|  | Mike Cannon-Brookes, Atlassian
| (brought to you by Viocorp)
|  Friday 25 July 2008
| Slide Bar, Sydney
| Mike Cannon-Brookes from Atlassian was our guest speaker for a breakfast on 25 July.
Mike is co-founder and CEO of Atlassian Pty Ltd an innovative, award-winning enterprise software company. As well as being frighteningly young and good-looking, Mike has been instrumental in building Atlassian into one of Australia's brightest technology exports. Amazingly, Mike (along with his co-founder Scott Farquhar) has done this with no external funding. Come along and hear this amazing and inspirational story in the unique Innovation Bay environment.
Atlassian produces tools that help technical and business teams collaborate, plan projects and build software. Based in Australia, Atlassian currently has over 10,000 enterprise customers around the globe and has been named one of the "Fastest Growing Companies" by both Deloitte and BRW Magazine.
Mike has received international recognition for his work including the Australian IT Professional of the Year in 2004 and being named Australian Entrepreneur Of The Year in 2006. Outside Atlassian, he is an active investor and advisor to a few technology-focused ventures, and participates in a number of open source projects.
His blog is entitled rebelutionary
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| | Steven Marks and Rob Hazen - Guzman y Gomez
| Wednesday 25 June 2008
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| An awesome dinner with Steven Marks, founder of Guzman y Gomez, www.guzmanygomez.com.
With a passion for innovation and entrepreneurialism, Steven came to Australia leaving behind a successful business career in setting up hedge funds in NY and London.
On arriving in Australia Steven realised there was a lack of quality and healthy Mexican food, especially compared to his native New York. The fact that Mexican food has never succeeded to gain hold in the Australian market did not deter Steven but rather cemented his belief in the need for a healthy, quality focused Mexican fast food chain, such as Chipotle in the US (NYSE:CMG; Mkt Cap US$3bn).
Steven talked through his experiences in setting up Guzman y Gomez's three existing stores, with a fourth about to open and their recently expanded wholesale manufacturing store. How has it been possible to establish a Mexican food chain in Sydney with limited funds, no existing market and a need to change historical perceptions? This is a very exciting opportunity for the Innovation bay network to sit down with Steven on the cusp of a new brand identity within the Australian market and gain an understanding of how this all came about. Steven has not spoken about his experiences in public, which represents another Innovation bay exclusive.
Steven Marks, founder of GyG, is a former hedge fund manager and entrepreneur. Inspired by the success of US-based Chipotle (NYSE:CMG; mkt cap. US$3 billion), Qdoba and other "fast-casual" Mexican concepts, and the explosion of Mexican food across Europe, Steve recruited chefs from Mexico, Chipotle's Operations Manager Chris DeHuff, and founded GyG.
Steven, a native of New York, shared his experience of growing a retail food brand from scratch, the challenges of introducing a new segment to Australia's landscape of fast food, and the ability to inspire and attract great people and partners.
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