Erin Griffith reported on the front page of the business section in today’s Los Angeles Times that, “Stewart Butterfield graduated high school to become part of the slacker generation, which is coincidentally reflected in the name of his business software start-up, Slack. His Twitter bio includes an apathetic ‘shruggie’ emoticon and a mea culpa: ‘I’m trying my hardest!'”
The article explained that, “Just two years in, and Slack has raised $340 million in venture capital, boosted its head count to 369 and snagged 2.3 million daily active users, 675,000 of which pay for the service.
“Slack has $64 million in ‘annual recurring revenue,’ a metric subscription software companies use to extrapolate monthly income for the entire year. The company has outgrown its office three times now, and will do so again in six months.”
Today’s article added that, “Slack’s rapid adoption makes it one of the fastest-growing business software applications…[T]he company, which launched two years ago and carries a $2.8-billion valuation, is also one of the world’s fastest-growing venture-backed start-ups.”
In addition, the L.A. Times article pointed out that, “To expand, Slack created an $80-million fund to invest in start-ups building tools for its application. It’s a way to outsource the building of customization and special new features. (Picture an App Store for Slack.)
“So many developers have submitted their own Slack apps that the internal approval process has broken down, Butterfield says.”
