Cannon-Brookes was born in November 1979. He graduated from the University of New South Wales with a bachelor's degree in information systems. With Scott Farquhar, Cannon-Brookes is the co-founder and co-CEO of Atlassian, a collaboration software company. The pair started the company in 2002, shortly after graduating from college. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of New South Wales' School of Computer Science and Engineering. In June 2011, Atlassian announced revenue of $102 million, and the value of the company reached reached US$26.6 billion as of March 2019.