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Slack Technologies

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This article is about the company. For software they produce, see Slack (software).
Slack Technologies
Logo of Slack
Type of businessStartup
Type of site
Collaborative software[1]
Available inMultilingual
FoundedVancouver, Canada (2009)[2]
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
,
U.S.[1]
Area servedWorldwide
Founder(s)Stewart Butterfield
Eric Costello
Cal Henderson
Serguei Mourachov[3]
IndustryInternet[1]
(formerly Video game)[4]
ProductsSlack
RevenueIncrease ~$10 Million (2014)[5]
Employees125 (Q1 2015)[6]
URLwww.slack.com
RegistrationRequired
UsersOver 750,000[6]
Current statusActive

Slack Technologies, Inc. (originally Tiny Speck) is a computer software startup founded in 2009, with personnel located in Vancouver, San Francisco and Dublin. The core team is largely drawn from the founders of Ludicorp, the company that created Flickr.[9] Slack is the fastest company to receive a billion dollar valuation.[10]

History

Initial funding and Glitch

Tiny Speck received angel funding of $1.5 million in 2009,[11] followed by Series A funding of $5 million in 2010 from Accel Partners and Andreessen Horowitz.[12] A Series B round of $10.7 million was raised in 2011.[13]

Tiny Speck's first product was a computer game called Glitch – a social MMORPG with highly stylized 2D graphics, in which "players must learn how to find and grow resources, identify and build community and, at the higher levels of the game, proselytize to those around them".[14] Originally scheduled for release in Spring 2011,[15] Glitch launched on September 27, 2011,[16][17] but subsequently "unlaunched" to improve gameplay.[18] In November, 2012, it was announced that Glitch would be closed, effective December 9, 2012.[4]

Slack and further funding

After the closure of Glitch, the company launched the Slack real-time collaboration app and platform, raising $17 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Accel Partners and The Social+Capital Partnership.[19] After the launch of Slack, the company renamed itself to Slack Technologies.[20][21]

The company raised $42.75 million in April 2014.[22] In October 2014, the company raised $120 million in venture capital with a $1.2 billion valuation led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Google Ventures.[23] In March 2015, Slack signed a deal with investors to raise up to $160 million in a funding round that valued the company at $2.76 billion. New investors include Institutional Venture Partners, Horizons Ventures, Index Ventures and DST Global.[24] In April 2015, the company raised another $160 million.[25]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Crunchbase – Slack Technologies". CrunchBase. Retrieved 2015-04-19.
  2. ^ "Tiny Speck Finds More Than a Glitch and Closes Game for Good". TechVibes. Retrieved 2015-04-19.
  3. ^ "Slack's Co-Founders Take Home The Crunchie For Founder Of The Year". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2015-04-19.
  4. ^ a b "A Sad Announcement from Tiny Speck". Retrieved 2012-11-17.
  5. ^ Erik Sherman (3 November 2014). "Here's Why Year-Old Startup Slack Has a $1.1 Billion Valuation". Inc. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  6. ^ a b Ingrid Lunden (19 April 2015). "Used Daily By 750K Workers, Slack Raises $160M, Valuing Collaboration Startup At $2.8B". Techcrunch. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  7. ^ "Slack". Slack. Retrieved 2015-04-19.
  8. ^ "Slack.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2015-04-19.
  9. ^ Kara Swisher. "Flickr Co-Founder Butterfield Talks About His New Game startup, Glitch". AllThingsD. Retrieved 2010-09-17. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  10. ^ Kim, Eugene (15 August 2015). "The 14 fastest unicorns to reach $1 billion". Business Insider. Business Insider Inc. Archived from the original on 15 August 2015. Retrieved 15 August 2015. Slack is the fastest growing enterprise software ever
  11. ^ Mathew Ingram. "Q&A with Stewart Butterfield on the launch of Glitch". GigaOM. Retrieved 2010-09-17. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ Om Malik. "Stewart Butterfield's Tiny Speck Raises 5 Million from VCs". GigaOM. Retrieved 2010-09-17. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  13. ^ http://www.crunchbase.com/company/tiny-speck
  14. ^ Daniel Terdiman. "In depth with Tiny Speck's Glitch". CNet. Retrieved 2010-09-17.
  15. ^ "Tiny Speck CrunchBase profile". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2010-09-17.
  16. ^ "A Flickr Founder's Glitch: Can A Game That Wants You To Play Nice Be A Blockbuster?". Fast Company. 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2011-09-30.
  17. ^ "Vancouver's Tiny Speck puts massively multiplayer game Glitch online". Vancouver Sun. 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2011-09-30.
  18. ^ "Glitch 'unlaunches' to add new features - Massively". Retrieved 2011-12-02.
  19. ^ http://allthingsd.com/20130814/flickr-co-founder-stewart-butterfield-turns-to-workplace-communication-tools-with-slack/
  20. ^ "Tiny Speck is now #slack". Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  21. ^ https://slack.com/privacy-policy
  22. ^ Ingrid Lunden (25 April 2014). "Slack, Stewart Butterfield's Collaboration Software Startup, Has Raised $42.75M". Techcrunch. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  23. ^ Alex Hern (3 November 2014). "Why Slack is worth $1bn: it's trying to change how we work". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  24. ^ Macmillan, Douglas. "Slack's Valuation More Than Doubles to $2.8 Billion in Five Months". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  25. ^ Ingrid Lunden (15 April 2015). "Used Daily By 750K Workers, Slack Raises $160M, Valuing Collaboration Startup At $2.8B". Techcrunch. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
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