They went to university together, were the best man at each other’s weddings, and founded one of Australia’s most successful tech startups ever together. And the bromance between Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar is still going strong, with the pair soon to be next-door neighbours as well.
Cannon-Brookes has purchased what Domain has called Australia’s most expensive house, located on Sydney Harbour, in a deal expected to close at about $100 million.
The pair, who this year ranked side-by-side at numbers 11 and 12 on the 2018 AFR Rich List, having each doubled their wealth from $2.51 billion in 2017 to $5.16 billion apiece this year.
Each also now run their own investment ventures, with Cannon-Brookes running Grok Ventures, while Farquhar owns Skip Capital with his wife, and principal of the investment company, Kim Jackson.
Although the pair are now next-door neighbours, Cannon-Brookes will still have plenty of breathing space, with 2.77 acres of estate, compared to Farquhar’s 1.7-acre property.
Cannon-Brookes has also one-upped his buddy in price, taking the most-expensive-home mantle from Farquhar, who Domain reported set the national price record when he bought his property for $70 million in April last year.
The relationship between Atlassian’s co-founders is arguably one of the strongest examples of co-founder friendship in the Australian industry, but their bromance also makes for a good business relationship.
Speaking to Fairfax back in 2014, Farquhar described himself as “the sensible one”, suggesting that Cannon-Brookes has a “reckless streak”.
“Mike is one of the most creative people you’ll meet,” Farquhar said. “He’s very good at imagining stuff that doesn’t exist yet.”
In the same article, Cannon-Brookes praised Farquhar’s leadership skills, saying he is “awesome in a crisis situation”.
“We had a security incident … Scott was on his honeymoon so he bailed on his honeymoon to come back. By the time he came back, I was just about expiring, it was easily the most stressful seven-day period of our lives. It’s instances like that where you see the team rally and the leaders shine,” he said.
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