Atlassian’s Dom Price shares four key ingredients for scaling a startup

Over 15 years, Atlassian has grown from fledgling startup to employing 2500 people across nine countries, and the company’s head of R&D and ‘work futurist’ Dom Price says it’s all down to strong company values — and strong examples from the top.

A lot of businesses don’t necessarily consider the transition from being a small, close-knit startup team to a larger one, and then an international one, Price told StartupSmart at the Next Gen in Business event in Melbourne last week. While it may be the same business, a lot of the time, everything else has changed.

Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar may have been co-chief executives for 15 years, but that job has changed dramatically.

“Part of their role has been to constantly evolve, learn, un-learn, share their lessons learnt,” says Price.

“They’ve continually evolved, and that’s then set the tone for the rest of us.”

So how should startup founders about to embark on a growth phase manage the transition? Where do they even begin? We asked Price for his words of wisdom. Read more

Stephanie Palmer-Derrien - Smart Company - 28 May 2018