Against the current: the head of Slack surpassed all competitors, throwing mud at his brainchild in the wake of his growing popularity
Slack Corporate Messenger is still popular. And its popularity continues to grow . At the moment, the application has 675 thousand premium users. The total number of users has reached 2.3 million. Annual revenue exceeded $ 64 million.
However, increased attention to Slack has a downside. As you know, everyone can not please. Of course, Slack is trying to maintain integration with as many third-party applications as possible, to port the project to different platforms, but users with fantasy still accumulate suggestions for finalizing the project.
Users burdened with knowledge and skills in software development claim that they could customize the Slack software code themselves to their own needs. However, its source code is closed to prying eyes, and customization is limited to “pitiful handouts” in the form of separate API sets.
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The situation is advantageous to the competitors of the company Slack from the open source software development community (open source).
Such products as Mattermost and Rocket.chat , Friends and Let's Chat have already appeared. These are corporate open source chats, which are trying not only to provide users with the option of customization, but also to integrate with Slack itself. Moreover, they implement those features that the proprietary competitor does not yet have.
Probably, this story, among other things, has long prevented the head of Slack from sleeping, Stuart Butterfield. Despite the company's success, he does not share the general enthusiasm about the project.
In an interview with MIT Technology Review in 2014, Butterfield was honest, perhaps even too much. On the question of whether he wants to change something in Slack, he replied:
In a startup area where every entrepreneur calls his product unique, innovative or gorgeous, Butterfield recall sounds unexpected.
Slack was launched in February 2014 and by the time of this interview had 300 thousand users, 73 thousand of whom paid for a premium subscription. The service has already been used by large companies and startups, by 2016 their number has only increased. In two years, Slack has changed significantly for the better - even Butterfield admits. The service is used by such successful companies as Vox Media, Buzzfeed, Airbnb, Adobe, Behance.
Butterfield has extensive entrepreneurial experience. He was “fortunate enough” to make a decision about the closure of a failed project. But on his account there are projects that have soared high. So, his words are hardly dictated by the subconscious fear of failure.
For example, during an interview with candidates for work, Butterfield always utters the same phrase - “Tell me your story.” He wants to know what part of his success the applicant owes to good luck. And, most importantly, how much he appreciates it. Butterfield himself believes that 98% owes its success to luck.
“I knew a lot of people who were not successful, despite their talent, character and other qualities. It's hard for me to think that something is wrong with them, ”says the entrepreneur.
In another interview, Butterfield admits that he tries to avoid complacent phrases, in the spirit of "Yes, we did it" or "We have been successful." And it is probably difficult, given the fact that the company is valued at $ 2.8 billion and recently received another $ 160 million investment.
However, increased attention to Slack has a downside. As you know, everyone can not please. Of course, Slack is trying to maintain integration with as many third-party applications as possible, to port the project to different platforms, but users with fantasy still accumulate suggestions for finalizing the project.
Users burdened with knowledge and skills in software development claim that they could customize the Slack software code themselves to their own needs. However, its source code is closed to prying eyes, and customization is limited to “pitiful handouts” in the form of separate API sets.
')
The situation is advantageous to the competitors of the company Slack from the open source software development community (open source).
Such products as Mattermost and Rocket.chat , Friends and Let's Chat have already appeared. These are corporate open source chats, which are trying not only to provide users with the option of customization, but also to integrate with Slack itself. Moreover, they implement those features that the proprietary competitor does not yet have.
Probably, this story, among other things, has long prevented the head of Slack from sleeping, Stuart Butterfield. Despite the company's success, he does not share the general enthusiasm about the project.
In an interview with MIT Technology Review in 2014, Butterfield was honest, perhaps even too much. On the question of whether he wants to change something in Slack, he replied:
"Oh yeah. What is now is a huge piece of shit. I try to impress on the rest of the team. Slack is just awful and we should be ashamed that we show it to our users. Unfortunately, not everyone finds motivation in this. ”One would have thought that this was said “on emotions”, if not for this post on Twitter dated February 26, 2016 (16 months after the interview).
In a startup area where every entrepreneur calls his product unique, innovative or gorgeous, Butterfield recall sounds unexpected.
Slack was launched in February 2014 and by the time of this interview had 300 thousand users, 73 thousand of whom paid for a premium subscription. The service has already been used by large companies and startups, by 2016 their number has only increased. In two years, Slack has changed significantly for the better - even Butterfield admits. The service is used by such successful companies as Vox Media, Buzzfeed, Airbnb, Adobe, Behance.
Butterfield has extensive entrepreneurial experience. He was “fortunate enough” to make a decision about the closure of a failed project. But on his account there are projects that have soared high. So, his words are hardly dictated by the subconscious fear of failure.
In 2002, the entrepreneur was one of the founders of the Flickr photo service . In 2009, Butterfield founded the game studio Tiny Speck . The company developed the multiplayer game Glitch . The game did not gain a critical mass of users and was closed. But for team communication inside the studio, a service developed by the company was used. Its launch was announced in August 2013.Perhaps Butterfield wants his words to become sobering for the team. Slack users speak very favorably of the service, and the lack of criticism can demotivate and relax. This theory deserves the right to life, as Butterfield is known for its unusual attitude towards employees.
For example, during an interview with candidates for work, Butterfield always utters the same phrase - “Tell me your story.” He wants to know what part of his success the applicant owes to good luck. And, most importantly, how much he appreciates it. Butterfield himself believes that 98% owes its success to luck.
“I knew a lot of people who were not successful, despite their talent, character and other qualities. It's hard for me to think that something is wrong with them, ”says the entrepreneur.
In another interview, Butterfield admits that he tries to avoid complacent phrases, in the spirit of "Yes, we did it" or "We have been successful." And it is probably difficult, given the fact that the company is valued at $ 2.8 billion and recently received another $ 160 million investment.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/299420/
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