Sarah Hughes, Head of Corporate Development and Product Partnerships, Atlassian

Uncover the inside workings of Atlassian’s M&A strategy—from how Sarah’s team sources deals and aligns with product to the importance of relationship-building and a structured, founder-first integration approach. With over seven years of experience leading corporate development at Atlassian, Sarah shares practical lessons on building strategic pipelines, cultivating founder trust, and operationalizing successful integrations across Atlassian's global portfolio

Things you will learn:

Building long-term relationships with founders, even years before deals happen
Aligning product, venture, and partnership decisions under one roof
Atlassian’s approach to cultural diligence, integration planning, and transparency post-close

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Episode Chapters

00:02:00 – Sarah’s path into corporate development via Google and Atlassian
00:04:00 – Strategic rationale behind Trello and Loom acquisitions
00:07:00 – Atlassian’s three M&A strategy pillars: roadmap accelerants, vacuums, and break-glass opportunities
00:09:00 – How corp dev aligns with product: push-pull strategy and joint roadmaps
00:12:30 – Centralizing M&A, ventures, and partnerships under one team
00:15:30 – Using AI to accelerate sourcing, market mapping, and diligence
00:19:00 – Loom case study: a 5-year founder relationship turned acquisition
00:25:00 – Creating co-authored vision docs to align on integration and success metrics
00:33:00 – How Atlassian handles cultural diligence and post-close attrition risk
00:36:00 – Atlassian’s integration approach: open playbooks, IMO structure, and post-close planning
00:42:00 – Where AI is driving efficiency across the deal lifecycle
00:48:30 – Sarah’s advice to corp dev leaders on sourcing, alignment, and outside-in perspective

Questions, comments, concerns?Follow Kison Patel for behind-the-scenes insights on modern M&A.

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