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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

#171

Post by megaremote »

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…

Um, yes? And they also took time for the market to understand. A lot more time.

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

#172

Post by [deleted] »

thorwasdfasdf wrote: post #159

I'm sorry but comparing it to Uber is highly misrepresentative. Uber has serious Cost structure that can not be removed: the cost of the driver is essential to the operation of it's busienss. Slack on the other hand is just a SaaS. Why are their costs so high? They said stock based compensation, but that doesn't begin to tell what it's for. Their user acquisition costs don't need to be really high, as far I know they…

[deleted]

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

#173

Post by JMTQp8lwXL »

pcarolan wrote: post #118

Slack's long-term value prop isn't chat, it's the platform. If you've used any of the great bot apps it hosts (PTO Ninja for example), it's easy to imagine a future where these kinds of apps replace whole swaths of bloated Saas-ware. I'm excited to see more of these and a competitive eco-system emerge within Slack the way Apple built the app store. Slack should invest heavily in building a platform for developers if…

Slack is sticky and their competitive advantage will be (1) making it stickier and (2) expand the enterprise features (e.g., make it easy to implement a company Data Storage policy, SSO integration, etc).

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

#174

Post by paxys »

gamegod wrote: post #135
merpnderp wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are the alternatives any better? For instance is discord protecting your chats?

Mattermost, IRC, etc.

How are either of these more private than Slack? Whoever hosts the server can see whatever is on it.

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

#175

Post by nodesocket »

jsherwani wrote: post #166
Mindstormy wrote: post #11

I just wish they had not acquired Screen Hero. That was a beautiful standalone product that I wish I could still use.

Screenhero cofounder here. I’m working on a successor to Screenhero. It’s currently in private beta: https://screen.so

Interesting, so the acquisition agreement did not have a non-compete clause or golden handcuffs to Slack? If you don't mind me asking, how come you left Slack?

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

#176

Post by paxys »

elhudy wrote: post #40
skywhopper wrote: post #13

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.

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?

Office 365, Salesforce, Ultimate Software, Adobe Creative Suite, GSuite, ADP, Box, DocuSign, Shopify, HubSpot, Zoom.

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

#177

Post by [deleted] »

pcarolan wrote: post #118

Slack's long-term value prop isn't chat, it's the platform. If you've used any of the great bot apps it hosts (PTO Ninja for example), it's easy to imagine a future where these kinds of apps replace whole swaths of bloated Saas-ware. I'm excited to see more of these and a competitive eco-system emerge within Slack the way Apple built the app store. Slack should invest heavily in building a platform for developers if…

[deleted]

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

#178

Post by unphased »

GordonS wrote: post #170
chrisseaton wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 100,000 paid users It can't possibly be just 100,000 paid users. That's clearly nonsense. Oracle uses it and they have 80,000 employees alone!

Thing is, Slack makes it far too easy for orgs to use it for free. I work at a megacorp, and we use Slack without paying a single penny. We have a Slack account setup per project, which typically have 5-50 members. We don't care too much about search or history, we just want a simple chat and audio call solution that isn't horrible to use. Slack fits that bill. To be clear, this doesn't sit well with me; we should be…

I feel like that is an outlier. For most companies the benefits of having all the data logged is worth the cost.

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

#179

Post by icedchai »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #34
dpflan wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What revenue and loss numbers (relative %s) would not shock you?

Anything less than a profit would shock me.

Growth companies don't make a profit this early on. They put it all back into sales and marketing.

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

#180

Post by icedchai »

merpnderp wrote: post #165
gamegod wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mattermost, IRC, etc.

IRC is great, but I've never thought of it as protecting my privacy. It's definitely public and almost always logged by a myriad of bots if not the server.

You can run your own server.
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