Slack's Stewart Butterfield: The Big Pivot
Butterfield recounts two failed games that produced Flickr and Slack. The interview covers choosing a single direction, supporting employees when a project closes, preserving money for the next attempt and turning an internal communication tool into a product. Notes cover selected business passages from the complete public captions, reaching the closing credits, and checked against the official show transcript. April 28, 2023 is this YouTube upload date; the official show page dates the original episode November 15, 2017. Roles, valuation and company figures refer to that earlier conversation, not current Slack. Illness, personal distress and violent business metaphors are not summarized.
Executive Summary (TL;DR)
Butterfield recounts two failed games that produced Flickr and Slack. The interview covers choosing a single direction, supporting employees when a project closes, preserving money for the next attempt and turning an internal communication tool into a product. Notes cover selected business passages from the complete public captions, reaching the closing credits, and checked against the official show transcript. April 28, 2023 is this YouTube upload date; the official show page dates the original episode November 15, 2017. Roles, valuation and company figures refer to that earlier conversation, not current Slack. Illness, personal distress and violent business metaphors are not summarized.
Key Takeaways
Make the hard choice
Game Neverending and Flickr could not both remain the focus. A divided team needed a decision and a realistic account of what the company could fund.