Stewart Butterfield

Something about Slack (+ Salesforce)

Slack logo
Photo by Stephen Phillips – Hostreviews.co.uk on Unsplash

I am sure that you have heard that Salesforce is buying Slack for a whopping $28 billion by now. And if you saw Marc Benioff in conversation with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang this morning, you could tell that Christmas came early for him and his company. With (Quip CEO) Bret Taylor and (Slack CEO) Stewart Butterfield in the ranks, it is not surprising — he has a company that can go toe-to-toe with Microsoft.

That will be the subject of a different blog post, but for now, let me talk about Slack and Stewart. I had originally crafted this piece on the day of Slack’s public offering. As an angel investor in the company, I felt compelled to write about why Slack mattered? Well, I never really published the piece. Thinking about it — it doesn’t matter: it is still relevant today, as

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Technology
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Flickr Fabulous

Over the past few months, I have been trying to wean myself off Instagram and social media in general. There are many aspects of Instagram. I love dearly: my photography community and ability to connect and chat with others about the art, craft, and technicals of photography. And right in the middle of this rumination, I got an email from Flickr — they were going to allow me to have only 1000 photos on my Flickr account unless I upgraded to a pro account. I shrugged, saying to myself, who cares. A day later, I should check out my photos anyway.

Three hours later, I had upgraded to the Pro version, spending around $50 for the service. As I used the service, more it reminded me how brilliant it was at birth. It had cutesy homeliness, that is so quaint and awesome at the same time. It was amazingly powerful

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On Photography
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Happy Birthday Slack! And Stuff Stewart Says

Slack, the company that arose like a phoenix from the ashes of Tiny Speck is now a year old. It came out of beta last February! And what a year it has been for the company — it has gone from zero to one of the fastest growing services in less than a year. It has raised a ton of money and is valued at north of a billion dollars. Both its revenues and number of users are moving up to the North. Lately, more and more people are starting to use Slack for creating their own private social spaces. I have one — and I won’t be surprised if one day we start to see these special slacks start to become the “subreddit” of the mobile age.

As an investor, I am obviously excited about all this growth. But what I love the most about the company is the fact that co-founders

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Portfolio & Investments
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Going OffScreen

One of the biggest surprises in life is hearing from someone you have admired. In my case it was an email from Offscreen magazine. I have been a big fan of Offscreen magazine for a long time. None of its articles are available online. It is beautifully designed and it explores the human side of technology. And it is truly a one-man operation. It is the labor of love for editor and founder, Kai Brach. A former digital designer, he writes, edits and publishes the entire magazine all by himself. You can’t tell it from the way the magazine looks, the fantastic articles and interviews he brings together. It is meant to be enjoyed, as the name suggests, off screen!

offscreenmagA few months ago, Kai emailed and wanted to interview me for Offscreen Issue No.10. I was hesitant, mostly because in my head magazines are a medium where what I write

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Musings
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