Slack is a popular business communication platform that has become a household name in the world of online collaboration. The platform is widely used for persistent chat rooms, direct messaging, and private groups, among other features. It is also the go-to communication tool for most Fortune 100 companies. However, Slack’s journey to becoming a billion-dollar company was not always smooth.
The CEO and co-founder of Slack, Stewart Butterfield, has a long history of being an entrepreneur, designer, and technology leader. He co-founded Flickr, one of the pioneers of image sharing and the social web, in 2003. Butterfield built Flickr into one of the largest web services in the world, and it is one of his many accolades. Butterfield has also been recognized as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine, and one of the Top 50 Leaders by BusinessWeek. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Victoria and a Master of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge.
Cal Henderson, the co-founder and CTO of Slack, oversees Slack’s engineering team and sets the technical vision for the company. Henderson built and led the engineering teams at Flickr, and he authored the best-selling O’Reilly Media book Building Scalable Websites. He was also involved in London’s early online network through his work with digital creative communities and the blogosphere. Henderson has a Bachelor of Computer Science and has received an Honorary Doctorate from Birmingham City University.
Slack was not initially intended to be a SaaS product for the workplace. Instead, it was born out of a gaming company called Tiny Speck. The platform was built as an internal tool, but its founders quickly realized its potential in the public forum, which is how Slack came into existence. However, Slack’s success was not a result of the traditional product development process. It was born out of a pattern of sharing Slack with progressively larger groups.
Feedback from each group was amplified by adding more teams, making it an excellent beta release. Slack did not want to call it a beta, as people would think that the service would be flaky or unreliable. Instead, they welcomed people to request an invitation to try Slack. On the first day, 8,000 people did just that, and two weeks later, that number had grown to 15,000.
Slack’s success is a testament to the power of traditional media when launching a product. A well-executed press blitz, coupled with the right PR approach, can do wonders for a product. Butterfield recommends that getting the story out should not end when an article is published. Instead, companies should work on the other 80% of the recipe for media success, which is people posting about the article. Social media has leveled the playing field, so whatever coverage a company earns, they should run with it by sharing it with their immediate and extended networks again and again.
Takeaway
As we come to the end of this fascinating story of Slack’s journey to success, one thing that stands out is how the founders’ passion and commitment to building a tool for themselves ultimately led to the creation of a communication platform that has transformed the way teams collaborate and work together.
Slack’s unconventional approach to product development is a testament to the power of innovation and the importance of building something that truly resonates with users. By listening closely to their own needs and those of their early adopters, the Slack team was able to create a product that solved a genuine pain point and that has since become an integral part of the daily operations of countless businesses around the world.
But it wasn’t just the product itself that made Slack a success. The company’s well-executed PR strategy helped to build buzz and generate excitement around the platform, fueling its rapid growth and making it a household name.
Today, Slack continues to evolve and innovate, constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the realm of team communication and collaboration. And as we look to the future, we can only imagine the countless ways in which Slack will continue to transform the way we work and connect with each other.
