^[1]The following SMART 100 profile and the information it contains is a duplication of content submitted by the applicant during the entry process. As a function of entry, applicants were required to declare that all details are factually correct, do not infringe on another’s intellectual property and are not unlawful, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, obscene, or otherwise objectionable. Some profiles have been edited for reasons of space and clarity. More about the SMART 100 ^[2].

This innovation initially came to life when…

Causium…The new freemium Australian software maker, Atlassian, has pioneered a new customer acquisition strategy called Causium that merges cause marketing with the popular freemium business model. Instead of giving away a teaser product, Atlassian charges a nominal fee of $10 for its starter 10 user licenses and then donates all the proceeds to charity. The results have been an astounding win-win-win for all parties. Over 14,000 customers now have software that they couldn’t previously afford, Atlassian has earned over $2M in upsell revenue and Atlassian’s selected charity, Room to Read has received over $500,000 for literacy programs in developing nations.

WHAT & HOW

The purpose of this innovation is to…

Twofold:

- provide Atlassian’s software products to small technical teams at a reasonable price.

- raise funds for charity Room to Read to allow them to bring education and reading resources to developing countries such as Cambodia and Vietnam.

It does this by…

- Providing a quality product for 10-user teams

- being easily purchased and downloaded from Atlassian’s websites

- 100% of the $10 goes directly to Room to Read. Atlassian bears all administrative costs.

PURPOSE & BENEFITS

This innovation improves on what came before because…

Previously Atlassian’s products were only available as personal use licenses or in teams of 25+ users. The starter licenses allow small teams access to our fully featured products, which are of a higher quality and standard than free and open source alternatives that they would otherwise be using.

Its various benefits to the customer/end-user include…

Small development and start up teams now have access to our products. Room to Read has received donations of over $500,000 to assist them in their literacy programs, building of reading rooms, and support of girls’ education scholarships.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

In the past, this problem was solved by…

Please explain how predecessors solved the problem / performed the function / achieved the outcome of the innovation (max 60 words)

Its predecessors/competitors include…

The freemium model has become the most popular model of ‘hooking’ new customers and clients. The causium model allows not only access to products at a nominal fee, it also generates a huge amount of word-of-mouth marketing.

TARGET MARKET

It is made for…

Small technical development and start up teams of less than 10 people.

DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY

It is available for sale through…

Is currently available through www.atlassian.com/starter/

Our marketing strategy is to…

Continue selling and supporting our products, encouraging social media (such as Twitter and Facebook) to carry the message.

SUPPORTING IMAGES AND/OR VIDEO

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR THIS INNOVATION

While the judging is now officially over, you can still show your support for this innovation in one of the following three ways:

1. Hit the VOTE UP button: Top left of each page (Not available for IE users)
2. Trigger a Reaction: Re-Tweet, Like on Facebook, etc.
3. Leave a Comment: Share the love!

To check out the Anthill SMART 100 Readers’ Choice winner for 2010, click here ^[6].