Hipster yap app chaps Slack finally strap into NYSE: Shares of 'WORK' open at $38.50 apiece

Messaging outfit Slack has finally done the deed and gone public with an initial valuation of at least $16bn. The rumblings around a possible upending of a barrowload of shares onto the New York Stock Exchange by Slack were finally confirmed last night with the revealing of the symbol to be used for the loss-making company: …

[Erik4872]

Selling tools to prospectors

It's tempting to say this is another Dotcom Bubble, but I think the dynamics are a little different. There's not as much cheerleading going on from the financial media as there was back in 1999, and companies aren't shipping 50 pound bags of dog food free to customers. But, it seems like these "startup/DevOps work tools" vendors would be taking the place of the e-commerce companies if we were to project the present back onto 1999/2000.

I guess we'll see what happens after the founders become instant billionaires. But Slack has competition, including Microsoft who is basically making Teams "free with purchase" for O365 subscribers. They're both super-bloated JavaScript front ends to instant messaging with similar features, so I wonder what the distinction is besides "not a Microsoft product" -- other than "Unicorn Startup X and Y use Slack."

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Selling tools to prospectors

> who is basically making Teams "free with purchase"

That's because Teams is shit and no one in their right mind would actually pay for it.

> I wonder what the distinction is besides

Slack's UI is actually usable, whereas the Teams UI is unusable unless you give it at least half your screen width to play with, and even then it insists on wasting most of that space on big whitespace padding regions. Information density is not a Teams strong point (basically it went to the same design school as the Skype redesign).

[BrownishMonstr]

Re: Selling tools to prospectors

Don't think Slack UI is that much better. Constantly get "Please try refreshing Slack" for the desktop app several times in a row.

[Jim Mitchell]

Re: Selling tools to prospectors

@Erik4872 "companies aren't shipping 50 pound bags of dog food free to customers."

Yes, yes, they still are. I think chewy.com and petco.com will ship free over $49. There are limitations, but I think dog food is included.

[Pascal Monett]

Slack, as in slacking off ?

So they position themselves as "where the work flows", and their name is basically the opposite of work ?

Another bunch of brilliant idiots, to be sure.

[Warm Braw]

Re: Slack, as in slacking off ?

They're clearly doomed as they broke the "one vowel must be conspicuously absent" rule. Should have called themselves Slackr...

[jake]

And during the meanwhile ...

... IRC keeps on truckin'.

[Anonymous Crowbar]

Re: Duff batch spotted

Obligatory XKCD:

https://xkcd.com/1782/

[hoola]

Bonkers

I just don't understand where these valuations come from. There is no sense or logic other than it is in the interests of the few that are going to make megabucks and the consultants, banks etc that are taking the commission.

It is a total Ponzi scheme.

[Halfmad]

Re: Bonkers

I don't see how people can be sceptical of cypto currency but all for this sort of pie int he sky valuation tbh!