"Atlassian, which makes popular project-management and chat apps such as Jira and HipChat, doesn't run on sales quotas and end-of-quarter discounts. In fact, its sales team doesn't pitch products to anyone, because Atlassian doesn't have a sales team.
"The way technology companies sell software has changed dramatically in the past decade. The availability of open source alternatives has pushed traditional brands and rising challengers to offer more free trials, free basic versions of their software with paid upgrades, and online promotions.
"So far, though, Atlassian remains the most extreme example of this model. It's a 14-year-old company, valued at $5 billion since going public in December, without a single salesperson on the payroll. More than 80 Fortune 100 companies use Atlassian's software * * * Luck had a lot to do with that strategy, says [Atlassian's co-CEO Scott] Farquhar. He and co-CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes founded the company while finishing their IT degrees at the University of New South Wales
"Dialing 911 is an option only in the capital of Santo Domingo[, capital of Dominican Republic], not out in the countryside. Instead, call the regional firehouse. There, a dispatcher uses Beacon, [SMS-based (for Short Message Service)l another way to say it is 'text message-based'; both accordig to Trek] software created by nonprofit Trek Medics International, to send a group text to a team of volunteer emergency medical technicians in the area. One of the volunteers texts back a confirmation number and heads to the scene on a motorcycle equipped with a sidecar gurney, which he uses
to take you to a physician.
" * * * While the transportation research group at the University of Alabama at Birmingham [which of course is NOT Trek] found conventional ambulances cost an average of $1.46 a mile, one 2008 study found the motorbikes can operate for about 18.6¢ a mile. So Trek has been able to build a volunteer network of about 200 people in the Dominican Republic and Tanzania [the only two nations where Trek operates] with a shoestring budget supported by Google, Cardinal Health, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and private donations.
"Founded in 2009 by former paramedic Jason Friesen, the New York [City] nonprofit employs only a handful of people to manage operations.
Note: summary underneath the title in print: A Google-backed startup is setting up rural 911 services