atlassian shares surge on trading debut valuing company at 57 billion dealbookatlassian shares surge on trading debut 10 2015in going public on thursday atlassian a maker of business collaboration and development software did two things many other market debutantes have been unable to do this yearit priced its initial public offering above its expected range and its shares enjoyed a healthy pop in their trading debutshares in atlassian were 2722 in lateafternoon trading on thursday up nearly 30 percent above their offer price of 21 that valued the software maker at nearly 57 billionthe price gains bring an upbeat close to what has been a generally dismal year for initial offerings as many wellknown names either suffered disappointing trading debuts or postponed their stock sales altogether because of lukewarm investor interestthat malaise has affected a variety of companies including the payments issuer square and the luxury retailer neiman marcus and has dampened appetite for once highflying tech companiesyet atlassian whose wares run from project and code management tools to chat software is different from many of its tech brethren as its cofounder and cochief executive michael cannonbrookes was quick to note in a telephone interview on thursdaymost notably the company which is based in australia has been profitable virtually since its inception in 2002 whereas many silicon valley darlings post losses and promise big profits down the road it also spends less on marketing and has no sales team relying primarily on wordofmouth to bring in new customersthis is a huge validation of what weve built mr cannonbrookes saidand unlike many bay area companies atlassian has never taken a direct investment from outside financiers its external investors including accel partners and t rowe price bought their shares from employees that helped eliminate pressure on management to chart any course other than what it wanted to do according to mr cannonbrookesthe company initially was selffinanced out of necessity since few venture capital firms would bet on two young australians who wanted to create a software company in 2002instead mr cannonbrookes and his fellow cofounder scott farquhar took out roughly 10000 in credit card debt to get their business off the ground and then eventually ran off the profits their startup began generatingbut while atlassian became a profitable private company that had still found ways for employees to sell their stock mr cannonbrookes said going public was always in the companys plans it organized itself internally to run as a public company several years agogoing public was less about raising money to finance operations or growth he said than getting recognition for what the company had builtthe great companies of the world are public companies he said we always wanted to be a great public company