Their operating expenses are likely dominated by the three types of people: software engineers (listed as R&D), sales/marketing, and administrators. Profitabil

Their operating expenses are likely dominated by the three types of people: software engineers (listed as R&D), sales/marketing, and administrators. Profitability will probably come post-IPO in some form of a hiring freeze (or quotas), and cuts in perks/food per capita. If 80%ile studio rents in San Francisco were closer to $800/month than $3400/month then maybe salaries could be 70% of what they are, and Slack would be almost break-even. It's worth noting that profitability isn't the only useful way to run a publicly-traded business. Telecoms are typically swimming in debt, but they're (mostly) fine because they have cash flow (monthly payments; making it impossible to quit).