Atlassian vs Postman: Founders, CEOs and History
Atlassian was founded in 2002 by Mike Cannon-Brookes, Scott Farquhar and is led by Mike Cannon-Brookes. Postman was founded in 2014 by Abhinav Asthana, Ankit Sobti, Abhijit Kane and is led by Abhinav Asthana.
Company facts
Founders
Atlassian
Mike Cannon-Brookes
Atlassian was founded in 2002 in Sydney, Australia, by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar. The founding of the company is a notable departure from the traditional Silicon Valley startup narrative.
Scott Farquhar
Scott Farquhar co-founded Atlassian in 2002 and served as co-CEO alongside Mike Cannon-Brookes until he stepped down on August 31, 2024, one of the longest co-CEO partnerships among listed technology companies.
Postman
Abhinav Asthana
Abhinav Asthana is the co-founder and CEO of Postman. He started Postman as a side project to make API testing less painful, released it free on the Chrome Web Store, and after it reached about 500,000 users recruited Ankit Sobti and Abhijit Kane to found the…
Ankit Sobti
Ankit Sobti is a co-founder of Postman and its Chief Technology Officer. He joined Asthana in 2014 to turn the Chrome app into a company and has overseen the engineering that took Postman from a browser extension to desktop and web clients and a cloud platform…
Abhijit Kane
Abhijit Kane is a co-founder of Postman. He was one of the two former colleagues Asthana recruited in 2014 when the Chrome app's growth made it clear Postman could be a company, and he remains part of the founding leadership team.
CEOs and their tenures
Atlassian
- Mike Cannon-Brookes2002–present
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Cannon-Brookes has led Atlassian since founding it in 2002, taking it from a $10,000 startup to $6.57 billion of fiscal 2026 revenue, and has been sole chief executive since Scott Farquhar stepped down on August 31, 2024.
Source - Scott Farquhar2002–2024
Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer
Farquhar served as co-CEO alongside Cannon-Brookes from 2002 until August 31, 2024, overseeing technical and engineering areas of the company as it grew from the original Jira issue tracker to a cloud platform serving more than 350,000 customers.
Source
Postman
- Abhinav Asthana2014–present
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder
Created Postman in 2012, has led the company since incorporation, and raised about $433 million including the 2021 Series D at a $5.6 billion valuation.
Source - Ankit Sobti2014–present
Chief Technology Officer & Co-Founder
Leads Postman's technology and engineering.
Source - Abhijit Kane2014–present
Co-Founder
Co-founded Postman with Asthana and Sobti and remains part of its founding leadership.
Source
Timeline: Atlassian and Postman side by side
2002Atlassian
Company founded by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar in Sydney
Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar founded Atlassian with $10,000 in credit card debt while students at the University of New South Wales. They launched Jira, a bug-tracking and project management tool for software developers.
2004Atlassian
Launch of Confluence team collaboration platform
Atlassian launched Confluence, a team collaboration and documentation platform that complemented Jira and expanded the addressable market beyond software development into general team collaboration and knowledge management.
2005Atlassian
Reaches $1 million in annual revenue with no salespeople
Atlassian reached $1 million in annual revenue entirely through self-service online sales, validating the product-led growth model and demonstrating that enterprise software could be sold without a traditional sales force.
2010Atlassian
Raises $60 million from Accel Partners
Atlassian raised its first outside investment, $60 million from Accel Partners, after eight years of bootstrapped growth. The money went to product development and international expansion, not to building a sales force.
2012Atlassian
Acquisition of HipChat for real-time messaging
Atlassian acquired HipChat, an enterprise messaging platform, entering the real-time communication market and expanding the product suite beyond project management and documentation.
2012Postman
Postman Chrome app launched
Abhinav Asthana releases Postman free on the Chrome Web Store while working at Yahoo in Bengaluru.
2014Postman
Postman, Inc. founded
Asthana, Ankit Sobti and Abhijit Kane form the company.
2015Atlassian
Initial public offering on NASDAQ
Atlassian completed its IPO on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, raising $462 million at a valuation of $4.37 billion. Shares were priced at $21 and rose 32% on the first day to close near $28.
2015Postman
$1M seed round
Nexus Venture Partners leads Postman's seed round.
2017Atlassian
Acquisition of Trello for $425 million
Atlassian acquired Trello, a visual task management platform built on Kanban boards, for $425 million in cash and stock. The deal extended its reach to non-technical teams and smaller organizations, complementing Jira.
2017Postman
HQ moves to San Francisco
Postman relocates its corporate headquarters from Bengaluru.
2018Atlassian
Launch of Jira Service Management
Atlassian launched Jira Service Management, entering the IT service management market and extending Jira from software development into IT operations and service desk work.
2019Postman
$50M Series B
CRV leads Postman's Series B.
2020Atlassian
Acquisition of Mindville for asset management
Atlassian acquired Mindville, an IT asset management company, to add asset and configuration management to Jira Service Management for enterprise customers.
2020Postman
$150M Series C at $2B
Insight Partners leads the round.
2021Atlassian
Acquisition of Chartio for data visualization
Atlassian acquired Chartio, a cloud data visualization and analytics company, to improve reporting across the product suite. The standalone Chartio product was later discontinued.
2021Postman
$225M Series D at $5.6B
Insight Partners leads; Coatue, CRV, Nexus, Battery Ventures and BOND participate.
2022Atlassian
Acquisition of Percept.AI for AI virtual agents
Atlassian acquired Percept.AI, an AI virtual agent company, to add automated ticket handling to Jira Service Management ahead of its broader AI push.
2023Atlassian
Acquisition of Loom for approximately $975 million
Atlassian acquired Loom, an asynchronous video messaging platform, for about $975 million, its largest acquisition by announced value, adding recorded video to Jira and Confluence workflows.
2023Postman
Akita acquisition and Postbot
Postman buys Akita Software and introduces its Postbot AI assistant.
2024Atlassian
Launch of Rovo AI assistant
Atlassian launched Rovo, an AI assistant embedded across its products, providing search, summarization, automation, and agents that draw on the Teamwork Graph.
2024Atlassian
Server end-of-life forces cloud and data center migration
Atlassian ended support for its Server product line in February 2024, requiring remaining on-premises customers to move to either Cloud or Data Center subscriptions.
2024Postman
Orbit acquisition and Postman v11
Postman acquires Orbit and ships v11 with AI features.
2025Atlassian
Launch of Atlassian Collections
Atlassian began selling Collections, bundles of apps and AI agents priced around an outcome rather than per product: the Teamwork Collection, Software Collection, Service Collection, and Strategy Collection.
2025Atlassian
Announces end of life for Data Center products
On September 8, 2025, Atlassian announced the end of life of its Data Center products under a migration program called Atlassian Ascend.
2025Atlassian
Acquisition of The Browser Company of New York
Atlassian completed the acquisition of The Browser Company of New York, maker of the Dia and Arc browsers, on October 20, 2025, for a total purchase price of $488.3 million, taking the company into enterprise browsers.
2025Atlassian
Acquisition of engineering intelligence vendor DX
Atlassian acquired A Software Company, which trades as DX, on November 10, 2025 for $720.4 million in cash. DX measures how engineering investment turns into delivered work and is being folded into Atlassian Collections.
2025Postman
liblab acquisition
Postman acquires SDK generation platform liblab in November.
2026Atlassian
Restructuring eliminates roles covering about 10% of the workforce
Atlassian initiated a second restructuring plan in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, eliminating roles covering approximately 10% of its workforce to fund investment in AI and enterprise sales.
2026Atlassian
Rovo reaches over 80% of the Fortune 500
Atlassian reported that Rovo was in use at over 80% of Fortune 500 companies and that its MCP server and Teamwork Graph CLI passed one million monthly active users in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, more than doubling in a quarter.
2026Postman
Fern, new platform and Fabric Gateway
Fern acquired in January; AI-native platform and Free/Solo/Team/Enterprise pricing in March; Fabric Gateway generally available September 29.
Acquisitions
Atlassian
- The Browser Company of New York Inc.2025$488.3M
- A Software Company (DX)2025$720.4M
- Loom, Inc.2023$975M
- Percept.AI2022Undisclosed
- Chartio2021Undisclosed
- Mindville2020Undisclosed
Postman
- Fern2026Undisclosed
- liblab2025Undisclosed
- Orbit2024Undisclosed
- Akita Software2023Undisclosed
Questions about Atlassian vs Postman
Who is the CEO of Atlassian Corporation and Postman, Inc.?
Atlassian Corporation is led by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Postman, Inc. is led by Abhinav Asthana. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.
When was Atlassian Corporation founded vs Postman, Inc.?
Atlassian Corporation was founded in 2002 — 12 years before Postman, Inc., which was founded in 2014. Atlassian Corporation's longer operating history gives it a deeper track record but also potentially more institutional inertia compared to the younger Postman, Inc..
How many employees does Atlassian Corporation have compared to Postman, Inc.?
Atlassian Corporation employs approximately 13,301 people, while Postman, Inc. employs approximately 1,600. Atlassian Corporation has the larger workforce at 13,301 employees, compared to Postman, Inc.'s 1,600. A higher headcount does not necessarily imply greater efficiency — it often reflects differences in business model (e.g., manufacturing vs. software).
Where are Atlassian Corporation and Postman, Inc. headquartered?
Both Atlassian Corporation and Postman, Inc. are headquartered in United States, meaning they operate under the same primary regulatory and tax environment.
Who founded Atlassian Corporation and Postman, Inc.?
Atlassian Corporation was founded by Mike Cannon-Brookes, Scott Farquhar. Postman, Inc. was founded by Abhinav Asthana, Ankit Sobti, Abhijit Kane.
Which company has a longer operating history — Atlassian Corporation or Postman, Inc.?
Atlassian Corporation has been operating for approximately 24 years, making it the more established of the two companies. Postman, Inc. has been in operation for around 12 years. A longer operating history often signals greater institutional resilience and brand recognition, though it can also mean slower adaptation to new market conditions.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Atlassian vs Postman overview