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Slack Platform Launch

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Re: Slack Platform Launch

#31

Post by halostatue »

radlad wrote: post #22
michael_fine wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question -- how how is it been a revelation? It seems to be very similar to HipChat, which was just an iteration on previous chat systems.

The difference is people like using it. UX counts for a lot. The massive amount of integrations for it helps a lot too. Their goal, from what I've read, is to be a giant log for everything in your company, not just a chatroom service.

I moved my company off Slack to Hipchat as the latter has more useful integrations for us, and does not have the same limitations (you are not limited to ten integrations on the free version of Hipchat) or the stupidly high price of Slack.

There are parts we don’t like about Hipchat (the shortcuts for the emoticons are just weird), but we are using it company-wide where Slack was just used by developers (and Hangouts was used by everyone else).

Re: Slack Platform Launch

#32

Post by tomasien »

michael_fine wrote: post #21
tomasien wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slack makes a ton of money and it is unimaginable to me (and many others) that it's not going to be a massive force. It has been a revelation to literally every entrepreneur I know - and I'm from Virginia not SV (although I recently moved to NYC - same deal). Now that it has established itself beyond almost any doubt, its INVESTORS have established an $80M bet around those who make the company a core component of the…

Genuine question -- how how is it been a revelation? It seems to be very similar to HipChat, which was just an iteration on previous chat systems.

Hipchat is awful and Slack is phenomenal. I mean I know that probably isn't what you want to hear but it's so hard to describe it any other way.

UX/integrations/apps/speed/etc might all be the answer but it was visceral for me.

Re: Slack Platform Launch

#33

Post by robzyb »

studentrob wrote: post #23
tomasien wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slack makes a ton of money and it is unimaginable to me (and many others) that it's not going to be a massive force. It has been a revelation to literally every entrepreneur I know - and I'm from Virginia not SV (although I recently moved to NYC - same deal). Now that it has established itself beyond almost any doubt, its INVESTORS have established an $80M bet around those who make the company a core component of the…

With free self-hosted open source alternatives like Rocket Chat and Mattermost entering the scene, along with easy internal installation from Sandstorm, does a new business really need Slack?

> does a new business really need Slack?

How many man-hours am I going to spend fracking around Rocket Chat, Mattermost, and Sandstorm?

I think I'd much prefer just paying Slack to worry about that for my hypothetical new business with 10 employees. 6.67 * 10 * 12 = $800/annum.

Peanuts. Especially compared to the value of my time or my employees time.

Re: Slack Platform Launch

#34

Post by adamseabrook »

No need to build your entire startup on Slack but a solid integration can drive serious initial revenue for your startup especially if you do not get a lot of direct traffic. "One click install" is what helped Woocommerce and others get massive growth on the back of Wordpress through top exposure in the plugin directory.

Slack is still very much at the bottom of the growth curve. I have seen electrical contractors who need a way to chat with onsite workers at various projects switch from using WhatsApp/SMS to Slack. If one click job scheduling apps start appearing in the Slack App Store they will be quickly adopted by these businesses. I would be surprised if Slack or something like it has not completely wiped out internal email in 5 years.

Re: Slack Platform Launch

#35

Post by studentrob »

robzyb wrote: post #33
studentrob wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With free self-hosted open source alternatives like Rocket Chat and Mattermost entering the scene, along with easy internal installation from Sandstorm, does a new business really need Slack?

> does a new business really need Slack? How many man-hours am I going to spend fracking around Rocket Chat, Mattermost, and Sandstorm? I think I'd much prefer just paying Slack to worry about that for my hypothetical new business with 10 employees. 6.67 * 10 * 12 = $800/annum. Peanuts. Especially compared to the value of my time or my employees time.

Less than 30 minutes for your tech team.

1) Install Sandstorm (curl https://install.sandstorm.io | bash)

2) Install Rocket Chat (one click)

3) Set up a domain. Done

Regarding maintenance: I set it up 2 months ago and it's still running smoothly.

Re: Slack Platform Launch

#36

Post by 33degrees »

michael_fine wrote: post #21
tomasien wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slack makes a ton of money and it is unimaginable to me (and many others) that it's not going to be a massive force. It has been a revelation to literally every entrepreneur I know - and I'm from Virginia not SV (although I recently moved to NYC - same deal). Now that it has established itself beyond almost any doubt, its INVESTORS have established an $80M bet around those who make the company a core component of the…

Genuine question -- how how is it been a revelation? It seems to be very similar to HipChat, which was just an iteration on previous chat systems.

As someone who has used both, I really prefer Slack; it feels like a more polished product

Re: Slack Platform Launch

#37

Post by jamiequint »

cowsandmilk wrote: post #3
chuhnk wrote: post #2

I feel like the world has lost it's mind slightly. When a 2 year old startup launches an $80m fund. I mean I understand they want to be a platform and can see the strength in funding projects that will empower a platform model but still. This is the point at which I think we're really in a boom heading in that bubble direction, and I was never one to fall in to the trap of calling it a bubble before. Love slack, love…

I think it is a useful way to double down on an investment. Rather than putting more money into the mothership, you bet on external tools that will help the mothership grow. It is also a way to reduce the costs of acquisition of the best integrations. If the majority of slack shareholders hold the majority of the shares in the best integration, it effectively lowers the price of acquisition to turn the tools built on…

This. $80m invested in a Slack ecosystem for these investors is likely to generate even more than that in returns (on their existing Slack equity) even if the investors never saw a dime out of the $80m invested.

Re: Slack Platform Launch

#38

Post by mark_l_watson »

I used Slack for a few months this year. A customer didn't use email, preferring Slack. Slack is an awesome platform, but I missed the asynchrony of email. When I code I like to have 30 to 40 minute uninterrupted work periods and I found an always on Slack took me out of the flow. Using Slack with specified "turn it off" quiet times would solve that issue however.

Re: Slack Platform Launch

#39

Post by Perceptes »

sciurus wrote: post #27
anonfunction wrote: post #8

Really like the announcement of botkit[1], I was just looking at adding a vote bot to our slack and only found a really old example that ended up not working. 1. https://github.com/howdyai/botkit/

I hope that the official blessings of botkit doesn't negatively impact other bot frameworks that user the Slack APIs. Lita ( https://www.lita.io/ ) is an excellent way to write Slack bots in Ruby. It supports other chat services and protocols too, so your bots don't lock you in to Slack.

Author of Lita here. Lita's Slack adapter isn't going anywhere. :}

Re: Slack Platform Launch

#40

Post by refriedbeans3 »

chuhnk wrote: post #2

I feel like the world has lost it's mind slightly. When a 2 year old startup launches an $80m fund. I mean I understand they want to be a platform and can see the strength in funding projects that will empower a platform model but still. This is the point at which I think we're really in a boom heading in that bubble direction, and I was never one to fall in to the trap of calling it a bubble before. Love slack, love…

570,000 paying customers.
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