MediaFile

Cheaper, accessible technology is part of the reason entrepreneurship is exploding in Silicon Valley– and technology keeps getting cheaper. Example du jour is Atlassian, which provides Web-tools to create specialized software programs. Access to the tools starts at $10 a month for small teams, according to new terms released on Tuesday. Atlassian says 40% of Fortune 500 companies use its products.

The company is backed by Accel Partners, which last year poured $60 million into Atlassian; businesses like Zynga and NHL.com use its products to build games and mobile apps.

Atlassian is part of a group of cloud-based software companies including Box, Domo, GoodData,  and Jive that are taking on established software players like Oracle. Yesterday, cloud-based human-resources software company Workday said it had raised $85 million at a $2 billion valuation from investors like T. Rowe Price and Bezos Expeditions, underscoring the growing appetite for investments in cloud-based enterprise software.

(Photograph by Reuters/Stephen Lam)