So they are worth $1,600 per user? I don't understand how that is possible at all.
Slack Is Going Public at a $16B Valuation
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Re: Slack Is Going Public at a $16B Valuation
#22Is 16B really too high of a valuation when Atlassian is double the market cap at 32B? Both have similar products (collaboration/productivity) and are extremely sticky.
Atlassian was already profitable weren’t they? There’s a disclaimer these unicorns put in their S1s - “we are not profitable and may never be” - Atlassian probably didn’t have to do that. That should count for something right?
That disclaimer is as old as dirt. I saw a company that sent public in 1960 had the same. Won't be surprised if Atlassian had the same.
Re: Slack Is Going Public at a $16B Valuation
#23I agree they’re a great product org, but not sure I agree they’re a $16B company — messaging apps tend to be cyclical, so I’m not sold on their long term viability. It’s just too easy for new IM platforms to take root inside a company once the old one gets too noisy. Given the growing grassroots backlash against the entire Slack Way, I’m not convinced they have a long enough runway to pivot to a stickier product befo…
Their moat is sticky enough and they know it. They can decide what verticals they want to compete it, but their company mission to make business-communication more effective is still as open a field as it was when they were founded.
They may have to acquire their Instagram equivalent some time in the future, but I can easily imagine that their Enterprise Customers are here to stay.
Re: Slack Is Going Public at a $16B Valuation
#24I wish them all the best. But I do hope they stay small in spirit and nimble.
One of my favourite things about slack is /feedback and the fact that someone will get back to me within 24hrs. There is no product of this scale that has such a low barrier to feedback/questions/bug report.
Re: Slack Is Going Public at a $16B Valuation
#25Well deserved. Their product-vision was clear, their execution focused on what mattered... and they didn't need to bend or break laws to succeed. It's easily my favorite unicorn of the past decade.
I don't know about "well deserved". They did it by holding people's data hostage. It's one thing to make your messages unsearchable or otherwise available in the UI until your pay, but holding your data completely hostage until you pay up isn't exactly a noble way to go about things. Even Facebook isn't this obnoxious about getting you a copy of your message history.
Re: Slack Is Going Public at a $16B Valuation
#26Their valuation stems from MAUs and majority are on the generous free tier. Do investors really think they can monetize the free users?
2018 revenue was $400 million, ~doubled the previous year - Slack isn't a company with just a ton of free users and no monetization
40x still seems like an insane multiple.
Re: Slack Is Going Public at a $16B Valuation
#27It makes no sense for me. It's just a web frontend on top of an irc chat. $16B for that is a complete insanity. This is an insubstantial business, doing an even more insubstantial product, with a sole criteria of it being a "big thing" being some smart banker analyst saying so — that's a hello from dotcom bubble era At such valuation, it will take them ~100 years just to earn its price from ads sales
What a complete nonsensical comment. Is Facebook just a frontend on top of a user DB?
Nailed it
Re: Slack Is Going Public at a $16B Valuation
#28I agree they’re a great product org, but not sure I agree they’re a $16B company — messaging apps tend to be cyclical, so I’m not sold on their long term viability. It’s just too easy for new IM platforms to take root inside a company once the old one gets too noisy. Given the growing grassroots backlash against the entire Slack Way, I’m not convinced they have a long enough runway to pivot to a stickier product befo…
They are stickier than you think. Especially with shared channels.
Re: Slack Is Going Public at a $16B Valuation
#29Their valuation stems from MAUs and majority are on the generous free tier. Do investors really think they can monetize the free users?
2018 revenue was $400 million, ~doubled the previous year - Slack isn't a company with just a ton of free users and no monetization
Even if we ignore the time value of money, Slack needs to quadruple its revenue and turn it all into profit to justify a 16B valuation. I can see it happening since so much is being integrated into it from 3rd parties, but it's a very tall order.
Re: Slack Is Going Public at a $16B Valuation
#30For those curious, their symbol is $WORK
Stealing WeWork’s thunder... A smart move, though perhaps a little painful for all the existing plans the WeWork marketing department had.
WeWork is rebranding as "The We Company", so the word WORK is probably not their #1 choice
https://www.fastcompany.com/90289512/exclusive-wework-to-reb...