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Front: The $1.3B Startup Slackifying Email

sacra.com

21–30 of 139 posts

Re: Front: The $1.3B Startup Slackifying Email

#22
I am surprised there is no mention of Google Wave, the promising technology that did all of this, but died due to an unfortunate release/invite process.

I logged in to Wave using my hard-earned early-invite in excitement only to realize I couldn't communicate with non-wave gmail users :(

Re: Front: The $1.3B Startup Slackifying Email

#24
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To say “slackifying” is offensive to Front. I HATE Slack. For me, it turns into a gross “pinging you” and overall is insanely annoying to be in channels and check back on information. Or, finding files or using search is Hell. Not to mention their insanely painful login experience. I am looking forward to its death at CRM. Front is the real deal. Hands down the greatest productivity software I’ve used in YEARS. If yo…

Came into this thread with a very negative mindset - but am persuaded by your comment, will check it out

Slack is gussied up IRC and a productivity drain. Front is awesome and transformed my business.

Re: Front: The $1.3B Startup Slackifying Email

#25
post #23

Isn't Slackifying email just Slack?

I really do not get the fundamental pitch from slack that they will replace email. They replaced IRC . It's nothing like email and I still use both.

At this point most my emails are automated responses from companies. Slack on the other hand is people, that suggests that people want conversations that are more nuanced that just back and forth. Email certainly has its place, but it's not right for groups of people talking to each other.

Re: Front: The $1.3B Startup Slackifying Email

#27
post #10

I don't think I totally understand why Front paid Sacra to make this? Are they going public and are worried or....?

Salesforce bought Slack today. For a lot of money. So today is the day everyone talks to their investors about how much like Slack their product is.

Re: Front: The $1.3B Startup Slackifying Email

#28

Call me old-school, but I still don't buy into these "revenue multiple" nonsense. Traditional valuation metrics like PER, EV/EBITDA, DCF etc. all tie back in one way or another to the cashflow-generating potential of a company. Revenue multiples have, at best, only tenuous relationship to cashflow. If you sell $10 notes for $1, in theory you can have infinite revenue. I wish investors would just stop pretending tech…

>> Revenue multiples have, at best, only tenuous relationship to cashflow. If you sell $10 notes for $1, in theory you can have infinite revenue.

Sure, but revenue multiples are specific to a business or product type. A consulting company's revenue multiple might be 2x or 3x. A cloud-based SaaS with no hands-on setup might be 10x. A HelloFresh/BlueApron business might be, say, 7x. For some types of businesses, I wouldn't even pay 1x. If an investor is applying the wrong multiple to a business, they wont be around for long.

Re: Front: The $1.3B Startup Slackifying Email

#29
post #26

>$49/$79 per user billed annually. Seriously who pays for such a rudimentary product all that money. The pricing doesn't make any sense.

Lets say you have an engineering employee with a base salary of 150k. His total cost to the company when you factor supporting roles is perhaps 300k. Assume this person needs to generate 2x that in value for the company, so lets say 600k a year. So that's 0.01% of the job he needs to do. If the tool is even somewhat useful that seems like a very fair price.

Re: Front: The $1.3B Startup Slackifying Email

#30

Can people still passive-aggressively cc my boss on emails to me when they want me to drop everything to work on their special issue?

> Dear [sender], thanks for bringing this to my attention. Booleandilemma is actually busy on other work at the moment, and needs to be able to focus on that. Please send these requests to me, rather than to booleandilemma, and I will get take care of prioritising them. If we need to discuss this further I'd be happy to jump on a call with you.

> Thanks, and have a nice day

> Booleandilemma's boss

I guess we can dream :)

(But seriously, as a manager, this is what I'd likely try to do. I'd check with you first, to see how you felt about the situation, of course. Being CC'd is an invitation to get involved on behalf of my team)

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