But Butterfield realized that there might be a bigger opportunity there because enterprise software was still clunky and difficult to use.

Initially, Slack began as an internal communication tool at his new video gaming startup. Despite the tragic fate that befell Flickr, which saw its popularity sapped after it was acquired by the perpetually cursed Yahoo, Butterfield rebounded by creating Slack. Still, part of the reason its IPO milestone was widely cheered was because users tend to be quite passionate about the workplace tool, which hopes to eventually replace email as the internal collaboration tool of choice for companies.įounder and CEO Stewart Butterfield is a well-liked and respected entrepreneur, in part because of his role in founding photo-sharing site Flickr. The company also faces competition from Microsoft and Cisco. In buying Slack’s stock, investors had to weigh the immense hype surrounding the company against its lack of profits and the challenges it faces in ever making enough to cover expenses. While Pinterest has performed decently, Lyft and Uber have struggled to impress investors since going public. Slack is the latest in a series of high-profile tech IPOs this year, following such notables as Pinterest, Lyft, and Uber. Slack used a direct listing process, which means the company itself did not raise money in the IPO, but simply let its stock begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

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