You might have heard of Mike Cannon-Brookes… He's the Aussie entrepreneur who, alongside his schoolyard buddy, Scott Farquhar, started the tech giant Atlassian Corporation PLC (NASDAQ: TEAM). Atlassian makes business software such as Jira, which aims to help businesses function better and solve problems more efficiently (presumably hence the ticker code). Even though Atlassian is headquartered in Sydney, and both Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar are Aussies, Atlassian is a United States-listed company. It joins the likes of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) on the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQ: .IXIC) exchange.
Despite Atlassian's American roots these days, reporting in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) this week gives us a rare insight into the fortunes of Mr Cannon-Brookes. Let's take a look.
Like many successful entrepreneurs and investors, Cannon-Brookes has looked to diversify away from his core pillar of wealth in Atlassian shares. According to the AFR, Cannon-Brookes has a family office by the name of Grok Ventures. Grok employs Armina Rosenberg as a global equities portfolio manager (a stockpicker) to help in this endeavour.
According to the AFR, Ms Rosenberg has built a globally diverse portfolio for Mr Cannon-Brookes and his family – naturally dominated by tech stocks.
A look into Mike Cannon-Brookes' share portfolio
Among his largest holdings are reportedly tech giants like Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE: BABA). But one of Ms Rosenberg's favourite current picks – tech wunderkind Zoom Video Communications Inc (NASDAQ: ZM) – is noted by the AFR as a 'controversial pick'. Why? Well, Zoom has become a poster child for what some commentators call a 'tech bubble'.
No one questions that Zoom has been one of 2020's biggest winners in terms of the dramatic shift to working from home and remote communication. But Zoom's stock performance in 2020 has raised some eyebrows, perhaps understandably. Zoom shares started 2020 at just US$68.22. But today, they trade for US$517.79 (up 653% year to date) and have a 52-week high of $588.84. On the current share price, Zoom boasts a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 661.
But according to the AFR, that valuation doesn't bother Ms Rosenberg, who managed to invest in Zoom at its initial public offering (IPO) for US$36 a share, in the slightest. Labelling Zoom CEO 'one of the best founders [I] have ever met", Ms Rosenberg had this to say on the company:
Everyone thought that video-conferencing was commoditised, and to a large extent it was. But Eric saw all the challenges people had with existing options given he worked at Webex, so he knew that Zoom's unique selling proposition had to be its technology.
Foolish takeaway
In my opinion, ordinary investors like you and me shouldn't take too much guidance from the portfolios of billionaires like Mike Cannon-Brookes. Remember, Mr Cannon-Brookes is probably attempting to diversify his wealth rather than building it with his stock portfolio. Even so, I still think knowing where the wealthy have their money is a very useful tool for becoming a better investor.
