The Start:

Stewart Butterfield, a Canadian entrepreneur and co-founder of Flickr, ventured into creating Slack after his earlier project, a gaming startup called Glitch, failed to take off.

His experience with Flickr, which was acquired by Yahoo, provided him with insights into building user-focused software.

Alongside co-founders Cal Henderson, Eric Costello, and Serguei Mourachov, Stewart pivoted from gaming to communication, leveraging their collective expertise to tackle a new challenge.

The Problem:

Stewart and his team recognized a significant problem in workplace communication: the inefficiency and fragmentation of existing tools for team collaboration.

Email chains were cumbersome and traditional messaging apps lacked the cohesion needed for organized team interaction.

With Slack, they aimed to create a streamlined, real-time communication platform that integrated with various other tools, fostering better collaboration and productivity.

The goal was to provide teams with a centralized, user-friendly solution for all their communication needs.

Getting their first customers:

Stewart persuaded and encouraged friends at other companies to try out the platform and provide feedback. This initial effort brought in six to ten companies, forming the early user base.

They adopted a strategy of sharing Slack with progressively larger groups. Each stage of feedback was amplified by incorporating more teams, allowing them to refine the product iteratively.

An impressive press blitz played a crucial role in their growth, largely built on the team's prior successes and reputation.

This media coverage helped generate significant interest, and they welcomed people to request invitations to try Slack.

On the first day alone, 8,000 people signed up, and within two weeks, that number had grown to 15,000.

This rapid growth was a testament to the effective combination of word-of-mouth promotion, targeted outreach, and strategic use of media exposure.

Digging this? Get more actionable strategies like these straight in your inbox for free