Slack’s $2.8 Billion Dollar Secret Sauce
Most enterprise software looks like a cheap 70’s prom suit — muted blues and greys everywhere — so, starting with the logo, we made Slack look like a confetti cannon had gone off. Electric blue, yellows, purples, and greens all over. We gave it the color scheme of a video game, not an enterprise collaboration product.
.. I used to bug my parents to let us go to White Spot instead of having another gross lovingly home-cooked meal. That is, until my Dad dropped a bomb on me. “We should just make burgers at home,” he said “you know that sauce is just mayonnaise, ketchup, and a bit of relish, right?” Sure enough, we made it at home, and confirmed that their so-called secret sauce was a bunch of grocery store condiments mixed together. Anyone could make it, but few people knew how or bothered. Instead they chalked it up to a some crazy secret recipe.
Slack’s secret sauce is no different. Sure, it’s hard to get the mix of ingredients just right, but it doesn’t have any features that Hipchat and Campfire can’t build. It’s the same enterprise chat client underneath, but it’s playful, fun to us