Seven years from now, office email will be dead... That's the bold prediction from Slack CEO/founder Stewart Butterfield. His messaging platform for office ~~distraction~~ productivity states its purpose elegantly in its "S-1", the required paperwork for a company to go public: Slack “replaces the use of email inside the organization." And the stock popped 49% Thursday, its first day as a public company.
#fun-facts
- Slack was an accident: Butterfield created an online game called Glitch — He realized the messaging feature in the game had potential, so he focused on what ultimately became Slack.
- It's an acronym: Stands for "Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge."
#interesting-numbers
- Slack boasts 10M daily users and 95K paying accounts.
- Its biggest customers pay $100K+ annually, and Slack's got 93% more of those whales than last year (645 as of April).
- Revenues almost doubled last year to $400M, but the biz generated a loss of $140M.
One big question... Why the "Direct Listing?" Slack didn't IPO to become public as most companies would. Following the path Spotify carved out last year, Slack listed shares directly. That's cheaper (you don't pay banks fees to take you public) because you don't raise new money. It's a rare move that Spotify or Slack can pull off since they don't need new cash, and their brands are strong enough that they don't need a pre-IPO roadshow to get to know investors.
Slack's all about "ROC"... That's "return on communication." Slack dropped that reference in the S-1 — its core pitch is that your company "feels empowered" by Slacking, which leads to ➡️ more communication ➡️ more productivity ➡️ more business. Meanwhile, Microsoft (with "Teams") and Facebook (with "Workplace") want in on the conversation.