It started with a $10,000 credit card debt and now it's worth a cool $A6 billion.
Nowhere is Australia's innovation potential more realised than in Atlassian, the homegrown tech startup set to make a star debut on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange on Thursday night after exceeding expectations in its hugely successful IPO.
Overwhelming demand for the software maker's stock saw investors drive the share price up to $US21 in the sale, a premium on the advised $US19-20 range.
That's a quarter increase on the $US16.50 price initially advertised in its prospectus in November.
The company was forced to revise pricing twice this week due to investor appetite and ended up raising $US462 million ($A640.29 million) from the sale of 22 million shares, which puts its market worth at a record $US4.38 billion ($A6.07 billion).
The valuation makes it the country's largest tech company and sets the record for the most successful Australian company listing on US markets.
IG market strategist Evan Lucas said the IPO sale was equivalent to when Weibo, the Chinese messaging service and King Digital, the company behind the Candy Crush Saga games, listed on the Nasdaq.
"It's very exciting and on an international scale, it's massive. It's a very very good listing and a very impressive number," he said.
"It just goes to show that anything's possible if you've got the right product and can identify a niche area to jump into."
Atlassian makes and licences a range of software programs including Jira, Confluence and Hipchat which are used by developers and project managers around the world.
It counts NASA, Facebook and Toyota among its 51,000 customers and reported a 10-year profit record in its prospectus.
Mr Lucas predicted a strong start to trade on Thursday night and said the stock could rise anywhere between 10 per cent to 95 per cent.
"You can't predict it but the momentum, the bidding, the excitement behind it all does suggest that there will be an upside on the day. The question will be by how much," Mr Lucas said.
Atlassian's Sydney-based founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar are tipped to ring the market bell to signal start of trading on Thursday morning (US time).
The duo, who founded the company in 2002 on a $10,000 credit card loan, own 66.6 per cent of the company which makes them worth more than $A4 billion.
Atlassian is headquartered in Sydney with a base in San Francisco.
It will trade on the Nasdaq with the ticker, TEAM.
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