Empowering Startups: Atlassian’s Free Apps Program with Philip Braddock – Atlassian Team ’25 NA

This is Techstrong tv. We are back in Anaheim, and we're back with the great Philip Braddock, the head of Atlassian for startups. Philip, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me, tech Strong tv. And um, I wanna just start off with kinda the primary goal or, or what you hope to achieve at Atlassian for Startups program and how it supports early stage companies. Yeah, Thanks for asking.

So Atlassian for Startups is one of our newest go-to-market motions, specifically designed for early stage startups. And what we have done is we've taken six Atlassian AppSec, JIRA, confluence, loom, JIRA Product Discovery, compass, and Bitbucket put them in a soft bundle, which means that applicants can choose one multiple or all six of those AppSec. And if they meet a set of eligibility criteria, which I'll talk about in just a moment, they can get up to 50 seats on the premium edition of those AppSec for free for one year.

And the eligibility criteria is quite straightforward. You cannot be an existing paying customer for the AppSec that you've selected as part of the program. You have to have some kind of relationship with a venture capital investor, accelerator or incubator program, and you cannot have raised more than $10 million in cumulative funding.

So when kind you gonna take it all together, what we're really trying to do is provide a free year of app products to Atlassian customers so that they can really focus on running business, excuse me, running their business, delivering value to their end customers without having to worry about costs for one year. Um, as far as we're concerned, we really believe it's never too early to start with Atlassian and with the Atlassian for Startups program. We're really, really trying in a new way as of June of last year when we launched the program, to really encourage entrepreneurs to internalize that themselves so that they can get their teams running with Atlassian as their system of work.

So you said it's been in existence since June of 2024. That's right. How many, how many companies have, have qualified for the program and can you maybe gimme a descriptions of a few of them that stand out or what type of industries they're in and what some of the things they do?

Yeah, Absolutely. So I'm really, really excited to tell you that we have over 1700 customers in this program as of June of last year. Um, and as far as industries and any patterns we see, um, as you might imagine, especially given what Atlassian is most known for, um, we see a ton of SaaS companies and in today's world, a bunch of AI companies as well.

Um, but what's even more interesting to me is actually that we see startups in all sectors and domains of the economy across the world. And that's the really fun part is that it's global. So one thing I like to always remind my team about is that a startup is a startup is a startup.

And what I mean by that is, sure, we do see a lot of SaaS and AI as I mentioned, but we also see sustainable clothing businesses, we see ev battery companies, uh, we have one company in the portfolio who is trying to reimagine what an electric train car could look like in the future where Oh, wow. Can you talk, can you talk a little bit more about that? Yeah.

I'm just curious and just add my own Curiosity. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so I, I don't necessarily know the ins and outs of the business of course, but uh, when they applied, um, we always review every single application to make sure that they meet the eligibility criteria.

And this company caught my eye because it was so different. Um, what they're basically trying to do is they're trying to imagine a world where rail travel becomes fully electric, Allah, electric cars, and what would that mean for the actual sitting in the train experience? Would it be the same, would it be different, et cetera.

Um, but this is just one example of a company who's trying to kind of push the boundaries in a specific sector that frankly doesn't really have anything to do with core software at least. No. Um, but they use our products to manage all their workflows and manage all their builds, and they're obviously building things that are much more physical, uh, than they are digital.

Um, but I think it's a very cool example of a startup who, you know, you might not necessarily associate as being an Atlassian customer with one that actually has to manage fairly complex workflows including supply chain for the actual physical supplies they need to try to build what they're building and prove out the concept. Yeah, And it's interesting because when you kinda step back, you're looking at things that companies you're working with that, that have impacts on people's everyday lives that are not, you know, in the weeds data related companies. Um, they're not all, as you said, all ai, although I'm gonna go back to AI and ask you Sure.

Have, has there been a proportionately higher number of AI re related companies that you're working with as part of the startups program? And is that related to the AI agent land rush that we're seeing in the last several months? I think so.

I think some of it is just not the coincidence of timing is the wrong way to say it, but I think some of it is just the reality of the timing of when we launched the program. So as a remind, you know, as we just said, we launched it in June of 24, so the AI boom was already up and going. Yeah.

So, you know, some of what we see are what I would call sort of very core AI companies, and some of what I see are companies that are kind of dabbling in the AI space, but one way or the other, I think certainly anyone who's trying to become a technology first company, uh, just like we've seen here today, um, in our Atlassian's keynote, um, AI is gonna be integral to all of our workflows. And I think it's more a matter of whether you are trying to be a company selling AI solutions or a company sort of who is ingesting those or some combination of the two. But yeah, unquestionably we see a bunch of that now.

So In a sense, like, you know, the, the saying was that every company is a technology company. Now, would it be fair to say that every company now is an AI company in some aspect? Because I, and it almost, it almost feels like regardless of the company, even if there's not even a remotely distinct or even a tangential link to ai, they're gonna, they're gonna make that an make that an observation.

But I wonder, I guess maybe perhaps they do have a point because if you use a AI in any capacity you could make that, you could make that claim in terms of efficiency or in terms of user experience. Yeah, absolutely. Um, I wouldn't personally go so far as to say every company is an AI company.

I mean, let's take, um, oil and gas. I mean, in the end, what they do as a business is oil and gas. I think the way I tend to think about it, especially with early stage companies, is for those that are not core AI companies, I think AI is unquestionably gonna be baked into their workflows and what they do, and it will help them scale faster than they've ever been able to scale before.

Um, I dunno, maybe other people have a different philosophical position on that, but I think it ends up coming down to what is your competitive advantage? Certain companies core AI is their competitive advantage, or they hope it will become their competitive advantage. And I think other companies are looking to leverage AI to further what is already their competitive advantage.

Is it conceivable that any company could bypass, this is just a wild question, but could bypass AI altogether and say, look, we don't need to use it. We don't, we're not, we're not obligated to do that. Or is that a non-negotiable just, uh, Stance?

I mean, could a company do it? Sure. I I think that would, the, the question I would ask is why not, right?

Because it's not even necessarily about replacing your human workers with agentic workers. I think it's about enabling your existing people to do more with what they currently have. Um, so if someone says, we don't need it, I, I mean, I'm not here to force it down your throat, but I'm Just trying to find a company that would, that that would make for a great story to find a company that would say, I think we can survive without it.

But I think that would just in a sense, would be a self-inflicted wound. Yeah, I mean, I think if we really look at what's happening as a true platform level shift, I think it, you know, 10 years ago, could you have found a company who said, we don't need a mobile app. Well, they probably have one now and 20 years ago or 30 could you have said, well, we don't need a website.

So I, I think that, that, that's a good comparison that will kind of probably catch itself up. Um, but I, you know, like in any big shift there are early adopters, mid-level adopters and laggards, and so I think it's just really more a matter of time. Okay.

Yeah. Um, what, what trends are you observing in the startup ecosystem and how is Atlassian adapting its offerings to meet those trends? Yeah, It's a great question.

I I would actually say that by the virtue of just having this program Atlassian for startups, especially given that if I round up just a little bit, we're roughly a, uh, 25-year-old company or over two decades is maybe a better way to say it. Um, so what we are really trying to do with the program is just adapt to the reality of the startup landscape. So even if I put aside specific trends with our companies, we know because we were there ourselves, and one of the things I used to do at Atlassian prior to this was help run Atlassian Ventures, our corporate venture fund.

Um, cash is tight for startups, and that's not because they're burning it and sort of being irresponsible with it, it's because they raise only amount of money they need to raise, and then they try to run a lean business. And so what we wanna really do in those earliest days with this program is taste the pricing sensitivity right off the top, enable founders to make the best app decision they can for themselves without having to worry about cost. And then from there, we certainly hope that we become so embedded in their daily workflows that Atlassian as a provider becomes integral for the value that they provide to their end customers.

Right. You know, I was, I was at, uh, it was, I think it was at Reinvent, I met with AWS has an accelerator, a startup program. Is that, is that, I mean, I think Cisco does, I mean a number of companies do, do you think that's gonna continue to grow, especially given the, the current environment and, and the, the thirst for new ideas and applying AI or SaaS to any type of industry?

Yeah, I think so. I, I think that if you reach a certain economy of scale, which Atlassian has been lucky enough to do, certainly AWS would qualify for something like that. And we actually partner with AWS in my program.

Um, I think it is, if it's your only business strategy, it might be tough. I mean, the startup landscape is very volatile, and I don't mean that in any sort of, um, you know, combative way. It's just, it's very hard to run a successful business and grow a business.

Um, if you've reached that economy of scale though, and this can become part of your overall business model whereby you go out and you try to sort of, uh, maybe not fund development, but but enable companies to use your tools and accelerate with them so that as they grow, they grow with you, I think it can be very popular. And yes, I think you see a ton of programs, especially at the infrastructure layer, like you're talking about with AWS where for them it makes tons of sense. If, if someone comes onto your platform early and then grows with you, throw in the counterfactual that without programs like mine or AWS Activate, for example, would those customers have ever landed on those tool sets?

And certainly would they have done it at that moment in time. And the counterfactual is always hard to prove out, but I think everyone understands the concept. Um, I think programs like these are really important, and if you get a growing customer base who comes in through that funnel, the whole thing really, um, it becomes very, very self-fulfilling.

Are there certain companies or types of vertical markets that you're predisposed to, to looking to, to invest in? Or is it pretty much wide open? Uh, when you ask that question, are you asking from my previous role, like with the Atlassian Ventures hat on, or how About Yeah, yeah.

Let's, let's apply it to that rule because I'm, I'm just wondering if there are certain areas like healthcare, you know, with a lot of potential, huge potential upside in that area. I'm just wondering if there's certain types of vertical areas that you think that, that you're particularly interested in as a company to invest in? Um, yes.

I mean, I think as you've heard all week here this week, you know, we fundamentally believe our tools are for all teams. Um, and part of what we've seen and revealed here today with our different collections is to really start to be more specific that a certain collection of Atlassian AppSec, a certain set of them is a better way to say it, are more applicable for certain types of teams. Right.

Now, to your point about industries and sectors, this is my opinion, and I've worked here almost a decade. Um, I think our tools are industry agnostic. Okay.

I fundamentally believe that, and I used to say long time ago that if you didn't know what Jira was, for example, if you've ever planned a wedding or built a house, JIRA's great, because what you're really fundamentally talking about putting aside software development, is you have different pieces of work that are always at a different status. Someone gets assigned something, they get assigned back to you, what have you. And what you really wanna see is you want to understand the status, the level of detail, what have you at a work item level, but you also wanna be able to zoom out and understand what's the status of the entire effort.

Um, so while those might be sort of like, not trivial examples, but more sort of colloquial examples, um, I, I think you then expand that out and, and the entire use case of our tool set and our platform just expands exponentially from there. One Last question. Sure.

How does Atlassian plan to expand or evolve the program in the future to better serve the startup community? Yeah, It's a, thank you for asking. It's a great question.

So as of right now, it's a one year program. Um, we are are considering what it could look like to be a multi-year program. Nobody can quote me on that.

I look straight at the camera for that one. Um, but beyond that, we are always looking for ways to make the program more durable. And I use that word very intentionally because what that means to me is, for example, how could we leverage the Atlassian ecosystem potentially to make this program even more attractive and to make the entire experience that much more valuable in terms of time to value for startups, um, and also just much more attractive, such that imagine a world where marketplace AppSec potentially would match our offer as an example.

Or imagine where there were solution providers who were specifically tailoring configuration and services type solutions for startups. Um, so right now, of course, we haven't even been live a year. And so this first year has been really about, you know, building durability at the operations level and the core marketing level to make sure that our funnel stays healthy and the pipeline is healthy.

Um, but in the future, I think that Atlassian really grew up as a PLG product led growth company where startups are kind of our bread and butter. And despite the fact that Atlassian or not despite, but even though Atlassian has grown and matured over time, we have no intention of getting away from supporting startups. And my program is really just one initiative, maybe the most literal one, Atlassian for startups.

Um, but I think it's just one of many things you'll see where we continue to be committed to serving both sides of the barbell. Meaning we've got enterprise on one side, startups on the other, and of course we do a phenomenal job, I think, of supporting companies who are not on neither side of the spectrum, but sort of growing across that spectrum as well. That sounds great.

So, we'll, we, we look forward to seeing how you evolved. Okay. As an organization.

We thank you for being here. Absolutely. Um, thanks Philip.

Um, we're gonna have more interviews later today, um, from Anaheim, uh, Disneyland's right down the street. And the, the guys I'm working with can't wait to go, so, um, we'll see you all soon later. Bye.

Cool. Thank you. Thanks.