3 ms·

I get that they are the most obvious comparisons for recent IPOs, but it's disappointing to see Slack being conflated with Uber, Lyft, and We, none of which hav

I get that they are the most obvious comparisons for recent IPOs, but it's disappointing to see Slack being conflated with Uber, Lyft, and We, none of which have a remote chance of ever making more than a razor-thin profit in their respective industries. Whereas Slack is a SaaS company, with the real potential (whether it's likely or not) to become highly profitable down the road.

s_Hogg 7y ago
If they can figure out how to get cash out of the gigantic amount of people who use slack without anyone paying for anything, it'll be phenomenal. Really hope the answer isn't ads!
- kaushikt 7y ago
  Slack doesn't seem to be the sort of company who will go with an Ad strategy for monetisation. A number of free users upgrade over time by upgrading their free account or by highly recommending Slack at their workplace.
  - dorian-graph 7y ago
    > Slack doesn't seem to be the sort of company who will go with an Ad strategy for monetisation. I feel like I've definitely heard that said a few times before.
elhudy 7y ago
Would you be able to expand on this perspective? Is there an example of a highly profitable SaaS company which offers a super simple subscription solution and doesn't rely on data-collection based advertising?
- paxys 7y ago
  Office 365, Salesforce, Ultimate Software, Adobe Creative Suite, GSuite, ADP, Box, DocuSign, Shopify, HubSpot, Zoom.
  - elhudy 7y ago
    Does slack really fall into the same categories as any of these though? >Office 365, Salesforce, Adobe Creative Suite, ADP I'm not a coder but these applications seems vastly more complex than slack - and thus I would be willing to pay more for them. >DocuSign This seems closer to being along the same lines as slack, but I feel like docusign doesnt sell it's "software" per say but rather implementations and operational change consultation. >Shopify, HubSpot, Zoom. Not sure what these are Sorry for the late response

s_Hogg 7y ago

If they can figure out how to get cash out of the gigantic amount of people who use slack without anyone paying for anything, it'll be phenomenal. Really hope the answer isn't ads!

kaushikt 7y ago
Slack doesn't seem to be the sort of company who will go with an Ad strategy for monetisation. A number of free users upgrade over time by upgrading their free account or by highly recommending Slack at their workplace.
- dorian-graph 7y ago
  > Slack doesn't seem to be the sort of company who will go with an Ad strategy for monetisation. I feel like I've definitely heard that said a few times before.

elhudy 7y ago

Would you be able to expand on this perspective? Is there an example of a highly profitable SaaS company which offers a super simple subscription solution and doesn't rely on data-collection based advertising?

paxys 7y ago
Office 365, Salesforce, Ultimate Software, Adobe Creative Suite, GSuite, ADP, Box, DocuSign, Shopify, HubSpot, Zoom.
- elhudy 7y ago
  Does slack really fall into the same categories as any of these though? >Office 365, Salesforce, Adobe Creative Suite, ADP I'm not a coder but these applications seems vastly more complex than slack - and thus I would be willing to pay more for them. >DocuSign This seems closer to being along the same lines as slack, but I feel like docusign doesnt sell it's "software" per say but rather implementations and operational change consultation. >Shopify, HubSpot, Zoom. Not sure what these are Sorry for the late response