3 ms·

> Atlassian started in Australia, a country where technology is generally considered a scam to separate idiots from their wallets sorry, can you explain this f

> Atlassian started in Australia, a country where technology is generally considered a scam to separate idiots from their wallets sorry, can you explain this further? i don't know much about australia but this seems strange for a 'western' country, especially one in the british commonwealth.

nailer 11y ago
Working in the UK for the last 7 years, for both US-based and British companies, and Oz before that for the previous 9. Australia's wealth is from its natural resources. Originally farming, then gold, coal, oil, and uranium. Britain has some natural resources in the North sea, but London has been a centre of intellectual wealth for hundreds of years: before there were startups, there were the Rothschild's, banks, and every other kind of trader. Man Group started the first hedge fund in the world in London 200 years ago based on storms affecting the sugercane crop for their Royal Navy rum contract. Australia is still at the selling sugarcane stage. So while the UK is a little more cynical than the US, it still appreciates the value can be created intellectually because it has that history. Australia doesn't, because money is made by digging things up and selling them. I met and worked with some incredibly talented technical people in Oz - Damien from BSD/ipfw, Skud from Perl, lots of SA folk from Usenix - but the general business community is very wary of tech.
- vithlani 11y ago
  The "General Business Community in Australia" is rightly wary of tech, given how tech has plainly looted the community with false sales marketing, under delivery, outright scamming, etc. To wit: 1. Failed $10 billion project at Telstra a few years ago -- one of the biggest scams in IT history. 2. CommBank CEO's very valid complaints about IT project delivery. 3. Quality of products from local 'startups', for example, Atlassian! Yes, very bad quality in their early years. Those are just 3 of the biggest examples. In the face of un-reliable returns from tech both in terms of projects as well as investment, why would the business community not trust something that has brought in constant wealth for 300 years, i.e. the dug up stuff? As with all places with a small population, bad news travels really fast and gets magnified. Where tech is solid and does work, it tends to get adopted at a ridiculous pace in Australia, for example, the NFC technology.
bootload 11y ago
"i don't know much about australia but this seems strange for a 'western' country, especially one in the british commonwealth." There are key difference b/w the US, UK and Aus (native speaker here) with respect to business. I perceive the US as risk-takers with access to deregulated finance. The UK is risk-adverse with sophisticated finance. In Aus we have a combination of risk aversion and what I'll term, "dumb-money".
ftcHn 11y ago
A story on innovation in Australia by ABC's "The Science Show" made a comparison between the attitude to entrepreneurs in Israel & US vs Australia. In Israel & US it was viewed as a positive thing for an entrepreneur to have had 3 failed ventures as the 4th is more likely to succeed due to the experience gained in the previous ventures. In Australia it is viewed as a negative because past failures are predictive of the future.

nailer 11y ago

Working in the UK for the last 7 years, for both US-based and British companies, and Oz before that for the previous 9. Australia's wealth is from its natural resources. Originally farming, then gold, coal, oil, and uranium. Britain has some natural resources in the North sea, but London has been a centre of intellectual wealth for hundreds of years: before there were startups, there were the Rothschild's, banks, and every other kind of trader. Man Group started the first hedge fund in the world in London 200 years ago based on storms affecting the sugercane crop for their Royal Navy rum contract. Australia is still at the selling sugarcane stage. So while the UK is a little more cynical than the US, it still appreciates the value can be created intellectually because it has that history. Australia doesn't, because money is made by digging things up and selling them. I met and worked with some incredibly talented technical people in Oz - Damien from BSD/ipfw, Skud from Perl, lots of SA folk from Usenix - but the general business community is very wary of tech.

vithlani 11y ago
The "General Business Community in Australia" is rightly wary of tech, given how tech has plainly looted the community with false sales marketing, under delivery, outright scamming, etc. To wit: 1. Failed $10 billion project at Telstra a few years ago -- one of the biggest scams in IT history. 2. CommBank CEO's very valid complaints about IT project delivery. 3. Quality of products from local 'startups', for example, Atlassian! Yes, very bad quality in their early years. Those are just 3 of the biggest examples. In the face of un-reliable returns from tech both in terms of projects as well as investment, why would the business community not trust something that has brought in constant wealth for 300 years, i.e. the dug up stuff? As with all places with a small population, bad news travels really fast and gets magnified. Where tech is solid and does work, it tends to get adopted at a ridiculous pace in Australia, for example, the NFC technology.

bootload 11y ago

"i don't know much about australia but this seems strange for a 'western' country, especially one in the british commonwealth." There are key difference b/w the US, UK and Aus (native speaker here) with respect to business. I perceive the US as risk-takers with access to deregulated finance. The UK is risk-adverse with sophisticated finance. In Aus we have a combination of risk aversion and what I'll term, "dumb-money".

ftcHn 11y ago

A story on innovation in Australia by ABC's "The Science Show" made a comparison between the attitude to entrepreneurs in Israel & US vs Australia. In Israel & US it was viewed as a positive thing for an entrepreneur to have had 3 failed ventures as the 4th is more likely to succeed due to the experience gained in the previous ventures. In Australia it is viewed as a negative because past failures are predictive of the future.