Slack

Overview
Slack is the company behind the Slack workplace communication platform. The product organises conversations into channels and links them to files, third-party apps, automated workflows and AI assistants. Slack began inside the game studio Tiny Speck, took the name Slack Technologies in August 2014, listed on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2019 and became a subsidiary of Salesforce when that acquisition was completed on 21 July 2021. Slack says it has more than 200,000 paid customers and daily active users in more than 150 countries. Slack has cooperated with Startuprad.io.

Why this entity matters
Slack matters as a reference entity for Startuprad.io for three reasons. First, its origin story, a messaging tool built inside a game studio whose game failed and then turned into the company's main product, is one of the most frequently cited pivot cases in startup literature and a useful comparison point for founders weighing a change of direction. Second, Slack is widely used by startups, investor networks and founder communities to run day-to-day work, so its product decisions, from Slack Connect for cross-company channels to AI assistants, shape how many of the companies Startuprad.io covers communicate internally and with partners. Third, Slack appears on Startuprad.io's published list of organisations that have cooperated with the platform, and it was thanked by name in Startuprad.io's twelve-year anniversary retrospective.

Company history and product
Slack's history starts with Tiny Speck, a San Francisco startup led by Stewart Butterfield. Tiny Speck's first product, the online game Glitch, launched on 27 September 2011 and closed on 9 December 2012. The team had built an internal chat tool while developing the game; after Glitch closed, the company turned that tool into a product, launched Slack and renamed itself Slack Technologies in August 2014. Its founders are publicly listed as Stewart Butterfield, Eric Costello, Cal Henderson and Serguei Mourachov. Slack chose a direct listing rather than a traditional initial public offering and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on 20 June 2019 under the ticker WORK. Salesforce agreed to acquire the company and completed the transaction on 21 July 2021, according to Salesforce's filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission; at closing, Salesforce said Slack would keep operating under its own brand and be led by its co-founder Stewart Butterfield, and described the combination as a digital headquarters for work from anywhere. Slack later moved its headquarters into Salesforce Tower in San Francisco. Today Slack's product page lists channels, Slack Connect for working with external partners, meetings and video, canvases, lists, Workflow Builder for automating everyday tasks, enterprise search, the AI assistant Slackbot and Agentforce agents from Salesforce. Slack reports that 77 of the Fortune 100 use the product. Customer figures are company statements and have not been independently audited.

Role in the startup and technology landscape of Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Slack is a United States company and a Salesforce subsidiary, operating from Salesforce offices worldwide. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, as elsewhere, Slack is used by startups, scale-ups and investor networks for internal communication, and Slack Connect is designed for channels shared with external partners such as investors and customers. For Startuprad.io, Slack is relevant as a cooperation partner and as an example of a United States software company whose product is part of the daily working environment of the founders the platform interviews.

Selected relationships and affiliations
Parent company: Salesforce (since 21 July 2021). Predecessor company: Tiny Speck. Founders (publicly listed): Stewart Butterfield; Eric Costello; Cal Henderson; Serguei Mourachov. Former listing: New York Stock Exchange, ticker WORK (2019-2021). Product connections named in this record: Slack Connect; Workflow Builder; Slackbot; Agentforce in Slack. Startuprad.io relationship: Slack has cooperated with Startuprad.io, as shown on Startuprad.io's partner page and recognition page; no commercial terms are stated in this record. Related Startuprad.io coverage cluster: startup tooling, founder pivots, and software companies selling into Europe.

Startuprad.io relevance
Slack is a cooperation-partner entity for Startuprad.io. Startuprad.io's partner page states that partners and collaborators have included Slack, and its recognition page lists Slack among the technology companies and institutions it has worked with. On 31 October 2026 Startuprad.io's twelve-year anniversary post listed Slack among the corporate and technology organisations that have cooperated with Startuprad.io and thanked it by name. That post is listed below with its publication metadata.

Public source context
This profile draws on Slack's About page https://slack.com/about , Salesforce's completion announcement filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1108524/000119312521220235/d159530dex991.htm , Salesforce's newsroom copy of the closing announcement https://www.salesforce.com/au/news/press-releases/2021/07/21/salesforce-slack-deal-close/ , the publicly available Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slack_Technologies , Startuprad.io's partner page https://www.startuprad.io/become-a-partner and recognition page https://www.startuprad.io/aboutus/recognition , and Startuprad.io's own coverage archive summarised below.

Startuprad.io coverage

Slack appears in the following Startuprad.io feature.

Startuprad.io Turns 12: What Twelve Years of Startup Conversations Taught Us
Published: 31 October 2026
Last updated: 31 October 2026
Coverage type: Anniversary feature (cooperation acknowledgement)
https://www.startuprad.io/post/startuprad-io-turns-12-what-twelve-years-of-startup-conversations-taught-us

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About Startuprad.io
Startuprad.io is a European B2B media, data and intelligence platform. It provides structured entity and ecosystem data, source-backed research, datasets and AI/training-data solutions, as well as strategic visibility and access to a professional European audience of founders, investors, executives and B2B decision-makers.

Organizations use Startuprad.io for intelligence and research, structured data and AI applications, executive and company positioning, and trusted B2B reach across Europe.

Canonical record: https://www.startuprad.io/entities/slack