Tag: Stewart Butterfield
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Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield: Embarrassment as Motivation
From Terrible to Transformative: Butterfield’s Early Admission Stewart Butterfield, the cofounder and long-time CEO of Slack, once framed an early misstep as a powerful catalyst for change. In 2014, he candidly described Slack’s initial product as “terrible.” That blunt assessment wasn’t meant to entertain critics; it was a strategic signal to the company and its…
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When Criticism Fueled a Turnaround: How Slack Used a CEO’s Shame to Drive Change
Introduction: A Bold Approach to Growth In the high-stakes world of software startups, doing what’s comfortable rarely wins. Slack’s journey from an ambitious messaging startup to a household name under Salesforce is partly a tale of embracing discomfort. The turning point, according to longtime observers and insiders, involved a deliberate use of embarrassment as a…
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Why Slack Employees Papered the Office Over CEO Criticism
How a Blunt Backward Glance Became a Motivator In the early days of Slack, a startup that would eventually become a cornerstone of modern workplace communication, a candid moment from cofounder Stewart Butterfield sparked more than embarrassment—it catalyzed a cultural shift. In a 2014 interview, Butterfield described Slack’s initial product as “terrible.” What followed was…