Is working from home here to stay?
It feels wild to think there was a time, just a few years ago, where people trudged into the office five days a week.
Now, according to new research from Atlassian, asking workers to return to the office is counter-productive; the healthiest teams are those that work remotely or in a hybrid model.
Atlassian has a ‘work from anywhere’ policy
Atlassian’s a cloud-based software company. Its products such as JIRA and Confluence are used by companies you probably use every day such as banks and airlines.
In 2021 it was named the 23rd best place to work in the whole world by the Great Place to Work Institute.
And, since announcing its distributed work policy, as at April this year, almost 300 of its employees moved countries to take full advantage of being able to work from wherever worked best for them.
Working from home is a long-term trend
Data suggests that 25% of all professional jobs in the US will be remote by the end of 2022.
Workplace flexibility is important to attract and retain the best staff. Take it from Spaceship’s Chief of People, Alec Smith.
"At Spaceship, we love the vibe and cultural benefits that come from being physically present, and so we strive to create a workspace that people will choose to work from.
However, we all have different preferences and personal circumstances, and so as an employer who cares deeply about diversity, we want our people to choose what works best for them - particularly when few of our roles require physical attendance.
If we went back to the pre-pandemic world of 5-days-in-the-office, I guarantee we would lose great people, narrow the pool of people we can hire from, and be less diverse.
Ultimately, flexibility and choice is here to stay, and as human beings doing this crazy thing called work, we're all better for it."
Atlassian’s products make remote work easier for teams
And, because Atlassian has so many remote workers, they arguably have first-hand experience of what does and doesn’t work.
Recently, Atlassian announced Atlassian Atlas, a new product to help facilitate team communication, as well as a recruitment drive to find new employees from all around Australia.
How do we invest in the future of work?
We asked our Spaceship Voyager investment team about why we invest in Atlassian and the future of work. Here’s what they said.
“By 2024, the International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that investments in technology supporting the Future of Work will exceed $1 trillion.
They also estimate that 65% of global GDP is expected to be digitised by this year, with global spending on digital transformation to reach $6.8 trillion globally by 2023.
These extraordinary statistics are made possible in part by flexible and adaptable software that will determine the success of these digital transformation efforts.
One CEO, ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott, said that “companies are investing with a sense of urgency in technologies that get them to the right outcomes, fast. It’s very clear that businesses can no longer revert to the ‘status quo.’ We’re now in a tech-to-compete world" highlighting that companies must adopt usage of work productivity companies to (1) stay relevant and (2) help solve pain points to unlock human potential and remain resilient in the face of increasingly difficult operating conditions.
There are thousands of work productivity companies that we could invest in however we are focused on those that exhibit best-in-class fundamentals and unit economics, solid economic moats and a strong culture of innovation and ‘obsession’ with the customer. We also focus on cloud-based companies considering the global movement to cloud. Platform companies are also preferred.
Atlassian has a powerful position in the market because it services three growing fields: IT service management, development operations, and workflow management. Goldman Sachs has called it a $29 billion market opportunity that’s estimated to grow to $176 billion by 2025.
Atlassian is founder-led with a long-term mindset focused on innovation that helps teams work better together. They believe “products should be bought, not sold” and it’s resulted in what they call a ‘unique, hyper-efficient go-to-market strategy that has translated into world-class unit economics.’ It’ll be difficult for competitors to replicate."
The Spaceship Earth portfolio invests in Atlassian at the time of writing.
Important! We’re sharing with you our thoughts on the companies in which Spaceship Voyager invests for your informational purposes only. We think it’s important (and interesting!) to let you know what’s happening with Spaceship Voyager’s investments. However, we are not making recommendations to buy or sell holdings in a specific company. Past performance isn’t a reliable indicator or guarantee of future performance.
