal to the world and it should create the environment for local tech startups to flourish let's do something suppose an invitation you've got 50,000 templates you can choose from 50,000 yes Melanie Perkins has already made her mark and her tech company canva has now established its headquarters in Sydney this is a young person's game I think so it's in any person's game anyone that if I missed the boat absolutely not is there a problem that you feel passionate about that you want to see solved is that how it works I think so it starts there I think that's the most important thing because once you've found a problem that you want to solve passionately there's gonna be so many barriers every single barrier you can possibly imagine but I think that once you've got a really crystal clear picture of the problem that you want to solve it that's sort of step one I hope these guys who died in Vegas at the atlast Ummat for their customers Mike Cannon Brooks and Scott Farquhar still marvel at their achievements yes money is falling from the fax machine this is fantastic funny that we had a fax machine by the way have you got a lot of faxes recently without doubt the iglesias success story is an inspiration for other young Australian tech entrepreneurs has it changed you both now my story is the same white t-shirt that he always has the benchmark they've set is pretty high but my can Scott are adamant those with a dream can be just as successful imagine within Australia right now there are any number of young people with these great ideas where do they start yesterday yeah I mean fire too many people who tell me I've got great ideas what are you doing about them well I think maybe next year I know yesterday like chase those great ideas that the worst case outcome I would say for most of those people is they will learn a lot about themselves and they will learn a lot about you know growing a business and they could do it here they can do it here yeah sure definitely hello I'm Liz haze thanks for watching to keep up with the latest from 60 minutes Australia make sure you subscribe to our channel you can also download the 9 now app for full episodes and other exclusive 60 minutes content

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 129,933

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Charles Wooley, Tara Brown, Allison Langdon, Ellen Fanning, Ray Martin, Jana Wendt, Jeff McMullen, Jennifer Byrne, Mike Munro, Richard Carleton, Tracey Curro, Peter Harvey, George Negus, Ian Leslie, Gerald Stone, Sarah Abo, hi-tech business, unicorns, decacorns, tech companies, hectocorn, startup, Sillicon Valley, Atlassian

Id: td-kedNdm5Q

Length: 16min 3sec (963 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 19 2019