On May 1, 2021, Frank Furedi — a former Trotskyist turned right-wing libertarian — penned a column for the Australian fuming against “woke capitalists.” He reserved particular ire for Atlassian cofounder and co-CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes, a man he said “personifies the businessman turned culture warrior.”

This wasn’t the only press that Cannon-Brookes and his business partner Scott Farquhar received that week. The media is fascinated by the mystique of Australia’s larrikin software billionaires. While Atlassian may be domiciled in the UK and listed in the United States, its public image, built around a kind of twenty-first-century Australian pseudo-egalitarianism, is homegrown.

Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar claim they began the business because they “didn’t want to wear a suit to work” and only wanted to make the starting salary for a grad in the industry. This informal blokishness is part of the company’s ethos. Atlassian’s values, proudly displayed on their website, stress that one of the tech giant’s key aims is to be an “open company, no bullshit.” The firm’s aversion to polished self-presentation is an integral part of its brand.