A Slack Story Podcast

In 2013, I started as #9 on the Slack team. A Slack Story tells the best stories from the 7 years and 5 jobs that followed. The Podcast is those stories in audio form. Plus more to come.Subscribe by RSS with this link: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/3721181.rss www.slackstory.com

A Slack Story Podcast is a technology podcast hosted by James Sherrett, with 61 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

James Sherrett hosts A Slack Story Podcast, a technology show with 61 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #11

  Money as MacGuffin

  Mar 18, 202615 minS5

  <p>Money as MacGuffin: Playing the Tech Lottery Game</p><p>James Sherrett reflects on a career largely shaped by the “tech lottery game” of compensation: salary plus stock options. He spent his early work years in late-1990s online finance media, then in roles helping companies adapt to the internet, then six years running a startup that failed. What did he learn? He declines to disclose his Slack earnings. A number is less interesting than understanding how the game works. Then he describes how outcomes of the Tech Lottery Game vary based on factors like teammates, investors, fundraising strength, and...

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  Episode #10

  Questions That Remain

  Mar 11, 202613 minS5

  <p>Questions That Remain: Luck, Culture vs People, Leaving Before It’s Time</p><p>James Sherrett reflects on unresolved questions from A Slack Story: the role of luck in Slack’s and his own success, culture versus people as drivers of performance, and how to leave before it’s time by building a life to move toward. He argues luck is unknowable but significant. He quotes Michael Lewis on success being rationalized and luck creating obligation to the unlucky. He notes Slack benefited from launching at the right moment amid enabling technologies and market conditions. On culture versus people, he rej...

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  Episode #9

  Thank You, Slack

  Mar 4, 202643 minS5

  <p>Thank You Slack: Seven Years From Employee #9 to a Global Company</p><p>James Sherrett reflects on leaving Slack on June 5, 2020, exactly seven years after joining as the ninth employee, during which Slack grew from $0 revenue and eight employees to over 2,200 employees in 16 offices and nearly $1B in revenue as a NYSE-listed company. He recounts early marketing and positioning work (“Be less busy”), the 2013 invite launch that drew 8,000 signups in 24 hours, early customer development and support, and the shift into account management and the 2014 paid launch with credits, invoicing, and the “Fair Billing Policy.” He describes building teams, opening Slack’s...

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  Episode #8

  Stories I Haven’t Told You (Yet)

  Feb 25, 202616 minS5

  <p>Slack Frontiers, Almost Getting PIP’d, and Accepting Less Ambition</p><p>James Sherrett continues A Slack Story with 3 stories he hadn't told yet. First, how Slack launched its customer conference, Frontiers, starting in 2017 after customers began asking for it. He explains how the conference brought together customers, partners, product, and the Slack team, and how it created business urgency by serving as a deadline, including an on-site executive briefing program by 2019. He shares vivid details from Frontiers and the event’s “Frontiers” name inspiration from a Carl Sagan quote about humanity needing a frontier, noting omitted lines about knowing...

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  Episode #7

  WORK on NYSE

  Feb 18, 202616 minS5

  <p>Going Public from Yellowstone: Slack’s NYSE Debut and the Reality of Change</p><p>James Sherrett recounts Slack’s direct public offering (DPO) on June 20, 2019, when shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker WORK, roughly five years after Slack’s first revenue and at a valuation north of $20 billion. Instead of being in New York, he was on a family trip in West Yellowstone with spotty internet, balancing work with family. He describes placing insider sell orders the night before, the DPO mechanics versus an IPO (including immediate insider trading flexibility but greater pricin...

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