Atlassian’s Scott Farquhar issues a rallying cry for tech industry growth
Atlassian’s Scott Farquhar says Australian talent is ‘world class’, but the nation needs a stronger tech industry to compete globally.
Australian talent is “world class”, but the nation needs a stronger technology industry to compete globally, according to billionaire and chief executive of software giant Atlassian Scott Farquhar.
“Australia has the smarts, the capital and the attitude to be globally successful (in tech) spaces, the Atlassian co-founder said at the Macquarie Australia Conference on Thursday.
“We have a chance to be on the global stage, and we have a unique talent here. The talent in Australia is world class and that’s something that differentiates Australian companies from other places in the world.”
Even with this large talent pool, Atlassian has had to bring in staff from overseas, he told Macquarie chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake, as he spoke of the challenges in getting staff to Australia through the coronavirus pandemic.
“Australia has a great junior talent. What has been a problem historically is the mid and senior level, just because we haven’t had the track record, the length of time of the industry,” Mr Farquhar said. “We’ve always been at the vanguard and so we do need to import some of that talent, which in COVID has been a bit more difficult for us to do.”
Once Australia’s borders open, he said he expected a wave of migration, adding that the Australian brand had “come a long way” in the pandemic.
Noting the “huge opportunity” for Australian technology on the global stage, Mr Farquhar said the industry needed to grow.
“Australia produces 1-2 per cent of the world’s GDP. If we want to continue that and maintain our standard of living, we’re going to need to produce 1-2 per cent of the world’s technology — mostly software. To have the best jobs, to attract the best intellectual property to Australia, we need a technology industry.”
At a government level, R&D grants are vital in getting software businesses off the ground, he said, as he pointed to visas as another way the government could help boost the industry.
“Ease and ability to bring in talent from overseas to help grow all the jobs in Australia; that’s a really important one.”
As far as how the start-up ecosystem had changed since he and Mike Cannon-Brookes founded Atlassian 20 years ago, Mr Farquhar said start-ups today needed more capital. “Over the last 20 years we’ve seen more VC come in, and then, of course, talent has come in. We’ve graduated a lot of talent from Atlassian but we’ve also brought in a lot from overseas,” he said.
“So that’s evolved a lot in the last 20 years. I think if you were going to do a start-up that was bootstrapped today I think you may really struggle because the markets are connected more than ever before. I think you’d want more capital today than we had back then.”
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