4 ms·

I didn't realize that the Slack CEO was also the Flickr founder, so you might be right in that Slack just isn't for sale to a megacorp. But Microsoft is the mo

I didn't realize that the Slack CEO was also the Flickr founder, so you might be right in that Slack just isn't for sale to a megacorp. But Microsoft is the most likely buyer, it's been on a spree with integrating best-in-class enterprise products/productivity tools into Office 365 (Sunrise, Accompli, previously Yammer). Slack fits into that mold, though the sale price would probably be orders of magnitude higher than those acquisitions (likely upwards of $10 billion, possibly much more). At that price tag, it might be untenable. Not sure what Slack's medium-longer terms goals are, honestly. Their valuation is so high that only megacorps can afford them, but there's still enough risk that public markets might be skeptical (their revenue growth is astronomical, but they haven't been generating revenue for THAT long). In the interview, Stewart mentioned market saturation eventually limiting their crazy growth numbers, but I'd imagine they have a ways to go, given that the total enterprise market has to be well more than 200,000 total seats. Exciting times for them.

lmm 11y ago
IME there's quite a bit of overlap with Yammer (they pitch themselves differently but the actual use case is very similar), which was a high-profile recent MS acquisition.
DonHopkins 11y ago
I heard third hand that Tiny Speck was re-using the server infrastructure that they developed for Glitch in their next (at the time) secret project. To what extend that's literally true or it's just that he's just working with some of the same people and tools, I don't know, but it would certainly make sense. In much the same way Slack rose from the ashes of Glitch, Flickr did from Game Neverending, the predecessor to Glitch. http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/Game_Neverending http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/Game_Neverending >Although development of the game was later shutdown in 2004, the tools built for GNE later evolved into Flickr, a widely-hailed photo-sharing service. Occasional signs of this legacy are visible, such as the '.gne' file extension appearing in Flickr's URLs. http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/15/as-flickr-co-founder-butterfield-shuts-down-glitch-is-he-planning-a-new-photo-service-you-will-know-it-well-he-says/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/15/as-flickr-co-founder-butter... >Whether or not the next venture is based around imaging services, it looks like it will have a social element: “We have developed some unique messaging technology with applications outside of the gaming world and a smaller core team will be working to develop new products,” he writes.

lmm 11y ago

IME there's quite a bit of overlap with Yammer (they pitch themselves differently but the actual use case is very similar), which was a high-profile recent MS acquisition.

DonHopkins 11y ago

I heard third hand that Tiny Speck was re-using the server infrastructure that they developed for Glitch in their next (at the time) secret project. To what extend that's literally true or it's just that he's just working with some of the same people and tools, I don't know, but it would certainly make sense. In much the same way Slack rose from the ashes of Glitch, Flickr did from Game Neverending, the predecessor to Glitch. http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/Game_Neverending http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/Game_Neverending >Although development of the game was later shutdown in 2004, the tools built for GNE later evolved into Flickr, a widely-hailed photo-sharing service. Occasional signs of this legacy are visible, such as the '.gne' file extension appearing in Flickr's URLs. http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/15/as-flickr-co-founder-butterfield-shuts-down-glitch-is-he-planning-a-new-photo-service-you-will-know-it-well-he-says/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/15/as-flickr-co-founder-butter... >Whether or not the next venture is based around imaging services, it looks like it will have a social element: “We have developed some unique messaging technology with applications outside of the gaming world and a smaller core team will be working to develop new products,” he writes.