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Slack launched in 2014 and has become the fastest growing business application in history- allowing millions of people in tens of thousands of organisations around the world to get work done. I…
In this exclusive interview series, we speak to some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs: Sir Richard Branson (Founder of Virgin Group), Robin Li (Founder of Baidu), Sir James Dyson (Founder of Dyson), Professor…
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Scaling up is incredibly challenging; it's definitely been the hardest part of my own entrepreneurship journey. You might be familiar with The Peter Principle, which states that people are promoted to the level of their incompetence. It's exactly the same in the real world: if you're good at your job, it leads to advancement in your career, and then you don't get to do those things anymore that made you deserve that advancement.
— Stewart ButterfieldCo-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr
The workplace of the future is hard to predict specifically, but one thing we can predict is that we will increasingly rely on human intelligence and creativity as opposed to human capacity to perform repetitive tasks.
— Stewart ButterfieldCo-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr
If there's one thing that thematically aligns all startups: a tolerance for innovation in how the companies are run. This means there's a little bit more risk taking and attacking problems in a way that hasn't been done before.
— Stewart ButterfieldCo-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr
Fundamentally, it's really hard to work on intellectual and complex projects collaboratively. Complexity is underestimated, even by the people who are in the thick of it. There's a lot of anxiety or even resentment towards the tools and process of business that manifests in satire with shows like 'The Office', the movie 'Office Space' or the cartoon 'Dilbert'.
— Stewart ButterfieldCo-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr
That's what entrepreneurship is all about–experimenting and finding a way of achieving some goal in the context of business. It's something I've always found fascinating.
— Stewart ButterfieldCo-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr
I would love to say that we knew all the answers in advance, but the truth is that we discovered our product and opportunity, rather than planning for it. We started a company to build a massively multiplayer game, and in the process, it very quickly became apparent to us what the utility of Slack was as we used a prototype to collaborate internally.
— Stewart ButterfieldCo-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr
The workplace of the future is hard to predict specifically, but one thing we can predict is that we will increasingly rely on human intelligence and creativity as opposed to human capacity to perform repetitive tasks.
— Stewart ButterfieldCo-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr
A lot of that feeling of alienation that you see in The Office, Dilbert, and so-forth is driven by people feeling that they don't understand context, and ultimately decisions don't make sense.
— Stewart ButterfieldCo-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr
Fundamentally, it's really hard to work on intellectual and complex projects collaboratively. Complexity is underestimated, even by the people who are in the thick of it.
— Stewart ButterfieldCo-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr
I would love to say that we knew all the answers in advance, but the truth is that we discovered our product and opportunity, rather than planning for it.
— Stewart ButterfieldCo-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr
That's what entrepreneurship is all about–experimenting and finding a way of achieving some goal in the context of business. It's something I've always found fascinating.
— Stewart ButterfieldCo-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr
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