Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar built Atlassian into one of Australia's most successful tech companies, and one of the rare local startups to become a global software giant. Then the partnership behind it came apart.

Journalists John Stensholt and Perry Williams join Georgie to unpack their new book on the two co-founders: how they scaled a hundred-billion-dollar company side by side, and what happens to a business when the people at the top stop seeing eye to eye.

They cover how co-CEO leadership worked inside Atlassian, how the founders' split affected the company's culture, and what it took to keep the business moving through it.

Then the big question: where does Atlassian stand now? They get into the share price, the pressure on software companies to prove themselves in the AI era, and whether Atlassian can make the leap. Plus, John and Perry step into Mike and Scott's shoes to argue who was the better entrepreneur.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Cold open

00:47 This week's AI headline: an OpenAI agent inside Medicare

02:55 Meet John Stensholt and Perry Williams, authors of Tech Bros

05:05 The farewell dinner Mike Cannon-Brookes skipped

09:51 Why Mike and Scott wouldn't talk to the authors

11:28 Point Piper: the $71M house next to the $100M house

16:17 Private school vs public school: did class play a part?

19:33 How two journalists split and wrote one book

22:02 Atlassian's share price rollercoaster

23:57 Can Atlassian navigate AI and become a 2.0?

27:42 Australia's next billionaires: data centres

30:01 Debate: Scott vs Mike, who's the better entrepreneur?

32:50 Charismatic Mike, "robotic" Scott, and the famous punch

34:11 Signed book + predictions giveaway

34:34 "The most toxic place I've worked": Atlassian's culture

37:18 The Silicon Valley mediator who couldn't fix it

40:38 Will they reunite? SunCable, Anthropic and Skip Capital

42:29 Have Mike and Scott read the book?

44:35 Who should read Tech Bros

47:14 Outro

Mentioned in this episode:

Deel x BAI_Script 01 - Sep 2026

Deel x BAI_Script 02 - Sep 2026