Atlassian is 20 years old and unprofitable — the market has its valuation all wrong, says Adam Schwab

Until a few months ago, no company had created more wealth for its shareholders than Sydney-grown Atlassian. At its peak in October 2021, the Nasdaq-listed business was valued $162 billion. At the time, Atlassian was one of the most valuable Australian companies that ever existed (behind only BHP and CBA, both of which are more than a century old). Atlassian was founded by two university graduates in 2002 using credit card debt.

Even more impressively, Atlassian was able to reach an incredible scale without ever raising money from venture capitalists to fund its early growth. It’s only investment round was from US-fund Accel, which bought shares off existing holders in 2010 before the company listed in the United States in 2015.