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Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss

nytimes.com

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Re: Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss

#121

Post by phlakaton »

anbotero wrote: post #117
mattmanser wrote: post #10

Stewart Butterfield, Slack’s chief executive, said in an interview that it would take time for the market to understand his company since it had created a new category of software, unlike soda or cars We've had public business software companies for decades, they all created a new "category" of software, why does he think his is something new? Fundamentally speaking, how is Slack any different to the first email prog…

Thanks! I mean it, THANK YOU! We were using HipChat at a previous company (2013, I think), and I never understood the switch to Slack. I was like: Wait, but what's the difference? Everybody knew about Slack, and no one about HipChat. I also don't think they introduced a new category of software, they just spent an absurd amount of additional money in marketing. That's it.

My company switched from HipChat to Slack around 2015. I won't say hype didn't play into the decision, but IIRC there were two other motivations: 1) more reliable performance, 2) better integrations with Google Docs.

At the time it was claimed that this was really a whole new way to organize data and work. In practicality, not that much changed from HipChat. Pinned items and the ability to rifle back through conversations saved my bacon a few times, but looking back on it, I don't think they outmatch properly-organized documentation and wikis.

Re: Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss

#122

Post by mping »

mattmanser wrote: post #10

Stewart Butterfield, Slack’s chief executive, said in an interview that it would take time for the market to understand his company since it had created a new category of software, unlike soda or cars We've had public business software companies for decades, they all created a new "category" of software, why does he think his is something new? Fundamentally speaking, how is Slack any different to the first email prog…

People always forget about UI/UX and ecosystem.

You could argue that we had cellphones for ages, why would someone need an iPhone? You could also argue that an android has the same functionality as an iPhone, again why would someone need an iPhone?

The new "category" of software is about how people relate to software, not the software itself. IKEA created a new category of furniture, or it did not?

I think Uber created a new category of service, but we always had taxis and gps; Slack didn't necessarily create new software, but in my opinion it put chat apps on the general public's mind and it kinda became the go-to name, same as AWS or IBM. That's worth something.

Re: Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss

#123

Post by phlakaton »

mattmanser wrote: post #88
rchaud wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slack is different from those companies of yore. Back then, if you created a chat program and went to an investment bank, they'd laugh you out of the office, or advise that you take whatever acquisition offer you can get, because a chat program with tons of competitors isn't enough to build a profitable business on.

Skype got investment from VCs in 2003, 16 years ago. is that "yore" enough for you? https://www.vcgate.com/Bessemer_Venture_Partners.asp

Then Skype got bought by eBay shortly thereafter for gobs of money, in the somewhat blind hope that synergies would develop between eBay, PayPal, and Skype. Never quite panned out that way.

Btw, although I've seen little difference between HipChat and Slack in my day-to-day, the switch from Skype to HipChat was a profound improvement. Messages sent on Skype could and would frequently vanish into the ether, and/or arrive in the conversation thread way out of order. Imagine troubleshooting production issues under those conditions!...

Re: Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss

#124

Post by smileysteve »

slothtrop wrote: post #58
kaushikt wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Slack is not just about chat, they are about communication. We moved from Skype to Slack and it was incredibly different for us. Open channels meant - more transparency and anyone can join and contribute. All those hella bots are extremely handy. Overall, i would say we became more transparent, focussed and it made communication across a single company SIMPLE.

I've heard it described as having IRC channels with skype capabilities

> with skype capabilities

I'd be interested to know the stats on people using the video feature. My experience is that companies on slack primarily trust Hangouts and Zoom more than Slack for video conference.

Re: Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss

#125

Post by mytailorisrich »

dpark wrote: post #109
mytailorisrich wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For its second fiscal quarter, Slack posted a loss of $364 million, [...] . That included $307 million in stock-based compensation and taxes related to the company’s direct listing. 364-307=57

Thanks. Was the “stock-based compensation” a one time side effect of the listing? Or is this an ongoing quarterly cost?

This will probably be a recurring expense depending on their compensation packages but I would think much less than the initial expense at IPO.

Re: Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss

#126

Post by anbotero »

phlakaton wrote: post #121
anbotero wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! I mean it, THANK YOU! We were using HipChat at a previous company (2013, I think), and I never understood the switch to Slack. I was like: Wait, but what's the difference? Everybody knew about Slack, and no one about HipChat. I also don't think they introduced a new category of software, they just spent an absurd amount of additional money in marketing. That's it.

My company switched from HipChat to Slack around 2015. I won't say hype didn't play into the decision, but IIRC there were two other motivations: 1) more reliable performance, 2) better integrations with Google Docs. At the time it was claimed that this was really a whole new way to organize data and work. In practicality, not that much changed from HipChat. Pinned items and the ability to rifle back through conversa…

We were kind of heavily invested in Atlassian stack, which means we used Confluence a lot.

We had a good system for creating and looking for documentation in our wiki system, so I hope that was not a selling point for Slack. Unfortunately we (Tech) never really knew why we switched.

EDIT: Also, on the performance side, we were there for the beginning of both systems, and both had their good amount of issues initially. By the time we switched, I don't remember that many HipChat outages. I remember a lot of Slack outages starting up as well, and these days I have issues with Web interface connectivity at least once a week (native works).

Re: Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss

#129

Post by scarface74 »

ilikehurdles wrote: post #120
scarface74 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s always the excuse. It’s an outlier when it happens.

Slack's Denver office very recently came online and I know a ton of colleagues who were hired in their sales department.

If they need to hire aggressively for sells that means their customer acquisition costs are about to increase and there are still doubts about how deeply they can get into large enterprises where the lifetime value of a customer will be worth it.

Also, selling into the enterprise is a long slow process.

Re: Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss

#130

Post by sjg007 »

ginko wrote: post #43
mattmanser wrote: post #10

Stewart Butterfield, Slack’s chief executive, said in an interview that it would take time for the market to understand his company since it had created a new category of software, unlike soda or cars We've had public business software companies for decades, they all created a new "category" of software, why does he think his is something new? Fundamentally speaking, how is Slack any different to the first email prog…

Why do people keep comparing slack to email? It's nothing like email. It's just an instant messenger.

Slack is kind of like what google wave should have been.
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